Egypt on Film Part 1

I got to visit Egypt with a friend in the summer of 2022, and I feel so grateful that I was able to see it for the first time this way, with a friend, with someone who grew up there.

That said, I didn't make the getting there easy on myself. I left it pretty last minute to buy my plane tickets, and by the time I got around to it they were more expensive than I had anticipated, so I had to get creative. An early morning flight to Rome, a too long layover, and then the second leg to Cairo. Did I mention I worked the night before I flew, and pretty much went straight to the airport? By the time I landed in Cairo, it had been 30 hours since I last slept. She picked me up from the airport and we continued our journey to the North Coast, over 100km West of Alexandria, five hours drive from Cairo, where we would be staying for the first part of our trip. I later learned that not many tourists visit this area, once getting questioned in a bathroom, "how are you here?", and though I couldn't understand a lot of the conversations, and it took a few days to get my sleep schedule back to normal, and I was constantly applying sunscreen so I wouldn't be the lobster Canadian, I loved it.

It was here, on the North Coast of Egypt, where the Mediterranean Sea was like bath water and I didn't see a single cloud once, where I first tried wakeboarding. I always get this very specific type of anxiety when I'm trying new things, when I don't know if any of my previous life experiences will have taught me the skills I need to pick this up quickly. Whether it's conducting an interview, re-forcasting a budget, making dinner for some friends, or wakeboarding, it's always that same feeling. That feeling is definitely made worse if I'm being watched, but it wasn't as strong this time, and I've noticed lately that it's not quite as overwhelming, maybe I'm growing? Even still, I spent the first hour on the boat studying everyone else who went before me, taking in all the instructions that were given, the stories of where things had gone wrong, doing everything I could to make sure I didn't end up landing face first, giving the salt water quick and direct access to my brain through my nose. In the end, as it usually is, it was all fine. I got up on my first try, and fell down a few times after that, but I was proud of myself, and as a reward I discovered some new ways that muscles could hurt, and for days after was reminded of that day on the boat every time I sat down, got up, walked, or used any of my limbs.