Half way through my 20th year—happy half birthday to me!
Interesting Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/0...

On another interesting note, the NYTimes that we always joke off of the popular bumper sticker as being “A Little Left of Lenin” is starting to seem entirely conservative after reading the likes of Al-Ahram and Al-Jazeera each week!

Aight finishing my previous table of contents:
Fourth of July
Midterms, Classes, etc.
MFCR/CR Excitement
Room Situation

Yesterday was quite depressing to get up and go to five hours of class when I wanted to be wearing red, white, and blue and walking through Ludington Park or in a parade with a bunch of Republicans. People were very kind when they saw the Americans here—wishing us a Happy Day. Our professor for poli sci wasn’t as excited when we didn’t want to continue the discussion passed class time because the American students had to get over to Maadi for the Embassy’s outdoor party themed “Maadi Graas”!

As we drove through Maadi—an expensive, beautiful area of Cairo I had never been in before where many ex-pats live—we were so excited to see Americans celebrate! We had no idea how emotional it would be!

After walking through the most ridiculous amount of security and spotting the snipers on the rooftops we flashed our passports as we heard country music in the background! The tears almost came! We walked into the event and saw a huge table area surrounding an American flag dancefloor. This whole area was covered by an outside structure which was decorated in Red, White, and Blue and more Coke stations than one could imagine—and the Coke was the American formula (less carbonated) and in American cans (Egyptian cans open by a pulltab and are obvi written in Arabic). To the left (facing the stage) was the food line with hotdogs and chicken nuggets, and icecream, behind us and on the sides not enclosed by the structure leading up to the back of the field were booths for children and adults—typical fairgames for free, massage booths, and a maardi graas mask making booth, as well as blow up slides and areas for children! Everyone was so happy and making jokes about Egypt (kind ones!) and their love of America.

It felt so good to hear the Star Spangled banner, to see Marines enjoying themselves, men and women conversing freely, and to be able to understand everyone around you. It’s funny how quickly you adapt to the language around you and we had to think hard to say the little things in English—like please and thankyou.

I’ve never appreciated America more on a Fourth of July than this one. There were no negative comments about our leaders, the state of our country, no politicians fighting, just a whole ton of Americans living abroad sharing their joint experiences of being in an oppressive country. I was so proud to be an American.

Last night was spent catching up on major Arabic homework—a few recordings and writing a presentation for today. I fell asleep around 2ish only to be woken up at 7am to hear about my parent’s Fourth. While I was glad to hear that my brother has arrived safely in Italy and that they enjoyed their Fourth, I was a little jealous to not have seen the fireworks from the Boes’ law with my best friends, but nothing in the whole world would make me want to change the experience of sharing my appreciation of my liberties with others who have also lived in Egypt.

Today was my Arabic presentation which hopefully went okay. I think I used a few fusha words on accident! After grocery shopping and getting my laundry done, soon I will have to study for my test tomorrow in poli sci then my test in Arabic on Thursday!

Few things: Apparently the dorm finally caught up with the fact that neither Melanie nor I have roommates (the bureaucracy here is a mess!), and she is moving in sometime today or tomorrow! Which is totally cool with me since she is one of the first girls I became friends with when I got here! Nice to have someone I already know well move in!

Also without much drama and hopefully without further ado. . .the original, voted-in, non handpicked by Saul, hardworking MFCR Board is back in place! Not sure if more fights are going to go down, but don’t really care. I have such more incentive to follow through with my Outreach Plan when I have a Chair that created and supports the idea and when I respect who I work with! Pretty exciting! For proof it’s all good check out our re-updated website: http://www.mfcr.org/page.php?...
To see the letters and details check out http://www.bconservatives.blo...