On Spontaneity and Stars

Yo. I think I’m not very good at this because my posts are too long. I talk too much. It’s just that I love to tell stories. So I can’t do anything about it. Anyways, I last posted Wednesday, March 22. That night I went to an end of the course party, arriving at about 11pm or so. I was invited by my friend Niko, whom I met at the Arabic course, of course. Niko is a German, from Berlin. Actually, the party was a celebration for a number of Germans who were all studying together at a different Arabic institute. They had been together since October, studying here on scholarship. Since Niko lived with a couple of them, the party was there and he invited me. It was the same place and many of the same people as the party I posted on earlier. But don’t worry, I’m going in a different direction.

While I was at the party, I was talking with Johannes (one of Niko’s roommates) about my travel plans and my ambivalence due to traveling alone. He said, “well hey, why don’t you come with us, we’re going down to the Sinai tomorrow.” I thought about it for a while, discussed a few more details with Niko, and decided, “sure, what the heck?”

So, after a bit longer, I went home, packed, went to bed at 2:30, up at 7 to go drop off a dictionary at the school from another guy in my class since it was the last day (which I was now skipping), and off to the bus station (hopefully there are still tickets). There were tickets, so indeed less than 10 hours after being invited, I’m now on a bus with 4 guys, 3 of whom I barely know, in the direction of Nuweeba, Egypt, for a trip I indeed know very little about. Sweet!

So the group of 5 guys was Niko, Johannes, Mattis (a German friend just visiting), Zed (an American studying at AUC) and myself. We were on route to meet 3 Israeli girls, one of whom is Niko’s girlfriend. They had found the place we would be staying at. So the plan is to arrive in Nuweeba, then get a call from them on how to meet them.

It’s a long story but eventually we found the guy that Niko’s girlfriend arranged to pick us up and bring us to our location (more on that later). Since we didn’t start our journey through the desert until after dark, we got a real treat. All 5 of us rode most of the 1.5 hour journey through the desert sitting in the bed of the truck with all our stuff, looking at the stars, listening to music and chatting. It was fantastic, a really precious time. The sky was totally clear, no lights except those of the truck, and no pollution, so it was one of the most beautiful skies ever. Just lolling over the rough desert, with mountains to the right and left under ten thousand stars was something else. And I saw 2 shooting stars, one of them fantastically bright and super long.

The place we stayed is called Laguna. It’s a collection of huts (thin wood frame, sticks/straw for walls and roof) as I said way off the highway through the desert. The place is named for its position on a beautiful green/blue lagoon, which is surrounded by mountains. We saw camels wandering through the desert within view.

Despite the upsides, the location is “rustic” at best. No electricity, no running water, no beds (and our part forgot to mention sleeping bags to Zed and I, oops). Bathing facilities were almost non-existent with the latrine being little more than a hole in the ground. But we certainly made do. It’s nice to be away from the comforts, actually. The place is run by a group of people who cook for you, and also help arrange some transportation.

So what did we do? Well, first off, we arrived late Thursday night, met the girls and some of the other people they had met there. We ate and then went to bed, Friday the weather was super nice, hot and sunny. Swimming was a very common activity. Besides this, there was a lot of sitting around, lying in the sun, some reading, a lot hanging out, some chess, backgammon, chatting and a lot of smoking weed. (Oops, did I say that)? Most of the people there were stoned a good deal of the time. Niko and I were the only two that didn’t smoke up at all. Actually, as you likely know, this would be a pretty standard approach to this type of holiday except that I and most of friends don’t generally partake of this type of activity so it was pretty new to me. But it was okay, overall. I mean it didn’t really affect the weekend too much given the type of activities we were doing anyways, though it probably limited the motivation to come up with other more active, adventuresome and exciting things to do, given the dulling effect of weed. But it was a good learning experience for me.

The wind began to howl late Friday night, and indeed didn’t let up for the whole rest of the time we were there (Zed and I left with a bunch of the Israelis on Sunday around noon, while the rest stayed another day). Thus Saturday and Sunday morning were slightly affected by the wind. There were no clouds, not much dust, no rain, just wind. So it just was a bit cooler and the sea was rough so we couldn’t go snorkeling.

One time swimming, we found sea urchins. Unfortunately, Johannes found them to be painful; he took a huge number of stings all through his right leg, so we had to carry him out of the water and back to camp. But he was treated well, so he’s currently healing quickly.

At night, Zed and I were quite cold, because we didn’t have sleeping bags and of course there are no beds or sheets, just a thin mattress. We were okay the first night, actually, but the second and third were cold ‘cause of the wind. But the nights were highlighted in mind by the stars. Seriously. Amazing. Amazing. What can I say? Perhaps see Job 38-41.

And one evening was also punctuated by a sweet conversation with Niko as the sun lowered and the stars came out. He’s a super guy. It was great to get to know him a lot more. As friendships often do, it ours started out at school during a break. He was looking for fool, I for a place to be outside. After that, we went regularly for fool or taamaya or koshery (falafel). So it grew there, but much more on the trip too. I’m really sad that I’m not going to really be able to continue this friendship on more than an email basis pretty soon; it sucks to just get to know someone just to have it be so short. But, I’ll just consider myself blessed for the 2 weeks or so that I did get. At least with my closest friend here, Diana (have I mentioned her? Sorry if I haven’t. She’s worth mentioning.), we’ve had a couple months to be friends, so while maybe it’ll be worse to leave in some ways ‘cause you know each other better, at least it’s more than a teaser.

So yeah, as I said, Sunday around noon we headed back through the desert. It was a neat and still extremely beautiful ride. The Israelis went to the border but Zed and I got off earlier, picked up some food and bust tix and were back on our way to Cairo. I got some reading in on both ways that was really sweet. I’m reading the Journey of Desire by John Eldrigde. I’d recommend it.

Okay, so anyways, that’s most of what I wanted to say here, and some other things thrown in there. I’m still figuring what’s up with the rest of my travel plans. I’ll let you know when I do.