AYWAH!

That means "yes" in Arabic!
Today is my last day at work, and I'm celebrating by writing my blog instead of doing work. HEH. I mean, why do my tasks efficiently when I'm only rewarded with more work? This is the mindset of a slacker. shoot! But true, no?

Anyhoo, so continuing! After dinner with the Kanes, Lauren and I went to meet Kait to go to the bazaar, Khan el-Khalili! It was so cool. It was my first experience being in just a group of girls in the streets of Cairo, and it was a little disorienting. Men kept talking to us, trying to get us in their shops, but also telling us how sexy and spicy and beautiful we were. Sometimes they would just call after us as we walked by--I had quite a few shouted conversations that went like this as I walked by:
Man: JAPAN!
Me: NOPE!
Man: CHINA!
Me: NOPE!
Man: MONGOLIA!
Me: NOPE!
and etc until we were finally out of earshot of each other.

Now I understand why women would go completely covered here. I'd do it too after awhile! And I'd look like a ninja too with only my eyes showing. But the interesting part was that all you had to say was, "No thank you" to their advances, and then they'd smile and say, "Have a nice day!" These were the most pleasant hustlers I've ever met. And a lot of them kept saying, "Hello! Welcome to Alaska!" I have no idea what that meant.

Anyway, so at this bazaar, you HAD to haggle, and you had to haggle rough. I was told to immediately ask for a third of the price they were asking for, and it became kind of a fun game of facial expressions. I think I mastered the "EHH...." face before asking for a different price.

I didn't take any pictures, but there were just stores and stores of lanterns, hookahs of all shapes, sizes, color, flavors (everyone smokes in Egypt! I thought everyone did in Europe, but EVERYONE does in Cairo), spices, mini-pyramids, silver jewelry, etc.

We got back at around 11 pm, and the bazaar was still bustling at that point. Cairo is like Madrid in that it's really a city that never sleeps. The stands run almost all night! When we got back, Kait and I skyped with our friend and then headed off to bed at 1 am, and the computer lab was still busy!

The next morning, the Kanes+2 went to the largest mosque in Cairo, the Mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tulun. I love Egyptian architecture with the intricate patterns and heavy use of domes and arches.

Young women chatting and sketching the mosque.

Jules at the top of the minaret of the mosque!

Then we headed off to the Gayer Anderson house, which was a man's house that was turned into a museum. He had collected artifacts from all over the world, and each room had different cultural themes, like the "Turkish Room" or the "Persian Room" and etc.

Such nicely done woodwork.

Look at those beautiful words carved on the side of a marble table!

By that point we were starving, so we went to the bazaar to get some food. Our server loved us--he stared each one of us deep in our eyes and asked us if we wanted an Egyptian husband. HAHA And of course he told us how beautiful we were. Mr. Kane started bargaining out the dowry he would give for Jules hahaha

And then we headed off to the citadel! There was a mosque inside it which was beautiful.

View of Cairo from the top of the citadel.

Domes!

Structure in the middle of the mosque.

Lights inside the mosque.

Afterwards, we went on our second trip to the bazaar where I embraced my love for the Arabic words and bought everything I could that had Arabic. My room is going to look so cool with these things decorating it when I get back to the States!

And then finally we went on a felucca ride on the Nile, which is basically a small boat ride. It was so nice!

The Nile is actually pretty dirty, but it was super cool. No alligators unfortunately.

Then Lauren and I went back to Kait's where we giggled and attempted to learn Arabic for a couple of hours before finally going to sleep before the last day in Cairo :(

I feel like my photos look really dusty--effect of Cairo sand?! It's still in my converses too.