Egypt!!!!!!!!

Prepare to be overwhelmed with pictures and emails about Egypt. I took a lot. (It's over 300!!!)

Emily and I and the layer of sweat that never went away.

We woke up early Sunday to morning to go hop on a plane to Egypt!!!!! The first thing we noticed when we got off the plane? The heat. Remember how it feels when you open the oven to take something out, and it's like a wall of hot? That's what Egypt was the whole time. It was 114 degrees when we got off the plane. 

Our first dinner was at the very authentic and Egyptian T.G.I. Fridays, where we had the first of a week of chicken and rice and absolutely no fruit. We didn't eat anything that hadn't been cooked, because the water here is really bad. It's a third world country, so it makes sense, but the watermelon was tempting. Also the restaurant was on the Nile. 

Jenna on the pretty Nile river. (It was actually full of trash and
we weren't allowed to swim in it because "if you swim,
you will get very sick" and nobody wants that.
Also the first of many bad hair days.)

The first stop we made was at a khan, specifically Khan al-Khalili, which is basically an outdoor mall. It was our first experience with the very aggressive merchants. It became sort of a joke among us. "One dollar!! One dollar!!" Dr. Mulestein, my Old Testament teacher and my chaperone for every field trip, started offering crazy things to make them go away. There was a guy who was being really aggressive with his bookmarks, so the good Doctor told him "I want to sell you something! You can take him (Cody) for all those!" He proceed to try and sell the guy all the boys standing around us, until the guy muttered "crazy" under his breath and walked away. Dr. Mulestein for the win! 

We had armed security guards, and the police had a car follow us around for the whole week, so we were very safe, but it was a frightening experience to walk down the street with all the people staring at us. Emily was a bit nervous so I stuck close and went over all the ways to choke someone unconscious in my head. But once they let us go and shop, I felt a bit better, especially when I realized that I am pro at haggling. They will try and sell you a 5 dollar trinket for 20, but I always got them down to at least half their asking price. Finally, all that people watching came to good use, because I could see all of the subtle tells of when I should try to walk away so that they will go down. :) Jenna is the master. I bought a mug, and a gift for Kellie, and a bracelet with an Ankh on it. 

Walking down the street. Our tour guide Achmed
was in the white with the hat and the Egypt flag.

We went back to our very nice hotel (5 stars!!!) and had dinner while we were all sweaty and gross. There was a definite awkwardness, but good food and cake from the hotel smoothed over any ruffled feathers, as well as an absurd amount of pictures. My roommate was Maddy Truman, and our beds were so nice. We had robes, and slippers, and AC, and two big fluffy pillows. I seriously considered trying to fit one in my suitcase, but decided the pillow wouldn't fit, the robe could be reused, but I took the slippers. :) 





Day 2 - Yeah, I saw the pyramids

Kayla, Cody and I by a sphinx at Memphis

Our first stop was at Memphis, the oldest capital of Egypt. It's actually really under developed excavation wise, but we saw huge statue of Ramses 2, the guy that many think was the pharaoh of the Old Testament. I will mention him a lot, because he liked to put up large statues of himself everywhere. Basically if he had an Instagram account, it would be pictures of his face. And that's it. 


Our next stop was one of the firsts of the world, in this case the first pyramid!!! 

Emma, Emily and I making our pyramid in front of the Step Pyramid. It was covered in scaffolding because they were restoring it pretty extensively.

Jenna looking out into the Sahara. It is a true desert. We say Provo is technically a desert, but we lie. Behold the hottest, driest, longest, most exciting stretch of dirt you've ever seen.

This picture is blurry, but still pretty cool. The Nile gives life to everything it touches, but where it doesn't touch, there is nothing. The artist in me enjoyed the contrast, but it also give a bit of context to the cities. Everyone crowds in really close to the Nile because things grow there. Cairo is a huge city, made of shabby, precarious brick buildings for miles. With the revolution five years ago, everybody just built wherever they wanted to, and so green areas like this were taken over by the loud messy streets of Cairo. 

Yeah. Selfie by the pyramid. It's huge. The base is 2 and a half football fields long. We didn't lecture much here, like we usually do, and there weren't many merchants around either. They set us loose for some free time, and guess what?

I climbed on the pyramid. We are not quite sure whether it was legal, but they really will let you do anything here. So our guide said, go! Climb on the pyramid and don't pay anyone anything, and so we went. 

We had five minutes for panoramic pictures, but before that I got to go inside the one on the right!!!! It was very squished, and not really decorated at all. But yes. I have been inside a pyramid. Also look at that hair. 

We took five minutes at the last site so that we would make it to the sphinx in time. Here it is in all it's fantastic glory. We weren't allowed down closer, but I got some good pictures. 

The view of the second pyramid from the sphinx.