Becoming an Arab- an idiot's guide: Desert adventures on the border of Libya

After deciding to take a break from the big city we bought four tickets on an overnight bus to the Siwa Oasis- an amazing pharonic pre-islamic settlement made entirely of sand- imagine a hill made of caves fresh out of star wars. The bus journey was pretty surreal, having originally planned to plug in to my music and catch up on some rest, we were kept awake by a rowdy group of young egyptian men who had evidently never laid eyes upon a european female and took the opportunity to inspect our every feature, make themselves more than comfortable, heads on legs and all (and help themselves to two of Rosie's bottles of water). One of those pinch me moments. We've spent the day drinking tea and learning more aalmeya vocab (the colloquial dialect), but only the useful stuff: -
"I don't understand"
"3 sugars in my coffee"
"Piss off and leave me alone"
To set the scene currently, we're chilling on the cushions of a roof top internet cafe as the sun sets around us, the call to prayer echoing off of the hills, shisha and turkish coffee in hand. Man I love this country. Planning to stay here for 5 days or so, to spend the days refreshing our arabic before the course starts (due to the midday heat, it just stops you from expending unnecessary energy), camping in the desert, swimming in the hot and cold springs and eating our collective weight in falafel and fresh fruit. People are willing to give up their time to help you practice your arabic here out of pure hospitality, it's so refreshing in comparison to the big city vibe where there's always a commercial expectation. Pictures to come...