Traveling to Egypt- part 1

Ok, so now I'm going to tell all of you all about my trip to Egypt, and hopefully it will be preserved forever so I don't forget it :). I can't think of any clever way to start it other than... we had to wake up REALLY early the day we left. Breakfast was yummy, I had French toast as usual. We picked up our sack lunches and went out to the buses. We were all very tired and groggy, but we pulled away from the center in record time (this soon became a habit with our group, apparently the 2008 summer term group is one of the most prompt and efficient groups they've had in a long time). So the day we left Jerusalem we went on several field trip stops. We traveled through the "Negev" which in Hebrew means "dry." And it is very, very, very dry. It was very hot and we were all very tired. We went to a tel at Ber Sheba (a "tel" is a city that is built on a whole bunch of other old cities that had been destroyed previously and it is now like a big plateau. Archaeologists love them for some reason. Brother Seely can't seem to get enough, haha). Anyways, so we went to that tel, and it was pretty cool. It had a neat little water system with nice and cool caves inside... we also went to a lookout point for the wilderness of Zin (actually spelled with an "S" according to Brother Draper, but we had to memorize it for our maps and it was spelled with a Z so I'm just going to spell it that way cause that's how I'm used to spelling it) which was where the Israelites camped for about 38 years after escaping from Egypt. If I tell about all the places we went on our way down though, I'll never get through it. Let's just say it was hot and dry and we saw a lot of biblical and important places... and it was hot. The heat increased exponentially (hope you liked that kim ;)) throughout the day as we headed farther south and the sun rose higher into the sky. I wish had time to write more beautifully or descriptively, but unfortunately, I don't have time and I wouldn't get it all in. If I was getting paid per word, however, I could be a very wealthy woman. ANYWAY... we eventually made it to a Kibbutz. A Kibbutz (pronounced "Kih-boots") is a ... well... I'm too tired to think of a better word than "communist"... although they're like the nicest people ever... zionist? socialist? Anyways, they share everything. Everybody works hard and gets paid the same. It takes a long time and it's really hard to become a member of the Kibbutz, there are tough requirements. The ones we were at ranged from between 150-400 members if I remember correctly. The Kibbutz where we had dinner was really fun, we had a tour of a milk factory and saw their date farms and they taught us some songs and we had dinner, and then we had another dance party to Jewish music using the styles and techniques that were shown to us by our Jewish brothers and sisters at the Western wall, and it was hilarious. The lady said that the building we were in had never seen such partying. It was fantastic and tons of fun. Anybody who has never had a serious dance party to Jewish chanting and singing is totally missing out. After dinner there, both groups (Draper and Ostler) left to different Kibbutzim (plural of Kibbutz) for the night. All 80 of us at one would've probably overwhelmed just one, so we separated. Our Kibbutz ended up being way better though, because they kept the pool open for us until 10:15 so about 20 of us got in some serious pool playing time, in which we played a game called "prisoner" which was very much like pool dodge-ball, but with some tweaks. It was SO fun. I loved being in the pool at the kibbutz, mostly because I wasn't afraid to open my eyes there like I was when we were in Egypt--but I'll get to that later. So we spent the night at the Kibbutz, and Jenni and Katie and I were roommates, which was a blast. Although we're all always so tired by the time we go to bed that it leaves no time for any kind of slumber party/ sleepover discussions...but it was still fun anyway. The next morning, we ate breakfast at the kibbutz and picked up our sack lunches for after the border crossing. The border crossing went fine, but it took a really long time. My roommate Caryn got held up there though because she's from South Africa and they were suspicious because the rest of us were from the United States... although Mark's passport is Japanese, so I don't know why that worked out, but anyways, moving on... then we had a really really really long bus ride to Cairo, and I had my first ever view of the Pyramids at Giza. We drove past them and then got all checked into our hotel and had dinner and then we went to a really cheesy but cute sound and lights show at the pyramids with lasers and lights and it told the history of Egypt. It was really cute, and I liked it a lot. I got some good pictures of it to share when I get home. :D Anyways, I spent way too long writing this and now I have to go finish homework and get to bed, so I'll be sure to write more as soon as I have time and tell you more about Egypt! I love you all, goodnight!!!!