Hey Blog,

I hope you are all well!

I finally feel like I have some updates for you guys that are exciting! The first thing is my efforts in trying to balance my time here with my applications for law school has been quite a challenge but I have finally finished and submitted! This will hopefully free up some time for me to go explore more of the city in my downtime!

I also am happy to report I have been learning some Egyptian dishes to make when guests are over and I have perfected the Nescafe drink and the classic bean and tofu combination to serve up.

In completely other news I met up with some distant relatives recently and it was a really emotional experience for me as I didn’t think I would have the chance to see them as they live quite far, but they made the effort to come all the way to Cairo when they heard that I was in the country and we shared a meal together. It was a great day filled with a lot of storytelling, picture showing, hugs and laughter. I am really thankful I got to experience being around them as I often used to feel left out when growing up away from all of my cousins and relatives in Egypt.

In more exciting news, I went wedding dress shopping for my upcoming wedding in July! While I haven’t found the dress yet, I am really excited to keep searching as the styles here are very unique to the ones found in America and I have a feeling I will fall in love with one soon!

As far as the office life goes, I can say that everyone has been extremely kind and friendly and all the coworkers recently went out together to share a meal after work. While it was a casual outing it made me feel like we had finally become friends and I have been really enjoying the company.

On that note, while I would love to come on here and say it has been smooth sailing all around in reality the home sickness has started to hit a tad bit. The excitement of the newness of Egypt has worn off and now things like missing my fiance, my family, and major life events have left behind a sense of loneliness. I am thankful once more that Ilaria is here with me though as she makes me feel companionship and our support for one another makes all the difference.

One of the best things I have done thus far in Egypt, which I have chosen to save the best for last for, is serving in the local church every Monday and  Wednesday. My service consists of teaching English classes to underprivileged children and it brings me great joy as the children are kind and hilarious and truly in need.  To be a small part of the reason they get an education makes this trip feel so important to me and has made me look forward to the days I get to see them.

Until Next Time Blog,

Bye for Now,

Nardien Sadik