Happy Bday ya D!

Diana's bday was on the 27th of October and she's such a special gal that I had to blog about her! Diana works at ARPU+ with me and she's one of the sweetest and most hilarious girls you could ever meet! Imagine sitting in your office and finding a girl sitting at her pc singing at the top of her lungs with earphones over her ears! We got used to it so we stopped reacting, to the surprise to any new person who comes to the company...they first think she's nuts, then think we are all nuts since we are not reacting! She has the world's sharpest comebacks! Don't ever mess with her! Noone can ever get mad because of how good her comebacks are. Whenever its anyone's bday she makes sure to gather money from all of us to buy a cake and a present. She's soooo honest that you laugh! She says whatever comes to her mind without even thinking which has caused quite a few comedy moments! She used to yell to her boss sometimes and the boss just cant help but laugh coz he's super tall and she's super short so the scene is just too funny! Imagine a short cute girl shaking her finger at a super tall guy! When Lina came to work for us, Diana was the first one who made her feel at home. She's just a treasure who deserves all the best and she's been such a good friend to me since she got hired. Happy bday D!!

Alex Trip Rocked! Just the Break We All Needed

Last Thursday I went to Alex with a group of friends who are just SO much fun! We met at the train station at 8am and we just chatted and laughed the whole ride there. When we arrived, it took us some time to decide what we'd do...we decided breakfast would be cool! We grabbed a bite in beanos, and had 2 more friends join us there. Beanos was near the Stanley bridge of Alex so we decided to walk from there all the way to the Alex Library. That walk turned out to be over 6 kilometers long! We would stop every now and then to take photos but we seriously walked the whole way in almost 3 hours. It was great since I love to walk and cant seem to do so in cairo. Some of the guys with us were dying from the walk but it was awesome that we managed to do it! We all had short chats with each other on the way which was nice. The sad news is we got to the library at 2:45 and found out that the library closes at 3! So we couldnt get in...no matter how much we tried to convince the ticket guy, he just wouldnt let us in. So we took some photos outside, joked around, then we did the craziest thing ever which is getting all stuffed in a tiny mini bus! The bus would sit 6 people at the back and 1 person at the front...we had 9 people at the back! We had 5 grown men sitting on top of each other on one sofa! That was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen in quite some time! And one of the guys was like "ok I feel like im in a box" and he tapped on one of the windows and it went flying out of the bus! HAHA So anyway, we get to the fish place, eat alot of fish, shrimps and what have you. Then we catch another bus back to Stanley bridge to grab ice cream from McDonalds. Then it was a FAST walk to the station to catch our 7pm ride back to Cairo. That ride was the funniest thing ever! We were playing games and talking and everyone on the train was laughing at our jokes with us. We ended up saying quite a few apologises on our way out of the train but the people were like "no no u were very entertaining!" Haha. All in all it was an awesome day because of the people and just the freedom of doing whatever we felt like whenever we felt like it...NOTHING about the whole trip was planned! All of it was done spontaneously! Here's to more trips like that!

I believe...

I watched this video on You Tube called "Gotta see it to believe it". The link to the video is here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OwGy2zCKESA. Its not an amazing video but it did get me thinking...what do I believe in? What is it that is leading me in the direction I am going?

I believe that everything happens for a reason.
I believe all people are good until they prove otherwise.
I believe in my friends and their ability to make life brighter.
I believe that parents want the best for their children.
I believe in the healing power of a laugh.
I believe in the peace you feel after forgiveness.
I believe that its always the tiny simple moments of happiness that stay in your memory for a lifetime.
I believe in love that develops out of friendship.
I believe that being young at heart makes you live longer.
I believe in God and fate.
I believe in sacrificing for someone else's happiness.
I believe that there's more to life than your career.

Not that these things are the best things in the world to believe in but they seem to be the reasons behind the way I act. It was interesting to sit and think about it.

Pictures everywhere

I noticed something recently...my photos have made their way all over the place! I actually get online and find alot of people putting photos that I took of them as their display photo, then I did a presentation and found that in the presentation were many of my pictures of various members of our team, then I actually got a cd from a friend of all the pics of a certain trip and most of them were my pictures. They are even finding their way back to me now! Haha its just really cool how the pictures, which are SO dear to me, are actually important to others as well.

Welcome Eddie into the World!

Marian Makar and her husband Rami Sanad have welcomed their new born son into the world last saturday. Eddie has arrived! The first baby in our university group of close friends! I was so happy for them and found it so surreal to call Marian and find her whispering to me coz she didnt want to wake up the baby...I was close to saying "what baby?" haha Mabrouk ya MARZ!

The Golf has been sold and has taken all our memories with it...

Salma's Golf has been sold :( This car has gone through every event that ever happened during my 5 years in university and beyond. We have soooo many memories in that car that it was actually painful to hear that it had been sold and that we didn't get a chance to take a last spin in it. Our story with this car started on the first day I ever met Salma. I was at Lina's house and she told me we were gonna go out with a girl she met in her English class...so we call Salma and we are like "ok so how will we go to the movies?" And she's like "I'll pick u girls up and take you"...Lina and I looked at each other and were like "OH MY GOD she drives and has a car! This is super cool!" Haha Salma was maybe 20 at the time while Lina and I were 17 so we were very impressed. This car was the one that took us to many outings, birthdays, gatherings, etc. This was the car that when Salma and I would feel very low, we'd get into the car and drive around talking about everything and anything. This is the car that broke down so many times with us that it was sooo funny. Every time Salma would fix something, something else would break down. I remember that the car made a sound every time we switched on the A/C and Salma would always look at me and say "don't even!" whenever the sound started...I would always crack up! I could hear her coming a mile away when she had the A/C on. I also remember when we were at the North Coast and Salma and her bro Hassan would always argue about what music to listen to...at the time Salma was obsessed with Macy Gray's song "Sweet Baby" and she'd play it over and over to my and Hassan's dismay! Plus Hassan was a hard core House music fan so Macy Gray REALLY wasnt his thing. Salma had also invited the 2 Japanese exchange students to her place in the North Coast and it was their first experience in Egypt since they came to us straight from the airport. I remember one night we were driving from Marina back to Salma's resort and the car tire was out so we parked on the highway in the dark. One of the Japanese girls started freaking out and crying and the other one got out to watch the boys change the tire. It was HILARIOUS. This is the car that we drove around to run all our errands, it was the car where I'd go downstairs and find Salma parked so we'd sit in the car for an hour just talking under my house...that car has loads and loads of memories that its hard for me to imagine it not being there anymore. It has been sold and has taken all our happy and sometimes sad university memories with it...

Camping in the Oasis...total freedom

I went to the Oasis this weekend on a safari trip for 2 nights and 3 days. I had gone to the oasis twice before 10 years ago but never to the Djarra Cave that we went to this time. Basically this guy who has a great photography hobby goes on these safaris all over the place in Egypt and invites people to go on the ride with him. So my friend called me up saying this guy was going this weekend and that he has 2 free spots if we'd like to go. I jumped at the chance! The trip itself consisted of 350 km by car to reach Bahariyya and from there we took two 4x4 jeeps and two guides and drove 150 km off road into the desert. It was a pretty long ride...we were 7 people, all fasting, and it was pretty hot! But the off road drive was so awesome coz you are literally driving yourself into NOWHERE! The sense of freedom was great! You are totally trusting these 2 guides to NOT get you lost in the desert, and you have absolutely no control over where you were going either...so you end up feeling so free and so trusting. We get to the cave and its very pretty down there with the ceiling looking like it had a large bunch of chandeliers hanging off of it. The next day we went to these sand dunes and camped there as well. There I saw a beautiful sunset...it was really gorgeous and couldnt stop taking photos of it. The desert at night is so breathtaking...so silent. We had a full moon and the whole desert would light up in this shade of blue from the moonlight. We never needed our torches. I took a walk up to the top of the dunes by myself and sat at the top and just listened to the silence all around me, and looked at the desert all lit up. It felt very peaceful up there...it was WOW. The last 2 times I camped in the desert it was pitch black so we could see millions of stars which was gorgeous so it was nice this time to see the desert in the moonlight. The trip was pretty short and pretty hard due to the fact that we were fasting and thirsty most of the time but I loved every minute of it. I ended up meeting 4 new people, spending some quality time with my friend, renewing my love for the desert, plus got reminded of how our country has SOOO many beautiful spots to visit!