What People Think of when You Say "Egypt"

The Pyramids and the Sphinx!

We (my group of fellow students) went about a week ago, and it stands out as one of the greatest days of my life. Really, although I am prone to exaggerations. Honestly though, I had an amazing time. There is a girl in the group that LOVES camels, and the whole time we were getting ready in our flat (apartment) she was just jumping around about seeing real camels :). We got there and lo and behold, there were a lot of camels, and tourists, and people trying to sell you things (shocking, I know). The Sphinx is much much smaller than it is typically portrayed, but was great to see. I think this is one of the one times I wished we had used a tour guide. I feel like I missed out on a lot not knowing in detail what I was looking at.

A few of us then went to the second pyramid and I rode a camel for about 2 minutes. His name was Michael Jackson and it was sweet. It actually didn't want to sit down to let me off and that was a little frightening. Steve Kool and I then went into the middle pyramid, although it wasn't anything to write home about. It was incredibly hot and stuffy, and the middle area was just a small chamber with a box area for a coffin. So I'm not sure what that's all about, I obviously didn't see what all the hype was about with Pharaohs and such. I should look up where that stuff was discovered, etc. It was interesting, however, to see how close Cairo is to the Pyramids. A woman we spoke to was laughing about how you can see tourist movies about Egypt and never even see Cairo, which is truly the heart of Egypt. "As Cairo goes, so goes Egypt." Cairo is not only a main seat of influence in Egypt, it is always hugely instrumental in the whole Middle East, both as a political entity and as a cultural icon. Almost everyone who speaks Arabic understand the Egyptian dialect, while the reverse is not true at all. Egyptian/Cairo based movies, radio, and media filtrate into the entire Arab world.

Then we went horseback riding in the desert behind the pyramids for two hours, which I can't even begin to describe. The feeling of a massively muscular horse beneath you galloping beautifully across the open desert with the pyramids in the background is a close rival to the feeling I get snowboarding, which I have always said is one of my favorite experiences of sheer joy. I decided then that med school is highly overrated compared to galloping with horses all day long. Although I was outrageously sore the next day! My back felt as though I'd been beat for hours.... which I kinda was. :) It was an amazing feeling of freedom and carelessness, galloping in the openness.

Much love,
Sarah

P.S. You have to click on the picture to see all of them!

1.27.07 - Pyramids