A blast from the past!

Egypt was a wonderful trip! I am honored to have seen the sites and to now be able to teach my students all about Egyptian history!

My trip started by touring around Beirut in Lebanon during my 6 hour lay-over. It was SO beautiful on the coastline, full of nice people, and great food! I absolutely want to go back!



Later that night I landed in Cairo, Egypt, where I was picked up by my relative Mohamed. He and his wife, Mona, live in an apartment down town Cairo. We had a delicious meal and enjoyed catching up! The one thing I have learned about Egyptians is that they like to feed you!! In fact once a meal is over, they will just fill your plate with more food even though everyone is done eating!

The next day I took a 2 hour tour around the Great Pyramids and Sphinx all on camel back!! That was probably one of my highlights of the whole trip! My camel, called Moses, would sit down, let me hop on, and then in the slow process Moses would get his long legs to stand up. First the back, which made me and the driver lean way forward, and then his front legs. I certainly had to hold on tight! Other than that, the camel was a great way to get around the desert lands and take photos.




There are a total of 3 pyramids: 3 great pyramids and 3 small ones of Queens/children. I was shocked by the number of graves scattered around the area that are for the thousands of workers who died honorably building the pyramids. Mohamed and I left and did more touristy stuff like seeing King Tut's tomb and the mummies in the Cairo Museum. That experience was simply amazing! There were millions and millions of artifacts from over 5,000 years ago that were in mint condition! The Egyptians created such beautiful things with tremendous detail.



I finished my all too-short-of-a trip by relaxing at the North Shore just a few kilometers west of Alexandria. The blue of the Mediterranean Sea was breath taking! Everywhere I looked I felt like I was in a postcard! The Ramadan holiday ended by celebrating the feast of Eid. Traditionally cookies/biscuits are shared. They are powder sugar covered cahk. Yummy, but full of butter! I enjoyed my time with family and friends! I especially enjoyed the young kids ages 1 to 4 at the family cottage at the Med Sea! I wish I new more Arabic, but at the same time it is amazing how anyone can communicate with kids despite the language barrier.