cairo, luxor, now back to cairo :)

People all over Cairo LOVE their satellite dishes, it is just ridiculous!  They are about as numerous as the number of bricks you see there!

(so pictures take too long to load- hopefully I will get the rest up on facebook!)

Hi everyone!  I hope you are all doing well wherever you might be reading this from!  I am doing great!  So we got here to Cairo almost a week ago now, which is very hard to believe.  The plane ride was nothing spectacular but was over soon enough and then the shock came- I am in Cairo.  As soon as we arrived we came to the hotel we are staying at called the Mayfair Inn in Zamalek.  Zamalek is actually a small island in the Nile River but just considered another area of Cairo.  Cairo is huge.  It is unreal- there are currently 22 million people living in Cairo!  So now you might be starting to form an image of how crazy things are here.  Now multiply that by 15 and you are getting closer :)  The traffic is a cultural experience in and of itself!  If there are lanes they are more of a suggestion and the honking is constant.  The Mayfair is wonderful.  I am sharing a room with one girl, Kim, and we have two single beds, two balconies (we were lucky ones!), a mini fridge, a tiny bathroom, and a bright teal wall :)  It is starting to feel like home after today (just for 4 more weeks of course!).  After checking into our hotel we had dinner as a group in a room at another hotel by ourselves and that was a nice way to just relax after a lot of traveling.  The next day we hit the pyramids! 

First we visited the Great Pyramid (the one you have seen in pictures) in Giza, which had two other pyramids behind it.  The largest was built by King Hofu to protect his body when he died in order to ensure his body would be safe and he would make it safely to the afterlife.  They can only reach their afterlife if their bodies are preserved in the present life, hence mummification!  The other two temples were built by Hofu's son and his grandson.  This is a huge tourist sight so as you can imagine some Arab men have come up with clever tricks to get American's to give them money.  It is pretty hilarious (mostly because I fell for it at first and after realizing how nieve I was, just had to walk away) but they are relentless, which wears on anyone.  After those pyramids we visited the sphinx that same day.  Like the pyramids, the sphinx was incredible.  It is hard to grasp what you are standing when you squint up to see the top of the ancient pyramids built by kings living in times before Christ was crucified, as early as 2200 B.C.  That is pretty unfathomable but certainly did not keep me from feeling awe, excitement, and the significance of what was in front of me.  Unfortunately my camera decided to break (after I dropped it :) ) after visiting the sphinx.  After that we went to see two more pyramids in Dahshour.  These were incredible and by far my favorite.  There were no tourists here and so really taking in the breathtaking size and mystery of these structures was made much easier in Dahshour.  Also, the face or the outside stones on the pyramids are made of limestone which decays over time.  Thus, many pyramids don't have any or hardly any of their face remaining.  The pyramids in Dahshour however had a lot more so it was easier to see their original construction.  And whoever made the pyramids, they were a very brilliant and creative people (possibly aliens :) ). 

After seeing the pyramids in Giza and Dahshour we hopped a plane to Luxor to see a few more ancient ruins.  There we visited the Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.  These were huge and beautiful, both containing original hieroglyphics, some with color.  The kings and queens who made these temples clearly saw themselves as gods but what came of their vanity is incredible!  We stayed at the Sheraton on this excursion so hanging out by the swimming pool with our view of the Nile was pretty much perfection (yes I said perfection!).  Needless to say we felt pretty spoiled there but very grateful to take in the beauty of this place!  The next day in Luxor we visited the Valley of The Kings and Queen Hetshapsut's Temple.  The Valley of the Kings is where many kings of the early dynasties (17-2o ish) hid their bodies since I guess they couldn't pull off a pyramid.  These tombs were supposed to be secret but many were discovered early and robbed (62 discovered in all).  This is also were king tut's tomb was discovered in 1920 and therefore is the only one with the body and sarcophagus still intact and preserved.  Because of the mummification process I was able to see King Tut's body with "skin" more or less still on his face.  He was tiny and black but it was awesome!  I also saw Rameses III, IV, and another really early kings' tomb.  Those were possibly my favorite things I have seen thus far.  The hieroglyphics were perfectly preserved with the color they had originally been done with, which of course meant we could not take pictures though :(  These were long hot days (Luxor is boiling) so we were all very grateful for a little R&R at the hotel in the afternoon :)  

Today we are back in Cairo and classes start tomorrow!  yikes!  Cairo is a wonderful, smog covered city that I am growing more fond of I think.  Of course I do miss home and all you who are reading this (ALL OF YOU!) but I am so sure that this is where God wants me right now and it is much easier to rest in that.  Another thing I forgot to mention earlier is how awesome the group is!  Everyone has a unique flavor but everyone seems so eager to know one another and be here.  It is really cool that on no level is our being here forced so everyone really wants this on a personal level and coming to understand why has been awesome!  One thing I love about Cairo is of course getting to know a culture that has such a stark contrast to my own and learning the language more and more but also the tradition that is ingrained in the people here, no matter how devoutly Islamic they are.  The people are incredibly friendly despite the busy feel of the city and I have already grown to love the call to prayer.  My roommate and I like to open our little balcony doors or go sit outside and listen to the voices calling over the whole city of 22 million people.  Thank you all for checking and caring enough to read.  Please email or comment if you want- I love hearing about the familiar in an unfamiliar place :)  

 Goodnight for now- I will update again soon, hopefully with more pictures!