I was not made for winter weather. That is what I announce to my friends every time it starts snowing or the temperature falls below freezing. Most of them don’t believe me. If you want to point me out in a crowd it is possibly the easiest thing ever. Just look for the girl wearing three layers of clothing in the middle of October. I was talking to my family in Egypt recently and they were complaining about how cold it was.
“Oh it’s nine degrees,” they said. I agreed that that was cold. Until I realized that was in Celsius. After calculating in my head, which took a few minutes since I’m not the greatest at math, I realized that that was actually forty one degrees Fahrenheit. Forty one degrees??? I haven’t seen that number on a thermometer since November! Their aspect of cold is totally on a different spectrum than my view. When I was in Egypt I was in shorts and a t-shirt but my cousins were all wearing sweats and this was in the beginning of April but they still considered it “winter”. Does this make Egypt an ideal place for breaks and vacations? Yes.
If you decide to go to Egypt, please don’t be a typical American tourist. My uncle is a tour guide and I hear stories about every race and nationality. The Brits and the Italians are loads of fun and like to have a good time. Asian people are very stingy and speak loudly. Americans are the worst tourists of all. They complain, they make their tour guide run around and find things for them that are unnecessary, and lastly they are cheap. They tip very poorly and always look for discounts. That is what makes me shake my head.
Tour guides are just like waiters. They are paid little and make most of their money from the tips they receive for their services. If they do a bad job they get a lower tip than someone who did a good job. If you like a certain waiter then you rave on about the great service you had. This is where it differs from tour guides to waiters. If a tour guide does a good job then Americans thank them at the end of the trip, don’t tip, and go home without giving any references. I am a witness to the fact that my uncle’s other groups, that are usually British or Italian, tell their friends about him which is probably the one thing that is better than being tipped. This is something for us to keep in mind so that we can change the way America is viewed in other countries and so that we can show that we have better etiquette than our British cousins!
But, as long as we’re still here at home, hopefully we can get some warmer weather as we approach spring and do not have to worry weather the temperature is in Fahrenheit or Celsius.
