Tel Bersheva-
So, before this Egypt trip, the word Tel was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Apparently a Tel is the remains of a town on top of a town on top of a town on top of another. So, they really weren't that interesting before. I was really excited for Jericho, but then we got to the Tel and I wasn't very excited because there really wasn't that much to see. Turns out that Tel Bersheva is way sweet. My favorite part was the wells that they had there. There was a way deep well that you could throw rocks down and then hear it a couple seconds later. And then there was a cistern that you could go down into. And then there were the bricks that you could still see the hay that they put in them from over 5000 years ago. It was way cool.
Tel Arad-
I wasn't very pumped for this one either but it turned out to be really cool too. It has an ancient Israeli Temple there that we got to look at. I guess back in the day, the temple in Jerusalem had satellite temple that were away from Jerusalem, so we got to see the layout of the temple and got to go into the Holy of Holies. It was actually really interesting.
Kibbutz Keturah-
The first night we stayed in a Kibbutz, which is similar to the New Order where it is a self-sufficient community where everything is shared between the people. So that night we lived amongst them and had a great local meal of hamburgers and fries! It was way fun being there because, if you didn't realize, it is so stinking HOT here. That night we got to cool off in the pool and swim. It was a blast.
Desert Dune Experience-
So we went to these way cool sand dunes just out in the middle of the boonies. I use to think that New Mexico was barren, but seeing some of these places makes me realize that we live in a lush oasis compared to these places. I didn't realize that there were real places on earth that truly had no form of life there. So we played on the sand dunes for a bit, had a wrestling match, you know, the usual. I tried wrestling this kid that does Judo, he kicked my bum in like two seconds every time. This one time he got me in this choke hold that cuts of the circulation to the head, so I started blacking out, but knowing me, I hate saying uncle so I just sat there until I couldn't see anymore, and apparently he realized what this did, cause he stopped, when I couldn't do anything. Never passed out, but I never realized that you could start blacking out that quick. You learn something new everyday. After that, we had a chance to just go sit on our own and ponder for a bit. That has been one of my favorite things that we have done. I always like to be doing something and it just eats away at me if I know that something is going on anywhere and I am not a part of it, but just sitting down and thinking was so nice.
Swimming-
There is nothing better than cleaning the sand from your crevices than going swimming. They set up a little BBQ by the pool at the Kibbutz that we stayed at and got to swim that night. What cracks me up is that no matter how old you are, there is always segregation of the guys and the girls. It reminded me of Middle School. All the girls were in their little huddles together talking and the guys were chasing them around. We had the biggest chicken fight war that I have ever seen. It was a blast. Great end to a good day.
Headsets and friends-
We have these little headset transmitters that let us here the teachers/tou guides wherever we go, but the whole trip my buddy James' headset was broken, so we used a splitter the whole time, so pretty much we were connected at the hip the whole time. James and I pretty much do everything together and it is really funny cause people will come up to us and ask how long we have known each other because everyone think that we have been friends for forever. I think that they are just jealous of how fun we are ;b
Monday
Border Crossing-
Busses are probably one of the most fun things that we do. We have had some pretty epic times on the busses, but there is nothing worse than a sweltering bus, which someone defines every single bus that we have been on, but let's be honest, it has never stopped us from having fun on the busses. One of my favorite things is playing paper, rock scissors with people that are on the other bus as we are driving. One of my proudest moments was playing Paper, Rock, Scissors with an Egyptian in this little blue truck as we were driving into Cairo. As we drove in to Cairo, we saw this sign for an Andrea Bocelli concert. I wanted to go so bad. They set up a stage for him right in front of the Sphinx, so James and I were going to put down the money and by tickets. How sweet would it have been to have my first concert be at the sphinx with Andrea Bocelli! Turns out that we were in Luxor the night of the concert, so we didn't get to go, but one can dream, right?!
Pyramid Light Show-
When I hear the words "Pyramid Light Show" I think of sweet lights, some fireworks, some awesome music. I am not complaining, but I am just going to say that the light show was way cooler in my head than the actual light show. But I did take an engaged girl on a date to them, so I pretty much dominated. It was our second date, no big deal. Her fiance will never be able to compete with a date to the Pyramids, but I guess he will just have to deal with it.
Tuesday
Giza Pyramids-
I don't know if you guys realized, but the pyramids are the BOMB!!! I had no clue they were SO HUGE!!!! It is probably some of the most amazing things that I have ever seen. I knew that they were big, but I don't think that I could have imagined them being that big for having been built 5000 years ago. It is incredible! I wish we could have spent more time there, but we got to go see different look out points and see all kinds of Pyramids. I had no clue that Egypt had so many pyramids. Did you know that egypt has something like 130 pyramids, because I didn't! Obviously the ones at Giza are the coolest, but there was one lookout where we could see 15 pyramids at a 360 degree view.
Waka Waka-
Shakira did this song and dance for the world cup called Waka Waka. This song is single handedly healing the world. So, in honor of coming to Africa (the song is about Africa) we all learned the dance and video taped them. Remember how I hate dancing, well... this is way fun. We broadcast the music through the transmitters and we all have out headphones in and we dance together. It is a blast and the funny thing is that everyone stops what they are doing to watch us and video tape us, especially the Asians. As my good friend James put it, "For the first time in centuries, the Pyramids have competition." So our plan is to video tape it in all these really cool places of us doing it and we are going to make a compilation of all the places that we have done it, put it on you tube, get popular, get on the some celebrity talk show thing, and then film a version of it with Shakira herself, because she is going to love it so much.
Sphinx-
It was pretty cool to see the sphinx, but there really isn't that much to say about it. I did man handle the thing and take it for a rodeo ride, but that is all in a days work.
Papyrus-
We went to this papyrus factory in Cairo where they showed us how they make papyrus and then they have all kinds of replicas that they have done of ancient papyri. It was really cool. I ended up buying one of the judgment that the Egyptians believed in. It is pretty darn cool. It is going to go real well in my old world style office/ sweet hand built library.
Memphis-
Memphis is one of the old Capitals of the Egyptian kingdom back in the day. It was really cool to see some of the statues that have been preserved. Especially to see the famous one that they have of Ramses II. I just can't believe how long ago this civilization was and that the stuff they did still remains and how good they did for it being so long ago.
Flight- We then took a flight to Luxor from Cairo. I was completely exhausted after fulfilling some life dreams, so I was head bobbing until the stewardess came around and brought me some guava juice. As soon as I downed that stuff, I was ready to go. Talk about a quick pick me up. I guess I just needed some more blood sugar.
What is this date thing- I thought you weren't supposed to date!! Scandulous, dating an engaged girl anyway. She must not be to engaged. Glad you are having such a wonderful time, wish I could be a fly on the bus.
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