Disclaimer: If you need the valuable information stat, skip my ramblings and jump to the second part of this blog.

Did you know that oranges are winter fruits? I always assumed they were summer fruits, but since seasons are generally irrelevant to the supermarkets I frequented in America, I never really paid attention to the fact that fruits are, in fact, seasonal.

Well, I'm certainly paying attention now. Right now, we are having a "cool" season in Alexandria. Oranges, dates and bananas are readily available. I haven't seen plums in ages and mangos are available but very expensive. Buying fruits in Egypt is almost anachronistic. I feel like I jumped back in time 50 years and now small mom and pop stores actually exist. On my street, there are bakers, butchers and fruit sellers in small open shops and you have to visit each one individually to get the items you need for the day. Sometimes, you might need to go to the stores everyday and certainly more frequently than once a week in order to get your groceries. I'm not sure where I was going with this, but I don't think anybody ever told me that Egypt could be like this. It's different, but I like it. At any rate, if you need to go to a supermarket, there is always Carrefour which has so many imported items you'll feel right at home when you need to.

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We just spoke to the University of Michigan Flagship students and we promised them to give them a list of things that we wish we brought/are glad we brought.

Hair Bands/Hair Accessories/Clips--It's difficult to find good accessories here and if they are imported they are quite expensive/5 dollars for 10 hairbands etc.

Ear Plugs--Bring several. Egyptians have different sleeping schedules and depending on your neighborhood you might have weddings in the streets which can be loud.

Sunblock--lots of it!

Deodorant-bring a ton and buy the best quality you can get. I guarantee you won't regret splurging on deodorant

Tampons

If you take Birth Control Pills, bring the supplies with you. BCP is not sold to women who are not married. Welcome to Egypt!

A good pair of sunglasses

A hat

English books, movies just to keep you going when you miss the motherland

Bug Repellant

Lots of contact solution and several extra cases for your lenses

Copies of all your prescriptions/drugs/prescription number for your eyes

An extra pair of glasses

A laptop! If you don't own one, get a micro computer, but you NEED a computer if you want to be able to do work after 7 p.m. or talk to your family at some point.

Clothes--bring what you can here. Egyptian clothes are the same price as America and are not that great quality-wise.

The What to Wear/What Not to Wear post is coming up so stay tuned!

There are a million more things that we all wish that we had brought/are glad we brought and I invite my fellow flagship bloggers to post something they wish they brought. Yes, this post was incredibly easy to write, and I promise to write more involved stories when I'm not limited to only two hours of internet a day. Gripes and complaints about internet will be saved for another day.

By the way, I hope this does not happen to you, but my English has fallen apart. My friends and family think I am getting increasingly dumber studying Arabic because in my emails I confuse words such as through and threw, write in run-ons and can never remember how many e's are in consequently. I think I spelled it right this time, but who knows what will happen in the future. It doesn't help that I'm not fantastically articulate in Arabic. Just in case this happens to you, remember that your brain is currently reorganizing itself to deal with the incredible amount of knowledge you are gaining. You may forget how to spell certain words or forget certain words in English, but you my friend, are not dumb. Once you get back to America, your old skills will come back so take advantage of your time here and don't worry about the language that was our first love. Old flames never die. Well, that was a weird end to a weird blog. Here is to future weird and hopefully useful info!

-Saba