Still washing sand out of my hair!

Hey there! I got back from the Red Sea coast last night. I left on Friday morning and came back on Sunday night, and I think I spent about 24 of those hours riding buses. Makes for lots of boredom and a sore backside. But don't worry, I made up for it by walking many, many miles through deserts, wildernesses, and tiny towns! It was a cool opportunity for us to get to check out a little more of the country. It was super windy! I've posted a video at the bottom of this entry so you can hear just how windy it was. It almost knocked me over once or twice.

I just had a great skype call from some friends back home. Mike & Nikki, you're awesome!

Let's see, random assorted news . . . I'm learning how to play "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman on the guitar right now. I heard it at a friend's house the other day and decided I wanted to learn how to play it. I also saw a random spine in the middle of the street the other day. I had to do a double-take before I figured out what it was. I'm guessing an animal dragged it away from a butcher's shop, but it was still pretty surprising. We're learning how to make conditional clauses now in Arabic class. Stuff like, if I'd wanted to talk to you, I would have called you. (lau kunt Aiz atkallim mA'ik, kunt ittaSalt bik. Just in case you're curious!)

I just had two friends go back to the other States this last week. We came over at about the same time, and hung out a lot over the last six months or so. They were kind of like brothers. We were studying Arabic together, going through culture shock together, and doing lots of other stuff together. It feels kind of strange to have them gone. I'm still in the place where I go to pick up my phone and call them. Only, halfway through dialing the number I realize that they're not here any more. It's kind of a strange feeling. It's strange how close you can get to someone over such a short period of time. I think it's accelerated when you live overseas. Anyway . . .

I think that's most of the news for the moment. I'm still waiting for this video to load. So I'm probably going to hang out around the house for a little bit longer while that finishes, then go out and spend some time practicing my Arabic. Ooh, I think I might still have some olives in the fridge. I think I'll munch on those while I wait.