Welcome to 2008

Happy New Year everyone!

Again, sorry for the lack of consistent posting. Plenty has happened between my last post and last night. But it's a lot to type and there was a lot going on. That's all coming though, I promise. It's my New Year's resolution to get this blog updated!

Olivia and I had an interesting little New Years Eve. Everyone we usually hang out with had gone home by now, so it was just us. We bought tickets to the New Years celebration at the Nile Hilton's rooftop bar, called Mojito. Luckily, it's not too terribly cold in Cairo, so being on the roof wasn't bad. And after a little liquor, it was actually pretty nice. Oh don't worry Mom, Dad, aunts, uncles, older cousins, Tarryn, and anyone else who would possibly care, I didn't get all liquor-ed up and crazy, just a few mojitos... I had to try the signature drink!

Anyway. Olivia and I got ourselves all gussied up and headed out the the party at quarter after 9. Traffic was pretty bad, as it was New Years, and this is Cairo, and I'm starting to think that people drive around just to create traffic for the fun of it. So, we didn't end up getting to the hotel until probably like 9:40. Mish mushkela. The night started off with a little bit of confusion as to why the elevators weren't running to the top floor, where the party was. After talking to a man about this problem for about ten minutes, we headed down to reception to ask what the hell was going on, only to find that there was a special elevator going to our party (and that the party didn't actually start until 10 o'clock). So we went upstairs and got seated at these really oddly-shaped tables, which were impossible to sit at normally. We got as comfortable as we could and ordered our first round of mojitos. Not even ten minutes had gone by and this random guy walked up to our table and asked if he could join us. Initial reaction: back the fuck up, creepo. But it turned out that he was waiting for his girlfriend to fly in from Germany and would otherwise be spending New Years all by himself. So Olivia and I endured a few hours of slightly awkward on and off chatting with... I don't remember his name. Nonetheless, it was great - we had dinner, had a few more drinks, and at midnight, toasted to a great coming year.

After that, I danced the night away and fell in love with an Egyptian. Mom, Dad, I'm not coming home.

Just kidding. I'll be home in about a month. The next post, however, will be coming to you from a completely different country...