Quick life update!

Me, my dad and my brother Peter in front of our Nile Cruise boat the Moon Goddess

While one might assume I have been hibernating while not updating my blog, it isn't true! In fact, I have been quite busy. December was filled with traveling and relaxing. My family (my mom, dad and Peter) came to visit me on December 18 for two weeks and we traveled to Upper Egypt on the infamous Nile Cruise to all the incredible Pharaonic sites and monuments from Aswan to Luxor and everything in between. The entire two weeks were great. Some moments that stick out in my head include when my brother's luggage didn't arrive before we left for the cruise so he now owns a couple pairs of Egyptian pants that our tour guide helped us find in Aswan. Shockingly, they look like regular pants! (re: sarcasm). We also had a lovely Christmas day at the Giza pyramids and the weather was perfect.
Here are a few pictures: 

Sunset on the Nile

Peter with a snake charmer on the way back from Fela Temple

High five at the pyramids!

Sipping tea at a cafe outside the historic Khan al Khalili

Probably my favorite part of the trip was Arab men's reaction to my father's mustache. After graduating from Catholic high school where facial hair (and fun, as my dad likes to say) is absolutely not tolerated, he began growing a mustache in a rebellious fashion. He has never shaved it since. One example of Egyptian men's reactions to his quite distinguished handlebar mustache was a day we all got in a taxi in Cairo. My dad sat in the front and my brother and I were in the back.  Unbeknownst to my father, for about the first 10 minutes the taxi driver kept stealing looks at my him with the biggest smile on his face. From the back I started to give him directions and he just replied.. shenib! (mustache!) with a huge smile staring at my dad with resounding approval. This was a pretty common reaction which gained him the nickname abu shenib, which in Arabic literally means father of the mustache. In Egypt (and often America now given the recent hipster wave of mustache support), cool mustache = instant street cred. 

Tahrir Square on January 25, 2012; source: english.al-akhbar.com

Since my vacation I have been busy studying Arabic and working mostly. Luckily, almost everyone has come back into town by now and students are back on campus so life finally feels back to normal.  Last week was particularly exciting because AUC employees got Wednesday, January 25 off for the anniversary of the Jan 25 Revolution which ironically coincides with Police Force Day. I spent the morning having a lovely brunch with my fellow Presidential Scholars and then headed downtown to check out the action. Unlike the protests in November which were replete with violence, the Jan 25 one-year anniversary was largely peaceful. Protesters still filled the entirety of Tahrir Square and demanded SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) hand over power to a civilian government.  Unfortunately I did not bring my camera, but the sight of all the people gathering in and around the Square was really incredible. 

As the second part of my first year in Egypt begins, so do more frequent updates to my blog. There is much to look forward to!