The Qaitbey Fort

Me trying to be artistic

Pompey's Pillar!

Roman amphitheater with my roomie Kelsey!

Inside the library of Alexandria

WWII Cemetery

The Mediterranean Sea

Katie and me! These flowers smelled like vanilla...mmm.

This weekend was full of guess what-- even MORE touring! We took a bus to Alexandria in northern Egypt, stopping on the way at a Coptic Christian monastery and getting the tour from one of the monks there. It was interesting, and very different from anything I've seen before. When we got to Alexandria we had free time because we weren't touring until the next day so we walked in the area around the hotel and found a Four Seasons Hotel, with a MALL inside of it. A five-story mall, to be exact. It was insane--we walked around for hours just to cover all the floors and we got yummy gelato. It felt nice to be in a mall and it almost felt like we were back in the United States. Apparently the malls in South Korea will put this one to shame though, according to some other people on Global. Can't wait to see those.
The next day (Saturday) we went to Qaitbey Citadel, which is a fort standing on Alexandria's Royal Harbor in the Mediterranean Sea. It's the site of the old Lighthouse of Alexandria which was one of the ancient wonders of the world, but was ruined so Qaitbey built a fort where it used to stand. This fort was one of my favorite sites so far because it reminded me of my dad (he likes to take us to see forts) and it had a gorgeous view of the sea and fun rooms everywhere to explore. And cannons. I like cannons. We took tons of pictures and I felt like we didn't have enough time there, but we headed over to the catacombs of Alexandria. They were rediscovered in the 1900s when a donkey fell into them, and they were spooky and half full of water--the third floor down into the earth is blocked off because it's entirely flooded. After this we went to see Pompey's Pillar, the only remnant of ancient Alexandria that is still intact in the city, and then to a Roman amphitheater. This was really fascinating because it is the only Roman amphitheater in Egypt and it's pretty small but there is a circle in the center that amplifies your voice through the whole theater when you stand on it. It sounds like you're in a cathedral all of a sudden when you stand there! We had a lot of fun with that. Finally, we went to the great Library of Alexandria. The original library was ancient but it burned down and they built a modern library in 2002 but it's still extremely amazing and very modern looking. The whole building was designed by a Norwegian architect to look like the rising sun and there is a planetarium next to it that, from an aerial view, is meant to look like Earth circling the sun (the library). The whole idea is pretty cool, and the library was huge and had multiple museum exhibits inside, as well as five levels of computers and books. I loved it there and I wish I had brought a book to be able to read in the Library of Alexandria. We got a lot of looks there from all of the college students and many young Egyptian girls came up and asked to take pictures with the blonde girls in our group. It was funny. After all this touring a couple of us went to the market, bought pomegranates, and ate them by the Mediterranean Sea.
Today we woke up and saw the World War II museum, the World War II cemetery, and the German memorial from WWII. It was completely new to me to learn about WWII from an Egyptian perspective!
We got back to Cairo safely and now have class tomorrow again. It's been a good and eventful weekend!

On the boat to the hot air balloon!

the beautiful sunrise over the Nile

Our beach at Hurghada!

fun on the beach

Our last night in Hurghada

Wow, it's been a while since my last post! 

Not much has happened the past few days (I didn't have great internet access, therefore the lack of posts) except for what I hinted at in my last post. Last Saturday at 4 am in the morning we woke up to go on a hot air balloon ride over Luxor! We were taken across the Nile in the pitch black and given coffee and Twinkies for breakfast. The ride was fantastic, we could see many of the temples and Valleys of Kings and Queens and Nobles that we'd visited during our days at Luxor. I also saw my first sunrise, and it's so amazing from up in the sky! It came up right over the Nile river as a yellow orb shooting out pink across the hazy sky. God's beautiful handiwork. That day we flew to Hurghada, Egypt, which we discovered is a Russian vacation hotspot. EVERYONE there was Russian and all the hotel workers were amazed to see Americans, because we were a rare sight. Every day we sat on the beach from sun up to sun down pretty much, and we were there for about three days total. It was such a relaxing break and we all really enjoyed it. Our hotel had a private beach on the Red Sea and it was the clearest water I've ever seen! Some people went snorkeling and deep sea fishing too. This break was our equivalent of college fall break, and was definitely needed after all those days of touring temples in the hot sun. We just got back yesterday and today we had classes with our professors and with an Egyptian professor who taught us about Egypt after the pharaohs. After class we took a taxi to Khan al-Kalili, a gigantic bazaar in Cairo that was super busy and much larger than the bazaar at Turkey (which I didn't think was possible). Our taxi driver was hilarious on the way there; he knew English because he'd gotten his baccalaureate degree in accounting, and he was very nice to us, teaching us things to say in Arabic when we got unwanted compliments and laughing at our bad pronunciations of his name (Ahmed, which is a majority of peoples' names here). At Khan al-Kalili my friend Elise took us on the hunt to find a man named Said who was friends with her neighbor from Minnesota. He had a jewelry shop and we actually found it! He was very nice and remembered her friend from a long time ago. We bought a few things, walked down what seemed like spice MILE (I couldn't breathe), and went to a cute coffee shop for some mango juice. It was a great time! The Egyptian shopkeepers are much nicer than the Turkish ones and they don't hassle you as much when you ignore them. 

Hey there!
Yesterday and today have been filled with temples and tombs GALORE. Yesterday we toured for about 6 or 7 hours total, going to the Colossi of Memnon, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the Valley of the Kings and the Ramesseum in the morning from 5 am to 12. These were all great places and I especially loved the Valley of the Kings where we saw King Ramses IV's tomb, among other great kings. They were built into the sides of the mountain and were pretty much out in the desert. During this sometime we stopped at a stoneware shop and learned how the craftsmen made alabster jars. There were all sorts of things handmade there and I think the owners bribe our tour guide regularly to take his tours there, but people bought some nice things made out of basalt, phosphorus, alabaster, soapstone, and others. It was SO hot and afterwards we had lunch back at the hotel and collapsed into our beds to nap for 3 hours. We met up again at 5 and went to yet another temple, the Temple of Luxor, which was actually very beautiful. It was getting dark so they had the temple all lit up and the moon was out and we took some gorgeous pictures! Last night there was a disco at the hotel which we went to for a little while, but we WERE the disco party because we were the only people there. It was pretty funny. I went to bed early because today we woke up at 5 am again. We went to the Artisans Village where we saw a servants' tomb and a temple, and then to the Valley of the Nobles where we saw another tomb and another temple. Then we went to Habu Temple, another of Ramses II's buildings. We were glad it was our last day of touring because after a while all of the temples start to look the same! Yet again, we stopped at a store that sold papyrus and I was skeptical at first (I'd read in Lonely Planet guidebook that most people selling papyrus are actually selling you banana leaves) but then the owner showed us the actual papyrus reeds and the whole process of how he made the scrolls. It was cool! And legitimate as well; the owner had pictures of himself with Jimmy Carter and the State Fair of Colorado had given them a certificate of being the best papyrus sellers in Egypt. So I felt a little better about buying papyrus. We came back and had falafel down the road from our hotel. It was hilarious because the actual felafel place was closed but a nearby coffee shop owner called to us and said they served falafel. We were unsure but we went in and he ended up going and finding a falafel place and just bringing back the falafel to us. It was a little shady but he only charged us 2 pounds per falafel (which is about 30 cents) and it was delicious! Now we're about to go swimming after such a hot day and probably head off to bed early tonight, because we have a special outing planned for tomorrow at 5 am... more details on that to come :)

The Khufu Pyramid!

A pyramid for the pyramid.

Khafra's Pyramid, with the original limestone on top--it hasn't worn off

The boat of a king. 

Can't believe I'm actually here!

Our dorm room in Luxor!

At the temple of Karnak

The Hypostyle Hall with 134 pillars

Yesterday was the experience of a lifetime! And today too, although we were all very tired from travel. Yesterday was the day we saw...the PYRAMIDS OF GIZA. I had been so excited for this day since I even applied to Global! (that is, if I was accepted) We arrived there with our tour guide and immediately went inside the largest pyramid, which is where Khufu was buried. Inside there is an unfinished burial chamber, the queen's chamber (although the queen has her own pyramid) and the king's chamber. Unfortunately we were only able to crawl/hike/stoop over to the king's chamber. I am a little claustrophobic, and I thought this would be fine but it DEFINITELY pushed my limits a bit. We walked into a tunnel and a bat started flying around our heads. Don't worry grandma, it didn't bite anyone! Then we climbed up some stairs and started up a ramp, the ceiling getting shorter and shorter as we went until finally I was hunched halfway over and all I could see was the person in front of me and behind me; and it was hot! I had no idea when the ceiling above me would get higher again and all I could think of was the massive stones of the pyramid that were above my head, and I was INSIDE the pyramid. Eek! Anyway, we finally made it to the top and found ourselves in a large, granite room with a huge granite sarcophagus and granite airvents with a plastic fan. Notice which one isn't supposed to be there. It was pretty cool, but not much to see so we didn't stay too long. We had to go down the ramp backwards because it was too hard on your knees to go forward and no one wanted to see how far they still had to go. 

After this pyramid, we traveled around to the rest of them and on the way saw the remains of Khufu's funerary temple, pits that had once held giant boats (the equivalent of a pharoah's yacht) that the pharoahs wanted to have in the afterlife, and a reconstructed boat in a museum. One interesting fact I loved learning is that in the building of the pyramids, the workers actually built a ramp to bring all the large stones up. The ramp kept getting bigger as the pyramid got bigger, and in the end the ramp almost took more work than the pyramid to build! Obviously they tore it down though so the actual masterpiece could be seen. Lastly, we went to a hill where there was a great view of all three pyramids and then went riding on camels about 10 minutes into the desert and back. It wasn't much of a camel ride, it was more so to see the pyramids and experience seeing them while on a camel. But it was still cool! Last night we got back all dusty and exhausted, but it had been a great day of sightseeing. We had a pizza party in the professors' apartment and played a game called "The Village," which is really similar to Mafia but we could play with 27 people. Also ordered nutella-filled pancakes, YUM. 

Today we flew to Luxor, Egypt. It's right by the Nile and can boast of having one of the largest open air museums in the world, which is at the Karnak Temple. We got off the plane, briefly stopped at the hotel, and then went to Luxor Museum with our guide. After that we went to temple of Karnak and I took about 200 pictures. It was incredible--huge pillars and hieroglyphs EVERYWHERE you look, in perfect detail and some with the paint still there! The whole place is actually a mix of 2000 years of temples, each pharoah adding his own twist to the place. It covers about 200 acres and the Hypostyle Hall alone is big enough to hold both St. Paul's Cathedral in London and St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. It's also full of 134 pillars with hieroglyphs on each. We saw open air museum there as well as the sacred lake, which is one of the only ones still full of water in Egypt. Today after all of this we went swimming at the hotel and had dinner as a big group. Now we're pretty tired and might play games before bed. 

Anyway, I won't bore you anymore with random facts. Tomorrow we're visiting the Valley of the Kings, so I'll tell you all about it soon! Photos will be published in the next post.

Hello everyone!

Today and yesterday were full of classes. Again. We had three lectures each day, starting at 9 and ending at around 2:30, with a few breaks in between lectures. We were taught a detailed outline of the ENTIRE history of Egypt yesterday, from early man living here right on up to President Morsi being elected this past summer. That's thousands of years, all written down now in my notebook... well, at least points of interest in that amount of time :)
After class yesterday a small group of us took our first taxi to the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art, which is on the island. It was pretty cool, although I was bummed because we got there and I realized I'd left my memory card for my camera back in the room! So I didn't get pictures but hopefully I'll be able to borrow from some friends. I'm really bad with pictures, aren't I? Well, tomorrow I won't be--we're going to the Giza Pyramids! Woohoo! Okay but back to the present, well actually the past... the museum was really awesome and I usually don't like modern art because I've seen things like a blank white piece that is considered modern art, and I always say to myself, "I could have drawn that!" However, this museum had modern art that really impressed me and I think it took a lot of talent to make these pieces. Plus, I had an art major next to me the whole time so that made it easier to appreciate the pieces when hearing her exclamations and opinions. After the museum we went out to a cute restaurant called "Cups and Crepes" and had dinner crepes and then DESSERT crepes, of course. Mmm. My second night having crepes; I might need to tone it down a bit! The dessert crepe was peanut butter banana and honey though, so it was hard to resist.

Cups and Crepes!

My turkey, cheese and mushroom crepe

Today in lectures we were talking about the pyramids, which made us all really antsy for tomorrow. We also learned at length about the pharoahs and their tombs, which inspired a couple of us to take a taxi to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was SO COOL. They had thousand-year old (and older) artifacts just sitting in huge rooms out in the open, it was kind of disorganized and some rooms looked like they'd had things just thrown in them. We could literally touch these artifacts if we wanted to. Sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?), the human-shaped painted coffins, statutes of pharoahs, hieroglyphs, all out in the open and so many of them! This was only the first floor, which hosted most of the statues and columns from ancient egypt. Then the second floor had multiple rooms dedicated just to the possessions found in King Tut's temple (his temple was the only one that hadn't been raided so everything inside was still intact). You know the gold mask of King Tut you always see in magazines? We saw it in real life. It was surreal. My favorite was his gold throne that had a scene of him and his wife depicted on the backrest, with lions' paws for legs and a footstool that depicted enemy kings so that he could show that he trampled on them. King Tut only lived to be 18, but his possessions are incredible.

The Egyptian Museum

I'm going back to the museum again because there were so many things I didn't see. There were rooms full of handcrafted ancient model boats that reminded me of some my dad have that I would love to look at more, and rooms filled with ancient tools or papyrus scrolls with scenes depicted on them. We also bought tickets to the mummy room, which was definitely worth it. Inside we saw the mummies of Ramses II (one of the greatest pharoahs who lived to be 96 and who built most of the temples and things we will see), Queen Hatshepsut, King Tut, Amenhotep, and many others that we learned about in class. It was amazing to realize that these mummies had once been walking around and ruling a huge empire! If you're ever in Cairo, they are a sight to see--and our ticket for the separate mummy exhibit was 60 pounds, which is only 10 US dollars! What a deal. Yay for student discounts!

being goofy!

Sorry for the long blog post, I could write tons more on this museum but I don't want to bore you. Tomorrow we go to the pyramids, which should be TONS of fun. I'll tell you all about it!

Hey y'all!

I'm starting to feel like weekends don't count in countries other than America, or maybe it's just Global, because classes on this trip go right on through the weekends! Today we had our third class with Julie and an Arabic class, and tomorrow we will have three classes going from 9 to 3, with a few breaks in between. Phew! In our first class we discussed GDP and its limitations, as well as other alternative measurements (like the Human Development Index or the Happy Planet Index) that people are creating to measure a country's well-being. Quite an interesting discussion. During our break we got eggs and bagels. It's typical American food I know, but we've discovered that the island of Zamalek (which we haven't been allowed to leave on our own because of the protests) doesn't actually have Egyptian food, as far as we know. It has Indian, Chinese, European, American, everything BUT Egyptian! Seems like they think all of us international students don't want to try the local cuisine.

In Arabic today it was even MORE overwhelming than our first class--we think our teacher assumes that we already know some Arabic because she said she was going to faint if we didn't know the word for "university," which of course no one knew. She likes to call out people in class so at one point she looked at me and asked what my name was in Arabic and I answered "Ana Michelle," which is correct. However, apparently "Michelle" sounds a lot like "mish aarfa" which means "I don't know" in Arabic so she thought I said "My name is I don't know." Great. She laughed at me and I had no idea what had gone on until later!

After Arabic class we went to the grocery store and then back to just relax in the dorms for the afternoon. Tonight we went to a nice Chinese restaurant and I had a pina colada and seafood soup that had shrimp, calamari, and fish in it--SO GOOD! Then I was reluctantly dragged to a bar with some friends (I was very tired) where I got a crepe with chocolate sauce and ice cream. If the bar hadn't had that to offer the night wouldn't have been half as fun. But that was yummy and our table had a great time talking and laughing and being downright goofy. Now we're back and going to sleep early for a big day of classes tomorrow!

Oh for a quick update on yesterday (because I didn't blog). We had class most of the day and at night went to a restaurant called "Rooftop" that is on the top of a building and looks over the Nile. It was gorgeous at night and we could see the felucca boats with dazzling lights floating down the river. The only sketchy thing was that you had to go through a rundown hotel to get to this place and the elevator didn't have a door--you had to open a door in the wall on each floor to get in and then the elevator was open on one side as you went up. It was weird! But so worth it. We took some very goofy pictures that night.

The weird elevator

Goodnight!

Yummy pasta! And a dessert called cream caramel

Getting tired of the paparazzi flashes

Alright, so  now that my blog is back up... here's the scoop on today's events!

Our dorm room!

Me trying to eat a mango...it was super messy.

our view from the bus

We woke up and got muffins and mochas again, and then bussed over to the actual American University in Cairo campus, which is about an hour away (yet still in Cairo). The campus is gorgeous and looks like an extension of the sand that surrounds it. Apparently it was about $440 million dollars (it's only three years old) and a lot of the money to build it was US-funded. It's a very open-air campus and there are lots of courtyards and a great workout facility with an Olympic sized swimming pool! We all were very jealous and wished we were staying at this campus instead of the Zamalek dorms. After getting the tour we ate some lunch. I've been getting sick of eating restaurant food all the time so I took a trip to the grocery store and now have provisions for PB&Js for a good 2 weeks...YES! I think I was the only one to pack my own lunch today, but that's fine. I'm saving my per diem money for some cool souvenirs... watch out family and friends, you might be the recipients of some! teehee. After lunch we had our very first class. It was almost a relief and my mind was itching to start learning something, especially about the very country we were in--which definitely has some things worth learning about at this point in time. History is being made in Egypt this week, and I'm a part of it! A little scary but also a great learning opportunity, and don't worry, I will not be anywhere near the protests and the demonstrations this week. Our professor's name is John Swanson and he seems like an affable guy-he started out by explaining what it means to be Arab and talked about Egypt's economy and Arab population. After the two-hour lecture, in which I got extremely antsy, we bussed back to the Zamalek dorms. I felt a little carsick from the ride, so I stayed in with a couple of girls and skyped some friends with them. We ordered omelettes and bagels from a deli down the street that does free delivery and it was nice to have some simple food. Tonight was pretty uneventful because my stomach still felt a little strange and I was tired, so I hung out with people in the dorms and started on our first round of homework for Professor Legler's class. It was strange to wrap my mind around having to THINK deeply for our discussion questions. I need to get back in the school mode, and fast! 

getting mocha frappes!

The Olympic-sized pool