Hi!

So here I am in Egypt. It's pretty exciting :) I got in with no problems, i somehow even got bumped up to first class so it was a verrrrry nice ride over. Complete with a fun stop in Switzerland and plently of Swiss chocolate purchases ;)

At the airport I was looking for the one lady Jennifer that i've been assigned to work with...and i found her along with two other girls my age that have been here since August. They are great and i'm so glad they are here. They live across the street from me, and then i will be living with Jennifer and another girl Jen (2 jens!) who is flying in next week. So really there will be the 5 of us, which should actually be pretty fun. Last night the four of us went out to dinner at a more "American" kind of restaurant (i'm kind of embarassed to admit my first Egyptian meal was a cheeseburger and fries, but oh well!) and then Kayla and Leslie (the two girls from Texas) and I went to get some coffee from a local coffee shop. The area here is really nice, there are a lot of westerners here. The city of Cairo itself is pretty dirty and crowded and chaotic...leaves much to be desired. But, it has a charm within itself and i'm sure that with time i will come to love it. Today we ventured out into the shopping centre, and I got some stuff I needed at the Cairo equivalent of Walmart. We also shopped for Christmas gifts for the 70 or so girls at the orphanage we will be working with. Tonight we're going to have a "wrapping party" at our apartment and just spend the night watching movies and wrapping all the gifts. Egyptians celebrate Christmas on January 7th (i think it's the 7th...) so we still have some time. There is also a major holiday coming up next week where lots of places shut down and everyone makes animal sacrifices. They say you can see the animal blood in the streets...hmm....i'll have to keep my eyes out for them!

Well that's the plan for today. Right now i'm in the girls apartment using their wireless, since the DSL at my/jen/jen's place hasn't been hooked up yet. Hopefully sometime this week. We'll see! Keep your fingers crossed. Apparently things are not timely here. Tomorrow we're going to go to the clinic and have the girls book club. The medical part of the clinic is closed this week in observance of all these holidays. Then we're having a Christmas party at our place for all the people that work at the clinic. I will start taking pictures...i didn't know i'd have wireless acess so i didn't really take a whole lot yet. Next post, i promise! I hope all is well with everyone back home...continue to write me - i love hearing from everyone! Pray that i don't get too homesick. Hopefully having such a great group of girls around me will help keep it at bay.

Love,
Nicole