Egypt, my new second home!

August 2nd, 2009
In all sincerity, today was the best day of my life. I guess I should start from the beginning. I already told everyone about Alexandria. July 31st we took a 3 hour bus ride to Cairo. Wait let me tell you a little more about Alexandria. This city is totally crazy. I swear it is chaos, but some how , someway, it works. People drive all over the road, there is no such thing as stopping at a stop sign or a red light. No one is in a lane, the donkeys, horses and people walk in the middle of the street. Small children run across the road in front of cars and trucks and people park where ever they want to, including the middle of the street where other cars are still driving. The streets are crowded, its dusty and dirty but everything seems to have a rhythm. No one gets upset if they almost get hit by a car, people don’t seem agitated by the heat or all the other people next to them; they just go on with their day. Meanwhile, I am sweating to death and having a border line asthma attack from all the pollution. But I loved it. Ok back to Cairo. Now not many people know this, aside from a small group of people, but I am obsessed with ancient Egyptian art, history and culture. I used to…ok still do….watch every single documentary on the history channel, the discovery channel, the national geographic channel, pretty much any channel that is showing something about ancient Egypt…I watch it. I have read countless number of books about all the gods and hieroglyphics and I seriously, SERIOUSLY used to want to…and still do… be an archeologist and Egyptologist…The Indiana Jones movies are my favorite movies of all time….ALL TIME! When I was younger I used to collect rocks and pretend that I was finding some ancient, lost Egyptian treasure….ok I think I’m telling way too much information at this point. Anyway, the point that I was trying to make was, I was looking forward to going to Egypt since I was about 4 years old.
On our bus ride to Cairo, we saw some outrageous stuff. Shacks, little huts, people living under boxes and then literally, right next to a huge project building with linen sheets as a roof, I would see a huge, elaborate mansion. I have never seen poverty the way I have seen it in Cairo. People literally live with 20 people to a one bedroom apartment with no roof or windows. People live on top of trash dumps. There are 17 million people in the city of Cairo. I don’t know if you can understand how many people that is, but Cairo is only about 7 miles long. That’s like taking 100 people and putting them inside a Neon. Its crazy. The city is so dusty and crowded and busy and dirty and beautiful all at the same time. I cant really explain it. Its something you have to see and smell and touch. Our first stop on the trip was to the Egyptian museum. It was soooooooooo cool in there and me being the nerd that I am knew all the mummies and all the statues and most of the gods that were all over the place. Our tour guide, who was absolutely amazing, loved me. I could answer all the questions she asked us. I’m a loser. I know. I saw the gold…SOLID GOLD…mask of King Tut, I snuck a bunch of pictures. I probably shouldn’t write this, but its illegal to take picture of any antiquities that are inside a building in Egypt, so when you see my pictures of all the things that I took a picture of…inside a building…it wasn’t me. Anyway, after the museum we went to our FIVE STAR FREAKIN HOTEL THAT WAS ONCE A PALACE FOR THE WIFE OF I THINK NAPOLEAN THAT HAD A DIRECT VIEW OF THE NILE RIVER AND THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA!!!!!!!!!! It was the nicest hotel I have ever been in. the food was amazing. I can describe the food because I might cry. It was that good. After we ate I forget what we did. It was a really long day. Ooooooooooooooooooh omg I remember!!! How could I have almost forgotten!! We went to the coolest light show in the world at the Giza Plateau in front of the Sphinx and the pyramids. It was this whole show with different color lights that illuminated the pyramids and the sphinx and told all the history of ancient Egypt. It was so cool. I saw a shooting star. It was gorgeous. There is seriously so much to tell. I cant write it all. I’m going to have to skip some parts.
The next day, I woke up a 430 in the morning to watch the sunrise over the pyramids. It was breath taking. I have had dreams of doing this. The fact that I actually sat there in front of the Pyramids and watched the sun rise perfectly against the side of the most magnificent man made object in the world, has not fully registered. I was able to check one more thing off my list of things to do before I die. After we watched the sunrise, we got to walk around the plateau and take pictures and touch the pyramid. Then the worst thing in the world happened. The camels showed up. I HATE CAMELS. WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I DISLIKE THOSE DIRTY UGLY NASTY, SPITTING, POOPING, PEEING SAND RODENTS!! They are so mean and disgusting. Sihfakhsfkahsfkjahskfjhakjsf afhakjhfskjas. Buuut, somehow I was talked into riding one by my lovely roommate, Grace Obando. It was by far the worst experience/most amazing experience ever…besides all the other best experiences of my life from this magnificent summer I have been having. I was borderline crying the entire time and I didn’t want to touch it so I was trying to balance my body without falling off, while trying to actually look at the pyramids that we were riding around and see the sphinx and not throw up. Grace has a video. It is absolutely hilarious. But no one will ever see it. After I jumped off the god forsaken camel, the best part of the day happened… I WENT INSIDE ONE OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS!!!!!!! I WAS INSIDE ONE OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT! It was sooooo siiiick! You have to squat for almost 7 minutes to get the bottom where there is burial chamber. It was the hottest room I have ever been in ever. The sweat was literally dripping off of my face and the air was so thin but it was ridiculously amazing. There was graffiti on the wall from some Italian explorer from 1881. That’s all that was on the wall and there was one sarcophagus with hieroglyphics inside….yes I have pictures of all this…and no I was not allowed to take pictures of any of this. It was surreal. After the pyramids we went over to the Sphinx. I love the Sphinx, he’s so cool, and relaxed yet powerful. The structure of the Sphinx is mesmerizing. I stared at it for 20 minutes. The Sphinx has always been my favorite thing and now I have actually seen it up close and personal. It’s a beautiful thing. After all that playing around in the Sahara Desert, we went to have lunch and then we went to the Alabaster Mosque, which has the body of Mohamed Ali, the “father” of modern Egypt. The mosque was gorgeous and it had a panoramic view of the entire city of Cairo. I learned so much about Islam while we were there from our tour guide and I cant wait to get home and tell everyone I know about all the misconceptions and lies we hear about the Islamic religion. I talked about that a little in my blog for Turkey, but Egypt just solidified what I learned there. Anyway, after that we had dinner on the NILE RIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately, the Nile is not as beautiful as it used to be because of all the pollution and commercialization of Cairo, but the experience in itself was unbelievable. That was another thing I checked off my bucket list, eat dinner while cruising down the Nile. We had a belly dancer and traditional Egyptian folkloric dancers as entertainment while we ate. It was so nice. There was so much more but I’m skipping stuff.
Ok back to today, august 2nd, the best day of my life. This is a really long entry huh? Anyway, today we went to Memphis, which was the first capital of Egypt and the first established city in the entire world. I saw the most amazing statue of King Ramses the 2nd. It was huuuuuuuuuuuuge. Then we went to Sakkara. This is where my day became the best day of my life. We get off the bus and are headed towards the 1st step pyramid and first stone building ever made all over the world and I see all these men yelling and I see a couple camera guys. Then all of a sudden I see my idol. Now no one knows that this little Egyptian man is my idol, because I try to keep my inner dork to myself, but I met Dr. Zahi Hawass. Ok noooooooooooooo one knows who this is probably and if you do you are the coolest person ever. Dr. Zahi Hawass is the world renowned archeologist and the most famous Egyptologist in the world. He just gave President Obama a personal tour of all the sites of Egypt last week when Obama was here. He is an Egyptian who studied and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is a freakin expert in this field. I have read 3 of his books and I watch every single documentary that I see on tv with him in it. when I saw him I was literally star struck. I have no idea why. I have met celebrities before, quite a few actually, and I have never been star struck, but Dr. Zahi Hawass…a guy that most people don’t even know, but should, and I am speechless. Well I got over being speechless very quickly and walked over and introduced my self to him and he asked me where I go to school and when I told him he got excited because he used to live in Philly for 20 years and I told him how excited I was to meet him and I felt like I was skipping through air. Meanwhile, everyone with me is like “Nexus, who the hell is this little old Egyptian man?” My tour guide was the only other person who was just as happy as I was. I was secretly hoping, all the way back in June that when I got to Egypt I would meet him. Then, because I had my camera, because I kept sneaking it into every single place that we went, I got to take a bunch of pictures with him and then when people found out who he was they wanted pictures too and since I was the only person in my group with a camera, because I snuck it in the temples and pyramids, I had to take a bunch of pictures of people who 5 minutes ago didn’t even know who my idol was…so I had a little attitude about that. But then I asked Dr. Hawass what was he doing at the step pyramids and he told me he was doing a show with one of Egypt’s most famous movies stars, this guy named Ramez Galal who is in love with me and Grace. So we took a bunch of pictures with Ramez and me and Grace got to get recorded for the show….AGAIN!!!...Ramez Galal asked us to repeat after him something like “Traveling the world with Ramez and Egypt’s Indiana Jones, Dr. Zahi Hawass!” Or something like that. I cant remember then he made us say it in Arabic which was really really cool and all the cameras were on us and everyone was watching and I was completely embarrassed/ ecstatic because I was standing next to Dr. Hawass! Hahahahahaha I am such a loser but I was seriously so excited I cant even describe it. Hopefully we’ll be on the show so look out for it on some channel…I don’t know which one, and while you’re looking for that, keep looking out for me jumping off a cliff in Croatia on the Travel Channel!!!
Ok it seriously gets better. After all the hypeness with the cameras, Dr. Hawass quiets everyone down as says “As a special treat for all of you, I will allow you all to go inside the step Pyramid of Imhotep!” ISWEAR TO GOD I ALMOST PASSED OUT!! NO ONE IS ALLOWED INSIDE THE STEP PYRAMID. MY TOUR GUIDE WHO HAS BEEN DOING HER JOB FOR 15 YEARS HAD NEVER BEEN INSIDE THE STEP PYRAMID OF IMHOTEP. IT WAS LIKE A SCENE FROM A MOVIE I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!! WE HAD OUR OWN ESORT INSIDE THE OLDEST MAN MADE BUILDING ON THE PLANET!!! I watched the man unlock the bolted door to get inside the pyramid. It was so exclusive that the lights weren’t even on. He had to turn the lights on inside the part we were allowed to walk through. It was truly truly truly truly amazing. I seriously feel so blessed. My group got to go inside an ancient pyramid that very few people are allowed to go in. it was so cool. Needless to say. I love Egypt. I knew I would but my time here has surpassed all expectations. I could not have asked for a better time. I am in love with this country, the people, the culture, the history, everything. I had the best time of my life. I really mean it this time. I don’t think anything can top this. And if it does, I might not come back to America. I think I’m done now. Next stop, Casablanca, Morocco…then AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!