Egypt Excitement!

Egypt, can you believe it? I am still in shock. It was quite an adventure. For one I thought Jerusalem was dirty but I was definitely corrected once we went to Cairo. The men all wear funny robe things and because it is predominately Muslim literally every women in Cairo had her hair covered. We went to Cairo and Luxor and had fun traveling there. We took the Luxor Express, a night train, to Luxor and a red eye flight back. We always had an Egyptian tour guide and security man with us. I guess it is law for Egypt. The security man was always in a suite with a gun showing on his waist belt while the tour guide looked like your typical tourist. I decided the Egyptians need to learn about deodorant. Your body would go in shock when you climbed on the bus behind them. They were really nice guys though.

It was amazing to see the pyramids. They are huge and it is incredible they were built so well to last. The Sphinx looks a little funny if you ask me, but that may be because the nose and beard are missing. Funny story is that the nose is in a British museum and the Egyptian government asked for it back. The British said no because if they gave it back then all the other countries would want all of their other artifacts back. That made me smile to think about. We also went on a camel ride. It was really cool but they are awkward creatures, how they look, move, and smell. :)

We also went to the Valley of the Kings and saw some of the tombs there. The tomb text or reliefs are so interesting and cool. They are painted with bright colors and tons of the colors are still there. It is incredible to think so many people put in so much time for a tomb. The temples on the East side of the Nile (tombs on the West) were huge and completely covered in reliefs. We saw some doctrinal debris in the tombs and temples. One professor described it really well by saying the Egyptians received so many keys of knowledge and not know which was right and not wanting to get rid of the correct key, they kept them all. We see bits of truth but overall they were quite confused.

We hiked Mt. Sinai, the place where Moses received the ten commandments (and many other events). It was crazy because it was my first sunrise hike. We got to the hotel at 8:30 PM and had dinner. Then we held sacrament meeting and finally got to bed by 11:30 PM. We then woke up at 1:00 to leave for our hike. It was really cool because it was a full moon so we hiked without flashlights. We arrived at the top about an hour before sunrise but once it came it was beautiful. I've gained a new image and perspective when anyone mentions the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. There really is nothing out there. It is crazy.

We were not able to drink any of the water there except bottled water. Luckily I didn't get sick although there were a few from our group who did. They usually forgot and eat something they were supposed to or just didn't care. I guess they cared afterwards but some people have to learn the hard way. Another unique thing about Egypt is that you have to pay to use public restrooms and frequently you have to provide your own toilet paper. I don't think I have ever seen such disgusting places as some of the bathrooms there. They honestly were holes in the ground. I learned to hold it for a long time at times like that.

It really was amazing to see so much history. One thing I loved was we had a couple of sessions where our Old Testament professor would talk to us for an hour on subjects like the facsimiles and other cool things like that. I love brother Draper. He is so knowledgeable and willing to share what he knows. My bus buddy and friend, Carlee Painter, gets car sick so I was lucky enough to always sit in the front. This meant when ever I had a question or down time I could ask Brother Draper anything. It was great. I also had a lot of time to think on the trip with all of the driving we did. It was neat to learn so many things. I feel like I grew so much in the last week. The trip was incredible but I was definitely happy to be home at the JC.

The border crossing was ridiculous and took hours for us all to get through. It did mean I had time to go and play in the Red Sea. Because we were so far behind schedule from the border crossing and traffic, the bus driver received permission to take the shortest route to the JC, which is through the middle of the West Bank. So now I can say I have been to the West Bank too.