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Camel Rides:1 Getting sick from African food/water: 0 Marriage Proposals: 2 Success in Egypt!!
Getting there: There was a delay to my layover in Instanbul, Turkey because of "snow", however, when we touched down I laughed at the dusting of snow that kinda covered the grass and that is how I missed my flight to Cairo... Luckily, on the plane there was a nice Czech father and son who were also going to Cairo, and he told me they were on a later flight (midnight to be exact), so I was able to get rebooked on that flight, and made it there around 2:00am. Hamid, our tour rep had been waiting for me for six hours at the airport for me, and I was so glad to see he stuck it out. The first marriage proposal was from the first Egyptian I met. You need a visa to enter Egypt, so I went up to the counter to get one, and the man said "I save you $15 if you marry me." haha I had politely said I'll think about it for my return.
Cairo: The most busy, dirty, crazy city I have ever been to with around 90 million people living there. This is because it surrounds the Nile river known as the "source of life" to Egyptians and has been their source for food, water, transportation, etc for thousands of year. There are 5 million cars in Cairo and it shows. There is no such thing as road ettiquette in Cairo, with constant car honking (which means I'm about to hit you, so move), no road lanes acknowledged, and coming within inches of hitting donkeys, camels, and people. Ben, Hamid, and I played an intense game of frogger while crossing to get the ATM our last night, and it was probably one of the scariest things I've done- in my life. There are no sidewalks, you just kinda go and do a belly dancer move in order to move between passing cars. For my Jambo friends- there is a Chevorlet truck that exists called a Jambo, but the red logo looks EXACTLY like the real Jambo logo!
Egpytian Culture: Great people! Everyone was so nice, made you feel at home, constantly said Welcome, and overall an amazing culture. One of the reasons I did not get sick was probably because I followed Neil's advice to NOT drink the natural water, eat fruit unless you peel it, eat salads, and constantly wash my hands. The people there usually work from 9 to mid afternnon, and eat a huge lunch. Then a small breakfast like meal for dinner around 11 or 12 at night. So Ben and I had amazing traditional Egyptian lunches full of rice, egyptian bread (in pics), cooked veggies, chicken, humus like stuff, falafel, stuff cabbage, and mandrian oranges. Great food! Our guide in Luxor, Nala, lives with her family and her extend family (husbands parents and brothers and their families) then all live in the same apartment complex. I thought this was a cool idea, because you stay close with your family, but you still have the privacy of your own aparment. I had read various places that Cairo was a "modern" city, however, I felt the houses were more like shacks without ceilings or any kind of outter decoration. It was very run down, yet the cost of living is still very high. The weather there was sunny and pleasant, but we still needed our jackets on as it was around low 60's the whole time. However, when the sun rays hit you, it felt brillant and it would make me feel really hot all of a sudden.
Getting a good deal: Haggling is part of daily life for Egyptians. Sellers will literally give you a price 10 to 100 times what you really should pay and it is your job to determine how much you want to spend and then argue with the salesperson for about 10 minutes until you get what you want. I only started to get the hang of this our last day when I was buying a painting on papyrus paper. It was difficult b/c sometimes there weren't prices to give you an idea, and I had to constantly be thinking of the conversions (5 Egyptian pouds equal 1 USD). Tours also do this thing were they drop you off at different specializing stores, they do a demo of how their products are made, offer you a refreshing drink, you walk around their store, and then they barder if you act the least bit interested in what you are looking at to buy. We went to a carpet store, papryrus factory, alabaster factory, and perfume/ jewelry store. The demos were interesting, but you kinda feel bad when you don't buy anything. Of course, I bought a basalt monkey statue, lavendar from the perfume store, and a painting of the tree of life on papyrus paper- so I guess I got suckered.
Muslim Culture: 85% of the 9 million people living in Cairo is Muslim and the rest is majority Christian. I have never been in a mostly Muslim population before and I was not sure what to expect. Nesreen our Egyptologist explained the basics our last day in Cairo as we visited a Christian church and then to a Mosque. This was great to be able to see the differences and similiarities between the two religions. Muslims believe in their God Allah and his last prophet was Muhammad Ali (no, not the boxer). They pray 5 times a day (women must not be seen by men), and there is a speaker over the city with the songs? of prayer. It was very bizarre to go from a culture in which surrounded by alcohol to a culture that forbids the sell and consumption of alcohol. I didn't have anything to drink, but there is definitely still easily accessible alcohol to the tourst population. When talking to our tour rep Hamid, he had a very strong position on not drinking, saying "it makes you like the animal." It was definitely interesting hearing different perspectives than I was used to. Another example of this also happened when Ben and I were getting to know Nasreen and her daily life. She just casually said, "I am married and my husband has two other wives." I tried my best to give a completely normal reaction- haha. Their weekend days were different with the religion, so Friday and Saturday are their days off and that includes going to temple on Friday.
The stuff you can't see: The Valley of Kings did not allow to take pics at all, but it was probably one of the coolest things I've done. This is where they eventually started to burry the kings of Egypt, they would hide them between the mountains from grave robbers. This is the site where in 1922, Howard Carter discovered King Tut's tomb. This tomb was never robbed as it was well hidden and covered in debris from a previous dig. So all of his stuff was there!! King tut was only 18 when he passed away from infection, so his tomb wasn't that impressive, but the stuff in it was amazing and we saw it all at the Egyptian museum. We went to other tombs that were completely decroated with scenes from the aferlife. I had a learned about the ancient egyptian gods from art history classes, but I definitely needed the crash course as Nala told us what to notice in each of the tombs. There are around 100 tombs at the Valley of kings and we saw three of the best decorated ones. Tombs also rotated by the government in order to control the amount of tourist going through them. The tombs' limstone naturally kept them in perfect conditions. There were very warm to walk in as we were there in the winter, and they are cool in the summer season. Also, our last day we were able to put everything we had learned and seen together. The Egyptian museum also did not allow photography at all, and I wish it did because I cannot even tell all about the crazy stuff we saw. Obviously all of King's tut's treasures (staffs, beds, games, the famous gold head that was over his body, jewelry, knifes, clothes, etc), you could touch famous statues everywhere, wood statues that were 4,000 years olds that were perserved so well in the tombs, jewlery, paintings on papyrus paper (which is amazing and looks exactly the way it looked thousands of years ago b/c of the paper's properties). We also went to the Mummy Room! We saw around 15 mummies, mostly kings. This was so cool and creepy at the same time. They added bronze, salt, and other materials to help perserve the body, and of course taking out the brain, liver, and intestines (you needed your heart in the afterlife to weigh how heavy it was- duh... heavy hearts go to hell). 120,000 pieces are in the museum, divided into ancient Egypt's history of Old kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom. It's such a rich, LONG history, which made it hard to follow sometimes, but Nesreen and Nala presented the information in such interesting and easy ways. Once in a lifetime- really!
Overall: Egypt is just such an unique place on earth. I always felt the history surrounding me in Rome, and Cairo and Luxor had that same affect if not more. I could not live Egypt full time, however, I would like to go back to explore other parts such as Alexandria stay at a resort on the Red sea. Ben and I were very lucky to have our private tour. You NEED to have transportation around Egypt because everything is so spread out, however, most people were in big, annoying tour groups. Ben and I however, had only our tour rep part of the time with us, the driver, and then our Egyptologist, who was there just to talk to us, answer our questions, and it was really neat to be able to get to know them as local citizens. I would recommend Memphis tours to anybody traveling to Egypt. What an amazing time!!
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Jim Lara, I am glad you are learning as much as you are teaching. Nothing brings perpesctive like travel.