1 Day Until Egypt

Well, it has finally sunk in that in just 28 hours I will be boarding a plane for an 11 hour flight from Chicago to Istanbul, Turkey and then a 2 hour flight from Istanbul to Cairo, Egypt. I am definitely excited and not one bit nervous. I love flying and airports, which might be weird, but they are the best places for one of my mom's and my favorite hobbies.. people watching, of course! Packing has been quite overwhelming, but I think I'm finally ready to go. Now I just have to wait until tomorrow, drive to Iowa City to meet up with my friend Alex, and then drive to Chicago. So.. a lot of travel takes place before the real adventure begins. I can't wait for all of the great things we'll be doing and the amazing sites we'll be seeing in Egypt. I hope to keep on top of blogging as well as uploading many pictures so everyone can see what I see.

Tentative Agenda for the first day:
We will arrive in Cairo at 1:40 am on May 17 -- My 21st Birthday. Happy Birthday to me? Oh yeah!
Nap time is mandatory when we get to our hotel around 3 am. We will be staying Here! It looks pretty amazing!
Breakfast!! --my favorite meal (oh yeah, I'm thinkin I'll be posting about food a lot! And I'll probably post lots of pictures too.. because I like to take pictures of my food. I'm weird like that.)
Free afternoon! (For some much needed relaxation after many hours of travel)
4:00 PM Lecture: "Micro Financing and Poverty Alleviation." Ms. Shymaa Bedaiwe Allam, Senior Project Coordinator, Sanabel: Arab Network for Microfinance.

....And that's all that is on the agenda!

I'm sure we'll be doing much much more, and I can't wait to post about it! I also can't wait to find out what type of work I'll be doing for the 2 classes that this trip covers. (History and Religion) Whatever it is, it will be well worth it!

Wish me luck!
Tess

Can't wait to ride one of these bad boys!