الجمال - Beauty

al Gamaal - Beauty (not to be confused with al gamal - the camel)

Yesterday morning, I woke up to sheets of grey, chilly rain outside my dusty windows (free cleaning service!)  Deterred from the idea of going to class, I still got up, pulled on multiple layers (it's still freezing. How? Why?) and went to Islamic Studies. It's the first week after all, and classes are better this semester, by far, than they were in the Fall. Over the course of the afternoon, the rain decided to stop, the sun decided to come out, the temperature shot up, and then the rain would suddenly start and the cycle repeated itself three times. It's almost like Austin, Texas weather, eh? By the time sunset rolled around, I was in awe at the splendid colors in the sky, the clear air (CLEAR AIR. in EGYPT!) and the pleasant hum of activity outside my window. Egypt is beautiful, you just have to look harder for the beauty. A repetitive theme in my blog, but it bears saying. It doesn't spill out of every possible experience, like in France, where it seeps into you, and makes you feel more vibrant and more energetic, as if by some process of aesthetic osmosis. It's here in Egypt too, and when you stumble across moments of finding beauty, it's even more empowering, because you might have had to dig for it.

Travelling with the group to Luxor and Aswan (in south Egypt, or "upper Egypt") to visit ancient Pharaonic temples was a treat, and one full of beauty and little annoyances (like any good vacation). Our expedition was interrupted by a strike at the Nile river locks at Edfu (which prevented our cruise from arriving at its destination) and the gas shortages throughout all of upper Egypt (which resulted in a tense argument outside our tour bus when we strolled up, requested permission to cut the line so we could quickly get on our way, and were rightfully turned down, due to the line of patient yet upset drivers who had been queueing up for hours outside the station.) We also had some fabulous and some terrible tour guides, and arguments and disagreements about tipping and prices. But whenever we encountered such travel inconveniences, like the lock strike and the gas shortage, they were quickly solved to make sure we could continue with our tourism. As such, it was an interesting glance into just how deeply the Egyptian economy depends on tourism (whose levels continue to plummet), and just how intensely Egyptian society is aching for change. Sentiment in Upper Egypt doesn't always resonate with the spirit of Tahrir Square, but they want change too; the same changes Egyptians have been asking for since well before the 2011 Revolution. We experienced Luxor and Aswan as most foreigners do - with tour guides, police escorts, and people serving our every need along the way, with a little baqsheesh (tips) to ease the way. It was an odd experience, traipsing across ancient holy places, and then piling back into cozy buses, being instructed to ignore each and every souvenir peddler offering us cheap trinkets. 

The horrific deaths of close to 80 soccer fans in Port Said occurred on our last night in Aswan. Watching the Egyptians around us react to the disgusting news was saddening, and observing our waiter argue with the manager about who was to blame only underlined how complicated and uncertain life can be here. Who's on whose side anyway? is a question to which Egyptians want answers.

The temples were awesome, in the original meaning of the word. Awe-inspiring. A lot more pictures can be found in the facebook album I just posted, if you have particular interest:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101640932784420.3353641.7958266&type=1&l=163531ba8f

Immediately after the night train from Aswan to Cairo, myself and two others flew to France for the rest of the break. Two days after returning from Paris, in a fit of inspiration and embarassment and self-defense, I wrote out a journal entry to that country and language that I love. I was going to post it immediately but decided to save it and maybe just discard it. It felt wrong; seeing as I live in Egypt, and truly enjoy life here, why was I so excited about what was beautiful in France? (Also, I wanted to post it on Mardi Gras, as my own small commemoration of everyone's favorite French excuse for sugar gluttony, and that's NEXT Tuesday). As such, I've been meditating on what's beautiful in Egypt this past week. And there is a hell of a lot to be in awe of.

The short list:

These people that I study with.

Islamic art

Pollution's crazy effect on sunsets

Organic fruits and veggies, all the time, everywhere.

The ocean

The Nile

Hamster-head car seat covers

Ridiculously large and cheap fruit salads

Stella, birthdays, baklava, and kunefe

National pride in Tahrir Square

Random gardens alongside the Nile

Creative cemeteries behind closed doors

Creative cemeteries COMPOSED of closed doors

Places like this

Coptic churches

Sunsets AT Coptic churches

Storefronts with great diction

15-cent fava bean sandwiches

Being able to buy (almost) anything you want

Adorable (usually) cats. Everywhere. This is a mosque cat.

That inimitable beauty of an old yet well-kept mosque

The urban chaos and harmony that is Cairo

No fear of color, and a fondness for yellow

Parks like Al-Azhar

Interiors like this

Exteriors like this

Arabic numerals. Ramadan lanterns. Doors that look like that!

This great place in Garden City

Nescafé. Oh, there IS more to wake up for, and it's not nescafé, but powdered instant coffee substance, you are pretty great, I guess

Overlap of cultures and religions, all the time

Disregard for safety rules. Cross the street how you like!

Or steer the boat 10 of your friends are riding in!

Or pet this crocodile!

Plus way more. Das the short list, yo.

أسرة - Family

Uusra - family

January is so cold for so many reasons. Yeah, of course it's winter in most places, and it's an expensive month of reckoning for damage done at Christmas. But here especially, as the holiday season waned, memories of Greece chilled, and the test and final project season loomed, Alexandria just felt.... cold. My room catches wind through 3 of its windows that refuse to close all the way (Flagshippers, do any of you have windows that close all the way?), so my bed feels frigid at night and sleeping with 3 nestlé water bottles filled with hot water is just about the only way I can nod off. (I know, first world problems. At least I have that cozy room and the even cozier apartment.)

But the warmest of warm things came as a gift this month, a visit from family! Sarahsister  came to visit. (It's come to my attention that I often say "my sister" when I'm talking about one or the other, and forget to specify which. As such, some of my friends in the past have gone a long time thinking I had one uber multi-talented artistic and science-minded sibling, per the way I tend to rave about both of them like a grandmother. While this is could be true, I in fact have two. Sophiesister is the younger one) Sarah's on her way to South Africa and while it was still crazy getting tests done, and though I literally just typed and turned in a final paper without taking a second glance at it or even remotely checking the Arabic, it was a JOY to have her to play with for two weeks, and I think the tests all ended up fine. ma'alesh!

We explored places in Alexandria I'd been saving to savor with someone who also had never seen them (The Roman Catacombs, Pompey's Pillar, all of Montazah gardens) and ate a lot of fuul, falafel, and great Egyptian strawberries and tangerines ("faraaaawala and yuuuuusfi") like good Egyptian girls. (And like good budget-conscious Americans).

We rented a car to visit three Egyptian monasteries on a gorgeous, cloud-less day. The tour guide at one, who was present when I'd visited with the group the month prior, was so pleased to see a return visitor, he gave Sarah free medication for her swiftly developing cold, and gave us a bouquet of fresh basil as a token of friendship from the brothers. (He also chided us for not having the whole bible memorized. "You're Christians, aren't you? Why can't you recite it all?" Uuuuh, sorry kindly monk man, but we're not as incredible as you are at memorization, nor do we undertake 6 hours of bible study a day. Hmm.) We ate some of the basil leaves with fresh tomatoes and New Zealand cheddar cheese on the train to Cairo a few days later, and it was neat remembering where the basil had come from. We biked on the Corniche in the rain and tried a new bar and wandered a lot, and all in all, her presence made Egypt feel real and tangible and part of my actual world. Thanks for coming, Sarah.

We also had 3 gaaaaamed (awesome) days in Cairo, where we wandered in Old Cairo, Coptic Cairo, Garden City, Tahrir, Downtown, Al-azhar and some absolutely overwhelming markets, and of course made the obligatory expedition out to the Pyramids. We changed out our hotel after feeling incredibly insecure at our first one, and as we swiftly packed our bags to hightail it out of the first hostel (Lialy hostel in Talaat Harb, I don't recommend staying there!) and sort of skipped out into the street while I  called another place, hoping they had a spare room, I was deeply grateful that my sister was there. Sarah's a badass traveling buddy and there's no one else that I'd rather have had with me especially at that moment. We shared dinner with Kelsey, (who arrived that night to join us!) and celebrated our liberation from creepy hostel with jubilation, baba ganug, and many exclamations of "I'm so glad we just up and left!" Sarah, I can't wait for our siberian railroad adventure. Yalla bina. (let's go!)

Tomorrow our whole group leaves at THREETHIRTYINTHEMORNING to get to a train in Cairo that will insha'allah deliver us to Luxor, in upper (south) Egypt by early evening. We have a Nile Cruise for everyone in the group and we're STOKED. We'll visit the Valley of the Kings and lots of the famous temples in Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel. I'm also excited, and thankful, for the opportunity to go to Paris immediately after the trip, the ticket for which was mileage and a Christmas gift from my parents. I'll be staying with the family I worked for as an au pair, three years ago (THREE YEARS AGO, WHAT?) and get to go with two great friends from my group. Fellow Flagship friends go to France. Oui, oui, oui.

There's also a method to the travelling madness, and that's the thought that I don't know if I will live in Egypt long-term. Of course, I hardly know what's happening in the short-term future (do any of us, anyhow?), but in the spirit of entertaining the most far-fetched and delightful of my options, I'd like to keep the idea of working in France alive and well. Keep that middle and high school dream kicking. And that means not letting my rusty french completely atrophy. It's onlly 9 PM and I have to wake up in a few hours, so that's enough for now.

Sarahsister at sunset in Alazhar Park, Cairo

A protestor named Ahmed shows Sarah and I around a tent in Tahrir square, displaying photos of martyrs and battles from the days of the Revolution.

Bahari on a sightseeing day in Alexandria. I had saved up a personal day for this Sunday and every moment was SO WORTH IT.

A good example of my part of Alex, in the rain. Things get mucky.

Les pyramides!

Tents in Tahrir set up by protestors from Alexandria

Zack and I cycling the Corniche on a rainy day. See the storm ahead? The skies soon opened. Our ride was cut short :)

Our tour guide at the Coptic Saint Bishoy monastery. I honestly forget why I'm in a hole in the ceiling.

Ca-iro gets ca-rowded.

Al-Azhar mosque. Really stunning place, and we were free to walk about as we wanted, wherever, even as women! Very pleased.

إحتفالات - Celebrations

iHtifaalaat - Celebrations

This post risks making it sound like it's all fun and games in Egypt. Which I suppoooose 

it sort of is, aside from class. Life is fun here, amid the stress and annoyance, and for that, 

I'm grateful. (Example, while dead stuck in traffic today, when the taxi driver was eerily 

silent, I started counting the number of bumper stickers that made me laugh. 4 out of 

the next 5 I saw were pretty great. My favorites: "NO FRIENDS!" Also, "WOMEN!

 Up the power TIME!" I don't know what either mean.)

However, the daily routine of nescafé, homework, friends, Arabic practice, nescafé, 

repeat has been broken up more often than usual with parties and fun things this 

past month.

December and January, as they seem to be in so many places across the globe, are full

 of celebrations in Egypt. I was given the privilege to participate as a bridesmaid in 

Ghada's engagement party (congratulations Ghada and Gamal!) on December 10th. 

I hung out with her family for nearly the entire day, rode in the zefa (parade) of cars 

that swerves and speeds up and down the Corniche, honking all the while, and 

applauded with the hundreds of guests as the couple arrived to the historic venue in 

a boat. I'm afraid there might be a video somewhere of me as the only foreigner 

attempting Egyptian dance in the middle of the sparkly dance floor. 

There was also Christmas (duh), New Year's (duh) and not to mention my own 

personal freak-out moment/celebration in seat 5C of an Olympic airlines flight to 

Athens from Cairo, just before Christmas. On the way to a Christmas break trip

 shared between myself and five other American friends, I might have squealed, 

a little bit, when the plane took off. 

I enjoy Egypt, I really do. But like a difficult friend whom you still love, a little 

break from the pollution, the noise, the staring, the harassment, and the homework

 was much needed. Almost all the students in my program did, in fact, or at least

 took the opportunity to travel. The whole lot of Americans, all accustomed to 

long, American University-style Christmas breaks, grew notably restless as late

 December approached. As I stepped onto a bus from Alex to the Cairo airport,

 early in the morning, snagging my last cheap snacks (ain't gonna find no 30 

cent water bottles and 15 cent cookies in the crumbling European Union), 

I'll never forget the intense excitement I felt just to, well, LEAVE. 

Greece surpassed our expectations, and when some guests in our hostel 

lamented the dirtiness of the streets and the poor state of the economy,

 my travelling crew and I just nodded politely and listened, unimpressed. 

Coming from the often dirty streets of Egypt, and the often less-developed

 areas of Alexandria that we've grown fond of and used to, Athens was a 

shiny sort of wonderland. Greeks were exceedingly friendly, their food was 

simple and expertly done (grilled calamari, roasted pork, eggplant in myriad 

different ways, stuffed zucchini, spinach pies, beautiful salads, and warm 

red wine, among other tasty things).

My American sense of entitlement got a good shake to it when the Parthenon 

was closed on Christmas Eve, due to a strike. I had a 30-second moment of 

indignation and then we proceeded to have an incredible day, exploring an

 offbeat district called Gazi, descending a random staircase into an underground 

taverna, and spending two hours drinking good Greek wine and listening to 

good music. Roasted chestnuts, conversations in the street with Egyptians 

long-settled in Greece, tea and hypothetical questions during our freezing 

hostel evenings, metro rides in giddy moods, and shoe shopping on Ermou 

street are all things I'll never forget from that Christmas Eve. Christmas 

morning we exchanged white elephant gifts and my loot consisted of warm 

socks (NEEDED) and Greek dark chocolates (needed?) and a Christmas 

evening we hiked to the highest hill in Athens (actually NOT the Acropolis, 

weird, right?) to warm ourselves up.

All that said, I am finally truly glad to be back, though I was digging my 

heels on the way. Watching the sun set over the fields (cotton? wheat? 

watermelon? no idea) on the train from Cairo to Alex a week ago, drinking 

hot tea offered to me from a genial man with a drink cart (affordable drinks 

in every possible locale, i MISSED you), my heart felt full. Greece satisfied 

some of that ever present longing for something different; a new place. 

I have some energy to devote to Arabic again. I missed my neighborhood. 

I missed my classmates. Celebrating the New Year the following day with 

Egyptian and Flagship friends, I felt complete. It's weird that Egypt is home, but it is. 

 For New Year's in Egypt, people toss jars, bottles, and bags full of water 

or God knows what else out windows. Lord help those down below in 

the street, but it makes for a fun show if you're on a balcony. Not to mention 

the full-size fireworks lit from balconies and curbs all over the city. I've never 

seen such a panoramic fireworks show in my life. Sometimes, I adore places 

without intense American safety rules.

A final celebration of the past several weeks was my roommate Kelsey's

 24th birthday yesterday! Several of us put together a little surprise party 

for her and by God it  WORKED. She was actually surprised, it seems. 

Since when do surprise parties actually work?  Our director gave her a

 gag gift of a terribly scented perfume, which is indicative of how great 

our director is (truly) and the Greek café we tricked her into entering 

dated from 1900 and was  a dusty testament to the grandeur that was once 

more prevalent in old Alexandria.

Finally, last night, a small group of us went to a Coptic Christmas Eve 

service in Saint Mark's Cathedral. (Coptic service but in a Catholic cathedral? 

Can an Egyptian please explain that to me?) Imagine Gregorian chants in 

Arabic, in a cathedral that rivals anything you've seen in Europe, with near 

white walls. Gorgeous. Today is Christmas for the Copts, so really it's been 

just an extended Christmas season for us here. As they say, kull sina wa-intu tayyibeen!

This month holds a new lot of internship work, final exams and projects,

 a visit from my older SISTER (!!!) in two days, and at the end of the

 month a trip to Luxor and Aswan with the whole crew. I'll try to post once 

more before that trip! 

I hope all your own celebrations this past month were blessed and full and sweet.

No inset photos! Because I'm lazy! But here's a link to nearly 100 photos of our Greece trip:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101447210136160.3326339.7958266&type=1&l=6a79e5b07b

نجاح - Success

Success = NajaaH
Stupid teenagers = Muraaha'een ghubeeyeen

I'll probably regret this post tomorrow, but it bears typing.

Living here is never boring nor dissatisfying, and as I've said before, I'm usually either thrilled to be living in Egypt and in a state of giddy "Ican'tbelievetheUSgovernmentPAYSmetolearnthislanguage" bliss or in a moody state of "Ican'tbelieveIsignedupforayearorlifetimeofthis" annoyance. It's always always always more often the former, I swear, but in the middle of a fabulous run along the Corniche today, I almost lost it.

Exercise is not a huge value among Egyptians, it seems, and so running outside in public is often strange even when an Egyptian man is witnessed in the act. So I do understand how, culturally, it's odd when a foreign woman is jogging, even if she's clad in long sleeves and long black pants, as I always am. I get that. It's something unusual. Okay. But, my hair is tucked up tightly into a baseball cap, all my skin save for hands and neck are covered, and I try to get in no one's way. Usually my runs are great and nothing happens, other than a lot of whispers, the occasional catcall or hiss, and a lot of pretty hilarious "run, go, run!" "yallah! yallah!" and the occasional spat of applause which is actually nice and encouraging. It reminds me of that man who perches with his accordion and harmonica on the Austin hike and bike trail on Friday mornings and yells out encouragement to all who run by. He grew used to the sight of Megan and I on Friday mornings, and I welcomed the familiar calls he'd throw out between harmonica interludes.

But today, when three little teenaged whippersnappers decided to run alongside me, trying to trip me, hissing and yelling disgusting things, I grew annoyed. I decided to just ignore them, per the usual, as we are taught and advised to do. (I know, Jamie, and Maggie, and all the other wonderful feminists in my life, that that's just communicating that the behavior is alright, but seriously, the culture is broken in this respect, and my trying to do something about it isn't going to change the system, which for generations has NOT taught many of the young men respect for women, khaaaaalas).

I was content with just running and ignoring them, hoping they would grow bored, but when one reached up to grab my hat, while another threw a BIG rock at me, and the third reached to touch me, I surprised myself, whipped around on my right foot, feigned a backhand toward the little jerk who had his hand nearly around my ponytail, and screamed. The language that tumbled out of my mouth veered on hysterical, even though I wasn't actually losing it, I just wanted to startle them. In an exasperated, LOUD mix of somewhat incoherent Arabic and French, (I think my brain was pulling whatever it could think of from the 2nd language spot which does indeed exist deep down somewhere, according to my personal language expert and friend, Dylan) I shrieked various things like "what do you want from me? what do you want from me? you think this is funny? you think it's funny to do something dangerous like throw rocks at people's heads? You're disgusting, you're disgusting. Find something better to do." At first they laughed but as I sped up and made to grab them, and threatened one with a (tiny) rock myself, the tallest one started WHIMPERING and begged me to stop following, and started asking a passerby to help him. I am not kidding. A COMPLETE success and a total surprise to me as well.

So in short, today I scared an Egyptian jerk-in-training and I've never been happier. (And the run that I completed afterward was the sweetest and longest, yet!)

Lovin' Egypt, y'allllll.

متشكر - Grateful

Grateful, thankful ~ mutashakar

In Egypt as of late, there's been a whole lot of crazy going on. If you haven't seen the news, just open up NYTimes, CNN, Drudgereport (whatever floats your ideological boat), click on through to the Middle East page, and ta da, you'll find a smorgasbord of confusing tales of aging autocracies and police states committing atrocities against their citizens. In places like Yemen and Syria, the violence is often unthinkable. Places like Kuwait and Morocco are making changes, thankfully with less bloodshed. When the dust settles from the nightmare that's happening in Syria right now, it's going to be a bloody and impossible event to understand. Here in Egypt, Tahrir square in Cairo last week became the site of a renewed revolutionary spirit, carrying demands unfulfilled since January and February. Though united by a deep desire for positive change in their beloved Egypt , Egyptians' opinions on demonstrations, on who to elect to Parliament, or how to reach lasting transformation all differ considerably.

The closest I've gotten to a demonstration. See mom? No bullets! The yellow banner in the foreground is an advertisement for a Muslim Brotherhood funded and organized Eid celebration. 

Places where you'll hear politics discussed in Egypt : The nut roaster, the coffee roaster, the bakery, the falafel and ful joint, the public plaza in front of the library, over your forehead between two arguing coiffeurs busy threading your eyebrows, the juice bar, coffee shops, the newspaper vendors.... Yes, really truly anywhere, and people are excited, curious, nervous, apprehensive, and unsure about the future of Egypt. The term "silent majority" is the stupidest thing I've heard used to describe the millions of people in Egypt not expressing their opinions loudly in the press. Sure, maybe not in the press to a foreign journalist, but between their friends, families, and coworkers, favorite fruit-cart man, EVERYONE is talking! 

The elections Monday and Tuesday of this week went as calmly as could be hoped for, and a number of runoffs will take place this week. We've just learned that the Islamists, if one combines the the Salafist Noor Party and the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, have taken upwards of 60 or 65 percent of Parliamentary seats. Many of my friends and professors here are upset about that, not because they won, necessarily, but because these are the candidates who will be writing the constitution of the country in March. Yep, the constitution. Which will remain forever. Regardless of who is elected into power every four years. Forever. Such a constitution might include imposed restrictions on movies, clothing choices, tourism, etc... But I realize that the university population I speak with differs from the majority of Egypt, so many people will be pleased with the new Parliament. The majority of Egypt wants stability, ease in feeding their family, steady work, and a smoothly running society. The Justice and Freedom party and the Noor party have promised this and more. 

Egypt could look very different in the near future. Oh lordy.

Noor party (Salafist) campaign banner on my street. They be everywhere, yo.

But for now, it's an encouraging place. Here's a widely circulated picture of Alexandrians waiting in the rain for hours to cast their votes in the first free elections in Egypt since, well decades? Centuries? Ever? Opinions differ.

We celebrated Thanksgiving last Friday with upwards of 50 people, crowded into an apartment in Ibrahimiyeh. The food was random and delicious (an overwhelming assortment of Egyptian and American delights. Deep fried eggplant and cauliflower, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes of all sorts, turkey, chicken, meatballs, and an entire kitchen full of desserts. We ran out of surface space to place food.) I felt all warm and fuzzy and grateful, thankful, blessed to still be in Egypt. (Tuesday of last week, it wasn't clear if we'd be able to stay, and coming home that day felt honestly a little creepy, as all my familiar storekeepers and vendors told me to "go home, now!" No one knew what to expect concerning the demonstrations that were popping up throughout the city. In the end, the violence was very localized and occurred in two places in Alexandria. We enjoyed a few homebody days in pajamas, holed up in our apartments. My nescafé consumption doubled, and I learned that Twitter is a very dangerous way to follow news. I thought the whole city was going to explode in a shower of bullets and tear gas canisters during one particularly uneasy 2 AM hour. In the morning I saw that it was all smoke and mirrors and that I still had class at 9 AM.)

Prepping sweet potatoes and green beans with Kelsey and Laura, night before Thanksgiving. (OK, when American holidays occur and you're NOT in America, the holiday becomes even MORE important. Thus, many pictures.)

Robert (our resident director) made our turkey!

He also made some questionable decisions concerning the turkey's head, which wound up in the stuffing.

Turkey head before cooking on the right, and after cooking on the left. Sam found it. Sorry Sam.

Nada and her beautiful fattoush, Corey and his beautiful cornbread. All homemade!

Thank God for unfinished apartment rooftops, great for party overflow.

During the Thanksgiving feast (which we timed around the start of the marches so that we wouldn't get our little foreign selves in the way), we watched large demonstrations march down the street, seven floors below. We witnessed a particularly beautiful scene when the demonstrators stopped to pray and from open windows up and down the facade of the nearest apartment building, newspapers cascaded through the air. Egyptians in their homes were tossing out the papers, to give the praying demonstrators a clean surface upon which to pray (not a requirement but a much preferred way to pray in Islam.)

Our view from the roof.

Random joyful experiences of the past couple weeks include:

Sitting for coffee (which always comes with a brownie at this one place. Um, oui? très bien) next to the Corniche with a friend, in the beautiful midday winter weather of this Mediterranean city.

Accidentally stumbling into museum galleries underneath the famous library. The tiny yet carefully curated Anwar Sadat museum showcases his bloodstained clothes and Rolex from the day of his assassination, which is ew and impressive. At once.

Dance parties and trips to the Greek club in Ibrahimiyeh both do WONDERS by way of catharsis and stress relief. The Egyptian word for tension or stress is "tawater" and as fun and fulfilling as life often is here, I also often feel so wound up by the time I'm home from homework, pollution, or harassment, that it's sometimes almost a physical act of unfurling my tense little self. As such, it's important to take any chance to get rid of that tawater. As such, talking, coffeeing, strolling with my Egyptian friends, drinking Stella at the Greek Club, or working up a sweat to Jeremih at a dance party are all very, very good things, for which I am very, very grateful. 

It also helps that Alexandria can be downright beautiful. :)