I almost forgot to congratulate myself for not touching the hookah, or the shisha, the entire time I was in Egypt. I quit smoking in May of 2004 so I was a bit nervous about going to Egypt considering the prevalence of tobacco smoking, particularly using the hookah. It was especially hard considering that I never smoked tobacco from a hookah before so I really wanted to try it. I thought of many reasons why it would be ok but in the end I realized that it would not be. There were a couple of times while sitting with people who were smoking that I was extremely tempted to say the least. At one point I even asked someone to blow the smoke in my face so I could smell it. Ah, how I wanted to try it. I am not quite sure which part of my brain prevailed but I withstood the temptation and can now say that it has been 1 year, 10 months, and 21 days since I have been tobacco-free.