100 Posts! Last days in Egypt

CAIRO, EGYPT & LONDON, UK -- First off, this is my 100th post on this blog! I think that's pretty cool that I have now posted 100 times and I hope that you have enjoyed reading them.

Picking up where I left off last time...

Thursday morning we woke up early, walked over to Cairo's Ramses Station, and boarded a train up to Alexandria. The train itself wasn't that bad... it only took 2 1/2 hours. A friend of mine who took a local train from Cairo to Alexandria last year said it took them 6 hours. We paid 37 EGP one-way (about $6-6.50), whereas they had paid around $2.50 for the much slower (and sketchier) service. All that said, if they built modern gauges and proper rail lines, the trip could be done in about 1 hour... maybe in another decade or two, right? Anyway we got into Alexandria around 1030am, and it was very refreshing stepping off the train. Even though we had only been in Cairo for a few days, the pollution was overbearing, and just being able to step into clear blue sky and fresh air was wonderful. Furthermore, while Alexandria would still be considered crazy compared with any American or European city, the car honks per second ration was drastically less than Cairo, and the relative "quiet" was nice too.

From Misr Station we walked about 10 minutes to the ancient Roman ruins. Alexandria is located on the Mediterranean, and after Egypt was conquered in the 300s BCE by Alexander the Great, Alexander founded his capital city for the entire empire in 331 BCE and quite appropriately (if un-originally) named it Alexandria. After his death and in the ensuing couple of centuries, the power of Greece declined inversely to the increasing power of the Roman Empire. As such, Egypt, based in Alexandria, became a Roman territory, and most of the ancient ruins in the city have Roman origins. The center of Roman Alexandria was the Roman Theatre, which not-surprisingly reminded me of visiting Caesarea in Israel. Caesarea was built around the same time Alexandria fell under Roman hands, and the two cities share many similarities (located on the Mediterranean Sea, and being the "key" to an ancient civilization - Israel or Egypt). Relatively speaking, however, the Alexandria ruins are much larger and again this is logical, given that Alexandria was the second-most important city in the world for almost 1,000 years, only after Rome itself. Ultimately in the 7th century CE, when the Arabs invaded and took over Egypt, they founded a new capital city to the south at Fustat along the Nile, near ancient Memphis. A few centuries later Fustat was incorporated into the new capital Cairo, which has remained Egypt's capital for the last millennium.

Upon leaving the ruins, we took a quick taxi ride over to the other side of town, on the Sea, to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. To say that the library is impressive is a massive understatement. Sometime during the fall of Rome and subsequent Arab invasion in the 300-600s, the ancient Library of Alexandria, then-considered to be the biggest and best collection in the world, was lost. After Egypt declared independence from France and Britain in the 1950s, the idea of reviving the library was presented and over the course of the last 3-4 decades, it was slowly implemented. Fundraising began in 1990, construction started in 1995, and the Bibliotheca opened to the public in 2003. The dimensions of the building are mind-boggling... the main reading room is the largest in the world, and is built on an angle so that while it is all essentially one massive room, it is spaced out over 11 different stories. Computers, open tables, bookshelves (which can hold 8 million books), and museum exhibits all alternate on each floor. The top two floors are actually separate buildings within the building, and look like two books stacked on a shelf. If for no other reason, take a look at my pictures just to see the library. From the outside, 120 different human scripts are engraved into the walls of the library, and the roof of the building is parallel in slope to the main reading room. From the sea, it looks like the sun rising over the Mediterranean. The library was only 5 EGP to enter (under $1), and we caught a free English tour for about an hour. When we finished we had free internet access as well, which impressed me. The library also contains the only copy of the Internet Archive, which is a massive project doing exactly what it sounds like... archiving the history of the internet. Right now they're up to around 2007 I think. I guess the way I would describe the library was that if the United States was building the Library of Congress today, the Bibliotheca is what it would look like.

Outside the library we walked around... the complex is built into a massive reflecting pool, and contains a suspended Planetarium and a huge shore-side conference center in the shape of an Egyptian wildflower. From there we took a taxi out to the Alexandria peninsula...

After our driver getting half-lost and an attempt at an English/Spanish/Arabic/hand signals/look-at-the-map description, we finally made it to the Citadel at Qiatbay. The Citadel is a big fortress at the point extending furthest into the Mediterranean from Alexandria. From there we climbed along the walls and walked around, and had a commanding view of the city and entire harbor. Non-coincidentally, this was the original site of the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (along with the Great Pyramid at Giza), and stood as the tallest man-made, non-Pyramid structure in the world for over 1,000 years, before an earthquake destroyed it in the 14th century. In the decade after it was destroyed, the Citadel was built out of the ruins. Many of the ruins also fell into the sea, and the largest underwater archaeological excavation site in the world is at the Lighthouse/Citadel.

From there we walked along the Corniche (beach/boardwalk) back into central Alexandria. We stopped for a Chicken Shewarma sandwich, and eventually made our way into downtown. We walked by the Egyptian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was a very nice monument, and past several of the famous downtown public squares (Midan Sa'ad Zaghloul Square; Midan Tahir Square). The city itself is quite a contrast (much like everything else in Egypt). Alexandria is the second-largest city in the country, after Cairo, and you can still tell that in its heyday it was a marvelous place to be. It's difficult to tell, however, whether it is on the upswing or the downswing. There are stunning French mansions all along the coast from the time of Napoleon's Empire. There are even a few antique British double-decker buses originally from London. The Library sure is stunning. But all of that said, the city is still run-down, and I fear the worst for it.

In any case we had a great day in Alexandria. We hopped back on the train just as the sun was going down, and got back into Cairo around 930pm. We walked back from Ramses Station in towards the hostel, and we found a local Koshary stand just a few blocks behind the hostel in the neighborhood. Koshary is the Egyptian national dish, and contains rice, macaroni, lentils, and a tomato base sauce all mixed in together. It was delicious and we got a huge tub for under $1. Crazy! From there we got back to the hostel and passed out after a long day.

Friday morning we woke up early, packed, checked out of the hostel, and set off for the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities after breakfast. The Egyptian Museum is the best museum in the country and essentially, it contains all of the relics found in the tombs of the Pyramids during the archaeological excavations, etc. This includes numerous royal mummies of Pharaohs and their wives. I remember a few years back the traveling "King Tut" exhibit was at the Field Museum in Chicago. This is its permanent home. The museum also contains the only evidence from the Egyptian side of the Israelites in ancient Egypt, written in hieroglyphics on a massive stone slab.

Clearly the collection is one of the finest in the world, and there is no arguing that. However, there was another side of the museum that really frustrated and angered me. In the past few months I have visited the British Museum here in London a couple of times. When you visit, most people feel a sense of guilt. The Museum is essentially a collection of all the artifacts the British stole during the reign of the British Empire, and while the collection is hugely impressive, the guilt trip is definitely there. Shouldn't the British do the right thing and return the sculpture to Athens? Surely the Greeks can take care of the Parthenon friezes now, right? The same thing is true of the massive Egyptian exhibit at the British Museum. The standard British defense is that they are "experts" and can take care of the artifacts appropriately. Personally, I have always interpreted that as snobbish British elitism.

At least regarding the Egyptian collection, I was wrong. Guilt trip or not, the British can and DO preserve these artifacts in a way that the Egyptian Museum currently couldn't even dream of doing. The Museum is not air conditioned, and does not have special lighting. Furthermore, only two exhibits in the entire museum have air-tight glass casing. There are virtually zero panels of descriptions on them to even explain what the artifacts are, and when there are, they are in tiny difficult-to-read fonts in a wide array of different languages (English, French, Arabic). Many of the exhibits are sitting on 2x4's on the ground with no ropes or other separation barriers between them and visitors. Sure, there is the occasional "do not touch" sign, but we saw literally hundreds of schoolchildren on field trips to the museum. Intentionally or not, many of them were running their hands along the stones and into the hieroglyphics.

I guess you can say I was (and still am) a bit outraged. Here the Egyptians have what is essentially an endless supply of tourism potential, both with the Pyramids and with the collection in this museum. Yet they treat much of it like trash. Walking around the back of the museum outside, many of the large stones are sitting outside, in the sun and dust and pollution of downtown Cairo, just rotting away. Where is the authority? Where is the interest? Millions of people want to see these documents and artifacts. Needless to say, I don't see the British giving anything back anytime soon, and I am perfectly fine with that.

After a few hours in the museum wandering around (no maps or anything to guide you), we headed out to Midan Tahrir, the main square in Central Cairo. We walked by the American University in Cairo, where President Obama gave his famous speech last June 2009, and on to Abdeen Palace. Abdeen Palace is the Egyptian Presidential residence in Cairo. The security guards did not appreciate us taking pictures, so after snapping a few we apologies and wandered off. Next we went to the Egyptian National Assembly (Parliament), where security was so crazy we didn't even have the nerve to take out a camera. It's a shame too - the building was beautiful and it would have made for a nice picture or two (you can tell in the small picture on their website). Oh well.

We cabbed it over to Gezira Island in the middle of the Nile River, downtown Cairo. More specifically, we went to the Cairo Tower, and took the elevator up 614 feet to the observation deck. From there we had a commanding view of the city. To the North you could see the Nile spread out into the Nile Delta. To the East we could clearly see our Hostel, the Egyptian Museum, Islamic Cairo, Al-Azhar Park, and the Citadel. To the South we could see the Nile flow to "Upper Egypt" for miles out, and just to the Southwest we could clearly see the Pyramids of Giza. It's very thought-provoking when you're standing at the observation deck in a building constructed in the last few decades. As you hear the car horns blaring, and see the pollution. See the Mosques and hear the megaphone call-for-prayer. All of the asphalt and concrete, the motorboats, and just the millions of people. And yet NONE of it existed 5,000 years ago, when those same Pyramids were standing in the exact same spot, looking out over the same Nile Valley. Just the Pyramids and the River, and sure, maybe 100,000 people or so. But certainly not 15 million. Or any cars. Heck the Pyramids predate Islam, and even Christianity. Monotheism and Judaism were a new concept in those days. Looking out at those towering Pyramids and thinking about all of this was a great way to end the trip.

After a quick lunch at the observation deck cafe, we descended to street level, walked back to the hostel, grabbed our things, and got in our car to the airport. Thanks to zero traffic on Fridays in the Islamic world (Friday prayers in Islam are the equivalent to Shabbat in Judaism or Sunday prayers in Christianity) we made it to the airport in only 30 minutes or so. The airport Terminal 3 just opened in April 2009, so it's not even 1 year old, which explained the spotlessness. Our flight was on-time, and by 9pm we were already on the Piccadilly tube line back here in London.

What a trip!!?!! I suppose I don't know what more to say. I clearly had a great time and we also clearly did a great job of packing a TON of things into a very short timetable. In hours, we were on the ground in Egypt for about 90, from wheels down to wheels up at CAI. My advice for anybody going to Egypt (or anywhere else for that matter) would be to do your homework ahead of time. I spent days researching all of this stuff before our trip, and in the end, there was only 1 thing on my list that we did not do (felucca ride on the Nile), and in exchange an extra thing that was not on the list, but that we did do (Dashur pyramid necropolis). We also did very well financially. Not including the flight (since, let's face it, you don't always have much of a choice there), or souvenirs (again, that's a very subjective thing), we ended up paying only around $225-250 per person. That's for the hostel, all meals, all cab rides, the train rides, pickup to/from the airport, driver for pyramids day, and ALSO includes all of the museum entrance fees, the national park fees, hostel internet access fees, bottled water everywhere, etc. Honestly I would have spent almost that much here in London on nothing but food! If you ever get a chance to go to Egypt, definitely go. As for me, I look forward to going back, though I would be equally happy waiting 3-4 years, or waiting 10-20 in the hopes that some of the infrastructure is vastly improved (metro line from the airport, a proper museum for all the antiques, national parks services, less traffic, less pollution, etc. etc.). Of course, if all of that improves, everything else will in turn get more expensive, so it's a two-way street. Next time though, since I'm assuming I'll be coming across an ocean instead of a sea, I think I'll try to do a longer trip and include Aswan and Luxor in Upper Egypt, and Mt. Sinai and Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula. From there you could easily take a bus ride for 2 hours or so up to Eilat in Israel, and drive up a few more hours to Petra in Jordan. Count me in!

Since I got back to London I have been pretty busy. The first couple of days I was just trying to catch up on sleep and uploading/editing/posting all of my pictures (and unpacking too). Monday night I met up with my travel buddy Eric and several of our LSE friends and talked about the trip, which was nice. Yesterday I was busy actually doing some work for People to People, go figure, from over here! For the international Student Ambassador Programs that travel from the US to the UK & Ireland, there are local guides from here that greet the students at the airport when they touch down. Obviously these "Delegation Mangers" need to be trained, and the training for the DM's who will be working this summer is this week in London. My friend Charity is in town from People to People's headquarters in Spokane, WA, and we had a nice dinner over at the Mango Tree Indian restaurant I discovered with my Grandfather back in January when he visited. Then yesterday I spent the afternoon in Croydon, which is in South London. I gave a 15 min presentation on student perceptions of DMs and also staff perceptions of DMs (since I have a ton of experience on both sides). The presentation went really well. Apparently when they have covered the things I said in the past there are usually only 4-5 questions from the DMs in total, much like any other short presentation. After my 15 mins of speaking I took at least 30 mins of questions from just about every single DM in the room (maybe 30-40 of them?). So yeah... it went great!

Today my goal was to catch up on the blog (success!), go shopping for food (doing that next), and put together a group reservations proposal for Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon for April 2011.

That's about all that is going on! The weather here has been crap every day, which is fine, since I want to get started on one of these big assessed essays I have to write anyway. Italy in two weeks from today! Have a great week and a Happy Passover to all!

Check out my Egypt pictures on facebook or by using this public link: CLICK HERE!

My exodus from Egypt/Chag Sameach!

CAIRO, EGYPT & LONDON, UK -- In many ways I think it is ironic that Passover starts in a few hours, and I'm writing my blog entry about my last days in Egypt and my "exodus" back to the UK.

I posted on Tuesday evening from Cairo about our travel day on Monday and then briefly about seeing all of the different Pyramid fields on Tuesday.

From there, on Wednesday we spent the day in historic Cairo. In the morning we walked about a mile through downtown to Ramses Station, which is the central Cairo train, metro, and bus station, where we got our tickets to and from Alexandria for Thursday. From there we hopped on the Cairo Metro, which is the only one in all of Africa, for only 1 LE (Egyptian Pound), the equivalent of something like 17 cents. It was interesting seeing two of the cars (the middle ones) reserved for women only... women can go in any car they want, but no men in cars 4 or 5 on any of the Metro trains.

Anyway we rode for 8-9 stops, got off at "Mar Girgis," and found ourselves in the middle of ancient Coptic Cairo! All of the most famous churches are in Coptic Cairo, and Christians are the only real minority in Egypt to this day, mostly centered around this area. After visiting the Hanging Church we walked over to the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the last remaining open Synagogue in all of Egypt. The Synagogue itself reminded me of all of the ancient Synagogues in Safed in Israel, up in the hills. Like those, the bimah was in the center of the Synagogue, facing the Altar. Not surprisingly, the altar (and entire Synagogue) faces northeast, towards Jerusalem. Besides all of that, however, the most interesting thing about this Synagogue is the location it was built on in the first place. Just behind it is a concrete well built over the exact spot Moses was found as a baby by the Pharaoh's wife along the banks of the Nile River. At the time the Nile flowed right to the spot the Synagogue is now on, though today it is maybe a half-mile to the west. After making a donation to help with the preservation, one of the workers was kind enough to take me back to the well where I took a few photos there.

By the way, I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that ALL of my Egypt pictures are now uploaded onto my facebook account. Feel free to access them there, otherwise the public link is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2696242&id=8623973&l=a92a777729

From the Synagogue we walked out of Coptic Cairo into the downtown area of the city, and we caught a cab over to the Cairo Citadel.

The Cairo Citadel was built in the 12th century on a hill overlooking downtown Cairo to be a fortified seat of the Egyptian government, to protect against the European crusaders. The entire Citadel has a commanding view over the Nile Valley, and it is clear why they chose to build the fortress where it is at. For the past 200 years or so, however, the jewel of the Citadel has been the Mohammed Ali Mosque, built in the mid-19th century. It is a massive building that can be seen from across Cairo (we had a nice view of it from our hostel, etc.), with many minarets and tin domes that were designed based on then-contemporary Ottoman architecture (which is why it resembles the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul). We visited the Mosque (shoes off!), took some pictures, enjoyed the views of Cairo, and then walked a few miles from the Citadel, back down into the city to Al-Azhar Park.

The Al-Azhar Park was opened in 2005 and is the largest park in central Cairo. There are several waterfalls, lots of green grass, trees, flowers... kind of like a mini-Botanical Garden combined with a traditional park. The charge was only 5 LE (under $1), but that's enough to keep much of the dirt and trash out. I would say the Al-Azhar Park was the cleanest part of Cairo we saw. Better than that, however, was the food. We ate at the "Citadel View Restaurant" within the Park, which had a commanding view over both the park itself as well as the Citadel up on the cliffs. The food was pure delicious. We had one of the best hummus dishes I have ever had, with some type of wonderful Egyptian bread I had never seen before, and then for the main dish I had a baked chicken and rice casserole type of thing. It was essentially shredded white meat cooked into the rice. SO GOOD!

After that bliss we continued our walk... we left the park and headed into the chaos of Islamic Cairo. We walked to the Al-Azhar Mosque, founded in the 10th century (just two years after Cairo was made the capital of Arab Egypt), and in acting as a university, it is the second-oldest continuously running university in the world (after one in Morocco). Again, we walked through (shoes off!), took some pictures, and just enjoyed the beauty of the open courtyard.

From there we crossed the street and visited the Khan El-Khalili Market. The Market itself dates back to the 14th century, and you could spend days just looking around. Like most markets however, most of what they had was junk that you would never imagine yourself needing or buying, and most of the rest of it is overpriced tourist trap material. That said I did some successful bargaining bringing some initial prices down by about 75-85%. The problem I have is that you feel bad either way... either you haggle successfully, like I think I did, but then they make you feel like crap for taking away their big profit (and given that most of these people are quite poor, it's quite the guilt trip). Or, on the other hand, you accept that you aren't going to haggle it down, but then you feel like you got totally ripped off, which sucks too. I guess I'm just not much of a market person. In any case I got some souvenirs at a pretty reasonable price, we took some pictures, and then took a cab back to the hostel and called it an evening.

...Thursday was Alexandria day, Friday morning we were in Cairo, and Friday evening we flew back to London. I will post more about that soon, but for now I am off to a dinner with friends and introducing them to matzah!

Chag Sameach everybody - have a nice Seder and Pesach!

EGYPT

CAIRO, EGYPT - Greetings from the Nile Valley! I'm writing here from the hostel on the 10th floor over the Egyptian Museum, overlooking the longest river in the world and the Cairo Tower, among an obelisk and other monuments. It's 8pm and 75F... beautiful!

Not much time, but in short... our flight was delayed 5 hours, due to the plane we were using hitting a bunch of birds when landing at Heathrow before taking us on. Some of the birds went into an engine, so they had to do a thorough inspection and apparently that takes 3-4 hours, then to load up our luggage and board, etc... it ended up being 5. BUT, the flight itself was good - BMI has a good in-flight entertainment system, and I had a delicious spinich casserole for dinner. We ended up landing around 830pm last night, but the driver had my flight information and was standing right there. The airport was also REALLY nice - like, possibly the nicest airport I have seen in my life, totally spotless.

The drive into the city was crazy... traffic was insane, even at 9-10pm, and there are ZERO stoplights, stopsigns, lane deliniations... nothing. It reminds me of Mexico but at least three times as bad.

The building the hostel is in is garbage, but the hostel itself is VERY nice. It is only 2 years old and everything is spotless and new, and best of all, the people are very friendly and have been very helpful. We are also in a great location, and the view, as described, is wonderful!

Last night after a traditional Egyptian tea welcome, I slept pretty well... though the 5am call to prayer wakeup wasn't so much fun. Oh well! Reminds me of Jerusalem.

Today was a fun day... after our bread and hard-broiled egg breakfast, we headed out with our driver to the Giza Pyramids, then the Sakkara Necropolis (featuring the Step Pyramid), and the Dashur Necropolis (featuring the Red Pyramid and the Step Pyramid). After that we saw historical Memphis (the original capital of the Egyptian world), with a MASSIVE statue of Ramses and the second-biggest sphinx in Egypt (after the one at Giza). We saw many mummies, all kinds of hieroglyphics, tombs, went inside pyramids, hiked halfway up other pyramids, and spent a lot of time in the Sahara desert under the sun! From the pyramid complexes, which are all in the Sahara west of the Nile Valley, you can see clear across the green valley to the East Desert on the other side. To our west, the Sahara extends all the way to the Atlantic Ocean (as the largest desert in the world). To our east, the desert extends to the Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula, ultimately into the Negev in southern Israel.

After all our pyramids (and a 5 min stop at a random falafel stand where we got DELICIOUS hummos for the equivalent of about 40 cents), we headed back into town, and then this evening walked across the Nile from the hostel, had dinner on a river boat (halal chicken sandwich = wonderful), then walked back across the river on another bridge, and here I am!

Tomorrow we are off to the Egyptian Museum, Coptic Cairo, and Islamic Cairo, and then Thursday is Alexandria on the Mediterranean!

That is all for now - more stories and pictures later this week or this weekend.

Have a good week everybody!

On the road again...

LONDON, UK -- Next stop, Cairo!

End of Term!

BANKSIDE, LONDON, UK -- And just like that, the term is over. 10 weeks of classes, over. For that matter, all 20 weeks of classes are over. All that we have left is 4 weeks of revision classes in the summer term, which is April 26-May 17, plus two assessed essays due April 30 and May 7. Then, I have final exams on June 2, 3, 4, 10, and 22. Three exams in 48 hours will be fun, but at least everything is calm after that. After my last exam I'm taking a short trip to Wales, Ireland, N. Ireland, and Scotland, and then no later than July 7 I'll be touching down at O'Hare, just 3 1/2 months from now. Time flies.

In the meantime, I have had a productive last couple of weeks of classes. Nothing too exciting to speak of, but I have been keeping up on the walking to try and see as much as possible. Speaking of which, I had a delicious falafel wrap for lunch made fresh at Borough Market today. Everything in that market is amazing, there is just no other way about it. It is considered the best market in the UK, and there is a clear reason why! After lunch I walked to the Tower of London, and in doing so I walked right by the London Monument to the Great Fire of 1666. It was built the following year, in 1667, and is 202 feet tall, exactly 202 feet away from where the fire originated. It's only 2 pounds to climb all the way to the top, and while I was in a bit of a hurry today (and the weather wasn't that great anyway), I am excited to check it out with my camera sometime in the next few weeks while I have all this time off!

In sports, Chelsea has bowed out of the Champions League after losing 3-1 aggregate to Inter Milan last week. That said, they still are at the top of the table of the Premier League, though they have Manchester United and Arsenal right on their tails. Win out though, and the league is ours. In the FA Cup (the British Cup), Chelsea is in the semifinals for the whole tournament.

The Blackhawks have been subject to a firestorm of controversy the last few weeks. I'm not going to get into it, but the good news is that they won a big game last night 3-0 in Los Angeles, and now they have two big back-to-back away and then home games against Phoenix. As it stands, they're in 1st place in the Western Conference and would get the #1 seed if the playoffs started today. Three weeks till the real season begins!

I'm off to a friend's for her birthday celebration tonight... then off to Egypt first thing Monday morning!

Have a good weekend everyone!

What's with this weather?

LONDON, UK -- Seriously... we had not had two days of back-to-back sunshine since last November, and London decides to grace us with a week straight? I could get used to this! It has been in the low-40s and sunny for a full week now, and while I was busy with schoolwork and couldn't exactly take advantage of it for awhile, yesterday I did manage to spend some relaxing time outside.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to take a walk outside, for maybe an hour or so, and that walk turned into a 6-mile hike way out west on the Thames, past the Eye and Parliament, past the MI5 headquarters and even all the way to the MI6 headquarters. Then I finally started to get chilly, so I crossed the river at the Vauxhall Bridge, and stumbled upon one of the very few London museums I was interested in seeing that I had yet to visit, Tate Britain. It essentially is a combination of the National Gallery and Tate Modern, with all sorts of British art from the past 500 years. Like almost every museum in London, it was free, which is great, and I probably spent an hour or so walking through the galleries. After heading out of there, I walked through the Victoria Tower Gardens, which in my opinion might be the world's greatest location for a game of Ultimate Frisbee, past Westminster, and through the South Bank back to Southwark, where Bankside is located. Overall a nice long walk and it was nice to see some new places!

Today the sun is out again, so I'm thinking of taking another walk, though probably not that far out. I also need to get out and do some grocery shopping anyway. Tomorrow I am giving my little 3 minute dissertation proposal presentation which I'm sure will go well. This week should be relatively busy, but more for fun reasons than for crazy work-related reasons like last week. After class tomorrow I'm planning on booking all of the Italy hostels - should come out to 3 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence, and 2 nights in Naples. Just need to figure out what order to do that in and where to book, depending on prices and location and the room layouts, of course. After that, Thursday we are going to book our Italy rail passes and make reservations on certain trains, so we're guaranteed seats and yeah, that should be it as far as pre-trip bookings go! Also Friday we have a guest lecture for my Politics of Policy Advice class, but I'm not sure exactly what on (the National Audit Office, maybe?).

Other than that, Charity is back to London for work come late-March, so I will be excited to see her after I get back from Egypt. Speaking of Egypt, I set my budget after making an itinerary in the last few days. We'll see if this holds true, but for now hostels, immigration fees, trains, transportation to/from the airport and to/from the Pyramids, museum fees, and national park fees, plus breakfast each day (but not including lunch, dinner, souvenirs, or the flights to/from Egypt), the grand total comes to just $155 for the 5 days/4 nights. If that holds up, needless to say, I will be a very happy traveler!

Well, I am off for now - definitely will be back to watch the Blackhawks play Detroit in a few hours. It's a breakfast game at home - get up and turn on the TV! Finally a good time for me... prime time in London for the game. Here is hoping they play like "gorillas in a cage," like they did on Friday night against Vancouver (and as the Russians termed the Canadians after they were whooped out of the Olympics by them a couple of weeks back).

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!

Happy March!

LONDON, UK -- I am going to try and keep this short... Just wanted to say hello and wish everyone a Happy March! The days are getting longer, the sun is actually out on a semi-regular basis (as opposed to never), and who knows, maybe it will start to get warmer too.

Classes are going well - I have one more essay to write for Friday, and then one mock exam in a couple of weeks, but besides that I'm done with non-assessed work. The assessed work isn't due until April 30, so I have plenty of time between now and then. As a result, most of the focus these days is on the dissertation.

My advisor approved my dissertation topic, and I'm giving a short 3-4 min presentation on it this coming Monday. Hopefully it continues to go well and I get more green lights to start actually doing some research and framework argument plans. "Do Politicians Listen to Public Opinion? Lessons from the Copenhagen Climate Summit" is my topic, and so far I've come across a variety of well-conducted surveys to gage public opinion worldwide. Theory is pretty strong too, as that is what we went over in class. Plus, I was actually there in Copenhagen, so I have plenty of first-hand knowledge on what exactly happened and how it went wrong. Let me know if you have any advice!

The Olympics are over and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them for the last few weeks. Sad that Team USA lost to Canada in both the men's and women's hockey gold medal games, but seeing as they breathe and bleed the sport, and since they were at home, good for them and I'll take silver this time. Congratulations to Vancouver for hosting one heck of an extravaganza.

Blackhawks are back in action now... last night they really stunk up the joint, but I'm thinking they'll turn it around tonight at home. 20 games to go, and they're sitting in 2nd place with a comfortable lead, so steady play for the next month and then it's playoff time.

I'm off to Egypt in 2 1/2 weeks! Then Italy 2 1/2 weeks after that. Flights are booked for both, hostel for Egypt, and looking into the Italy railpass and hostels in Italy tomorrow and next week. Also looking at Amsterdam sometime in May, and Wales/Ireland/Northern Ireland sometime in late-June/early-July. Back home July 7 at the latest!

Have a great rest of your week everyone!