en route - London

Dear beloveds,

The great journey has begun. I'm writing to you all from the Heathrow airport in London, with less money and sleep than I started out with when I left O'Hare last night. While I very much hope for economic improvement for the Egyptians, I'm grateful that my wallet won't be gouged the way that Great Britain has already been doing here... $6 for a frappuccino. It was one of those "I know I won't respect myself in the morning" moments when I handed that over to the British Starbucks employees. 

I spent my last days in America celebrating our culture and great civilization the best way I know how: at the Mars Cheese Castle in Wisconsin, sampling cheese curds and chocolate cheese fudge with my sisters and brother-in-law. Oh yes. For those of you who haven't squeaked on a fresh cheese curd yet, you have not truly lived.

The true story is that I spent several days with my family in Wisconsin celebrating my father's promotion--the Mars Cheese Castle was just an added bonus on the way back home to Palatine. Oh, but what a bonus. It was also a chance to get back in touch with my 6th grade summer camp skills: my little sister and I decided to enjoy the beauties of Green Lake (deepest lake in the great state to the north) by renting a canoe for a half hour. What's so hard about a canoe? I've logged many hours on the contraption in my day. I had forgotten some of my fancier techniques, however, like how to turn the canoe around. It may be the case that as we left the dock, we may or may not have crashed into a nice speed boat that was anchored near the shore before we managed to start heading out into the lake. As fierce and independent Walters, though, we managed to look dignified throughout the entire crash-course operation. And we did brilliantly maneuver the lake after that, at least. 

Apples to Apples was played, mosquitos were accidently ingested, Sno-cones were consumed. All in all, not a bad way to wrap up my days in the ol' U.S. of A.  There were a few delays on my flight from Chicago to London, but I was able to drug myself to the point of not caring. I have another 5 hours or so to rest in the airport here, then it's off to the vibrant chaos of Cairo. 

In other news, I was just contacted by a language school in Cairo I had applied to back in February. They've offered me a position teaching English that would last from September to June. I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to all of that, but it's a tempting (and reassuring) offer. At least someone in Egypt thinks I'm hireable. Downside: only 30 vacation days a year. Now, that's quite a bit, but not nearly enough to do all of the travelling I have in mind. It might also keep me too busy to study Arabic as much as I need to. hmmm. I'll keep you all posted.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to mask the smell of travel funk by getting free perfume samples in the Duty Free store. 

For those of you looking for ways to keep track of me, I have 2 new bits of contact information.

Skype name: alissa.walter

Egyptian cell phone #: 0107870794. 

Easy for you: set up your own skype name. Then we can either A. talk to each other for free computer-to-computer. OR

B. For all of 2 cents a minute or so, you can buy skype credit and call my Egyptian cellphone off of your computer. Shows up like a local call for me. I can also do the reverse for you, and I have most of your cellphone numbers with me.

Just like I never left.

Please blow something up for me in honor of the 4th of July--I hate missing that holiday. It might be my favorite, if only for the Midwestern corn and small town fireworks displays.

Until next time, from Cairo...