Egypt: Part 1

Day 1 - 10:00 a.m.

Last night in preport, Randy said that SAS can be like trying to drink from a garden hose. The past few days have felt exactly that way. On Saturday, I was in Italy. On Sunday, we thought we were going to Turkey. Monday we turned around in a flurry of chaos. Today I'm in Egypt, and in a week I'll be leaving Greece. The past 48 hours have brought out the best in the entire SAS community. They have proven what it takes to be a SAS student: resiliency - the drive to make the most of a less than ideal situation, community - trust that others will make the best decision for you, and the understanding that the agendas of a few must sometimes be sacrificed in the interest of a larger group (as was the case for the interport parents), and a sense of spontaneity, which needs no explanation.

The shock of being here is so intense it almost feels like I'm just imagining it. It was unforeseen, unplanned, unexpected, and yet here I am on a bus to Cairo. Already, I feel like I've seen so much - trying to take in every last detail of being in a foreign country is exhausting. Describing this feeling as culture shock would be an understatement. We are literally on a desert highway, passing cars, trucks, and caravans of camels on the side of the road, along with the occasional palm tree. The streets of Alexandria are like the filthiest streets of Naples to the power of 10. The buildings, signs and windows are all caked in layers of sand and dirt. Our convoy of three buses is escorted by armed tourist police.

Already, I can sense the male dominance of the culture here. I have only seen one female driver in all the cars that have passed us. I haven't seen many women out, but most of those who I have seen have been wearing the traditional Islamic dress - showing only their eyes. Our tour guide said that married women wear black, and unmarried women wear colored dresses, because Islamic culture does not use wedding rings.

The scenery looks like Texas with less grass, more palm trees, and roadside stands selling pottery. The signs are in Arabic but some also have English or Greek.

This morning on the ship, you could feel the energy pouring out of the students on board. The excitement of traveling to a new place not on the itinerary on such a sudden notice was unparalleled. The nervousness of having no clue how to get around or how to communicate in Arabic leaves a feeling like that of the first day of high school, except much more unfamiliar. Less than 2 days since we were heading to Istanbul, here I am about to ride a camel near the great pyramids. If this isn't adventure, I don't know what is.

Day 1- 6:00 p.m.

I have never felt so dirty in my life. We started off at the Great Pyramids of Giza. It was remarkable to see - I was surprised that there weren't fences - you can just walk right up to the pyramids and touch them. The vendors there sell every item imaginable, and men try and force you to get on their camels so they can charge you for a photo on them. They are all VERY aggressive. Next, we stopped at the Sphinx, where I bought a hand-carved scarab beetle for $1 after bartering with a vendor for a few minutes. We went to the Sakkara country club where we met up with our other two buses. They served an amazing authentic Egyptian buffet lunch of mostly stuff I couldn't identify if I had a multiple choice, but was good nonetheless. After our hour-stay at the club (which had separate restaurant facilities and swimming areas for men and women), we got on the buses and went to the step pyramid, which we went underneath via a small passageway where we had to practically crawl for about 50 yards. The burial chamber, lined with hieroglyphs, and the coffin were still intact although everything else had been removed. Right next to it was a tomb which we toured.

When you're a kid in elementary school, you learn about Egyptian culture and mummies with skepticism and intrigue. But being there in person was a beyond-words surreal experience. To stand in a tomb and touch the hieroglyphs on the walls is an experience that you can't inherit from Indiana Jones or an Omnimax film. These monuments to the tenacity and perseverance of people who worked so intricately at preserving the dead, thinking someday the soul would come back to find the body, that have withstood millennia stare you in the face reminding you how small you really are - just a grain of sand in the history of a world which has been turning day in and day out long before you or the civilization you know has existed.

Our buses brought us back to Sakkara country club where we were split into groups of 8 or so and got into Jeeps. The Jeeps took us on an off-roading Safari adventure which was one of the most fun things I've ever done. Most of my SAS field trips have left me feeling like I could have done it on my own and more efficiently, but today was an anomale. To speed up and down the sand dunes behind pyramids was pure exhilaration. Our jeeps delivered us to a designated place in the desert where a GIANT line of cames awaited us. We each jumped on a camel and were off! Camels are much higher off the ground than you'd think, but after a few minutes we got used to it. Of course, I had to pick the maverick of the group - they named him Michael Jackson because he does a funny sideways moonwalk dance - humorous to see, scary to be a part of. The camels took us on a half hour ride back to the country club where our buses were waiting.

The way of life here is so different I don't even know where to start. Mostly, I'm in awe that I'm actually here. Everything is in Arabic. Last, and certainly not least, the heat.

Wow.

There is nothing quite like this on Earth that I have experienced. Its like the only things in existence are you, the earth, and the sun beating down on you. Sam said it feels like in the summer when you leave your car parked in the sun all day and then get in. We are all exhausted from the heat, covered in sweat and dirt. Most students are sleeping on the bus although it's only about 6:30 p.m. The bus is taking us to a central location in Cairo to let off the students who want to stay overnight - this includes me, so I'll finish writing later.