it won't be long...3 weeks left in cairo...

...I will laugh, I will cry, I will close my eyes
Cause I know that it won't be long

Until we sing, we will write
We will laugh away the night
And the good times will never end
When we meet again...

...And I look forward to that day
And the smile on your face...

...We will sing, we will write
We might cry and we might fight
And the good times will never end
We will laugh, we'll relax, we'll reflect on the years we've past
And I know that it won't be long, until we meet again...

"Leaving Song" -Stephen Speaks

Owie Mallawy Thanksgiving

The seemingly awesome thing about working for an American International school in an Islamic country is that you get breaks for both cultures... Fresh off a week long Eid break, we got a long weekend for Thanksgiving (too bad the upcoming Islamic new year falls on a Tuesday or we'd have another long weekend!). The frequent breaks and days off we've been having have been marvelous for traveling but horrible for planning classes, especially ceramics...



BUT. back to my weekend. I traveled to Mallawy with Joan to spend a few days with her in-laws. When I told my friend in Cairo I was going there, they said "Mallawy, I don't think I've ever heard of any tourists going there, why are you?".... Their question was actually my answer. I love going in little off the beaten trail places and Mallawy is just that. I was *the*only* foreigner I saw for 2 whole days... It's a small village town near Minya; a 3ish hour train ride going (and a 6 hour coming back...I'm not a math person but even I know that does not add up)...

Mallawy reminded me of Iowa in many ways... It's a rural, agricultural village... People are friendly, family lives close and together (as in most of Egypt).... Really though, it was just so good to see GREEN and to *not* be a spectacle walking down the street that got hassled with every step. Joan called it the zebra phenomenon. It's like if you saw a zebra cross the street in Iowa, you'd do a double take, then shake your head in disbelief because it just wouldn't make sense that you saw a zebra. By the time you convince yourself it may have actually been there, it's gone...

We traveled the city and the country... Visiting farms with animals, dropping in on two random weddings (where everyone thought I was a celebrity, had me take pictures and dance with the family), exploring tombs and ruins rarely visited by tourists-including an underground city-like complex of tombs with a room for baboons and an underground tunnel that connects to the citadel in Cairo!

My favorite part though, putting the "tours" and "traveling" aside, was spending the weekend with a family. They were so generous and welcoming. There was a significant language barrier, they spoke little english, and I forgot my arabic dictionary at home.. but somehow... we communicated extremely well..

I bonded with the kids, especially Mahmoud... who I let use my camera the whole time (first experience with a digital camera) and as a result, have more pictures from these 48 hours than I took in my entire Eid break traveling ;)

Hip hip hooray for a Mallawy Thanksgiving... What a perfect way to celebrate the day to give thanks... with beautiful people, family... all you really need in life...

Eid al-Adha in Masr

The last week has been an absolutely unforgettable isbua (week) of backpacking my way through most of Egypt. We had the week off from school for the Eid break, and I decided to make the most of it, tabaan (of course). I headed out with just two flights...no hotels booked, itinerary, or even travel partners.... but to be honest... that is often times the best way to travel and the adventures I found along the way will be among the memories that never ever leave me. It ended up being a week of incredible sights, wonderful new traveling friends, and the perfect amount of play and relaxation away from the daily life I know.

Alright, so in an attempt to *briefly (whatever that means in Amy-speak)* recap my trip: I started out flying from Cairo to Aswan on a Thursday night. Checked into cheap, run down hostel with a nice view on the Nile. Spent Friday exploring the West Bank in the morning: checked out the Tombs of the Nobles then took a camel out to see St. Simeon's monastery. In the afternoon I went to Elephantine Island, explored the Nubian Villages, got a henna tattoo and met some of the residents of the community, checked out the ruins and got my feet in the Nile.

Saturday I had the chance to jump into a tour group from a group of hotels going to Abu Simbel at 3am and coming back via the High Dam on Lake Nasser, and the Island of Philae--which was an unexpected highlight of the week long trip. Came back and had dinner with a Nubian family on the island and watched the sunset from their rowboat before going to the Nubian Museum.

Sunday got in a carpool to Luxor and stopped at Kom Ombo and Edfu Temple on the drive north. Arrived in Luxor and immediately set to work dominating the history infested medina (city). Went to Karnak delawati (right away) then we walked back to town together to check out the Luxor Temple at night.

Monday woke up and rented a bike (sans gear shift, but plus a handy dandy basket) and rode myself allllllll over the West Bank hitting up the Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, Valley of the Queens, and the Colossi of Memnon. It was a lot of hot, hard biking, and on my way out to the valley of the Kings I initially wondered if I had lost my mind....but it ended up being a great way to spend the day traveling and seeing the sights (and beats getting a taxi when I only paid $3.50usd for the day on bike!). That night I kept the tourist in me alive and kicking and visited the Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum.

I loved my bike so much that I decided to keep it for another day and set out Tuesday morning to finish the sites I hadn't made it to the day before. Tuesday happened to be the actual Eid Holiday..... the holiday where the lamb is slaughtered... wasn't quite ready for that site as I walked out the gate of my hotel right into the recently killed sheep, right next to my bicycle... Took a deep breath, gathered my guts, and set off to the Habu Temple , Deir El Medina (the workers village), the Ramesseum, and the Temple of Seti I. Another great day in the sun and history of civilization. Spent the late afternoon/evening at my hotel in the garden area waiting for my flight to Sharm on the Sinai Penninsula...

...which I nearly missed! The ferry took much longer than anticipated to cross, and I didn't leave enough time.. A very kind family on the ferry offered to drive me to the airport for free and quickly, al hamdo lelah, and ended up being driven out on the tarmak as they held the flight for 15 minutes for me!... goodness I felt the evil eye when I walked on the plane...

Taxied from Sharm to the beach city of Nuweiba at midnight and met up with my friend Ezzat. What a beautiful, relaxing beach camp it was! We spent Wednesday meeting new friends both in our camp and up and down the beach, and I was able to jump into a group going to climb St Katherine's on Thursday .

Honestly, the climb up Mount Katherine (mt sinai) was the most one of a kind, memorable experience. We started up the mountain at 1am after an hour plus drive from Nuweiba to the mountain... The group of people I met were really wonderful and we had a good time getting to the top together, really a bonding experience... It took 3 hours to hike to the top in the absolute black darkness of night.... and when we reached the top we were bundled in blankets to ward off the cold until sunrise... and what a sunrise it was.. Absolutely stunning. Spent 2 hours on top of the mountain overlooking nothing but beautiful hills and valleys as far as you could see, then trekked back down for another 3 hours, briefly toured the monastery and got back in the bus to head home... major crash napping happened the rest of the day and that evening we got together as a group and hung out, played backgammon and scattegories and relaxed by the beach.

From the beach in Nuweiba, I did a tiny bit of snorkeling (really not a swimmer persay but I had to at least go once right?).. felt little tiny jelly fish pricks but nothing major, saw a sea snake and tons of fish, coral, and sea anemone. Sitting on the beach I could look across the water into the mountains of Saudi Arabia, and Jordan farther north... really mind boggling to think how close I was to the home of so many of my friends...


The trip home on Friday was entertaining... the bus didn't stop for us as it was supposed to... so we spent two hours chasing down our bus.. I ended up in Taba (on the border with Israel), with my new group of friends only to discover the bus had sold our seats so there was standing room only for the 6 hours back to Cairo...... luckily for the three of us girls, seats opened up quickly on the way and I actually rode back quite comfortably...

Cheers to you if you made it through all of this... the incredible thing is that this only skims the surface of what I experienced.. the people I met were really amazing everywhere.. and I know God was watching out for me as things fell into place at the right time everywhere I went...Ana mahzooza owie alatool (I am very lucky, all the time). It's been nice to be in Egypt (Masr), and this was a great culminating experience to see a little bit of everything... Masrland, you've been good to me.. so so kowayyes..
ps. this only touches the surface of my experiences... if you want to know more, check out more photos on facebook here, and or ask me about the great people I met like Adam from Australia, Felix from Madrid, my AIESEC friends I met in Nuweiba, Cassandra from Wyoming, almost getting locked into the hippo goddess temple, eating dinner at Hishem's Nubian home, travel fiascos with Egyptair and East Delta buses... not to mention the oodles of information I could impart on the sites I visited... but this is plenty for one post as it is....

pps. 3 weeks til my 23rd birthday, exactly one month left in Egypt as of today

‎"If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said that it'd be easy, they just promised it would be worth it."

- Andy Bell, Oasis.

Camping with 21 kids...

...Is an adventure. I spent the past four days hiking and camping in the White Desert of Egypt with a group of 8th grade students from Cairo American College. To be honest, I was blessed with a slightly lethargic group---I would have liked to have hiked longer and faster but we kept at a nice pace to observe the scenery and I got to know several of the students really well through long chats. We spent the week with an incredible tour guide, Ziad,

and had two jeep drivers and camel tenders with us to set up camp and cook great food each day. I slept under the stars, we scattered our sleeping bags all over the camp sites and soaked up an amazing night view of more stars than I've ever been able to see in my entire life. The whole desert by day looked like the moon, crazy white rock formations all around... really beautiful.. .

The week without technology, bathrooms, or beds led to a certain amount of complaining by the tweens, but by the end of the week, everyone had come to realize how great it was to be away from the fast paced world we live in. Personally, I loved it. I love getting away, cutting off connections that make life so hectic from day to day... I listened to silence (though often mixed with middle school chatter), sketched and journaled, and really took advantage of the Arabic speaking camp crew to learn more and more Arabic. I was actually understanding a good deal of conversations they had around the campfire the last night.... that's a good feeling. Definitely added kindling to the personal spark to learn the language that already existed within me...

It was nice to get away, but nice to come home last night too... My friends greeted me and welcomed me back home with a night out catching up and eating ice cream :) It's nice to be missed......... that's another sure sign you've made a home for yourself..... Already less than a week away until my next big trip all over Egyptland--Luxor, Aswan, Sinai.... Time to throw the hands in the air for the downhill plunge and laugh and exclaim my way through this month....