Things I Have Learned in Egypt

The more that you read, the more things  you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

-Dr. Seuss

No matter how cool your clothes are and how much you fan yourself, you will be constantly sweating. It's hotter than heck there! In fact one of the days it was over 125 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know if you heard me, but it was 125 degrees of miserably hot weather! No matter how much water you drink you are still sluggish and dehydrated? (Future reference for those going, make sure you take electrolyte packets you can add to your water!)

Egyptian drivers are crazy! Half of them do not use headlights, road lines have no purpose, and traffic laws basically mean the same thing to them as telling a little kid not to have fun at Disneyland! Even after having spent several hours in a bus or car I am still not used to it! I certainly am glad I am back in the US with our traffic laws, and believe me I never thought I would say that!

Just by being from America Egyptians automatically love you and assume your name is Shakira! I don't know how many men we had tell us I love you or I have been waiting for you my entire life. We even had a few of them ask to be our boyfriend/husband and were disappointed to hear about our fake boyfriends we had back home. "Oh you boyfriend a very lucky man."

All of the staff at the hotels, restuarants, and sites were very helpful. Even when you are those two American women who lost their luggage (which we were referred to as) and need to use the phone or get a taxi out to the airport. I was amazed that even though I could tell that they were getting annoyed by us at times, they still were very helpful and always happy to "serve" us as they called it. They were such wonderful people!

Egyptians never sleep! Whether you are up at 3 am or 11 pm there is always people up and moving around. you could tell the signs of exhaustion on the reception committee's (they were the ones you went to if you had any kind of issue) faces, but they always greeted you with a smile and were happy to help. When I asked one of them if they ever slept he said, "Not too much, maybe from 5-10. We are too busy living our lives to spend lots of time sleeping!" Man what a great outlook. If I wasnt slightly addicted to naps that would be a great thing to pick up on.

Egypt time always late. If you're on time you're early and if you're late you're on time. The entire congress and tour things were constantly running late. It got to the point that us Americams would show up exactly when it was supposed to start and still be super early!

For those of y'all who aren't country or do not know what a steer blower look likes you probably won't get this so feel free to skip this one. The best way I can think to describe this is by simply saying... You might be country if the first thing you think about when you see the hair dryer is... steer blower!

To follow that up with... You might be a tourist when you compare all your egyptian experiences to Sex in the City 2! For those of y'all who have seen the movie you would be pleased to know there are several similarities to the movie!

While we are talking about being an American, I came to the conclusion on this trip that I am a spoiled brat from being raised in America. Some of the simple things we take for granted every day, others across the world don't have! It is really sad that I had to travel half way around the world to truly see how abundantly blessed I am. I am actually going to write a blog later on about some of the little things we realized we were truly greatful to have, so stay tuned. In the mean time take some time to thank God for all your many blessings today!

Sorry it is taking me so long to update the blogs, but unfortunately school has to come first!

Hope y'all are having a great week lovelies!

Happy Birthday Laker Lover

As if the title did not give it away, today is Laker Lover's big 23rd birthday! So in celebration of that I figured I would give y'all a 3 of her fun facts!

1. Anybody who knows Laker Lover knows that she LOVES, and when I say love I mean LOVES, Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers!

2. She has one of the most contagious laughs I have heard. You can't help but laugh along with her.

3. She has the best hair! It is always perfect and does whatever she tells it to. (Y'all go ahead and be jealous, I know I am.)

I hope you have a terrific birthday doll! Love you!

Hello Americans!

It sure has been awhile since I have talked to y'all, so hellooooo! If you are tuning in today looking for a recap on Egypt you are going to be slightly disappointed. I am just going to give y'all a quick rundown on some of the trip highlights.

I must say this trip was certainly an one of a kind, eye opening experience. I have never been to any where in the middle east so I was very excited for my trip! I set the expectation bar pretty high in my head before we even left the good 'ol USA!

Our first interesting experience happened in the Atlanta International Airport. As Miss Artesia and I were grabbing a quick bite to eat when I spotted a tall (first thing that caught my attention) man carrying a USA bag in a USA track suit. Immediately I thought how cool would that be if he was going to compete in the Olympics. Being the country girl that I am I decided the polite thing to do would be introduce myself simce i had been staring for a good 3 minutes or so. So after "slightly" stalking him across the food court, my short 5'3" self finally caught up with him. Sure enough I was staring at 6'9" Jeremy Scott from Norfolk, Nebraska!! Jeremy was on his was to London to compete in the pole vault. After a little chit chat I was going back to my seat feeling pretty good about myself. (Unfortunately, I did not realize in a short 24 hours this would all change.

After we arrived at our final destination we found out our bags were indeed missing! Awesome right?!? Well after 7 days we were finally able to get our luggage. Man what a relief! This topic is too big not to have its own blog so stay tuned for that!

The conference was such an amazing experience! We met so many wonderful pharmacy students from across the world and learned about pharmacy on so many different levels. I was fortunate enough to have been able to teach a workshop on Generation Rx during the Scientific Symposium. It was awesome to share one of my favorite projects with the entire world. You will hear more about all the events of congress on my upcoming blogs so keep on reading!

After our 10 day congress we went on a 10 day post congress tour! We figured we might only be in Egypt once so go BIG! Earlier in the year I gave a short rundown of the sites we would be seeing, you can check that out here. Even though the trip was slightly different than the plan it was still amazing! I cant even think of the right words to give justice to to the rich history I saw. Yall should definitely add that to your bucket list!, I will have pictures of the sites coming soon along with a rundown day by day.

Well all in all it was an amazing trip as I have mentioned numerous times. I apologize for this one being so long, but i just have so many great memories j am looking forward to sharing with yall! You can pretty much expect all the future blogs to be pretty lengthy so definteky grab a snack before you sit down to read them. There are certainly some funny stories in there. Oh and just fair warning my classes started back up the day we flew back go,w so bear with me if it takes awhile to get these blogs posted.

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!

We are back!

For those of y'all I do not have on facebook, we are home safe and sound! The trip was absolutely amazing and we have so many wonderful stories to share. Also, I started school the day I flew in so I will be slightly behind when adding my blogs about theses adventures. Please be patient with me and I will update blogs as they are wrote!

I hope y'all are all having a great week!