Inititate the countdown...

33 days until WeFest. 38 until I'm back at Notre Dame. And, perhaps most importantly, just one month until I'm home sweet home in Breezy Point, Minnesota.

It's been a long five months, but believe it or not, my time in the Middle East is coming to a close. I won't use this post as an opportunity to share some cliche reflections and cheesy theories on life...but don't fret, I'm sure the time for all that will come at a later date.

So what exactly is this post about? In truth, not much has occurred over the past week, at least in the way of blog-worthy material. Fort the most part, my days of traveling are over (a trip to Alexandria may still be in order, and there's definitely more to see in Cairo itself). The novelty and peculiarity of Cairo and the Middle East itself has more or less worn off, at least to the point where I don't feel like sharing all of my daily observances over the internet. And the reality is that I'm quite busy and focused on my language program, a positive development but certainly one that doesn't provide a lot of fodder for intriguing blogposts.

Let's face it. I don't have much to write about, and you, probably enjoying a beautiful Midwestern summer, have much better things to do. So, I'll make this simple. Here's a brief round-up of the mention-worthy happenings of the past week and a half:

- I won 130 LE in a Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament.1st out of 10. I'd like to say it was all skill, but given the fact that I don't remember some significant stretches of it, I don't think that's the case.

-I'm reading the Brothers Karamazov. I'm 300 pages in. For some reason, I had braced myself for a work that I thought would be extremely dark, complex, and difficult to get through. I was expecting it to sacrifice storytelling for the sake of philosophical discourse. Instead, it's been an excellent and intriguing story thus far that has kept me highly interested...and Fyodor hasn't even been murdered yet! I'm sure once I've finished the book I'll want to return to the meaty bits and explore their meaning with a little more depth, but as for now, I'm just really interested in seeing what happens next.

- My interest in the World Cup more or less ended with the US team's defeat at the hands of Ghana last week. But it is worth mentioning that, despite my relative disinterest in soccer, I was pretty invested in how our national team performed. Thus, it isn't a huge surprise to note that I became very agitated when some Egyptians started heckling us after it became apparent the US was on the way out. Fortunately, an all out brawl then and there in the lobby of McDonald's was avoided, but probably just barely.

-Oh and last, but not least, Ms. Robin Soukup correctly identified the cost of the groceries purchased in last week's contest. 25 LE for 3 boxes of cereal and 10 packs of pasta? Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Congrats Rob! Hope you're looking forward to your tourist trinket!