EGYPT!

I know this is completely late, but better late than never!

May 17, 2009 (Sunday)

(all the girls in the Matthew Bus)

We left on the buses at 5;30 in the morning to start our trip to Egypt. That day we stopped places on the way as part of the fieldtrip. We stopped first at Beersheba, and got to go down and see their intricate water system. My favorite place that we went to that day was a Kibbutz. We got to have a tour around it, and see the date farms and the dairy farm. It is such an interesting place, because it’s a completely Zionist society. The people that work in the dairy get the same pay and circumstance as someone who folds laundry. (Cow for the dairy farm: Me and McKenzie)It was so interesting! After we went through, we got to eat at the Kibbutz and then we made our way to where we were staying that night. We stayed at another Kibbutz and because we were on the bay of the Red Sea, we decided to get a huge group of us together and we went to the beach. It was so nice, and warm water, and the city was so alive! Such a fun night!

May 18, 2009

We left the Kibbutz and drove to the border of Egypt and Israel, and had to get out, go through customs, get our passports stamped and get on another bus. This day we had hours and hours of driving. I find it so hard to sleep on a bus, so I lay down in the isle and slept almost the whole drive. It was so great! That afternoon we finally arrived at our hotel in Cairo and right away changed to go swimming. It is so hot in Egypt, that water feels just awesome! We have to be very careful in Egypt, because the water is not safe to drink. We can’t eat any fruit or veggie’s that are raw, we can’t brush our teeth with the water, and we have to make sure we only drink bottled water. So, the trip consisted mostly of eating very safe foods like rice and bread. The exciting thing of the night, is we got to go to the pyramid light show.

(worker dressed as a pharoh, me and Ashley)

It was incredible to see the pyramids with the lights on them and to hear the story of how the pyramids came to be. The pyramids are so beautiful!! What an incredible thing that they were built so long ago, and they are still in such good condition. They were so talented! What an amazing night!

May 19, 2009

We got to go to the pyramids and it was unbelievable!!

(Chadwick, McKenzie, Me, Cary, Kristen)

We had the chance to be able to go into the pyramid, along a tiny corridor, and we climbed into the burial chamber. It was so beautiful! All 80 of us students plus the teachers fit into the chamber. My favorite part was when we sung a few hymns all together! So nice!!

After we went and visited the second largest pyramid, and got to visit the sphinx too! It’s such a cool thing to be able to see all these amazing wonders of the world! Then we went to see how papyrus paper is made. It is a long tedious project, but the papyrus with the paintings on them are so beautiful! Lots of people bought them, and I just watched, and looked around. After this, we drove straight to the airport and flew to Luxor. This time I didn’t leave anything on the plane! I’m proud of myself for that. We got to Luxor, and the hotel was beautiful! We stayed at the Sheraton resort, right on the Nile. It was incredible! What a beautiful sight!! The food there was incredible, and it was so nice to stay the night in such a wonderful comfortable place!!

(me kissing the Sphinx)

(us on the second largest pyramid)

May 20, 2009

We got to go to the Valley of the Kings, and it was amazing!! We got to see a couple tombs, and we got to even go into King”Tut’s” tomb.His body was in there, and it was still in such good condition, and I was amazed how small his body was. He was much shorter than me. He did die at 18 or 19, but still I was surprised!! Next got to go to Al-Deir Al-Barhari temple. It was an incredible temple!! The temple is nestled in the rock canyons and they are beautiful. All the hieroglyphics were amazing,and it was really great being able to be there with Andrew Skinner. He knows so much and is so funny, he explains everything so well! After we got to see where the Pearl of Great Price was found. It was beautiful! This day was the first day that people started getting sick from the food. When we got back, we took a sail boat across the Nile and at the other side, camels were waiting for us. We got to take the camels around the city.

It was beautiful, and the camel was so fun to ride!! We rode the sail boat back, and hung out at the hotel the rest of the night. That night I got sick too.

(Amy, Kristen, Kristen, Me, Elise, Ashley, Audrey on the sail boat ride to our awaiting camels!)

May 21, 2009

Because I was sick, Dr. Thomas had me drink Coke to settle my stomach, and because almost all of us were sick, everyone had coke bottles.We went to the Karnak temple and the Luxor temple.

They were amazing! We took a boat ride to the Karnak temple first, and the temple was amazing. There were tons of pillars and on each pillar thirty people could stand around the pillar. So at least all 80 of us students could stand on the top of the pillar. There were many of them, and they were all carved and so beautiful. The Luxor temple was also so amazing. We took a carriage ride to the Luxor temple, and I was impressed at how intact some of the statues were. They were so incredible! After we walked around Luxor and looked at the shops, and it was amazing. Very different from Jerusalem

(Ian, Me, Jenna, Emily, Hannah, and Rachelle. All with our cokes. )

That day because I was so sick, I just drank a lot of Coke because it didn’t make me sick. So while we were waiting to get on the bus to go to the train station to get back to Cairo, I finally was affected by all the caffeine that I drank, and I started crying/laughing for a long time! It was so weird! It was so hard for me to sleep on the train, because I was so hyper and wired on caffeine! I don’t even like coke, and that is the last time I am going to drink coke for a long time.