Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

Two days ago I left the beautiful country I love, Egypt, and caught an early morning flight to istanbul, Turkey. From here I'll be meeting my Dad and brother who is coming over from Bulgaria to spend some time in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Here's the kicker... I won't be catching my flight to Denver on March 11th... Don't act like you didn't see it coming. Instead I'll be flying back to Cairo to start my new job working at Egypt Today magazine. This way I'll be able to make some money, figure out graduate school plans, keep studying Arabic, and keep enjoying the country I've grown to love so much. I'll of course miss all of you guys, but each one of you has a open invitation to come visit me in Cairo... it's like Paris, only dirtier... and hotter... and cheaper.

Send me some emails or write on the blog if you want more details. Don't worry, I'll keep the blog going for your exciting reading pleasure.

This last week, the national Swedish team traveled to Cairo to play the Egyptian national team in a friendly soccer match at the absolutely enormous Cairo Stadium (it can fit 80,000 people +). We grabbed some of our Egyptian friends to buy tickets with us, and we called everyone we knew to come as well. The turn out was interesting.



At my apartment, I live with one other American, and two Swedish guys. These guys in turn have two Swedish friends, a Norwegian friend, and another American friend. Well, news of the match went through the grapevine, and we ended up with:
12 Egyptians
5 Americans
8 Swedes
2 Norwegians
and 1 German.

Only a few years ago did Egypt start letting females into the Cairo stadium... we had 8 attractive woman with us, many of whom were blond... quite a sight in Cairo.

We arrived at the stadium as the match was about to start, and were mobbed by admiring Egyptians. "Welcome to Egypt" "What's your name?" etc etc. A random guy walked up to us and pulled out this enormous Swedish flag with "Egyptson" (an Egyptian-Swedish company) written on it. Through some wonderful Egyptian connections, he managed to get us through a locked gate and into some open chairs, where we unfurled the huge Swedish flag... in Cairo. I forgot to mention the cute Swedish girls were all wearing blue shirts and yellow scarves... let's just say they stood out a bit.

The game progressed; Sweden played terribly, Egypt played fairly well, and the match ended 2-0, Egypt! I was Egyptian for the night and celebrated with my Egyptian friends. During the match, a different friend who was watching the game from home called and said we had been on Egyptian television twice... what can I say, we're celebrities here :) It was quite a night.

I'm attending the wedding of a friend's Dad tomorrow, should have some good stories to tell.