Day 47...Last day in Egypt! (plus a little extra)

Day 47, July 31st:

Egypt Day 5!

Shopping is the best way to spend your last day in a foreign country!  You have to spend the last remaining amount of your local currency somehow, right?  I woke up around 09:00 and met Brianna, Danielle and Carmen at the gangway for our expedition to Carrefour Mall around 09:30.  We walked just outside the port to try to find Raft, our taxi driver from the first day, but he ditched us for someone else.  We actually got a driver who had a brand new 2011 minivan with air-conditioning.  This is the first taxi in all of Egypt that we saw with air-conditioning. He took us out to the mall and we walked around for a few hours.  The mall is very Americanized as it had a Starbucks, Nike, Timberland, Ecco, Lacoste, Addias, etc.  It was actually the nicest place we have seen in Egypt.  The mall was huge!  It even had a prayer room! All of the stores were name brand minus the few stores I didn’t know, the ones that sold the traditional dresses for Muslim women.  It was really nice!  I really wanted to find a tee shirt that said Egypt on it, but every store said they didn’t have anything.  That was upsetting.  We were really hungry so we ended up eating at McDonalds again.  I know…we ate fast food three times in this port!  I had another Big Mac with only bread and meat, French fries and a coke with no ice.  How delicious!  We then made our last lap around the mall before going into an Egyptian equivalent to Walmart to spend our Egyptian Pounds.  I bought a few more snacks that were not made or packaged in Egypt.  I spent exactly all of my money.  I actually got a lot for my equivalent of 11 US Dollars. 

We meet the taxi outside of the mall again at 13:00 and rode back to the ship.  I bought just a few postcards and stamps from the little vendors right outside the ship to send home before heading back onboard the MV Explorer for the last time in Egypt.  Since Egypt was the port for Parent Trips, all of the parents got to come onboard the last evening and eat dinner with us before we pulled out.  Daniel, Lacey, Mindy and I went to the computer lab and made a sign to welcome Clark and his parents onboard the ship!  We printed it out and stood at the gangway for about 45 minutes while they got everyone onboard.  It was pretty neat to meet his parents and be able to have dinner with them.  After dinner, I went up to the top deck to watch us leave Alexandria.  This was one port that I didn’t mind leaving.  I don’t think I will miss the dirty city anytime soon, nor will I probably ever go back there.  It was very neat to talk with the others about their experiences and their travels in Egypt as everyone had totally different perspectives.

At 21:30 I had my last sea meeting before the Sea Olympics and we practiced our cheer and got all of the logistics down for tomorrows festivities.  I can’t wait!!!  It should be great fun!

Do you speak Egyptian?  No, I speak Arabic.

Egyptians speak Arabic, but English is taught in most Egyptian schools beginning at a very young age.  The following is a phonetic transliteration from the Arabic script. 
Hello (to Muslims) = assalaamu aleikum
Hello (to Copts/Christians) = saeeda
Goodbye = ma’a salaama
Please (to a man) = min fadlak
Please (to a woman) = min fadlik
Thank You = shukran
You’re Welcome = ‘afwan
Yes = aywa
No = la
Buenos Dias = sabaah el-kheer

Numbers:
1=wahid, 2=itnayn, 3=talaata, 4=arbah, 5=khamsa, 6=sitta, 7=sabah, 8=tamanya, 9=tesah, 10=ashara, 100=miyya

Days of the Week:
Sunday= youm il-ahad, Monday=youm il-itnayn, Tuesday=youm il-talaata, Wednesday= youm il-arbah, Thursday=youm il-khamees, Friday=youm il-sabt, and supposedly Saturday is not important because they didn’t put it on our sheet.

Do you see the pattern between the days of the week and the numbers?