3rd Week

I have only been here 16 days and it feels like a lot more. I am getting "comfortable" here now, but I dont really know what I mean by that. I dont sleep comfortably or have HDTV, wireless internet, or any familiar faces around me. Its good though, my roommates are really cool dudes, and I am getting to know them pretty well. I have my schedule figured out and the metro routes that I need to take each day. The weekend here is Friday and Saturday so thats kind of different. Anyways on Thursday night which is the start of the weekend me and my roommate, we will call him Zach, went to this sports bar/restaurant to watch Egypt play some team from Tunisia for the African Cup. It was really cool and we got to sit with some Egyptian dudes who gave us a plethora of high fives and hugs as we left. On Friday me and Zach, who speaks Arabic really well, went to these soccer/basketball fields near our apartment and played basketball with a lot of 12 years olds for like 2 hours. It was basically like 15 on 15, so it was pretty crazy. They never play basketball and it shows, they constantly yelled out my name which comes out of their mouths something like "Blakeey". Anytime a kid on my team got the ball he instantly looked to pass it to me, I guess they figure I know what I am doing with a basketball. I had to force them to shoot it, and they collectively shot about 3% on the day for field goals. It was a great time and the little kids were a blast. I think it will be good to practice my Arabic with them. Anyways that night me and Zach met three Egyptian dudes while we were longboarding in the streets. We posted up by their car and drank Pepsi while listening to Kayne West for about an hour. They took us home after that, and invited us to some concert this Friday, saying we would be VIPs with them and wouldnt have to pay.

One last story, last night I went by myself to the basketball court and found some people my age who knew what they were doing. Turns out they are a club team and were going to have practice. They scratched practice and their coach insisted we just play 4 on 4 for about 2 hours. It was extremely slick on the court, but luckily I was able to hit some shots and gain their respect. I am a pretty good bball player over here, so if Eric Sampson ever came to Egypt he would be thought of as an NBA player. I had a lot of fun and their coach kept wanting to guard me, I guess he thought he was the only one who could stop my barrage of three pointer's. I am joking about the barrage, but I did well enough to where the coach asked me to join their club team and play in their league. I dont really know what that means, and as he was speaking Arabic I didnt get all the details. I am supposed to go tomorrow night though for "practice" and he said he would ask the league coordinator if I could join their team. Well other than that Arabic is still really hard, but I am enjoying it. I am kind of sick today, hopefully its not from all the tap water I drank last night after basketball. My school is planning a fishing trip to the Red Sea, so that should be neat.
Uhm, I got rejected at George Mason...so unless someone gives me $20k to go to American University, I will be at UT-Knoxville this fall.

Well I hope everyone is doing well, continue to pray for me. People here are amazingly nice and hospitable, its such a joy to talk with Egyptians and show them love.