Once upon a time, I went to Egypt.
We did SO many fun things:
Playing Boggle on the loooong bus ride from Israel to Egypt. Yep Josef, they're all hooked too. Jamesy got sick from riding backwards. Ooops.
Eating at the Kibbutz near the Red Sea and playing in the sand dunes there. AKA Hypie living/living in a big gated community and giving all of your earnings to the community and then dividing it up so it's equal. It was pretty interesting...like the law of concencrations a little bit. But maybe more like communism. I'm not sure.
We all ate on the ground outside. They told us we were having a barbeque, and there were real hamburgers (REAL ones!), but we ate them on Pitas, so, they weren't actually hamburgers. 
The Sphynx in Giza. We got an early start because it was going to be HOT that day, but it wasn't too bad in the morning. Just really crowded, which I'm sure the pyramids are all the time.
The Sphynx in Giza. We got an early start because it was going to be HOT that day, but it wasn't too bad in the morning. Just really crowded, which I'm sure the pyramids are all the time.
Amy, Rachel, Hannah, Nataly, Bekah, and me SO excited to be at the pyramids. I feel bad that Nataly is covering up Bekah, but it was the only picture we had of everyone off of the ground. Also, almost every girl was wearing a white t-shirt that day.
Giza Pyramids again. This time we went out for a panoramic view. Luckily our bus drove us out there. This is also the place where we did our Waka Waka dance as a whole class and we got a lot of spectators (mostly Asians) because we put an ipod up to the microphone on Bro. Judd's tour guide transmitter, and we could all hear the song in our headphones. Silent choreographed dance. So cool.
Me and Bek holding up a pyramid. Our tour guide, Islam said he was the best one to take this picture, so we let him, even though I'm pretty sure someone else could have done it just as good. He was always making us laugh: "Get more closer Tut (he called us his Group Tut)!" and "Do you believe zis? Yes or not?" In his Egyptian accent.
Me and Beks entering a tomb. We got to go inside of the pyramids, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside! This tomb we went in had a walkway like the one in the pyramid where we had to crouch over and walk 200+ yards in a really clostrophobicy place, so we're reinacting the walk into the pyramid. Except people were coming up as you were going down in the real one. We all had to get really close. A French woman behind me started freaking out from being in such an enclosed space and hyperventilating, so then I started freaking out a little bit, but we got out of there just fine.
Ramses II statue in Memphis (and yes, we did get a picture of us "walking in Memphis". I just didn't put it up on here). He was SO HUGE I couldn't believe it! But I was really tired at this point in the day and had a hard time appreciating this while I was there. At least I have a picture to remember it now.
Me and Melia in front of the Zoser Step Pyramid in Memphis (I think...We went too many places to keep track of). And we have matching hats we got in the Old City before we left. Everyone made fun of them, but we knew we were cool.
We rode on EgyptAir, and despite what brother Chadwick said, it wasn't awful. It was actually a lot nicer than other plane rides I've been on that were longer that the hour we were on this one. Boo! 
Getting off the plane in Luxor. Lexi, Megan, Zane, me and Amy. During the entire hour flight Zane kept getting a whiff of this really girly perfume that he LOVED, so we finally found the source (an Egyptian flight attendant), and he made me ask her what kind it was: Britney Spears. We all tease him about it now.
We rode on a faluka on the Nile to get to the camel ride in Luxor. Jake Steele, Bekah, me, Brandt, Jonathon, and James. It was really fun to be riding on top of water you didn't even want to touch. What if our boat sank? We'd be goners from either the alligators or diseases. 
We had two types of hotel rooms at the Sheraton in Luxor; regular rooms, and bungalos. The bungalos were way out and around the pool, but they were more fun to hang out in. PS Sheraton in Luxor=one of the best hotels/cleanest hotels I've ever stayed in. Serious. It was "luxurious", as Brother Jackson called every hotel. Even the ones that weren't.
Me, Hannah, and Nataly in the elevator that only fit three people. It was really uncomfortable if you were in there with someone you didn't know.
The Nile was right outside of our hotel, so we could just walk down there whenever we wanted. This was in the morning one day. Megan, Lindsey, Hannah, Nataly, me, Raylynne, and Natalie. You can see the faint outline of the Valley of the Kings mountain behind us and there were some hot air balloons out there too.
This is what they drive in Luxor. And they drive crazy.
Valley of the Kings=a really cool place. We actually weren't allowed to take cameras inside, but Brother Chadwick sent us this picture from when he was there a few years ago, so we could remember what it was like. We went to King Tut's tomb and saw his mummy (PS his tomb was SUPER small and he was a Pharaoh who didn't even do anything. The only reason he is so famous is because no tomb robbers robbed him. The really great Pharaohs would have had even bigger and better treasures in their tombs.) Funny story: We had to climb up this mountainside to get to Tutmoses III's tomb which was up a slot canyon, but then to get in the tomb we had to go down, down down back into the mountain. It was already 100 degrees outside at 9 AM, but it just got hotter as we went down. When we finally got to the actual tomb, we were all SO hot. I bet the temperature raised at least 15 degrees. I have never had beads of sweat rolling down my nose before. Well when we got back out of the tomb into the Valley of the Kings 100 degree air, it felt cool to us. Really cool. Just a nice light 100 degree breeze. 
Queen Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple. The thing about Queen Hatshepsut is that she wasn't a queen--a king's wife. She was a king (even though women were not allowed to be Pharaohs). Her husband was the king, and when he died, she wanted to be the Pharaoh, so she took over.
Group Tut (AKA Brother Judd's class) at Queen Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple right after we got in trouble with the guards for dancing in a sacred place. Our tour guide, Islam took care of it though...he showed the police our Waka Waka dance on his camera and the police man said, "That is AWESOME! That is not dancing. They're okay." and he let us go. Victory!
The Ramses II temple in Luxor. 
Carriage ride in Luxor. Those things did not have air conditioning--I'd rather stick with the bus.
Karnak Temple. This temple complex was HUMONGOUS and just kept getting added onto by other Pharaohs for a long time. These pillars were so big and used to be carved and painted in hieroglyphics (you can still see the carvings, just not the paint).
The utility belt. Everyone always joked about me because I kept everything on me (mostly around my fanny pack). I've got the water, sunglasses, my headset and headphones (for listening to lectures), my camera, my actual fanny pack... and my hat on my back.
Brother Judd would always say (really, ALWAYS. Like every ten minutes), "Drink your water! Don't get dehyrated! Keep drinking your water!" So I did.
The Karnak Temple again in the Great Hall with all of those pillars. I really couldn't believe how big they were. Jake jumped in this picture at the last second. What a jokester.
This was the view from outside of my window at the Sheraton in Luxor. Perfect view of the Nile and that lit up mountain was Valley of the Kings. We kept our curtians open at all times. So cool.
My camel guide, me and my camel. I forget the camel's name now, but my guide was 16 and his name was Aman. He was really cute, and only spoke a little bit of English.
This is what it looks like to ride a camel. It's not that much different than horse, but a little bumpier. Plus they're really high off of the groung and they've got really long necks. So it's kind of like ridind a horse and kind of like riding a dinosaur.I have some of me on the camel, but they're on someone else's camera for now.
Jake and Brandt digging for water at an Oasis. They didn't find any, but we did find some Betowan children.
I hugged a palm tree.
And immediately regretted it. I was covered in palm oil and sap (do they have sap?) and I had scrapes on my arms that have now turned to scars. So I tell people I got beat up...by a palm tree. In Egypt.
Me and my roommate for the trip, Lisa at platform 9 3/4 at the train station.
Overnight trains=more fun than I thought they would be. The food was not so good, and the bathrooms were not that bad. I didn't sleep a lot because I woke up every time we stopped, but it was still great.
Hard Rock Cafe, Cairo.JPG)
Hard Rock Cafe, Cairo. This was the place that we actually got real burgers. And ICE CREAM. The REAL kind.
There's our tour guide, Islam, who we loved so much at the Muhammad Ali Mosque. He is Muslim, so he explained some things to us like Ramadan fasting, praying, etc. It was cool to learn about that religion from an actual Muslim.
I put other pictures of Mount Siani on the other day, but this was the hike down when we went down 1300+ steps carved out of the red granite stones. It wasn't that bad until we stopped and our knees were shaking uncontrollably. This is cool view though, right?
Most of time, Bekah and I would choose the absolute worst seats on the bus. We didn't mean to, it just always happened that way. These particular seats wouldn't lay back, and the seats in front of us wouldn't go up, so we were squished. For HOURS. 
And when we got home we had signs like this waiting for us from Brother Judd and Brother Muhlstein's kids. I love having kids in the center. They're so cute.So EGYPT was great....
besides not being able to open my mouth in the shower. And having to brush my teeth with a bottle of water. And the extreme heat. And being in so many tombs I felt like I was dying too. And driving a million hours on a bus. And not eating fruit for a week. And sweating like I've never sweated before. And feeling like I never got clean, even after I would shower.
But it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it.
And I will NEVER go back.
WOW! I feel like I have been there. Thanks for the tour.
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