Back in Cairo

So, i had a fantabulous time with my family, albeit brief, but every second of the loong ass flight back was worth it! My mom, the best chef in the whole entire world, prepared a wonderfully delicious korean feast! I spent time with my preggers sister and bro-in-law and managed to coerce my lil sis into letting me sleeping in her bed - ah, jus like when we were kids! Couldn't have asked for a better homecoming! And...we had an early thanksgiving feast at chez yesawich (aka my older sis and bro-in-laws). It was more than i could ask for.

Well, as you may know my first stop in the states was in Lake Tahoe for a 5 day conference. I think touching down in San Fran for my layover into Reno was the first time in my entire 30 years of living as an American that I felt so frikin proud to be an American! I wanted to kiss every American I saw. Truly there is no other country in the world that comes close to the good ol' U.S. of frikin A!!!! Anyways, enough of that. So, i got back Wednesday late afternoon and settled into my hotel room. (btw, i finally got a room with a kitchnette - very nice) Didn't sleep until maybe 3AM. Set both my cell phone alarm and wake up call. Didn't hear either one. woke up to my phone ringing. picked up and my manager was on the other end. Needless to say, I didn't make it into work on Thursday. I was in and out of sleep all Thursday. Friday, I missed church but made it to the small dinner gathering for all the young adults/professionals in the congregation. It was nice. We had thanksgiving dinner. The villa where this shindig was at was amazing!!! i wish i took pictures. i now know how the other side, meaning the expats, live in egypt. well, on my way to the dinner i, of course, took a cab. as the taxi made its way thru the normal traffic of buses, pedestrians, donkey drawn carts, i began to feel sharp pains in my chest. it felt like someone was poking in between my ribs and at my heart with a chilled metal chopstick. i know, it wasn't a pleasant feeling. everytime i breathed in it got worse. i seriously thought i was having a mild heart attack or something. then i realized that it was nothing. just the normal effects of carbon monoxide, street littered with refuse, and other pleasantries that make up the great Cairo air that I so love to breathe and pollute my lungs with. Ah! what it feels like to be in Cairo again.