Me sitting on a pyramid at Giza. I actually got to go inside this one.
Camels: big, smelly, hilarious creatures!
James and I "eating" in a tent thing. This is yet another meal in Egypt where more talking, picture taking and goofing around took place than actual eating. I think I almost wasted away.
This is me on a faluka (kind of like a sail boat for about 25 of us) on the Nile. I'm glad I didn't fall in because man is it nasty. The faluka ride was wonderful though, very relaxing.
This is some sweet pillars in the Karnak temple in Luxor, Egypt. I loved the pillar room!
Well there you have it! Some pictures from Egypt. It was a wonderful week there, but it was definitely good to be home again. The JC never looked better. Lets see, quick highlights from the week. We spent one night at a Kibbutz in Israel where they made us dinner and taught us to sing and dance. Every hotel had a pool, so we always spent time there after a hot day seeing the sites. We spent a day in Cairo at Giza looking at the pyramids and riding camels. We also went to Memphis and saw the first step pyramid ever built. The night train to Luxor was...lets just say an experience. The Valley of the Kings where we were able to see King Tuts tomb was pretty cool, as was the museum in Cairo where all of his stuff is. One whole floor of the museum was dedicated to Tut, and he was only a minor King! It makes me wonder what the major Pharaoh's had buried with them. Karnak and Luxor temples were pretty neat, as was my boat ride on the Nile. On the way back to Israel we stopped in the Sinai to hike. We had church late Saturday night and then some people attempted to sleep in the grossest hotel I've ever seen. We got up at 1:00 am so we could hike the mountain and watch the sunrise. I ended up not going to bed at all, but played UNO by the pool until wake up call. The hike was hard, but the sunrise was absolutely worth it. When we finally pulled into the Jerusalem Center at about 10:00 Sunday night I felt at home! I love Jerusalem and its clean water and cooler air.
One word pretty much sums up Egypt: sketchy. The food was the same at every meal and always a bit sketchy. The city was dirty and merchants pushy and demanding. The looks we girls constantly had from local guys, sketchy. Transportation, sketchy.
Funny moments from Egypt:
I almost got sold for several hundred camels to some random shopkeeper.
The horse/donkey drawn carts being driven down the freeway. Sometimes the people driving them would stop to sell right there on the side of the road.
Our tour guide saying "BYU bus one we are here" more than a million times each day in his classic Egyptian accent.
Our horse cart tipping over right in front of our eyes, but somehow we still got in.
Taxi drivers that only take us to their friend's shops, even if we don't want to go shopping.
The fact the Egypt as a whole smells (and tastes?) like camels.
I used so many different kinds of transportation on this trip: bus, taxi, walking, horse carriage, faluka, plane, swimming, train, camels.
Its so hard to decide what to tell you all about, but I hope this at least helps. I am having a wonderful time here. I went to Tel Aviv yesterday with a group of about twenty. We hung out at the beach the whole day, playing in the warm Mediterranean water, eating American style hamburgers, and watching the sun set in splendor. Today we took a class field trip and went spelunking! I was totally squished in the caves, but it was wonderful! Yesterday was the one month mark for me. I still wake up every morning amazed I am here. Everyone is constantly happy and smiling because we are each living our dreams in one way or another. I have learned more in the past month than I have in a very long time. Not just historical and cultural things either, but about myself, other people, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am constantly learning, and I only hope I will be able to remember it forever!
