(no subject)
Ana, seventeen, and living in Cairo, Egypt.
This is my June 4th and my first ADIML, full of graduation rehearsals, long bus rides, and presidential speeches.
In true me fashion, this is sadly more than a month late. I hope you enjoy it, regardless!
I had to get up earlyish because our graduation rehearsal was moved.
Since this picture was taken I've stared at it several long times and realized that my curly bedhead is really not as bad as it could be.
Gotta be at school in an hour...
Since we were going to Cairo University I had to ditch my jeans and t-shirt for something a little nicer. Getting ready~.
Checked with my friend Tiana to see what she was wearing, I really want to be under or over dressed.
Time check! I've gotta be at school by 7:45!
Breakfast of champions. Or for people with sugar addictions. Like me.
And it's time to scoot!
I hopped in a taxi and trying to take this was... a little bit of an exercise. I didn't want him to see me taking it.
I got stopped and told to wait up by my friend Mike. He was looking sharp that day. [: C'mon, Mikey-boy.
Inside the gym, being briefed on graduation ceremony stuff by our principal and vice principal.
Leonardo the True-Blue-Italian looking pretty bored behind me. We basically just sat there for an hour and walked around to the traditional grad music. Blah.
After the rehearsal we get our invitations to the speech! We needed these to get inside cairo university, but we got to keep them, thankfully.
Time check when we get on the bus to head downtown!
On the bridge to downtown. that river right there is the Nile. ♥ They had guards and policemen lining the roads for MILES and everything was closed down, it was crazy.
When we got to the university, there were protesters outside, asking for the funding of Israeli war crimes to stop (there's a picture of their giant banner later.) The lady up front was holding out a supposed letter from Hamas to president obama or something like that. Honestly, they were way too quiet and we could hardly hear them.
We finally got through the LINES AND LINES of security and bag checks and proving our cameras and cellphones were actually cameras and cellphones, and onto Cairo University grounds. It's such a pretty place, really. (and there was one more bag check to go... and they took our water, too.)
Inside the auditorium! We were pretty high up, but mostly right in the center so it was still a really good view. On the floor were the dignitaries, anyway.
The ceiling was really gorgeous. I'm a bit of an architecture freak sometimes, and shiny stuff makes me happy, so of course I had to take a picture of it.
Fancy time check~. And we began our ridiculously long wait (around 3 hours). This is around 10:30am if it's difficult for you to make out.
There were tons of secret service and RSO guys walking around the stage and the floors, and we all got really excited every time one of them walked out of the curtain.
Got bored (there was a lot of this...), so a bunch of us girls trekked to the bathroom. After all, that's what girls do! I decided to take a picture of some flags apparently?
Back in our seats... We didn't know when the President would be showing up, so we decided not to risk another trip outside or anything. This is at 11am. We had just heard that he was showing up somewhere from 11am-3pm.
Anja is an artist~. Or just doodles random things in my handy-dandy notebook. OH, and we played MASH. Where you pick a number and go through and.... okay, yes, done being juvenile.
We start to get antsy now, because all the TV people arrived and started setting up their cameras/making sure everything was okay and they started spanning the crowd.
Then it turned 12:30.... a bunch of highschool seniors cooped up in a couple rows.... just... no.
A really official (even more so than the RSO guys) guy came out, and we thought he was going to announce the President. Instead, he just put the Presidential Seal on the podium. Oy vey.
And AGAIN! He didn't come and announce the President either, he just did around a billion sound/mic/podium checks in the span of a half hour.
Welcome to 1:00pm~...
At this point the day had gotten ridiculously long. A lot of people fell asleep, I know I dozed off in my chair for a while.
So when Obama actually appeared, we FREAKED out. Hilary Clinton had walked into the auditorium right before he came out and so all the attention was on her, despite me trying my hardest to catch Obama right as he came out of the curtain. I was a little late. :'3 Having someone yell "IS THAT HILARY CLINTON?" in your ear tends to make you jump and look. Sorry for the blurry! He was walking and I was whipping around to photograph him.
Hello to you, too, Mr. President!
This is even at 5x optical zoom, but my little camera could get just close enough. I really didn't think we were that far away until he came onto stage.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the front row there, the only one in tan in a sea of black (and red and white hats, haha). The journalist with the camera in the all white suit is right in front of her, just look down to the right.
Stole my friend Michelle's camera, which, obviously is infinitely better than my little Cybershot will ever hope to be!
I sort of stopped taking pictures during his speech and just sat and listened, but decided to take some while he waved goodbye to us. And then he was off to Germany/France for the D-Day memorial thing.
Getting OUTSIDE of Cairo University, however..... was a madhouse. Soooo many people, even though it didn't look like that many, and we had to wait for the President and Clinton to get out of there first.
We pass the protesters again. A few of my classmates went up there with them for a while as we waited for buses.
Still waiting for buses~! So we take some time for vanity and continued elation.
FINALLY back on the buses and everyone's exhausted and definitely overheated by then. I know I planned to take a nap on the way back.
Get back to school and I have to walk back home. It's so hot outside, too...
Road sweet road~. Thirteen dead end drive, I will indeed miss it when I move in a couple of days time.
Only 5:30 and this day has felt extremely long. But isn't that how it always goes?
An awful, awful snack. But hey, what's better than fresh bread and chocolate? My point exactly.
Time to check all my stuff, get some music playing, start uploading photos, etc.
I go pack up some of my room for stuff I'm going to be taking to London when I start college this fall. This is literally.... all I'm taking besides clothing.
Sorted through my bookshelf and odd things and stuffed toys. I've got a lot of junk...
Been packing and sorting for the past four hours, so thought it was time for another time check! Graduation was the next day so time for an early sleep.
..... my walls used to be so much more cluttered.... White spaces are so depressing.
Definitely time for sleep. And fell asleep before I could get another picture. Yay for exhausting days!
This is my June 4th and my first ADIML, full of graduation rehearsals, long bus rides, and presidential speeches.
In true me fashion, this is sadly more than a month late. I hope you enjoy it, regardless!
I had to get up earlyish because our graduation rehearsal was moved.
Since this picture was taken I've stared at it several long times and realized that my curly bedhead is really not as bad as it could be.
Gotta be at school in an hour...
Since we were going to Cairo University I had to ditch my jeans and t-shirt for something a little nicer. Getting ready~.
Checked with my friend Tiana to see what she was wearing, I really want to be under or over dressed.
Time check! I've gotta be at school by 7:45!
Breakfast of champions. Or for people with sugar addictions. Like me.
And it's time to scoot!
I hopped in a taxi and trying to take this was... a little bit of an exercise. I didn't want him to see me taking it.
I got stopped and told to wait up by my friend Mike. He was looking sharp that day. [: C'mon, Mikey-boy.
Inside the gym, being briefed on graduation ceremony stuff by our principal and vice principal.
Leonardo the True-Blue-Italian looking pretty bored behind me. We basically just sat there for an hour and walked around to the traditional grad music. Blah.
After the rehearsal we get our invitations to the speech! We needed these to get inside cairo university, but we got to keep them, thankfully.
Time check when we get on the bus to head downtown!
On the bridge to downtown. that river right there is the Nile. ♥ They had guards and policemen lining the roads for MILES and everything was closed down, it was crazy.
When we got to the university, there were protesters outside, asking for the funding of Israeli war crimes to stop (there's a picture of their giant banner later.) The lady up front was holding out a supposed letter from Hamas to president obama or something like that. Honestly, they were way too quiet and we could hardly hear them.
We finally got through the LINES AND LINES of security and bag checks and proving our cameras and cellphones were actually cameras and cellphones, and onto Cairo University grounds. It's such a pretty place, really. (and there was one more bag check to go... and they took our water, too.)
Inside the auditorium! We were pretty high up, but mostly right in the center so it was still a really good view. On the floor were the dignitaries, anyway.
The ceiling was really gorgeous. I'm a bit of an architecture freak sometimes, and shiny stuff makes me happy, so of course I had to take a picture of it.
Fancy time check~. And we began our ridiculously long wait (around 3 hours). This is around 10:30am if it's difficult for you to make out.
There were tons of secret service and RSO guys walking around the stage and the floors, and we all got really excited every time one of them walked out of the curtain.
Got bored (there was a lot of this...), so a bunch of us girls trekked to the bathroom. After all, that's what girls do! I decided to take a picture of some flags apparently?
Back in our seats... We didn't know when the President would be showing up, so we decided not to risk another trip outside or anything. This is at 11am. We had just heard that he was showing up somewhere from 11am-3pm.
Anja is an artist~. Or just doodles random things in my handy-dandy notebook. OH, and we played MASH. Where you pick a number and go through and.... okay, yes, done being juvenile.
We start to get antsy now, because all the TV people arrived and started setting up their cameras/making sure everything was okay and they started spanning the crowd.
Then it turned 12:30.... a bunch of highschool seniors cooped up in a couple rows.... just... no.
A really official (even more so than the RSO guys) guy came out, and we thought he was going to announce the President. Instead, he just put the Presidential Seal on the podium. Oy vey.
And AGAIN! He didn't come and announce the President either, he just did around a billion sound/mic/podium checks in the span of a half hour.
Welcome to 1:00pm~...
At this point the day had gotten ridiculously long. A lot of people fell asleep, I know I dozed off in my chair for a while.
So when Obama actually appeared, we FREAKED out. Hilary Clinton had walked into the auditorium right before he came out and so all the attention was on her, despite me trying my hardest to catch Obama right as he came out of the curtain. I was a little late. :'3 Having someone yell "IS THAT HILARY CLINTON?" in your ear tends to make you jump and look. Sorry for the blurry! He was walking and I was whipping around to photograph him.
Hello to you, too, Mr. President!
This is even at 5x optical zoom, but my little camera could get just close enough. I really didn't think we were that far away until he came onto stage.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the front row there, the only one in tan in a sea of black (and red and white hats, haha). The journalist with the camera in the all white suit is right in front of her, just look down to the right.
Stole my friend Michelle's camera, which, obviously is infinitely better than my little Cybershot will ever hope to be!
I sort of stopped taking pictures during his speech and just sat and listened, but decided to take some while he waved goodbye to us. And then he was off to Germany/France for the D-Day memorial thing.
Getting OUTSIDE of Cairo University, however..... was a madhouse. Soooo many people, even though it didn't look like that many, and we had to wait for the President and Clinton to get out of there first.
We pass the protesters again. A few of my classmates went up there with them for a while as we waited for buses.
Still waiting for buses~! So we take some time for vanity and continued elation.
FINALLY back on the buses and everyone's exhausted and definitely overheated by then. I know I planned to take a nap on the way back.
Get back to school and I have to walk back home. It's so hot outside, too...
Road sweet road~. Thirteen dead end drive, I will indeed miss it when I move in a couple of days time.
Only 5:30 and this day has felt extremely long. But isn't that how it always goes?
An awful, awful snack. But hey, what's better than fresh bread and chocolate? My point exactly.
Time to check all my stuff, get some music playing, start uploading photos, etc.
I go pack up some of my room for stuff I'm going to be taking to London when I start college this fall. This is literally.... all I'm taking besides clothing.
Sorted through my bookshelf and odd things and stuffed toys. I've got a lot of junk...
Been packing and sorting for the past four hours, so thought it was time for another time check! Graduation was the next day so time for an early sleep.
..... my walls used to be so much more cluttered.... White spaces are so depressing.
Definitely time for sleep. And fell asleep before I could get another picture. Yay for exhausting days!