2 Days til Italy!!!

Gosh, I cannot wait til Italy!! I have really been slacking on my journal. I need to start it up again but things are so intense here. Today was a 4 a.m. wake up call. That's pretty much the norm. We are gone all day seeing the sights and are exhausted in the evening. I will try my best to refresh and update you guys though!!

I checked my email today as well. I loved hearing from everyone...Mom, Nick, Marcey, Pattie, Candy...I was kind of teary eyed (and still am) from reading the email. Glad to hear everyone had a safe and nice Christmas. I wish I could have joined you!

I think I left off in Aswan. That morning we flew to Abu Simbel, which is about an hour south of Aswan and very close to the Sudan border. We stayed there for a couple hours, just to see the temples located there. The temples were immense! It's kind of sad, but most of the group are tired of seeing temples. After awhile, all the temples and hieroglyphs all blend in together. Also, I am getting pictures of funny translations ( or lost in translation) of English from Arabic. At Abu Simbel, there were "Family" flavored chips. Wonder if they were salty, sweet, or a little of both???

After we returned from Abu Simbel, we took a felucca, which is kind of like a sailboat, to a botanical garden. Our felucca driver was a little nuts, and we got stuck on a sandbar and also ran into another boat. It was kind of scary!! The botanical gardens weren't too exciting. Just a bunch of trees. Our felucca picked us up to take us to the camel rides. That was I think the most interesting part of my journey thus far! There were a bunch of camels awaiting our group, and they handed us a number which determined our camel. I got the young guy who thought it would be funny to name my camel "Ferrari" and hit it in the butt with a stick while I controlled the reins. It was a scary uphill ride. I survived, however, with pictures to prove! I think the worst part was getting on and off the camel. I almost fell off!!

After the camel ride, we returned to our hotel. I thought I would try the hookah. It was interesting, not bad, but interesting. It was apple flavored, which made it a little better as I don't smoke and don't really like it.

The next morning, we went to the Nubian Museum in Aswan before catching our cruise ship. I enjoyed looking at all of the ancient jewelry the most. After the museum, we made a short stop to stock up on bottled water for our cruise. Our bus driver bought us sugar cane juice. It wasn't too bad! Time for the cruise...

The cruise ship isn't exactly Carnival or the like, but it was an experience in itself. The rooms were tiny, and I had a triple this time, as there are an odd number of girls. I roomed with Diana and Brandy. As it was Christmas Eve, the ship was decorated interestingly. I really don't understand Egyptian Christmas decorations. There was an especially weird decoration with a baby made out of dough in I think a manger with a dough snake in there...it was really odd. Trying to describe these decorations just don't do them justice...they are very weird. They had a Christmas dinner for us, but the cruise food was weird also. I had my staples of rice and bread. Either I'm gaining weight from all the carbs, or losing from not eating that much. The jury is out...I've worn the same pair of jeans for the past 5 days I think, so they've stretched out. I got kind of emotional when I went into the dinner as I wasn't celebrating Christmas with the family. Everyone is really nice in my group though, but it can get hard when you don't know people that well and get lonely.

After dinner, I stayed up to watch the ship's Christmas spectacular even though next morning was a 4:30 wake up. This was probably another trip highlight so far as I am baffled by how odd some things can be. First, there was this man that spinned around in circles with some weird rainbow colored dress to music. He must really like Celine Dion as he twirled to the same song twice, 3 songs in all. I was crying I was laughing so hard at it, but I think some people actually liked it. He also brought some little 8 year old girl under the skirt thing while he twirled, I just couldn't figure it out. After that was the belly dancer. She was very interesting as well, definitely had a belly on her too!

Christmas Day we had to wake up super duper early to get off the boat at 7 for another temple visit. We were only there an hour, and back to the boat it was. At least they had good coffee and bread on the ship for breakfast...I stocked up!!! In the afternoon, the cruise ship asked Dr. Hood to give a speech on ancient Egypt. Our group had to go, which was kind of a bummer. I tried my best to stay awake...it was hard!! The next day, we took a horse and carriage (definitely not Cinderella) to another temple....I felt bad for the horses as they were super skinny and were whipped with something with barb wire at the end. Even though I'm allergic, I'm an animal lover and don't believe in that sort of thing.

The next day we disembarked our ship early and headed out for a loooong day at the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and many more sights. We went to where King Tut's tomb was, but our guide said it isn't worth it to go in as all of the treasures are at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which we are going to tomorrow. I am looking forward to that! I got some amazing pictures of people in hot air balloons going over the temples. I wish I could upload my pictures as telling you is one thing, but the visual is much better! At the Valley of the Kings, I hung out with Jessica the whole time. She is very much like me, quiet and really nice. We climbed into one of the tombs, which was a hike. After we got out, we were pretty much done and over the tombs as there aren't any items in there, just more hieroglyphs. We went to Tut's tomb to take a picture outside of it by the sign and saw the paparazzi all around. Starstruck as I am, I wanted to see who it was. Turns out, the president of France was there! In true stalker style, I lined up with the paparazzi and got some pretty cool shots of him. Everyone said I should have tried to sell them to the Enquirer or something. I think that beat the tombs!!! After that, we went back to our ship for a quick lunch and then it was off to the temples of Luxor and Karnak. We were in Luxor finally! The temples were some of the better ones. The French president was at Karnak and I got another pic of him. Jessica snuck out early to go to McDonald's and got me a burger. It was pretty good!!! No dinner that night on the ship for me!!!

Yesterday, we finally got off the ship. I just thought it was okay. I was more interested in their weird decorations than anything else. We had another early morning as we had to meet up with the other tour buses for a military convoy escort to the temples outside Luxor. Apparently, it is through a dangerous stretch of Egypt and buses of tourists were killed there 10 years ago. It was kind of scary!! The bus was 3 hours to the first place, 2 to the second. I saw a guy with a San Pedro hat there and of course took a picture...got a little homesick!

Late last night we checked into our Luxor hotel. I roomed with Diana this time. The tour company almost lost one of the girls' luggage...they left all our stuff in the lobby the whole day. I felt so bad for her, but luckily they found it. There was a Pizza Hut/KFC next to the hotel...score!! Jessica, Benji, Thomas, James, Diana and I all left the group and went there. It was interesting...Pizza Hut is kind of fancy there and a sit-down restaurant!! The pizza was almost the same, it was kind of glistening grease when it came out but I didn't care...I stuffed my face! It's funny how we find comfort in American fast food establishments outside of the U.S. We also got some KFC, it was great as well. After that, we sat at the hotel bar and got a drink. I have become a beer drinker, which is really weird, but I'm trying new things. As we sat there, the hotel club DJ tried to recruit Diana, Alex and I to go to his club. We thought we'd try it for a few minutes as it was a 4 am wake up call. We went there, and were the only people there. It was funny, they had advertisements for the club and added pictures of Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher...like they've ever been there or would want to! I asked when people were coming as we were the only ones, and the DJ said "Within minutes" but no one ever came so we left. As we were walking back in, the power went out and it was kind of scary!

We woke up this morning for an early flight to Cairo. After we arrived, we went to the Citadel and Muhammad Ali mosque. We had to take off our shoes to go inside, and if skin was showing on the girls, they had to wear some robe thing that looked like a hair salon apron. Only one of the girls, Melanie, had to do so. After that, we went to Coptic Cairo, which is the Christian area. We went in a couple churches and a synagogue. I enjoyed seeing the art and architecture in the churches and cannot wait till Italy for the good stuff. We have free time till 5 when we are getting picked up for the Sound and Light Show at Giza Pyramids, so a few of us ventured out into Cairo to go to Hardee's (Carl's Jr.). I had a chicken sandwich with fries and it tasted like heaven.

Anyway, I have been on the internet for an hour so I am hoping to update tomorrow as this hotel has internet access, which is lovely. When we get to Rome on Sunday, I'm not too sure how the computer situation is going to work but hopefully I will be able to call home more often. Also, no more 4 am wake up calls, which is nice. I had no idea they would work us to the bone! Our tour guide said that we are doing in 9 days what people do in 3 weeks...intense! I miss and love everyone, especially Bailey. Keep me in your prayers!! Oh, and I checked my grades and have one A and one B, am waiting for the 2 other classes to update.

Amy