Sokhna Weekend

This past weekend was an absolute blast! Michael, Manga, and I went out to Ein Sokhna with nine of our friends. We stayed at our friend's beach house which at the moment has no air conditioners as the place has just been renovated. However, once the house was aired out during the first night, it was very pleasant. Everyone did their own thing that mainly consisted of lounging around, eating, and the motivated ones forged their way to the beach. Manga naturally assumed that everyone had gathered to see her; thus, there was a great deal of petting and ball throwing for her. Unfortunately, there was no swimming since the beach does not allow dogs, but she still had a good time.

The first evening there were only six of us. We were all exhausted from the week so the evening was rather low key. Once the OFF had been sprayed to ward off any feasting insects, we settled into the garden for chatting and Pimms drinking. If any drink defines summer, it's that one. I think we managed to go through almost two bottles of the stuff. At about 1 in the morning we decided that resting, since we had been so active, and watching a movie was in order. Yet within ten minutes of the movie starting, all of us were asleep in the living room. Now, the house is huge with four bedrooms, three and a half baths, an almost finished kitchen, and an awesome garden. So, one would think that we could all spread out to disperse the heat some. Of course not! Michael and I fell asleep on this really long couch of which I kept scooting down to get more air. Another took up a king-size aerobed, two more, one with a blanket on, were crowded on a smaller couch, and the last was face flat into a lounge chair with a horrible movie blaring in the background. Needless to say, it was a very interesting sight when I woke up around 4. Oh and Manga was sound asleep directly under me on the floor. Around 5am, everyone manged to find more comfortable places to sleep.

Friday rolled around, and we were joined by five other people. Again, we spent most of the day relaxing and eventually, after some major pushing from of our friends, made it to the beach. Dinner was an adventure to KFC which by-the-way is way better here than in the states. Why, I have no idea, but it is. Then we played Big Taboo and some watched Star Academy. My team, naturally, won the game, but I have once again banned myself from those games. I'm way too competitive and take it way too seriously. So, I came out of retirement for this weekend but quickly realized that there was a reason for not playing. Those watching Star Academy were not happy with the results, yet nevertheless, the evening was fun. After the excitement of games, we did something different and relaxed by watching tv. That evening everyone found a different place to sleep although in the beginning it looked as though Thursday night's sleeping arrangement looked as though it would be repeated. Before I went to sleep, I learned something very valuable. Front doors can never be left open, but porch door can because people do not walk around the sides of houses to get inside. Even if there is a small path, it is invisible to the human eye, but not to dogs.

As I'm sure you can guess, Saturday progressed just like Friday. Except, I finished marking my exams! Manga was a bit tired on Saturday because she spent the entire night patrolling the house making sure that everyone was safe in their beds. So, now she is lounging about our house back in Cairo since she did her duty as a guard dog.

The weekend was fantastic, and we are very lucky to have such wonderful friends!