then we moved onto the pyramids and sphinx! it was absolutely incredible. quite surreal, too. i was so happy cause it was nice, warm, and sunny! below i am in front of the Great Pyramid, the largest of the three. it was suprising how close the site was to the city, but you have to remember that the Nile actually ran right up next to the pyramids at one point in time.
this guy was such a cutie. thankfully he (maybe she) belonged to one of the security officers, so we didn't get hassled about taking a photo with him (or get asked to pay). he (or she) decided to cheese it up with me for the photo--what a great photo opp! :)
here, i am actually up next to ruins from one of the widow's pyramid. they were much smaller in comparison to the other larger ones, but they had the same blocks (meaning huge, rock blocks) that were used for the three larger pyramids. i don't think you can really climb all over the big 3, so i climbed up here to give you some perspective on just how large these blocks are and how intense building these great structures must have been! amazing!
on the way to the middle pyramid, i opted to take a camel ride. for some reason the guy (photographed here to the left) decided that he wanted to ride with me, but that is kind of not very respectable in this culture and for some reason seemed to want to take advantage of the situation to ride with me. my fabulous friend insisted that this was not appropriate and i actually only rode for a few steps, got my photo opp and we walked the rest of the way. oh well. no big deal. at least i got the infamous shot! :)
we walked up to the rear of the site so i could take some photos from behind. i was just so excited to be there and in awe of it all. jumping for joy here:
mio and my fabulous tour guide/hostess with the mostess. she grew up in AR, too. we had a great time talking with each other about our experiences in northern Africa and encouraging one another. it was really refreshing to have this time with her as we could relate on some things and even talk about AR and understand what each other was talking about (she was like a piece of home:). it was truly a blssing to be with her indeed. thanks, thanks, thanks T!
so, then more food fun! they had this insanely huge mall that had all kinds of restaurants, including On the Border. we just don't have any mexican restaurants here for some reason, so that was a major priority for me: fish tacos, chips and salsa, and queso!
then we went to a cinema in the mall--that was playing Body of Lies in English (with Arabic subtitles). it was a blast. i enjoyed some Starbucks during the movie (decaf mind you:) and also flipped out when i saw shots of my city in the movie! also, we could understand most of the Arabic in the movie, so that was really fun, too.
the next day i walked down to the mall/shopping area in my friend's hood. i found a scrabble game that is in Arabic! i was so excited! then i met up with my friend for some local cuisine: koushery and foul are pictured below. both were extremely tasty and really inexpensive.
oh, then it was the next morning stop at this bagel place! this is the cinnamon crunch bagel with strawberry philly cream cheese! i went back for another--we just don't have these here either. it was so, so good!i was really suprised to see all the Christmas decorations around Cairo. it was really fun thought, too. many stores had decorations for sale and also their store decorated! 'Tis the Season!
then, i went down town to the big museum. it was incredible. i couldn't take any photos inside, but here is the entrance with a statue. there were so many tombs, mummy cases, etc. there! it was incredible and i was really excited that the King Tut exhibit was present and didn't cost extra:) wow, really.
then we went to the market (like our medina) to do some shopping and there were a couple of some of the oldest mosques in the city there. it was interesting to see the different architecture of their mosques than of ours here. the last night there we went to go take a boat ride on the Nile, but the wind wasn't moving. we opted out, which was cool--next time! i did get to get some water from the nile though to take with me.
it was an incredible trip that provides me so many memories. i still can't believe i got to go really. very, very thankful indeed!
it was an incredible trip that provides me so many memories. i still can't believe i got to go really. very, very thankful indeed!
i also had the privilege to make up a cheeseball! it was a tweaked recipe from what is available here. and got to make up some mashed potatoes to share. let's just say it was an all out Thanksgiving bash!
below is a photo of my plate--yummy teamwork, aye?
i hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving holiday celebrating with your family and friends. there is just so much to be thankful for isn't there?
it was happy birthday to my roommate! it was great to have her folks there, too. we had quite the crew there, so it was a special celebration for a special lady indeed. below was the spread after the meal at TGIFriday's. yummy cake and ice cream. the candles are arranged into the number 25 since it was her 25th birthday! beautiful!
so, this week has been exciting to say the least. i am back in class taking a class that covers the upcoming Big Eid. looking forward to Thanksgiving and thankful for so much that i am truly grateful for like my family, friends, this opportunity to be here, food, shelter, water, and most of all my G. i hope you have a really great Thanksgiving with you and yours.
hey mom! here's me with some of the ruins. we immediately started taking photos and were snapping shots just about every moment we were there. there was so much to look at and observe. i wondered about so many of the people and the places that existed there. what was it like? amazing really. kind of makes me think about the impression i or we will make on this place. hmmm.
i was most suprised by the number of still intact mosaics. i was thinking there would maybe be like a couple, but there were at least 10 that looked amazing. such incredible craftsmanship here! and these folks were very creative. many were of animals and people and their gods.
i love all the archways and you can see the triumphal arch in the distance to the left. it was quite impressive. much of this place was pillaged by invaders in order to take the resources (marble, stone, etc.) to build other buildings for their cause elsewhere--very interesting, huh? can you imagine what more would still be here today if that had not happened. i also think that this particular invader wanted to disassemble this place because of its idolatry and to claim their stake in this new to them place.
there were many baths there. some looked public while others were for more personal use. amazing how their tubs remained. obviously this was a big part of their culture/life. pretty cool. i liked this one especially cause it had the cut-outs for folks to maybe have their own space. 
sadly, i am realizing that when you live overseas the expat community can sometimes be equated to a revolving of old folks leaving and new folks coming in. i am sure other folks that are studying in other parts of the world can relate to this. it reminds me a lot of the college campus--always in the rotation of coming and going. there was yet another goodbye party this past week that i attended to see of a fabulous lady. above is the couscous that was served to us. it was really, really good--some of the best yet i think i have had. this was just one table's serving--there were two other tables. this lady leaving was pretty loved! below is me and her before leaving the farewell party. she is really cool. 
so, i decided to take a couple of days to wash all the farosh and pillow covers while my roomie was out of town. this has been quite a process (i still have covers on the line drying). but it has been fun and they look really great now! our house helper lady was really glad that i was doing this i think. she also enjoyed showing me how to restuff the pillows. she was proud of what i had learned. here are the pillows stacked up ready to be dusted, then stuffed back into the covers.
here are the covers out on the line--it thankfully hasn't taken loads of time for them to dry as they are made of upholstery fabric. the sun has been shining in the mornings and i have been trying to rotate them to get maximize their light exposure. fun, fun, fun!
so, here comes the fun part! getting the stuffing back into the cover. i thought it to be interesting that the word our house helper used most in teaching me the proper way to stuff them was slowly. at one point i did not heed her advice and heard a stretching of the seam i didn't want to hear. there was no apparent damage--but it reminded me that some jobs must be done slower than others and this was one of those. :) 
well, i hoped you enjoyed this update with a look at the oh-so-normal day to day life things here. i can't believe seven months have passed. i feel like i am still so new here, yet i feel like sooo much has happened that it sometimes feels like i have been here longer than just seven months. i took my lang exam last week and that went really well actually, so i am super grateful for that. i am hopefully going to be taking a course similiar to the R-dan one i took back in Sept, except this one covers the Big Eid. i am excited to learn the vocab and hopefully be able to see more as to why and how this celebration is celebrated. i am also looking forward to Thanksgiving next week! we have a few things on the agenda to celebrate--so that will be fun. with Christmas decorations going up quickly after T-giving. then the week after i have travel plans out of the country! these next few weeks will be quite a fun ride i think:)