My obsessions

Nothing too new and exciting...well, at least not to everyone else probably. But for me, everything continues to be new and exciting. Anwar is forever amazed at my daily giggling and smiles at every animal we pass in the street. For someone who grew up with the standard pets (cats, dog, bird, fish)...seeing goats, sheeps and camels in the street is just too damn exciting for me! I say 'hi' to all of them and even stop to just look at them and yes, talk to them. I guess it's part of establishing normalcy here--I know that everything is right when I know where I will pass which camel, etc. I never tire of watching the stray dogs play with each other in the street and run through the desert kicking up sand and barking at one another. My favorite animal of the moment, though, is a horse. Anwar took out a horse whose name is Saddam. Well, the horse went crazy (hmmm...maybe takes after his namesake?!) and started running straight out into the Red Sea! Anyways, when Anwar told me the horse's name, I said "oh. like Saddam Hussein?" And he replied "nooooooooo!" So I said "ok, then he his Saddam Hison" (hison is arabic for horse). Anyways, it has a really nice ring to it and I love to watch along the beach for Saddam Hison to gallop by. Today there was a massive school of white snapper passing through and you could see the water flaring at the top as they swam by...it must have gone on for a good 20 minutes. At night one of my favorite things to do is to sit along the beach and watch the night fishermen. It's amazing how much they catch so close to the shores.

Boy with camel

In addition to my obsession with the animals is my new obsession with food. Actually, my obsession with how much of it I'm eating! I have become disgustingly plump around the middle and now that the novelty of the new tastes has worn off...I'm stuck feeling perpetually bloated and just yucky. Add to that, the hot weather and general laziness...yikes! So I pleaded with Anwar to go running with me this evening once it cooled down a bit. He, of course, was made fun of by every man in Dahab (I'm wondering if exercise is in the vocab here or if it's because he's letting a girl convince him to do such mad things?). But once we got going he got really into it. Unfortunatley, my fat ass could only run a mere 20 minutes before I felt like vomiting. I have to say that I deserve it as prior to my departure from the US, I ritually stuffed my face each night with filet mignon and mashed potatoes when my parents were in town. So I only have myself to blame. Anyways, we did some running and then a bunch of sit-ups, push-ups and tricep dips. There is a really basic old skool gym here that has free weights, so I'll probably hit that up with Anwar tomorrow. I'm also going to try and just watch what I'm eating and at what hour. As I mentioned, they eat very very late here.

The koshery man's bike

Another change in my life is that I have once and for all parted with something--my tiny little diamond nose ring. I've had it for about 5+ years and took it out when I did my internship last year to appear more 'professional.' Then, in a fit of rebellion back in January (and after a few glasss of wine) I put it back in with a "hmph, there, I don't have to grow up if I don't want to." Well, the change in air and climate has made it quite stuffy for my nose and it was annoying me--so khalas, I took it out once and for all. The other change I'm seriously considering is chopping my hair. I put so much effort into getting it where it is...but just a few hours in the hot desert is enough to know that it's just not worth it anymore. I always associated longer hair with feeling more feminine...but it just is annoying to deal with here. Anwar and I are probably headed up to Cairo soon and he has promised to find me a nice 'western' salon to get it cut at. I'm thinking a short bob style, which I've done before. Well, once it's done I'll send a picture.

The pictures I'm including today are kinda random...but then again so is my life!!! The little boy with the camel is one of the Bedouin boys who rides along the beach trying to sell camel rides to the tourists. He disembarked for a minute at a restaurant and the camel just plain refused to be reigned back in. So I watched this tiny boy tug and plead with the camel to cooperate and finally gave up and just walked alongside his camel. The bicycle is the koshery man...my favorite!! He is hilarious and rides his bike selling koshery out of the bins. Koshery is an Egyptian meal--like a soup that is tomato based and has rice, lentils, macaroni, hummus, and veggies in it. It's delicious and costs a mere $.40 for a good helping!!! He's a total character and is always wanting to practice his english with me and just rides up and down the Dahab strip with a huge smile on his face. My new hobby is helping the Egyptian businessmen with their websites. For whatever reason, I literally am one of the few native, first language, english speakers in Dahab. Their websites that they maintain for selling their safaris and the like are just painstaking to read as the english is horrid. Today, one man kept asking me how to spell words: organization, minivan, etc. and I finally realized he was having to look up each word on the computer in an english/arabic dictionary. When I read what he wrote, it was just well, bad. So in a split second I rewrote a few parts and he was just dumbfounded as what I wrote in that time had taken him hours (and thank you to my fine high school typing teacher who made me a whiz at typing). So I offered to help and now word has gotten out. It's all good as it gives me something to do and is really easy. I've also been asked to consider a teaching position at a school in Sharm El-Sheikh. It pays 5000 pounds/month which is a LOT of money for Dahab...I'd be able to live like a queen. Anyways, I'm taking it slow and looking into it and who knows....