The Curse of Cairo Airport

Finally made it to Alexandria. Apparently I am cursed when it comes to traveling to and from Egypt. Not only was my flight late taking off in Germany, neither of my checked luggage pieces arrived, I couldn't find the man supposed to take me to Alex, and, well I guess those were the two major things...So basically, I was luggageless, phoneless, and alone in Cairo airport for 2 hours last night. I think it was really the last part that was the most scary...At least last summer when I was stuck in Cairo airport for an extra day and had to sleep in a Burger King I had Liz to take charge of things and Chris to provide comic relief through his sarcasm. This time, it was only me. Other passengers had their tour leader figure out the missing luggage information, but I had to take charge and use a combination of English and the little Amiyya that I could muster up (something about tiredness+stress doesn't lend itself to speaking Arabic...) to a) call someone, b) register my luggage as missing, and c) find my ride to Alex. So I, once again, asked random Egyptians to use their cell phones (just like good times, right? Oh last summer....) and called all the emergency contact numbers I had been given from Middlebury, but no one answered. At this point, I must have looked very upset because an old woman came up and gave me a hug and asked me what was wrong. After explaining things to her, she told me to stay in the line for lost luggage, and then she went looking for the Middlebury driver. She came back about 10 minutes later saying that she had found someone holding a sign for Middlebury, but he shook his head when she asked him if he was waiting for a student like myself. I really didn't know what to do at this point, so I left the luggage line, and went in search of him myself. I asked him in Arabic if he was supposed to be waiting for me, and this time he said yes (apparently he was confused and thought the old woman wanted a ride). So, finally at 9:30 pm (note: I was supposed to leave Cairo airport at 6:30 pm and had already been traveling for about 20 hours), after getting a tracking number for my lost luggage and being told that it would arrive the next day at 10 pm (in shah'allah), I left with him for Alexandria.

Next began the 3.5 hour car ride to Alex, punctuated by repeated phone calls from Khalid, Lizz, and Nehad who didn't know where I was and had apparently e-mailed my parents saying so. Everything eventually got figured out, and I got to the women's dorms at Alexandria University a little before 1 am this morning. A few other students also arrived about half an hour after I did, but I was exhausted and had already gone to bed at this point (after meeting my very friendly roommate, Habiba).

This morning, Nehad let the other late students and myself sleep in late and in about an hour we are going over to the center for lunch and to meet everyone.

All I can say is, there really just is something about Egypt...Or, when I think about my experiences last summer (lost luggage again, wallet incident, left behind snorkeling in the Red Sea, stuck in Cairo an extra day), maybe it's just me...

Of course, at the same time I'm happy to be here. Just very tireddddddd....