I am writing from Egypt and thought I’d start off the month with all of my friends and family, even if I won’t have a chance to post until I return to the states. Again, or for the very first time, I am writing from Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, which is a little old resort town on the Red Sea, and I am terribly homesick.
The place is, of course, beautiful. We are staying at the Hyatt and you can view pictures and the like on the internet at www.sharm.hyatt.com. Then you will know the kind of “hell” in which I am trapped.
But for those of you who are not willing to explore the place on your own, I will describe it for you. Imagine the desert. Stretches of sand for as far as the eye can see. In the distance are red mountains. There is only one road that runs through the entire city. And it isn’t until you step inside the lobby of the Hyatt that you can even see water. And there it lays, at the bottom of a perfectly manicured hill with several layers of pools and a waterslide – a field of blue that stretches out to the horizon: the Red Sea.
Apparently this place is really popular with divers and snorklers. We are right on a reef – which has already managed to cut up the bottom of my feet when we were swimming in the Red Sea (like high schoolers playing hookey) during the wee hours of Saturday morn.
Other than the water though, this place isn’t really on my list of things to do. There is no indigenous population of Sharm, everyone working here having been trucked in from outlaying villages and the like every morning. The whole city was built to cater to Western, particularly European, sensibilities and there isn’t much to do beyond visiting the local Hard Rock Café – which inexplicably becomes a night club late at night – and a few casinos and bars.
I have been amusing myself by learning a few words in Arabic and wandering around the resort. But that is honestly where the fun ends for me. I am still at work, and I still work with some of the most unenlightened men on the face of the planet. It’s not really because they’re terrible people, but they sure do know how to make a girl feel incredibly left out of the party. I am feeling a bit dissociated and all I want is my Vincent!
Maybe by the time I leave I will have sampled the fun of the on-site spa and health club, and perhaps snorkled, so then I will have more to speak at long length about. But, as it is, I am working midnight shifts, which are just as exciting as they sound, and I am still suffering from the two days of flying that it took to get here (yes, I left on Thursday and arrived on Saturday). I will have to get back to you on the excitement and enthusiasm.
So, without further ado, I take my leave. I curtsey, I blow kisses, and I pirouette off stage left…
