Yes, we're American. How could you tell?

Just got back from the most tourist-y attraction we'll probably be apart of on this whole trip, a Nile dinner cruise. The dinner part was great. I couldn't tell you what anything was because that's still a mystery to me, but it was great nonetheless. The only food items that were labeled were the obvious ones like rice or steamed vegetables. There was also some kind of yummy breaded fish and these interesting fried potato things that looked like mozzarella sticks and tasted like tater tots. Strange, but good. The cruise itself was interesting. The boat was very ornately styled to evoke the time of the pharaohs. Hieroglyphs on the walls, gilded ceiling tiles, and even a man dressed as a pharaoh (robe, hat & faux goatee) to welcome you and direct you to the reservation desk. There was even live music! However, we all as honors students studying both the modern and ancient cultures of the region had to shake our heads when a belly dancer began to perform. The girl was good and her costumes were pretty, but it was so painfully anachronistic that most of us had a hard time taking the whole thing seriously. But then, we had been greeted by a guy dressed as an anonymous pharaoh asking if our tour guide had made a reservation, so I think we were all skeptics from the start. Once we finished eating, we made our way to the upper deck, dessert plates in hand, to take our fill of the banks of the Nile at night.

I'd like to say it was a beautiful sight and, yes, there were beautiful parts, but Cairo, so far, seems to be quite a sad city. The beautiful architecture is either ancient and impossible to spot at night, or new and western and most likely housing an overpriced hotel. The most common sight is a high rise apartment, most of them clustered together, beat up old air conditioning units attached precariously to the sides, and laundry hanging from every other balcony. I never did get a picture of the belly dancer, but in only a few hours I already have dozens of pictures of what could be the same apartment building over and over, all across Cairo. I know in the days to come we're going to see some amazing places, but right now it's hard to get past that image of poverty that's already taken root in my mind.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we're going to see some of those amazing places. We're going to Giza! We're scheduled to arrive there by 8am and stay til noon. Any later and our guide says it will be too hot. I think someone said the high tomorrow is going to be around 105F. It was 95F today when we landed and that wasn't too awful, so we'll see how that feels in the morning. We're going to see three pyramids at Giza in addition to the Sphinx and I think we also get to explore inside one of the pyramids, although I'm not sure which yet. I'm excited and nervous and I'm already worried that I haven't taken enough pictures! I didn't take very many today, so the camera should be more than capable of clicking away all day tomorrow! I haven't the slightest clue what's on the itinerary after Giza, but hopefully I'll be able to share a few pictures sometime soon.

A few other thoughts before I turn in for the night
- Security in Cairo is kind of mind boggling. There are police officers literally everywhere you look, metal detectors at the entrance to almost every building, and, because we're Americans, we actually have an armed member of the Tourist Police with us wherever we go. It's strange to see, but it's apparently quite the norm here.
- My feet hurt! And not from walking and/or wearing impractical shoes, like when I went to DC in October. From flying! Ugh. I was not prepared for that. Me feet look like little over-stuffed sausages. (Lovely visual, I know.) I couldn't fasten my sandals on their usual notch to wear to dinner tonight, so I am Not looking forward to trying my tennis shoes in the morning. (I know you all were probably very concerned with the well-being of my feet. And if you weren't, now you know anyway!)
- This time difference is going to be strange. I'm going to bed late here (12:15am) but I just got to talk to Karissa who was getting home from work (5:15pm) there. Good news though! Rissa & I were able to Skype, which we didn't think would be possible here. The internet isn't the best here in the hotel room, so the video was choppy and we eventually got disconnected, but it was still a success! The connection should be much better from the rooftop restaurant and ground floor lobby here in the hotel, so I'll be sure to test that out later in the week during some downtime - whenever that might be.