I began writing this during the trip, but never got around to finishing it. Here it is, finally.
This morning I awoke from deep sleep at precisely 7:20, but tried to drift back to sleep. Around 7:30 the
front desk gave the room a wake up call; but I wanted to go back to sleep and stay in bed all day. I finally dragged myself out of bed and started getting ready to for breakfast. My two roommates and I went down together and began digging into the pastries, fool, and fruit salad. The food was so delicious! I say this over and over…Arabs know how to cook! I walked out to the patio next to the dinning room and ordered an omelet and watched the chef fry the eggs. He flipped the egg up into the air and caught it again in the pan a few times before handing the steaming wonder to me on a plate. Cooking omelets is an impressive feat. We completed our hearty breakfast and prepared for the beach. I got over the stares and sticking out like a sore thumb in my one-piece and swam for a bit.
I waded in the water until the water finally lapped at my neck. The beach was many yards away and the people lounging below the palm frond umbrellas seemed so small and unrecognizable. As I walked through the water, my feet bumped against star fish and sand dollars. I would grab the sand dollars with my feet and bring them to the surface to see if they might be skeletons. I wanted to bring back one of the gigantic creatures’ skeletons. The sand dollars in the Red Sea are about four times as large as those found in the United States and the larger ones cover my entire hand.
Surprisingly, I began to get cold and walked back to the shore to lay on a padded lounge chair. I was there for no more than 10 minutes before I was completely dry and warm again. I grabbed a nearby plastic lawn chair and hiked into the water until the seat of the chair was covered. I pushed the chair into the sand in an attempt to anchor it against the waves and sat down to enjoy the cool water and hot sun. This was my chance to finally get the tan I did not seem to acquire during the summer. I enjoyed sitting and relaxing in the water and trying to balance myself against the waves. It was almost a game. The water and sunshine were so beautiful, I could have sat there all day! Unfortunately, we were leaving at 3 PM and the girls needed to line up for the shower. I left the beach around 1:30 so I could claim my spot in the shower line.
Soon we were piling in the bus on our way back to campus. I was so tired and had a horrible sunburn. I slept almost the entire way to campus. I was glad to have finally made some new friends and get off campus!
