The Last adventures here in Cairo

Hello everyone who reads this... I am sorry to say that this might be the last time I enter anything on the blog... I leave Cairo this Thursday, so my adventures pretty much ended today, now I have to pack up and make sure that I have everything (Including the large number of presents for everyone I know!!!)

What have I done since I last updated this, I have gone and seen Coptic Cairo, for those of you who dont know, Coptic Cairo is the area of Cairo that is filled with the oldest Coptic Churches. Coptic Christianity is very similar to Greek Orthodox Christianity, but it is called Coptic because that is the word that they gave to it... I really dont know much about why it is called thus, but it just is, and so I went to see all the pretty churches that they have here in Cairo... The most famous church in Coptic Cairo is called the Hanging Church, because part of the church is built over the old Roman Fortress, and they actually show how part of the church is literally hanging over the Roman Fort, but it was so beautiful on the Inside, as well as outside of it... After the Hanging Church we adventured around to find the Church of Saint George, the Church of Saint Sergius, as well as the only old Synagogue in Cairo called Ben Ezra, all of these churches and Synagogue were beautiful on the inside, and all of them had beautiful inlaid wood work that was just amazing to look at, and admire...

After Coptic Cairo I taught my last class for the NGO that I was helping out while I was here... they were amazing, and I could not have asked for a better group of Students to teach... They wanted to know so much about me, as well as they wanted to know about where I live, and why I choose Egypt, they are a great bunch, and some of them told me they would miss me! It was enough to make me feel all warm inside!!! :-)

Today I made it, FINALLY, to the Pyramids!!! I told you I would make it, I just needed the end of my trip to happen to finally get me to go there... haha... but they were interesting, and worth seeing... But I hate to tell you guys this, but the Sphinx is soooo tiny, you always expect this HUGE thing, but it was soo small, and almost unimpressive... but I saw him, as well as the Three pyramids, the mini-pyramids of the Queens, AND I RODE A CAMEL... yeah that what I said, I rode a camel!!! :-) The Guy that was walking with us at one point gave me the reins of the camel, and I was leading him myself, and I even got to make him sit and let us off myself... it was pretty cool... My Camels name was Micheal Jackson, which I thought was pretty funny, the other Camels name was Mickey Mouse... they def are trying to do everything for us tourists... I think the funniest part of the Pyramids was that the Tourist police were on Camels as well... it was pretty funny... the rest of my day is going to be spent on cleaning clothes, packing up some things, deciding if I need to buy another bag to check luggage, and then meeting up with some of my Egyptian Friends for dinner... then tomorrow I am going to do my last minute shopping, and then I LEAVE!!! I cannot believe that this trip is coming to an end!

Riding though the Desert

Well last night was a fun night... after finishing my exam for my Arabic Class, a couple of us had decided to go horseback riding in the desert near Giza and the Pyramids... I know I know I am slacking in seeing the pyramids, but I will get there eventually... but horseback riding in the desert at night was alot of fun last night... I was glad I was an experienced rider, I was able to Gallop and keep up with the other people in the group! There were about 5 of us, Emily, her roommate, the roommates Sister, Nicolas from our Arabic class, and myself... it turned out to be alot of fun... I rode a horse named Rambo, he was alot of fun, and it was just so nice to go out in the Desert and Canter and Gallop up to this spot that over looks the pyramids, and all of Cairo, if my camera was any good I would have tried to take pictures... but sadly I did not... After all was said and done we had alot of fun, and I am sincerely sore this morning...Really really sore... haha... Well I am relaxing today, today was the first day in a long time that I got to sleep in on a weekend... and who knows what I will see this afternoon...

Well my trip is coming to an end soon... I only have about 5 days or so left here in Egypt... so I am going to try to make the most of out it...

Whirling in a Dervish... the Whirling Dervishes...

Last night I saw the Whirling Dervishes, which are performed by an Sufi Order of Islam here in Cairo... they are freaking AMAZING... It was so much fun to watch, both as a dancer and just someone who is interested in what they believe... If you dont know, the Dervishes is a musical and dance religious ritual which is suppose to put the performers in a trance and allow them commune with God... but what is interesting is that from the Audience you can see the men go into their trance, while spinning, yep, they are spinning, and while the one person, or three people are dancing, there is a group of men who surround them with their drums, and dance around them... it is Intense, but it was so cool to watch, it just blew my mind...

The night started out with some music performed on a violin type instrument, and a flute type whistle...After them, a group of men came out with drums, cymbals, and one guy was on the Oboe type instrument that you hear when you think of Snake Charmers... and they played, and at times a few of the drummer got a solo, and would sorta enter a trance while performing... The best part of this part was the man playing the finger cymbals... he was hilarious, he was such a diva performer, he would stick these hilarious poses, and he was just so entertaining to watch... Once these men were done, a man came out and started to sing, and once he was done with one song, which was entirely in Arabic, the drummers came back out and performed a little, dancing while drumming it was really cool, and then the first spinning dancer came out... he was wearing a colorful green outfit with the cool looking pinwheel skirts, that is the only way I can describe them, they looked like a pinwheel design... and he started to spin, and he was wearing more than one skirt, so at tone point he had the first skirt over his head and was spinning it over his head, and then he folded it while spinning and handed it off to someone... yeah that is right he FOLDED IT, while in a trance, and while spinning... I was amazed... and then he was handed a flag type thing, which he spun around with, and then refolded... again, amazing... I will say he was spinning for maybe 3o minutes, and he did not stop, and when the music went faster so did he... also it was so weird because it almost seemed like his head was not attached to his head, he was like a spinning bobble head, it was so weird... I wish I could have taken footage of the performance, but it is not allowed... :-( anyway, he finally finished his spinning...

After him came another group of drummers performing, and then a new spinner came out, and he was wearing bright Yellow, but he was not alone, after he had a few minutes alone, two more dancers came on the stage... there were three men spinning like tops on the stage... it was intense... The first guy took off his first skirt and spun it around his head, and folded it as well... that is the weirdest part for me, they fold it... but after more spinning they started to take off their second skirt, but it turned out that it was made of two layers, so one layer was still attached to their waist, while the other half was above their head, they truly looked like spinning tops when this happened... it was so freaking cool to watch... after that they spun around some more, and then they took off their last skirt, and were spinning it above their head, and they stopped spinning but they kept on spinning the skirt, and they started to perform with just the spinning skirt... and one point they were on the floor spinning the skirt above their head, one of the guys even went into a splits while spinning the skirt...

This was maybe one of the coolest performances I have ever seen... it was funny because as a dancer I could sorta understand what it is like to spin that much, but to spin for 30 minutes and be able to stand still and bow to the audience me astounded me, the first guy stopped, and he was not swaying or anything, he was perfectly solid and unmoving when he bowed to the audience... I know I could never do that...

Well tonight I am going Horseback riding in the Desert!!! This should be fun!!! I cannot wait!! Also I am done with my Arabic class, I took my final exam today, and I think I did well! Now I just have to study for my other exam on Monday and then I am done with Summer School...

Luxor Adventures... Two days in Ancient Egypt...

Well after all our adventures in Aswan, we then traveled onto Luxor, which was a beautiful city, and filled with a lot of historic sites, from the Valley of the Kings, to Karnak... there was alot for us to see... While in Luxor we got a nice rate for the Sheraton Luxor Resort, it was a great deal for the three of us who went... :-)... When we got to the train station in Luxor of course we got the typical tourist reaction from Taxi Drivers, "Taxi, Taxi, Good Price" those type things... this one guy picked us up for his brother, who was a driver, and took us to the Sheraton, while we were going the brother of the driver turned out to be a tour guide, so he gave us a deal, which included an conditioned bus and a tour guide. It turned out to be worth the money. :-)...

The Following morning we woke up and started our Adventures. First we stopped at the Valley of the Kings, where we saw three different tombs, Rames I, Rames II, and Rames IV. They were pretty cool tombs, but they were humid and the weather in Luxor is just generally HOT... We were not allowed to take pictures of the insides of the tombs, so of course I went and purchases pictures from the street sellers in the Valley of the Kings, because they were just so cool to look at and all the painting that was in them... Our Tour Guide was a women named Emmy, or Emi. She was really nice and sweet, sincerely interested in getting to know you, so it was nice to talk to her and find out some stuff about her... I learned that she had gone through alot to learn all the stuff that she did, she has a college degree, and has been a tour guide for a while... She actually was the first women tour guide for all the sites on the West Bank of Luxor... which is pretty cool. After the Valley of the Kings Emmy took us to an Alabaster Work Shop, where they showed us how they make the beautiful Alabaster vases, as well as all the hand made basalt sculptures... It was really nice, and of course I shopped, but one thing I love about shopping here in Egypt, is that you can bargain, and see the best price you can get... After all the shopping the guy in the store gave us these necklaces, which were pretty cool... I LOVE free stuff... :-)... After the Alabaster Factory, we traveled to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (pronounced Hat-shep-suit), which was amazing... Hatshepsut was the only Female Pharaoh of all of Egypt... Her temple was made into a mountain wall, the same mountain that the Valley of the Kings is... go figure... anyway, we went and walked in the Heat through Hatshepsut's temple, trying to avoid the gaurds who take you to places in the hopes of getting Backshesh, or tips... We had already learned that lesson... so we went and adventured through the three levels of her temple... the coolest level was the top level where the inner temple was... there was alot of cool stuff to see, but I cracked up when I saw this sign that said... Polish-Egyptian Conservation site... I was very proud of my Polish Heratige, and of course all the polish Jokes were running through my head... I could imagine a statue being put together the Polish way... haha... anyway... Hatshepsut's temple was really cool... After the temple we went to see the Colossus of Memnon, which are these two statues made in the middle of a field, who were suppose to be dedicated to one of the Pharaoh's, but when the Greeks and Romans came though they were renamed... I dont remember why, but one of the statues is made out of one solid piece of stone and the other is not... it is said that when the wind picked one of the statues would whistle and make noises, but once the cracks and everything was fixed, it stopped... Go figure they would fix something that sounded so cool... anyway, after the two statues, we went to what Emmy told us was a Papyrus Museum, or that is what she called it, in actuality is was a papyrus shop, and they told us how Papyrus was made, and then sold us some art... haha... It was late now, so we went back to the Hotel, rested, ate and relaxed, the heat took a lot out of us... That night Stanley wanted to see the Light and Sound Show at the Karnak Temple, so later we headed out and watched the show, which was interesting because when we arrived at Karnak the sun was setting, it looked so cool... Karnak was the one site that I wanted to see when I knew I was coming to Luxor... so I was glad to see the Light and Sound Show because I knew the History of the site, and could understand what its purpose was... After the Light and Sound Show, We went to an English Pub in Luxor called the Kings Head Pub... yes you heard me right... we went to a Pub... It turns out that alot of Brits vacation in Luxor, there were about 10 or so Pubs, English or Irish, so it was just fun to be the obnoxious Americans in a English Pub... although we were not that obnoxious... :-)...

The Next day in Luxor was about relaxing a little, we slept in a little, and then we went adventuring... First we went to Karnak Temple, yeah I know I was already there, but I really wanted to see it during daylight hours, so we went there again... I dont think I can show you in pictures all the amazing sites that I saw in Karnak... there was just so much to see... We tried to make this trip as fun as we could so I decided to Walk Like an Egyptian... :-)... Karnak was such a Historic site, I learned that it was the seat of the God Amun Ra, or Sun God, and Karnak was his temple, and it was situated on the East Bank of the Nile because it was a temple dedicated to the God, And the Sun rose from the East, that is why the Valley of the Kings in on the West Bank, it is were the sun set, meaning the end... Karnak is where all the Pharaoh's would come to commune with the Sun God, since the Pharaoh was considered the representative of Amun Ra on Earth... Karnak is not just one building, it had been a complex of many buildings, all of which were added by different Pharaohs, and the only consistent part of the Temple Complex was Amun Ra, and the Lotus and Papyrus flowers they would use as decorations... Karnak was a huge complex... it even had its own Lake, yep, there was a sacred lake on the Karnak complex... in Ancient times, Karnak was once attached to Luxor Temple, which is about 10 city blocks away... they were connected by a walkway of Sphinxes... After we were doen visiting Karnak we cooled off, then traveled to Luxor Temple, which was another temple in Luxor, which housed one of the great festivals for the Pharaohs... we went to the Luxor Museum and saw a lot of statues and artifacts, of course no pictures were allowed... after that we still had some time so we took on of the carriages that Luxor has... pretty much these men take you around the city, I thought it would be cool, that is until he forced me to go to this Government shop since it turns out that the more tourists they bringOne of the funny things about the Luxor Temple was that at one time the Muslims in Luxor decided to build a Mosque on top of a section of the Temple... I mean it, there was a mosque built on the temple... It was really cool to see the mosque there, being fixed up... After the Luxor Temple there, they get money and water for their horses, or that is what the man told me, well I got a little pissy with our carriage driver, since well, I was tired, and I just wanted to enjoy a carriage ride, plus all weekend I had started to develop a head cold, which had been traveling around the AUC Dorms... :-(... so I made it known I was not happy... but I went into the store for his horse, because if it sincerely helps the horse then I want to make sure the horse it taken care of... After all of this adventuring it was nice to take the train back to Cairo, and be around Egyptian Men who do not hassle you as much as they do in Upper Egypt... Well it is Monday and I am teaching my class again today!!! But this weekend was so much fun I would go again, no matter the bad that I experienced... :-)...

Aswan: Man oh Man What an Adventure...

My Adventures started out with Chris, Stanley and I taking the overnight train from Giza to Aswan… it was soo much fun, we had two connecting cabins, since we paid for a single and a double room… it was so much fun, we go onto the train and the Steward for our Car was really nice, and no matter how many time we would talk to him in Arabic he would always answer us in English, but he did understand us so that is a good thing!!! We were served a nice Dinner of Beef, or I think it was beef, and rice and other good stuff, and then once that was done, he came in and put down the beds… but you see, I was excited to be 21 and on a Train with a Club Car, so we traveled down to that car, 7 cars away from our car since we were in car 1… and once there we all ordered drinks, I got myself a nice Rum and Coke… yum… well I ended up having two of them, since well I could… even though he did not check ID's, it is nice to know that I can go to a bar in Virginia and order drinks once I get home!!! After our drinking experience where I was signing and being obnoxious since they were playing some 90’s classic songs, like Barbie Girl, and Mambo #5, we decided it was time to sleep… when we woke up we still had a little time to go before Breakfast, and Aswan so we talked and chatted it up…Breakfast was the traditional Egyptian fare of Bread, Cheese and Jam… our trays had 4 different breads on it…When we finally got to Aswan we started adventuring, which is the best term to describe what happened to us...

In Aswan, and we got here around 10 am this morning on our overnight train, which surprisingly I slept well on, but the other two did not sleep as well as I did…When we left the train station, we were waiting in line for our tickets to go from Aswan to Luxor, and well we found out that all the terminals were not able to print tickets, meaning the system was down, so we decided that maybe we would come back later and try again… after that we meet our Taxi Driver, Walid, he was really nice actually. We started the day by adventuring to Philae, which is this temple on an island that is dedicated to Horus and Isis, it was AMAZING… I loved ever second that we were on the island, it was funny because of course I got a lot of attention because I was female and fair skinned… I must have a magnet for Egyptian Men, haha… anyway, while we were at Philae, one of the Tourism Police pulled us aside and showed us this cool cubby hole in the temple where people use to come and go from the island, and from his broken English and my broken Arabic I think it might have been the equivalent to a baptismal font, but I don’t know… it was cool… after that the Tourism Police officer was nice enough to take our picture, and when he did he put his Beret on my head and took a picture, it is not on my camera, but it was HILARIOUS, I was laughing…

To get to and from Philae, we had to take these water taxis, ours was Captianed by a Nubian Man, I forgot his name, but I do remember it was called Barlo, which was pretty easy to remember because it sounds like Barlow… Anyway, while on the water taxi, he started talking about his very large family and how he lives on this one island in Aswan, where I assume a lot of Nubians lived… After we got off the water taxi, and started to head towards Walid and his taxi, we were early so we decided to look around at the stores right near the Boat entrance, well this one guy was talking about how this one dress item was 5 pounds, well I got excited because I thought he was talking Egyptian Pounds, but it turns out he was talking British Pounds… well I did not have any of those, but I had him interested in me, and he wanted me to buy it, so he placed it in my hands, which is almost the equivalent of purchasing it in Egypt, especially for these men who sell things to tourists… so I was cornered, but I fought him so much about it, and I was trying to push the garment back into his hands… it was a nice garment though… so with me fighting him, he kept on dropping his price… finally I got him to about 60 pounds (Egyptian of Course) even though he was asking for about 120 pounds… So I bought it…

After Philae and my shopping experience there, Walid had told us on the way in about these Bazaars that lined the road that all the tourists go to, so I asked to go to one of the Perfume ones, since well I know that is one thing that Momma had asked for… so he took us to one of them… it was this nice place, and I ended up spending about 360 pounds on scents and presents… (Mommy I found your present!!!) But it was all totally worth it I think… I was spending money hard core that day, but I am also splitting the cost with two other people, and they own me some money now anyway…

After the Perfume place, we went to this nice restaurant called El Masry, meaning the Egyptian, they had some nice food, and it was soo good, and there was a lot of it as well… It was worth the 20 Dollars for our entire meal… haha… I love the price of Food here in Egypt!

After the Restaurant, Walid had been nice enough to try to go to the train station and try to get us our tickets to Luxor, since we are only spending the day in Aswan… but he told us that his friend who is a manager at the train station told him that the computers are down in the Train station, but they should be working later… well it is Egypt…. So he them took us to see the High Dam and Lake Nasser… and OMG Lake Nasser was the most amazing Blue you had ever seen, it was so nice, I sincerely wished I had a swim suit right there that I could put on and go swimming… haha… well he them took us down this one road, and then we had this amazing view of the power plant part of the High Dam… surprisingly it was pretty cool to look at and hear the power going through the power lines… I always enjoy that sound… After this he then took us this weird back way back into Aswan and to what we thought was just going to be a nice Felucca ride on the Nile… man was I wrong…

Our adventure started out with us crossing the Nile and going to Elephantine Island, which is ok, but we were hot and tired and really just wanted to relax and enjoy a Felucca ride… well we were told by the people to get off the boat, and to walk up to this summit, where we meet the Chief of the Nubian Village that existed on Elephantine Island, and we were told that we are going to do a walking tour of the island, when we asked how much the tour was going to cost, the Chief said 20 pound per person, but we did not have to pay if we were unhappy, he is Nubian no Egyptian… whatever that means… pretty much he guilt tripped us hard core… so we walked this Nubian Village, which was actually pretty cool, but it was hard to enjoy because we were tired and hot… and I was getting cranky… go figure…anyway, at the end he invited us into a Nubian House where we could have soda and get Henna but well we were running low on money and we wanted to make sure we had enough to pay our taxi driver Walid as well as being able to pay for the Taxi from the Train station to out Hotel in Luxor… so we declined… after that we climbed into this Felucca, but this was a traditional Felucca, not the motorized ones that exist in Cairo, but the one that had a sail…

Well it turned out that the wind was against us, when we set sail from Elephantine island, we sat, and turned in circles as our driver was trying to find a wind that would take us up the river… Finally one of the motorized boat took hold of us and dragged us up the river, once he let go of us we sailed back and forth up the river, culminating with us spending 15 minutes just sailing back and forth across the Nile not really going anywhere… it was sorta boring, until Stanley pulled out his Walkman phone, and we played some music which entertained our Felucca drivers to no end, they were enjoying the music way too much it was entertaining… Finally we got turned around and we headed towards the dock and when I called Walid he told me yet again the train station computers were down… so once we got off the Felucca he took us to this coffee shop near the train station where he knew the proprietor, and well we sat down and waited as Walid took our money and tried to purchase our train tickets… while we were sitting there all the Egyptian men took the opportunity to compliment me in Spanish, Russian, and one other Language before they talked to me in English or Arabic…
Finally Walid came back saying that he had this had written ticket and that would be fine we had seats… so it was time to leave and head to the train, so when I tried to pay for our drinks which was three bottle waters and a Coca Cola, they wanted to charge me 32 pounds… I looked at them shocked and made sure I heard the price right, I started to talk to them in Arabic telling them how Bottle Waters were maybe 4 to 5 pounds in Cairo, and I was not going to pay more than that… so I handed them a 20 pound note and walked away… they started to talk to Walid and he told them that I spoke Arabic and I was not stupid… they were shocked because a Women stood up to them and would not pay them the price they asked, as well as yelling at them in Arabic… I feel so strong and empowered… it was Hilarious… That was one of the Highlights of this trip for me so far!!!

These pictures don't even begin to cover all that I saw in just one day... if you want to see more you will have to ask me when I have my computer in front of me and I will show you the 192 pictures that I took in Aswan alone... I was tourist happy!!!

The Most AMAZING Day, at least I think so...

Today started out like any normal day, I woke up, I went to classes, and I went to Haraiya, but then it all changed... I dont know how it came up, but I was talking to one of my friends from my Arabic class on the bus back to the dorms, he is a pretty chill guy, and well we started talking, and he told me he is volunteering at this place in Heliopolis, and that he teaches English to Arab Students... well I told him that sounded amazing, and did they need any more help because I would love to participate... so this afternoon, I went with him to AUC, and where we meet up with Even, who is a Syracuse native, and had been helping at this place for a while... it is called ICT, International Center for Technology, or atleast that is what I think and remember it might be called... anyway, once we meet Evin and Kevin, we traveled by Metro to Heliopolis... the Metro was an expereince, it was not air conditioned, and today happened to be a hot and muggy day... it was about a 15 minute metro ride, and I was sweating so much at the end... anyway, after all was said and done, Andrew and I were teamed up to teach a class of about 15 or so English...

THIS WAS THE MOST GRATIFYING EXPERIENCE I HAVE HAD SINCE I CAME TO EGYPT... I would love to make humanitarian work my career, granted they don't make alot of money, but I enjoyed every minute of it, most of the students were older than me, but that did not matter, they were interested in knowing Andrew and I, and America, and English... Ahni, the coordinator of the program I had actually meet before, go figure, when we went to Latex on my birthday, and so it was funny to see him again when I showed up at ICT, but anyway, it was funny while Andrew and I were trying to teach the Egyptians about Complex Sentences, and grammar, it made me realize that I dont know alot of grammar, and that my English grammar is awful... I was lucky that as we were trying to go over it, it started to ring a bell, and I was able to explain it... but it was funny, many of the Egyptians understood grammar rules better than I did... go figure... but they mainly want to concentrate on Speaking English, they can already write English pretty well...

I thought I would share this event, it was amazing... I love and miss you all...

Adventures into the Desert Part II...

I left off my last entry talking about the white formations, well it turned out that we ended up camping near to these formations in the White Desert, which was so cool... our drivers set up the cars so that way it was in a U-shape, and but it was funny because the sand that we set up camp on was very loose, and the cars got stuck, so we had to push, which was a very prevalent theme of the weekend... they set up the camp so quickly it was hard to believe, but the sunset on the Sahara was amazing, the sun shone off the white structures and made everything so pretty and amazing, I would not have changed this weekend for anything, no matter how hot and sweaty I got... Once the sun set it was even more amazing to see all the stars come out and twinkle into existence... if my camera was able to take pictures of the night sky you would not believe the number of stars that I saw... it was the most amazing sight to see, the stars were so mesmerizing, and the number of shooting stars that I saw made sure that I had enough wishes, that if they all came true life would be a very happy place... haha... after camp got set up the drivers started working on cooking our food, which smelled good, so good in fact that it attracted a desert fox, yes I saw a Desert fox, all big eared, and big eyed, it got really close to us, and our camp, he was soo cute, and after we fed him a piece of bread with peanut butter, it stuck around, and it also brought a friend with it, they fought at one point and were making the funniest sounds ever... after all was said and done, we had to stop star gazing, relaxing, and chatting for dinner, which we were all looking forward to... they had cooked these aluminium foil foods in the embers of the fire, and it smelled so good... and it turned out to be, you guessed it, Pigeon... this time I ate more than a bite of pigeon, and surprisingly it was much more tastier this way than when I had tried it before... I guess there is something to be said about hunger making you more willing to eat anything, because I was starving... haha... it is now 11 pm, and I am exhausted, but we still had fireworks to explode, one of the guys from our group was really patriotic, and well he went and spent about $80 on fireworks, which made the entire night so much fun... I think it is to cool to say that I watched a firework show in the Sahara Desert... the funniest part was the "grand finale" when Darshan tried to explode a bunch of fireworks at the same time, but one of them had tipped over, and came flying at the group... the thing landed about 10 feet away from the group and exploded, it was hilarious and scary at the same time... but the Egyptians loved us and our fireworks... one of them got so excited about the fireworks he went to help Darshan explode them...

The funny thing about the desert it we were told it was suppose to be really cold, and well, it was not... I had planned ahead for the cold and had a sweater that I was ready to wear, I ended up using at a pillow... and even then I was really hot for most of the night, when I woke up the following morning, the calm and quiet of the Sahara was intense, and calming, scary and yet exciting all at the same time... we wandered around the camp site for a little bit longer, and then we started to pack up, which was funny since one of the cars was not starting, so we tried jumping it, and then we had to roll start the car... as you can see by the picture... haha... once we got the car started, it was almost 11 am, it was hard to believe how hot it can get in the desert, it was a nice comfortable 85-90 degrees when we got up, and as the morning progressed it started getting hotter and hotter to the point where it was about 100 degrees... which is funny that I would consider 85 to 90 degrees cool... haha... after all was said and done we went to one last place in the white desert, this was this formation that had these amazing views, as well as beautiful quartz crystals growing naturally... here is me being artistic, and trying to take pictures of these beautiful crystals... they were so SHINY... After everything that I saw this weekend I was very glad to get back to the noise and pollution that is Cairo, mainly because I really really really wanted a shower... which was glorious, and amazing... I was never happier to come back to modern conveniences, like air conditioners, and showers... well off to study and relax... till later... :-*

Desert, but no Dessert on the 4th of July... (Part 1)

Well I survived... my first camping Experience was this weekend (4th of July Weekend, since weekends here are Friday and Saturday), and I went camping in the Sahara Desert... which was totally Kick Ass, if I do say so myself! To start this off, I woke up early Friday Morning, to then get on another bus (as you can tell Buses are the main form of traveling transportation here in Egypt, but this Bus was really just a very big Van :-)...) After a 4 hour drive we arrived at the Baharia Oasis Hotel, which was a hotel in the sense that it had beds, that was about it, but it was really cute... we had lunch and relaxed, and then the trip started... We all piled into these 4x4 SUVs to then travel INTO THE SAHARA DESERT!!! It is still hard for me to believe that I camped in the Sahara... the first place we went to was on top of this amazing sand dune, with some pretty sweet views, as seen in the picture above!
We drove some more, and we started to see why this area was called the black desert, when ever you think of the Sahara you think of lots and lots of sand, and maybe it is that way, but the Sahara that I saw this weekend has as much rocks as it did sand, and in the Black Desert, what made it black was this black rock, which was still pretty cool to see, but it made the sand so hot, as well as the air that was flowing into the car... since well in Egypt most cars do not have air conditioning, so you have to suffer through the heat... being in the Desert and the way it looked really made me feel like I was on some desolate planet, and not Earth... anyway, in the Black desert we climbed this black mound/mount, I did not because well I am out of shape and started feeling wheezy, I know excuses, but I got half way up, and had amazing views that were just as good as at the top... while sitting there contemplating the meaning of life and coming up with nothing, I began to understand how the desert can make you a very philosophical person, :-)... if you can believe it is now 3 pm and so hot, but it was also totally worth every penny and ounce of sweat to experience what I experiences this weekend...

After the Black mound, we then drove for a little, went off roading, which was sooo much fun, because the cars would slip like if you were driving in snow, but the driver of my car was pretty cool, and would talk to us, and listen when we asked him to drive faster, which we asked ALOT... After we left the Black Desert, we entered into the White Desert, which gets its name for obvious reasons, there is ALOT OF WHITE... but it is absolutely beautiful... While we were gallavanting around the white desert trying to get to this one specific spot, well our car got stuck, which was sorta funny, because our driver was soo sure of himself, we were always the first car at all these different spots, so it was funny that our car is the one that gets stuck, (and it happens multiple times as well)... Once we were unstuck we went to this amazing spot and saw what I would call the typical desert shot, I swear I have seen pictures of these formations, but it is so different to be there and taking pictures of it yourself... The white stuff that you are seeing around the rock formations, and actually making the formations themselves is CHALK... thats right, chalk makes up all of these formations... how cool is that... we ended up hanging out here at this location for a while, before we got back into the 4x4's and went to the next location... another CHALK formation... which was cool, because to get there we went though this minefield of formations, it looked like something out of an alien movie set, or something, it just did not seem real, or possible, but it totally was.... these formations made some of the coolest shapes, and they were HUGE, more than 8x my height, granted I am some what short... haha... but still it was hard to believe that these formations were made this way from wind erosion that naturally occurs in the desert... this weekend was one of the coolest adventures I have been on since I got here to Egypt, and Cairo... Exploring Cairo and Alexandria would be second, Sharm was a fun trip, but the excitement of Sharm really was the beaches and relaxing, which is always needed, but maybe that weekend could have been spent doing something else... but I am not going to complain to much, I am in Egypt, and I spent my 4th of July camping and doing things that most Americans dont go and do!!! I would go on about my adventures into the Sahara Desert, but the desert does make you tired, and I need sleep because I have class in the morning... :-(... but it dawned on many of us that classes end in less than 2 weeks, and then we have 2 days of finals... and then I travel home, and the sad thing is, I have not really done alot of shopping or myself or for friends... I need to get on that, I foresee another trip to the Khan soon... haha... Well good night to everyone, and I will finish off my weekend adventures tomorrow...

Lots to Update

I have alot to Update, but I have to do a quick entry since it is late here, and I am leaving for camping in the morning, early, really really ridiculously early... Today I went to the Citadel, if you remember I had tried to go there, but well we got sidetracked, well I finally made it, and it was AMAZING... there was alot to see, but the main part of the Citadel is the Muhammad Ali Mosque, which was absolutely beautiful on the inside. It was BIG and PRETTY... as you can see from the picture, but this picture does not do it justice, there was a calmness about this Mosque that was amazing, I could have just sat there and relaxed and been content, A funny thing happened while I was there, these three guys were at the mosque, and they asked me to take pictures of them, so I was nice and obliged, and then they wanted to take a picture of me, BAD MOVE, it went down hill from there, they then had only one guy with me, and he did this weird face each other and hold each others hands picture, unfortunately, the two guys that went with me were on the opposite side of the mosque and could not save me, it was embarrassing as well as scary, since well they would not listen to me when I said no... but the boys saved me after that, and I did not seperate from them the rest of the trip... after relaxing in the Mosque we went outside for a great panoramic view of Cairo... and well you would not believe the view, and I was able to see the pyramids through the Haze... (you might be able to see them in this picture, but as you can tell the pollution in Cairo is awful, but there are almost in the center of this picture)... After that, we meet up with another girl from AUC who was at the Citadel, and we went to the Military Museum that was part of it, but it was so boring, that we faked sickness to try to get out of the museum, which totally worked... after that it was still early in the day, and the other three students had not see the two Mosques that are by the Citadel but I had, so we decided to take a Taxi to the Mosques, and I would just continue from there to Zamalek... this was the greatest Taxi ride I had been on since coming to Cairo... my Taxi driver talked to me in Arabic, and even helped me with my broken Amayia, which was great, I was talking about my dream job, and what my parents do, and what I am studying, I really worked on my Arabic... I was so happy after that car ride because I had held my own in the Taxi!!!

Well I am off to be so that way I am rested for tomorrow and the adventures in the Desert that I am about to go on... I will have alot to update then! But Sleep seems a little more important now!

The Pleasant and Not...

This is going to be a light post, I am short on pictures since well I did not see as many things I would have liked to, and I also forgot my camera when we would adventure out, a first for me since I arrived here in Egypt... but onto my adventures...

Sharm started with a VERY LONG bus ride, although I dont remember much of it because I was starting to get sick, so I slept most of the bus ride there, in a little cramped seat, with all my stuff... but whatever... We finally arrived, and had to wait for our rooms at the hotel to be ready, while we waited though we tried to find breakfast, well I have to tell you Egyptians do not do breakfast, for the most part, they are not even awake, and breakfast is typically a at home meal... so we we forced to improvise, and we had ashir, or juice... When we finally got to the hotel room we relaxed, unloaded are stuff and went to the pools and beach... but what was interesting about our experience in the pool was that the pool was a salt water pool, with water pulled from the Red Sea... AND it was Chlorinated... weird I know, but it was an experience, We were those obnoxious Americans at the pool especially when we started to play Ultimate Frisbee in the Pool (I would like to say that I scored 2 points for my team!!! and I am totally not athletic at all)... After Hanging out in the pool I was sleep deprived and still somewhat sick so I went and took a nap, which was GLOURIOUS!!! I did alot of sleeping this past weekend, but I sorta needed it... but if I had to do this trip again I would have changed alot of things mainly because of the group I was with, and the places that I went with the group were not interesting...

That night we went to Abu Al Sid, which is this AMAZING Egyptian Resturant, and we had some really good authentic Egyptian food, including Pigeon... yeah you read that right, pigeon... I did not order it, but a friend of mine did, and I tried it, and it was not worth eating, and it tasted weird, and there was not alot of meat on the bones... and it was just generally weird... but I have tried Pigeon... who can say that, and pigeon is suppose to be a national delicacy... Go Figure... After that I split of from the majority of the group and me and three others went to the Club Pacha, which is the biggest and hippest night club in Sharm, it was soo much fun, and it was a nice way for me to celebrate my birthday!!!

We partied until the sun rose, as we were coming back to the hotel I was watching the sun rise, it was amazing, and I was a little drunk, but that is allowed, I am 21 years old! The next day was spent on the beach or near the pools relaxing, and also a nice afternoon snorkel in the Red Sea, which was so clear and beautiful, it was cool because the hotel we stayed at had an area set off just for snorkeling and diving, it was so cool to see all the fish and everything that they had in the Red Sea...

There is a reason I called this blog post the pleasant and not, there were some unpleasant moments from this weekend, like travelers diarrhea, which hit me really badly on Saturday, right before we were suppose to head out and climb mount Sinai, which was something I was really looking forward to, I really wanted to spend my entire night climbing to the summit of this mountain watching the sun rise, and then climbing back down... but instead I was forced to stay in the hotel room by myself, which was a little upsetting to me, but inevitably it paid off in the end, when everyone was soo tired and exhausted, but did not get to sleep because we had to pack up and leave from the hotel and start heading back to Cairo... so I guess that worked out better for be because I am a grouch if I do not get sleep... and even though I got sleep I still slept on the bus ride back to Cairo, mainly because car rides almost always put me to sleep, :-)

Well that was Sharm, I had some problems with the people I traveled with, so I am trying not to travel with them again, which I am totally up for... Next weekend I am going with a group of girls to the Black and White Desert for a camping trip, which is exciting because I have never gone camping in my life, and then the following weekend I am planning my own trip to Luxor, Egypt, which is the one place I wanted to go to so badly since coming to Cairo... I also took the initiative again and I am going to the Citadel this Thursday with some friends of mine!

Well till something new happens! I love and miss everyone from home, like you cannot believe!

Birthday and Beyond...

Well it is official, I am making my parents feel really old now, I am now 21, and have been for about a day and a half... it is weird, I sorta did not feel like I had a birthday since I am here surrounded by people I dont know that well, and was not with some of my closest friends and family... but I guess I will have to make up for it when I get back to the states in July... Otherwise, this week has been a typical week at school and here in Cairo, Classes, Homework, and relaxing here in Zamalek, but the fun news is what is happening this weekend.

This Weekend I am heading to Sharm Al Sheik, which is a resort town on the Sinai Peninsula, and Sharm (what it is called for short) is near the tip of this peninsula! I am really excited, last weekend I swam and played in the Mediterranean Sea, and this weekend I will be swimming in the Red Sea! Now who can say they did that in the span of two weeks! I dont think alot of people, so it should be fun, this trip is def all about relaxing and just being on vacation, I mean I might go and spend a morning on Saturday climbing mount Sinai, but other than that, I plan on spending time snorkeling and just being at a Beach, which I really cannot complain about!!!

There are a couple of possibilities on what I am gonna do the next three weekends, one choice is next weekend going to the Black and White Desert and camping overnight, which I think it cool because I have never camped it my life!!! Another trip I want to do is to go to Luxor and Thebes, which involves me taking the overnight train down there and back. Otherwise I think I will spend some more of my weekends trying to visit more sites here in Cairo, like I dont know the Pyramids, since I have not seen them yet... I know I am slacking, you think with them being soooo close to Cairo, that would have been the first thing I saw... otherwise I all have to do while I am here is get people I know presents, and pass both of my classes... pretty simple I should be able to do that! I will update this blog once I get back from Sharm, but that might not be for a couple of days, since I am getting back here late Sunday Night, so Dont expect and update till maybe Monday... and I am sure this trip will be a multiple blog trip as well!

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