My Exodus

I am finally back at the JC and home it seems like. Our 8 days in Egypt seemed like much longer. We were able to see so much. I suppose I can summarize each day, or at least try.

The drive there on our bus was very long and slightly boring. We stopped at several places on the way out of Israel. Beer'sheva. Advat. (the desert..or valley of Sin?) Ben Gurion memorial/school. and a kibutz Yatvata, which is famous for their chocolate milk. We stayed our first night at a kibutz about 45 min away from the Israel/Egypt border. The concept of a kibutz is very interesting. It is a small community which..is more or less socialist? Everyone has a job within the fenced/walled community...and they all get the same salary to support their families. They grow many things there and the ones we visited also had dairies.

We left early (thursday/friday morning...dont remember which) for the border at Eliat...which took about 2 or so hours to walk through...with our backpacks and "carry-ons". The drive through the Sinai desert is barren and hot. There is nothing...except the Suez Canal, which we saw with several oil tankers going through. Cairo is unbelievable. crowded. huge. underdeveloped. It is almost like a city that was only built half-way. Nearly every apartment building/tower is unfinished with rebar jutting from the top. Clothes are hung off the balconies to dry. We stayed at the Oasis..which wasn't too far from the Pyramids in Giza. That first night we arrived later and hurried to the Pyramid Sound and Light show. It was a very neat experience to witness such a magnificent creation by mankind. It was difficult to stay awake towards the end of the show, because I was so exhausted from the ride.

The next morning we rushed to the pyramids to get tickets to get into the tomb...or inside chamber of the largest pyramid. They only sell 200 tickets per day, beginning at 8am. So we arrived before 8am in hopes of getting enough tickets for our group of 90ish. Unfortunately 5 or so students were not able to get tickets, which was very upsetting. The climb into the pyramid and to the chamber where the pharaoh's tomb was located was much better than the crawl space at Micah's Caves. The actual chamber was not very large, though it probably fit...40 or so people. It was very hot because there was no outside air. The outside tomb was in there (emptied of the sarcophagus, etc). Many of us students crawled inside it and laid down pretending to be mummys. We also were able to see the Sphinx. The craftmanship and massiveness of these works does not disappoint in real life. I found it hard to imagine the sheer numbers of Egyptian workers "aka slaves" it took to build these massive structures of solid stone. The same day was also visited Memphis, once a capital during the early dynasties of Egypt, and later a military outpost for many pharaohs such as Ramses II. We saw many other things that day, but I really do not have time to describe them all.

After this first day in Cairo we took a flight to Luxor which is in Upper Egpyt (or Southern Egpyt). Luxor is very different from Cairo. The population is around 200,000 I believe...regardless it's not 18 million like Cairo. The majority of people there work as farmers, or in the tourism business. It is beautiful there. The drastic difference between the green farmland near the Nile and the desert of the Valley of the Kings (which are not far apart at all) is mindblowing. The Nile River really equates to life in Egpyt. With just a little water, trees and shrubs sprout out of the desert and become an oasis. We stayed at the Sheraton in Luxor...right on the Nile River. In the mornings at Luxor I got ready for the day out on our balcony overlooking the Nile and the beautiful trees surrounding it.

While in Luxor I saw the Valley of the Kings, including King Tut's tomb and mummy! The mummy was kind of gross...he seemed like a very small man. I do not think his mummy was any larger than me. The tombs at the Valley of the Kings were so intricate and detailed. I was amazed at the preservation of the frescos within the tombs, which occurred so easily because of the sand, sealing of the tombs, etc. I also saw the Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. This was my most favorite structure/site. It is so beautifully situated in the red cliffs there in the desert. It is grand, and yet simple. She was the only woman to be a pharaoh, as she took the place of her son who was too young. She even displayed herself as a man in sculptures and frescos describing her and her actions as pharaoh.
Each night in Luxor, we went out as groups to explore the city. The carriage rides were very fun, and also interesting. We quickly learned how the system worked there with people. I got some descent souvineers.
In Luxor we also visited the Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple, built by several pharaohs. I wish I could put pictures up of these wonderful structures, but I have yet to find the time to visit the Hebrew University next door to the JC, who has much better internet quality/speed.
One of the highlights of the Luxor trip was our camel trip! We took a faluca across the Nile, and afterwards rode camels for an hour through neighborhoods and the farmland.

We took an overnight train back to Cairo, instead of flying. I was anticipating this very much, since I have never ridden on a real train before. I am not sure this was the...best experience for my first train ride ever. Even though we were in "first class", it was a very primative train (which is a nice way of describing how much it lacked...in comfort..or cleanliness haha). I spent much of the night talking with other girls from my group. There are so many different kinds of students here and I am so glad we can learn from each other. Anyways, we stayed up half the night on the train talking about auras and oils. I do not think I really slept that night, which showed the following morning when we got off the train in Cairo around 5:30am. This day was very hard for all of us.

We visited some older Coptic churches, as well as a synagogue. Then we went to the Egyptian Museum which holds so many famous ancient Egyptian sculpture and artifacts. Unfortunately while we were there I got really sick. I had to sit down for a while, before I could walk again. Luckily we have several nursing students with us here. I think it was probably a combo of the Egyptian curse/dehyrdation/exhaustion. One of my professors stayed with me while the rest of the group toured the museum. I did mange to see the Mummy Room and the artifacts of King Tut's tomb. The mummys were very interesting. They were preserved so well! King Ramses II even had lots of blonde hair on his skull (blonde from the mummification process. it was gray) I also so the mummy of Hatshepsut, Amonetep (or something like that). After the Egyptian Museum they took us to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, which I had never eaten at before. Eating a burger and fries after so long, was nice, except we weren't allowed to eat fruits/vegetables in Egypt because it was contaminated by the water, etc. So we ate...dry burgers. I felt guilty listening to the YMCA...and eating hamburgers while on this trip...because we're really supposed to be immersing ourself in the culture...and we were cheating the system or something. My friends just thought i was silly.

Our final day in Egypt we visited several Mosques...the Muhammad Ali mosque which was unique and beautiful in a way very different from the other sites. After that we drove through the Sinai to stay at Morgenland near Mt. Sinai. This was probably the worst place we stayed at on the trip. My roommate Alex smashed a cochroach on our bedside table. We woke up around 2am to get to the base of the mountain to hike. It took about 2 hours to hike up the mountain and make it in time for the sunrise. This was most definitely the hardest hike I have ever done in my life. (it might have been made more difficult by the fact that i was still feeling sick). Near the top of the mountain, there were 700ish uneven stone steps to climb to the very top. At this point, I thought I might heave over and die, or roll off the moutain from exhaustion. The only thing keeping me from quitting was the fact the sun was rising fast and I was not about to miss it after putting forth so much physical effort. It was priceless. One of the most beautiful sites I have seen in my life thus far. And also very cold. We walked back down the 700 stairs and had a testimony meeting. It was probably the best testimony meeting I have been in. The spirit could be felt so strongly there, which is sensible since Mt. Sinai is a holy place, and can even be considered a temple. I am so glad I had the opportunity to hike and afterwards bear my testimony there. An unforgetable experience.

There is so much more that I saw and experienced...but I just cannot recount all that happened. I am glad I was able to visit Egypt and interact with the people there. I am also glad that we are living in Israel, and not in Egypt...because I would have had to buy several hundred bottles of sanitizer.

Hope yall are doing well! Now I'm off to get some sleep...and study for my classes this week.