My family came to visit me in Egypt! It was really good to see them again, plus I was able to show them my crazy life and Egypt and have them meet the people that I talk about all the time:) My family definitely experienced all of Egypt. We stayed in Cairo for a few days where we hung out at the pyramids, went shopping for souvenirs, and watched the sufi dancers. Brent was even able to hang out with me at night and see what Egyptians do for fun. He was amazed that there were still traffic jams at 3 am. Yes, Cairo is crazy and full of traffic. Every time we rode a taxi, my parents were thrilled. There is no traffic system in Cairo, so everyone drives as they please and honk their horns constantly. It was almost like a game of bumper cars and haha some of the cars looked like they were actually bumper cars. We then traveled to Aswan and Luxor. The two cities are homes to all the temples of the ancient Pharaohs. The temples were extremely massive and full of hieroglyphics. Between the two cities we visited: Philae Temple, Edfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Queens, Colossi of Memnon, funerary temple of Queen hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, Karnak temple, and Luxor temple. The history of those places are so vast, I recommend buying a book or renting a video if you are interested. I enjoyed visiting the temples but it was so HOT and some buses had no air conditioning, which caused some problems. But I knew the right people and came up with stupid excuses and landed a nicer hotel and nice tour cars. In between Aswan and Luxor we lived on a falluka for two days. We originally thought the falluka was going to be one of the many large boats. Oops, thanks to my miscommunication we were surprised with a small boat and a small sail. We shared the boat with 4 other people, plus the 4 crewmen. Then we freaked out when there was no bathroom! So whenever someone had to go to the bathroom we had to pull off to the bank and find a place to go to the bathroom. That was a challenge in itself because most of the land was farmland and people show up in the most surprising places! hahah oh well, talk about roughing it. Luckily the crewmen were really nice, which made the trip more enjoyable and I got to use my Arabic speaking skills with them, which was helpful because they sometimes didn't understand our English:) We even tried camel meat and swam in the Nile river! The water was soooooo cold and the current was really strong so we had to hold onto a rope, but the water felt wonderful because it was so hot and of course there was no AC on the boat:)
After surviving Aswan and Luxor, we took a plane to Sharm el Sheik. It is a beach resort on the red sea. It was heavenly. I did not feel like I was in Egypt at all, mostly because everything was in English and there were mainly foreigners:) The resort was really clean and it was nice to be pampered and do nothing but swimming and tanning on the beach. We even went snorkeling! It was as if we were inside the discovery channel:)
We stayed in Sharm for three days then returned to Cairo, where my dad helped me find a new apartment and my mom helped me pack. I had a lot of problems in my apartment and the brokers wouldn't help me, even when my dad was there! So we called it quits, my dad pretended to throw a fit and we got some money back and I found a new apartment. Luckily I found an apartment in the same building, but on a different floor. It made moving a lot easier because I didn't have to rely on a car and I didn't have to venture out to meet new neighbors and find new stores. Although I still get lost here:) haha.
All in all, it was really nice to see my family. They definitely saw a different side of life, but I think I surprised them too many times (such as thinking they would be able to eat food off the street. I forgot I got sick several times before I could eat the food) but they also adjusted a lot better than I thought. The were good at understanding the taxi system and could even cross the busy streets by themselves! (haha yes, there are no crosswalks or traffic lights in Cairo:)) They even learned a few phrases in Arabic. It is worth sending them an email asking about their experiences. I'm sure they have a lot more stories because what may seem normal to me is probably new to them.
