A day at the Red Sea

Just what I have been needing these past two weeks! ISA (International Student Affairs) had arranged a trip to Ain Sokhna, which is this gorgeous place right on the Red Sea, with the Dome Marina Swiss Inn Resort, that has a private beach on the Red Sea, with dolphins that swim by three to four times a day! YES. ISA have been the group of people dealing with me and my lost wallet and frustration and sometimes breaking down and needing a good hug and a juice box, so it was nice to see them outside of the ISA office and all of us not worrying about that anymore now that it is mostly taken care of!

Despite the fact that I really disliked the idea of getting up at 6:50 am on a weekend to go do this trip, I think it was worth it. I was awake for most of the drive there (surprisingly only about two hours!), and when we were finally able to see our first glimpses of the Red Sea on the one side of the bus, everyone got excited! I bounced on my seat, because there were dolphins! Wild dolphins! I think that was my first time seeing wild dolphins, because from what I remember, whenever we tried to do a dolphin-watch when I was younger, someone got seasick or the weather wasn't the greatest. So I was really, really excited to see dolphins, and possibly get to swim near them. Or well... as near as possible. They are still wild dolphins, that can become territorial and defensive.

But these were also dolphins who swim by people pretty much every day, so they aren't completely wild, but they aren't tamed either. They've adjusted to human interaction and contact. They didn't stop, just swam on by - about three or four of them at any one time.

So we sat through some lectures about Street Harassment and Public Safety ( recaps of what we had already been talked about ) and the reward was four blissful hours of beach time! I didn't plan on spending most of it in the water, but I did. We all swam out pretty far, and Nick bought goggles. Smart decision, because when they were passed around and you put them on, you could see the coral reef and rocks underneath you and it was amazing to see that you were actually swimming several feet above fish!

Cat, Me, and Ross in the Red Sea

Our first order of business was swimming around in said water, to see how far we could get and what was underneath and what not. There weren't any waves (and no Mom, no sharks either. Sharks only go in the Red Sea when they get really really lost, like that penguin that ended up in New Zealand) just gentle rolling of the water... very calm. But there were sea urchins everywhere. It was quite difficult getting out of the water without stepping on any sea urchins, but I did it! We got out, and it was just about 3:00 PM which is when the dolphins swam by for the first time. A huge group of people had already been close enough to the area where they were going to swim through, and we had been looking at hermit crabs by the ramp and getting water to stick in plastic water bottles to take back. The lifeguard blew his whistle and shouted "DOLPHINS!" and I started bouncing up and down, gave my water bottle, camera and flip-flops to Ashley and swam the whole way back out again.

But I missed them by a few minutes. By the time I got out far enough, they were already past the resort. :( Though I was sad, it was still really cool to have been in the vicinity of them as they passed and to have gone swimming in the freaking Red Sea! And have free lunch and free dinner.

We hung out on the beach until dinner, and of course, after dinner in Egypt always comes a dance party when you're in groups. We were too tired to do anything, so our group sort of just sat at the table and entertained ourselves by talking and other various means (I filled glasses with water and tapped them with silverware to play music). 

And then the very long bus ride back. Three hours of a nice nap. I got back at 10:30 pm, roughly, and really did not want to wake up for class this morning. 

It was a really nice one day break from everything, and of course my brain is back to it's normal worrying about everything whether I can control it or not (like where my package is, or if my wallet issues are really done and over with) and also should be writing my religion paper. But still. It was a nice day at Ain Sokhna! Never in a million years did I ever think that I would get to swim in the Red Sea and see wild dolphins, and coral, and just be here. I suppose I should be thankful for that, at the very least, through all the homesickness!

My shells and various bits of coral I collected

Classic excited pose in front of the Red Sea!