As black as boot polish

It's a good thing I'm married, because I would never catch a Bengali husband at the rate my skin's tanning! The combination of beautiful hot sunny weather and the reflective properties of the water mean that my hands are four shades darker - I've had a ring on one hand since the beginning of the holiday and the skin is a totally different colour. It's quite cool.

All the people in the internet cafes seem to be having dodgy chats with foreign women on MSN - it's amazing what people will do in public! People have no shame. I went to a place in Cairo to get my medical elective papers signed and the man had the most disgusting sites in his history and had no qualms about me seeing them.

Anyway, Dahab has been good fun, though I do feel guilty reading poor Bikey's blog - hopefully we'll be spending a lot more time with her after we finish our scuba diving course tomorrow. For some reason, even though I will hardly ever get the opportunity to dive after this, and certainly would never be brave enough to do it without a guide, I have become obsessed with getting my PADI Open Water Diver qualification. Reason tells me it is pointless, but I still keep thinking of ways in which I can create the time to do the necessary lessons...I don't think it's going to happen though. Yesterday we had a not-so-good instructor, resulting in a miserable day. Firstly she got us in our wetsuits about an hour and a half before we got into the water, so we were both sweltering. We absolutely couldn't lift our weights or tanks, and our equipment kept going wrong, and then to put the icing on the cake I ended up bashing the poor Cow with my air tank and giving her a nasty nose bleed. We decided it would be fun to give Bikey and Mr C a scare, and were contemplating whether to take her blood stained towel back and just say that she had met with an accident, but then we decided it would be kinder just to ring and tell them. She's ok now, and I'm sure she will give her own version of events in due course.

Today was a million times better, a much nicer and more enthusiastic (and English not American like the previous one - call me a xenophobe!) who was also very thorough. We avoided all the mistakes of the previous day and both ended up having a great time in the water. This is in spite of my ears - the first time I went diving they wouldn't pop and the pressure was building up to the point that it was causing me severe pain..we haven't done any 'Open Water' dives yet, i.e. in deep water, so we'll have to see how I do.

In our last two days we will be doing 3 dives, kayaking, a camel safari, snorkelling and quadbiking! I think I'll be 'all funned out' as the Cow would say, and just about ready to get down to some studying.

Do Not Bend

I'm having a great time in Dahab. The weather's beautiful, staying in a gorgeous hotel and with good company. The Cow and I went diving yesterday - only an introductory dive but it was definitely an interesting experience, if not pure unalloyed joy to begin with. Having recklessly committed ourselves, we donned our wetsuits (wrapping something round for modesty) and then put on a hood - a loathsome fishy smelling object which is apparently easier to put on when wet. Then one at a time, we took the plunge with our instructor. She didn't seem to believe in taking things slowly. The first time we went under was a bit stressful - I didn't feel like I was sucking in enough water, and also my ears weren't 'equalising' - so the pressure as we went further down was getting painful..eventually I had a panic and started flailing about and pointing to the distant surface, and she slowly led me back up - if you go to fast you end up having bubbles of gas in your bloodstream, i.e. the bends. After a minute of calming down and deep breaths, we went back under, and despite ear pain it became more fun. I saw schools of bright blue fish, stripey black and yellow fish and coral reefs. The Cow wants to go off and ride bikes now, so will continue later.

Nubian country

It's been a long time since I blogged, chiefly because I have been too busy entertaining and being entertained :) We are currently in Aswan, the last stop on a river cruise of Luxor, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Aswan. One would imagine that a Nile cruise would be a relaxed, leisurely trip, but each day we've been woken up at 6 or 7am for our sightseeing tours, which doesn't suit me too well. Otherwise, the weather has been great, our rooms were good, the food delicious, and our only objection was being exiled from the deck at times due to inconsiderate under-clothed Europeans.

I discovered that I have a violent allergic reaction to horses when we rode around the pyramids in Giza. It was an unpleasant experience, particularly because my eyelids swelled up and the whites of my eyes turned red..unfortunately at Edfu there was no avoiding the horses as the only way to get to the Temple of Horus was by horse and carriage (or caleche as its called here), giving me some breathing problems for the rest of the day. Sadly, this means I won't be able to join Bikey and the Cow when they go horse riding in Dahab.

We have been turned out of our cruise ship this morning and won't be catching a train until 9.30pm so Mr C has gone for a caleche ride and a visit to the Nubian Museum with Amma (his mum) while I have been getting ripped off in the bazaar and blogging. The felucca rides on the Nile are amazing - the scenery all along the river has been beautiful and a welcome change from the dusty grime of Cairo. It feels like you're in a Famous Five adventure - going off to Kirrin Island or something! You can actually spend 2 or 3 nights in a Felucca doing a proper boat trip, sleeping on deck under the stars etc, but it's a bit difficult logistically with hijab, besides being quite cold and uncomfortable from what I can gather.

I am definitely all Templed out now - i think we've been to five or six in the past four days..although it is amazing that all these buildings have survived for so long. After they built the second dam in Aswan they physically moved six or seven temples to different places as they would have been completely submerged otherwise. When you see them though, you absolutely can't imagine how on earth such huge monuments could have been moved.

I will blog pictures of my bloodshot eyes and the temples etc when we get back to Cairo. I'm going to search the internet for a copy of Death on the Nile now - can you believe it can't be found here? Cheerio.

Mayday job

I found out yesterday morning, that I have in fact got a job, at Mayday Hospital in Croydon. This was after spending ages trying to find out the night before, only to have the site repeatedly crash on me. It was closed down completely after that, citing 'heavy traffic' as the reason, even though there are only a finite number of us medical students, and as far as I can gather, you can predict bandwidth on websites and avoid this kind of fiasco.

Anyway, the job seems fairly satisfactory, as it's at the closest hospital to the house and is supposed to be a decent hospital. It comprises three rotations which are four months long each : Medicine (Rheumatology), E/ Care 2 (I can only assume this is Emergency or Elderly or Early care), and Surgery (Vascular). Although I spent some time on a vascular surgery firm I don't remember much about it, other than a lecture on obstruction by a spiky haired girl. It's a little alarming to actually have a job, because now I have to face the reality of being a Doctor, as compared to a Medical Student. I also have to face up to the fact that I have exams in a mere 95 days...

We went to City Stars Mall yesterday, to watch Narnia and have a celebratory meal. I've seen Narnia before but Bikey and Mr C hadn't so they quite enjoyed it. I was excited to see that they are, in fact, going to be showing Memoirs of a Geisha as I have been dying to see it..the book was so beautiful, and the film looks fantastic too. We ate at a Chinese place last night and also finally got to taste Cinnabons - or rather Chocolate ones, as we just chose the biggest and juiciest looking Cinnabon and it was really a chocolate version. It was tasty, especially when it was fresh and warm, but I'm quite glad they're not available in England..each Cinnabon contains 34 grams of fat! Not to mention 670 calories..that is very scary.

Last night, Mr C and I were watching a random Arab channel, when an interview came on with a Sheikh speaking in the most beautiful clear Fusha Arabic ever. Well, it was supposed to be an interview, but the guy basically turned it into a khutbah. I have never in my life seen anyone speak like that about Islam. He would have been an incredibly gifted actor - the lilting tones of his voice, the facial expressions, by turns sorrowful, hopeful, encouraging, and sincere... it was true drama and we were riveted, despite not understanding a great deal of what was said. What made it especially cool (and kind of funny) was that the interviewer was forced to sit there through his speech, trying to get a question in here and there when he paused for breath. It turns out that he is actually the Grand Mufti of Aleppo in Syria, Dr Ahmed Hassoun. If you ever get the chance to see him (I think we were watching Manar) then do, you're in for a treat. This is the best picture I could find.

Anyway, I've been thinking of going to the AUSSS International Congress for a while, but logistically its proving to be a problem. It's basically a conference for medical students from all around the world. It's quite a swanky affair for a medical student thing, and as its all subsidised by sponsorship you get to stay at a 5* Hotel on the Nile and go to presentation dinners and workshops etc for a very reasonable price. It's four days long (12-15 Feb) and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are coming on the 13th night. I may just go to the opening ceremony stay the night (if possible) and go to the day's conference, before coming home to tidy and cook before they arrive. There are some interesting sounding evening events, but I suspect that they are a bit dodgy what with dancing and so on, so I don't think I'll be missing too much.

I haven't commented on the cartoon ruckus yet, but I don't think I have much to add to the debate other than the World has Gone Mad.

Waiting for Gumah

Gumah, who collects the rent for our flat, came round on Sunday while I was out. The rent wasn't due until yesterday, so Mr C sent him away again, saying we didn't have the money and to come back later. We had decided long before, that we were going to subtract the cost of the heaters from the rent and put up a good fight to make sure they didn't con us out of our money. After all, it's ridiculous to expect people to live in a freezing cold flat with no heating, after Gumah had told Bikey that the air conditioners in each room gave out heat too, but he just didn't know how to work them.

Duly, yesterday, we arranged for Gumah to come at 7pm. Mr C had gone to pray, so when he arrived it was myself and Bikey at the helm, with Bikey playing the starring role, as an all-'Ammiyah-speaking gal who knows how to talk tough to the locals. To understand the ensuing argument, you need to know that our rent is 2400 Egyptian pounds, our heaters cost 300, and we wanted to pay 2000 (including costs such as electrician and plumber and having to buy stuff around the house). Bikey told Gumah that we would only pay 2000 and started outlining her reasons. He in turn, threatened to chuck us out if we refused to pay the extra 400 ('Someone would take the flat tomorrow if we rented it') The atmosphere during the scene, played out at our front door, Gumah and friend without, Bikey and I within, was becoming rather strained when Gumah's friend pipes up in a stage whisper "Where are they from?". Gumah, stopping short says "I don't know..where are you from?" to which Bikey replies with a hostile "Leih?" (Read: Why the hell should I tell you?)

We agreed to disagree and take the matter to the landlady, who hitherto we had supposed was languishing in a hospital bed (as we had been told only that day by Gumah, the wily rogue). After a false start, in which Gumah made us walk all the way to her house only to find she was busy and couldn't see us until 10, we returned. Skipping past Gumah's shack and evading his small son who asked if we wanted his Baba ("No!") we went up to the landlady's flat. Ironically, it was very cosily heated. A polite but determined discussion then took place between Bikey and AlHaggah, as she is known. Neither party was prepared to accept a change in their terms and for 40 minutes it was a stalemate. The Haggah blamed Bikey for getting the flat without knowing about the heating, and we all blamed Gumah for misleading us on that point. Eventually, she agreed to reducing the rent by 100, and we grudgingly had to accept (as she had threatened to simply take it out of our deposit anyway). After this, we were offered cups of tea, which we accepted out of politeness, and then burnt ourselves trying to finish in a hurry so we could leave.

Anyway, much qudos to Bikey for her efforts yesterday, particularly for standing up to the formidable Gumah. She is one tough cookie.

I've started the undergraduate chest medicine course at Ain Shams, which involves sitting in a lecture hall with 40-50 other medical students listening to lectures in Egyptian 'ammiyah. The lectures are easier to understand than you might think (although still requiring concentration), as a typical sentence goes something like this: 'alauscultation walpercussion muhimm giddan giddan, fe bronchial breathing mithl auscultation of the trachea'..and so on. As far as I understood, medics are taught in English, but I haven't noticed that to be the case as yet.

The second day, a patient hopped on a bed at the front of the lecture hall and was examined, a few students at a time, by the entire lecture hall full of students! He took it very well considering the circumstances. The doctor giving the lecture did speak about respect for the patient, which is the first time I've heard anyone mention such a concept in all my time in Egypt. Also, I was told that all the students - all 40 or 50!- go on the ward round together! That must be a sight to behold..if I was a patient I'd be terrified.

I have been baking up a storm in cinnamon buns, thanks to Mona, who lent me her baking kit. The first lot were not great, as I used a different recipe to my usual one, the second and third were better, but they always taste best straight out of the oven rather than later on, especially when you don't have a microwave. I think I'm all cinnamon bunned out now though. I've also been looking at food blogs - this one is absolutely beautiful and has won an award for Best Photography in the 2005 Food Blog Awards.