"We're in the city. Can't you see the cows?"

Last weekend we went on our first trip to Cairo. The family of my flatmate Sara is from Cairo, and they have a lovely flat there, which we are lucky to get to stay in. The first day of our weekend we didn't stay in Cairo, however, but went on a daytrip with an Egyptian travel agency to Al-Fayoum, a fertile area in the desert a couple of hours south of Cairo. If you are ever unsure whether the other passengers on your bus are Egyptian or not, here is an easy way to tell: if they don't even bother looking up when the pyramids appear right outside the window, then you are dealing with true Egyptians, my friend. The level of noise in our bus would suggest that it contained the supporter group of a football team rather than a tour group, and it is hard to whole-heartedly take part in charades while being slightly car sick. However it was still a pleasure to travel with this group, as we got to know some really nice people. The tour guide volunteered me to sing a Norwegian song to the whole bus, so while the bus was bumping along the desert roads, I sang "Du ska ikkje sova bort sumarnatta" ("You must not sleep away the summer night"), which I've sung to people here on a couple of occasions already. I think I might as well just take it on tour.

Al-Fayoum is a huge area, so we didn't have time to see all the sights in a day, and this trip definitely left us wanting to go back. We visited some of Al-Fayoum's lakes, and I can assure you that the sight of clear blue water is all the more stunning when surrounded by desert. By one of the lakes you can find Egypt's only waterfalls, which are not very big, but still quite picturesque. For some reason I felt strangely at home in the sand dunes - it reminded me of being in the snow in the mountains, maybe due to the fact that as far as you can see the whole world is one colour, or maybe due to the sharp light. I am really looking forward to visiting Egypt's beautiful deserts more properly later.

We also stopped in a little village called Tunis, home to several artists, more specifically potters. Some people took part in a pottery workshop, whereas we joined a walk around the village. It is the sort of tranquil and peaceful place where you would just like to relax for a few days in the beautiful little guesthouse. I couldn't help thinking that my aunt Mette would have loved this place.

Many Cairenes come to Al-Fayoum on weekends, and it was interesting seeing somewhere Egyptians like to holiday, but where there aren't too many tourists. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the trip was getting a peak into daily life in Al-Fayoum from the bus window. It is a very agricultural area, and even in the big cities there are tons of cattle, as the title of this post suggests. I will forever be impressed by how a little boy and an old man managed to get 50 sheep and a couple of donkeys to stand patiently on the central reserve in the road, waiting for an opportunity to cross. I also discovered the advantage of being a tourist attraction (or rather the opposite, I guess, as it is locals I attract): I get ample opportunity to practice my Arabic. So all in all it was a very successful trip. However, something went wrong with most of the pictures I took, so I couldn't upload them to my computer. You'll have to make do with the ones below.

Driving along the desert road

Me in the sand dunes, accompanied by some of the lovely girls we got to know

Sara, Chiara and I by the waterfalls

Tunis

The next day was spent in Cairo's old souq (market), Khan al-Khalili. Even though over-enthusiastic sellers were fighting for our attention ("Small shob! Small brices!" "I don't know what you want, but I have it!"), it was much less crowded and stressful than I'd imagined. We found many nice things for low prices, and after a while I was haggling in Arabic without even realising. In the evening we met up with some friends of Sara's in City Stars, Africa's biggest mall. Let's just say it felt like a completely different world after Khan al-Khalili's small shops and narrow streets. But the important thing is that we had a great time with Sara's friends - it really feels good to start getting to know some people here.

The buildings in Cairo seemed nicer than those of Alexandria - they have a bit more character - , and I really liked the atmosphere of the city. I think we can all hardly wait to go back to Cairo. However, it is a city which demands a lot of patience: literally half of the 5 hour bus journey back to Alex was spent getting out of Cairo. Yes, that means 2,5 hours. TWO AND A HALF HOURS. This gigantic city houses more than 20 million people and makes London seem small and calm, so even though I loved Cairo, I am happy to study in Alexandria. I think on a daily basis Cairo would get a bit too busy and overwhelming, and I do love having the sea so near.

In other news, my flatmates rescued the tiniest kitten yesterday. We heard it crying in the stairs for ages, so they went to find it, and it turned out something was wrong with one of its eyes, causing it a lot of pain. It had been abandoned by its mum, and it also seems someone had treated it quite badly, as it was very afraid of people. My flatmates managed to get it into a birdcage our landlady had left us (you never know when a birdcage might come in handy!), took it to the vet, and got medicines for it. It stayed the night in our flat and has become quite sociable, but due to my allergy I can't really socialise with it. My flatmates are looking to find a good home for it, so hopefully there will be a happy ending to the story of our abandoned kitten.

The last days we have had our first experience of the Alexandrian rain. When water started dripping on us yesterday, we all assumed it was from some air conditioner, and only after a long while did we realise it was actually that strange thing called rain. Today we woke up to a thunderstorm - I don't think I've ever heard such loud peals of thunder in my life, and the lightning was pretty spectacular. It was raining heavily, and for maybe the first time ever I was actually excited about the rain. It was as though the world let out a heavy sigh which it had kept in for far too long. Unfortunately the rain didn't continue for long enough, and only left the air more humid than it had been to start with.

I have always been known to be a fan of the comma, but the fusha texts we are reading now have made me appreciate the full stop more. There is a limit to everything - or should be, at least -, and I would dare to claim that four full stops in a text which goes over three pages is a little scant. When one sentence is 30 lines long, it does become a bit hard to follow. I know I use a lot of commas, but please: shoot me before it becomes that extreme.