Ya Ragel, Maalak

Well I only have a few weeks left here. I am coming back a little earlier than I would like to, which really stinks. I dont have enough money to take another course and to pay for rent. I am still really enjoying Egypt, I wish I could stay much longer.
Lets see, what stories should I share... I have begun exploring quite a bit recently. I have found several interesting places in this city, but a lot of times I wander around and don't find anything cool. Last week I went exploring and stumbled upon an underground ping pong "club". It was very strange, but a lot of fun. When I first walked in, everyone stopped playing and looked to me like I was going to tell them something awesome. Granted there were only about 7 guys in there, but it was still odd. After some greetings and answering questions of why I was in Egypt, I got to play with the "coach". Now for some reason I thought I was pretty skilled at ping pong, it must be from beating Andrew Johnson so many times. This coach had to be at least 70 years old and he absolutely destroyed me in ping pong. He didn't move his feet once, and hit the ball back and forth to each corner so I would literally have to run to hit the ball. I immediately started sweating and having the whole club watch my demise didn't help. Either way it was fun, and I actually learned a lot.
This week I am going to the American University of Cairo to meet with someone in the Law Department. I found out that you can take some law courses here at AUC for study abroad credit and I really want to do that next summer. That is some time away, but I am going to miss this place and thats a really great reason to come back soon.
Now to the best story of the week, well I think so it least. Thursday I was playing basketball as usual and a few things were a little different. The night started off a little strange when I basically was punched in the mouth by an Egyptian guy trying to stop me from making a lay up. This guy was new and was a little over aggressive from the get go. I was so confused when it happened and a lot of guys went over to the guy and started yelling "maalak, maalak" which is just "whats your problem". It hurt pretty bad, but the guy apologized after awhile and left so I didnt let it bother me too much. Anyways it gets better, later on when we I was running full speed down the court to catch someone a random ball flies in and nails me on the side of the head. Instantly my head started buzzing and I couldn't hear hardly at all. It was so weird I didn't understand where this ball came from and why I had lost my hearing. As I was leaving, this huge wedding procession was entering the "neighborhood activity center". I was moved to the wall as a huge crowd of people pushed by me and the whole time my jaw is dropped and I am trying to hear the music/people talking to me. I guess just try and picture me looking like a goofball - confused look on my face, sweating, and snapping my fingers by my ear to test my hearing all while nicely dressed people are all around me trying to get into a wedding reception. Ilhamduillah about 5 hours later I could hear alright, but its still a little muffled.
Today after class I went down to Coptic Cairo with some people and we saw Oswald Chambers grave. I didnt know he was buried here, but I saw his grave so I guess he is. That was neat and someone said he didn't even write most of his books, but that his wife put them together. We also went to the first Mosque built in Africa and to a really old Jewish synagogue.
I am finally getting to play the head guy at my school in tennis. We are supposed to play on Tuesday and I am pretty excited about that. I think we will get to play on clay courts, which is something I have really wanted to try.
Two of my good Egyptian friends broke up with their girlfriends recently, it was pretty funny hearing their reasoning. I wont get into that too much, but they are hilarious dudes and that night I got about 20 low fives, so it was considered a good one.
Well thats enough, life's good and Egypt is really cool. I want to stay longer, inshaallah I will come back next summer.