Egypt-day one

The snow is falling out the window as I sit wrapped in my cozy sweater and fuzzy slippers. The noise of my reunited brothers in the next room distracts me from my thoughts, but it's a good kind of distraction. It's been just 5 days since I was in the Middle East, but what a sharp change it has been! Not only has the weather been completely different, but the culture has been quite something to get used to as well. I lost my cell phone for a few days and didn't even realize it! When I looked in my closet, I almost had a panic attack seeing how many clothes and shoes I had. After having such a small variety in clothes, food, and leisure activities for 3 1/2 months, I didn't know how to deal with all my new choices (and still find it a bit overwhelming.) But it's good to be home, different then what I have been used to, but good.

I've decided to blog my week trip in Egypt and maybe a few last Israel thoughts before I shut down this blog. I've realized that this page here is really the only steady account of my journeys, so I want to finish my journal, so to speak.

SO...EGYPT! The trip to Egypt was an extended field study that was the conclusion to my "Ancient Egypt and the Biblical World" class. Though there were only about 30 in the class, many other students were able to go on the trip as well.

It was Saturday morning, the 6th of December and I was running to the bus stop at 5:35am, hoping beyond hope that the group had not left without me. I had just finished copying pictures onto my computer and was running about 5 minutes late to the bus. Of course, with a tour group of 50 people, there was no way they were leaving on time, and so I still had a few minutes to catch my breath and say a tearful goodbye to my wonderful roommate who was not going to Egypt with the group.

The entire drive to Cairo would take us about 13 hours, and that did not include the border stop, bathroom stops, and lunch stop...we were in for an adventure for sure!

Our first stop was at the Egyptian border where we spent an hour or so getting everyone through security and loaded onto a new bus.

Egyptians know how to pack!Right before lunch we stopped at a place on the Red Sea and played in the water for a few minutes. (me and Clair)

Lunch was interesting...Brad, Dr. Wright, and Matt posing with the food.

We bussed through the beautiful Sinai Desert for hours and hours. It was breathtaking.

It was around 8pm when we finally made it through all of Cairo's traffic to our dinner destination: The Imperial boat restaurant, (it was floating on the Nile!)

Cairo and the Nile at night

Me and Kayt as we explored Cairo after dinner. Cairo has a population of over 20 million. Apparently there are more people who work just the night shift in Cairo then the entire amont of people that work in Chicago. So, imagine Chicago traffic that never ends...and you have Cairo, a city that truly never sleeps.

On our adventure, we met this guy, Muhammad, who gave us directions and wanted to show us his shops. At first we were very wary, but he turned out to be a really nice guy. He definitely tried to sell us some stuff, but he also spent a long time showing us where all the best places to go in the neighborhood around our hotel were. He also told us of a wonderful coffee shop to get "the best mango juice in the world" at, but Kayt and I were too tired that night to check it out.

Kayt and I were roommates for the trip (which we were so thankful for) and so we headed back to out room at the "Pharaoh's Hotel" and slept hard until 6 the next morning.