The flight to Cairo was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that I couldn't sleep. Right after the we got through customs, we got onto our bus and drove for 6 hours (overnight) to Sinai. We were heading to Sinai instead of Cairo in order to climb Mount Sinai and watch the sunrise. When we arrived at our hotel in Sinai we went directly to some hotel rooms that they let us crash in for the afternoon until our real rooms were ready. I slept straight through the afternoon, woke up for meals, then went to sleep for the night. (If you can't tell, I was a little tired). Our entire group had to get up at 2AM, eat breakfast (which was basically as much coffee or tea as people could drink) and be on the bus by 2:30. I layered on as many warm layers of clothing that I could in order to not freeze while climbing Mount Sinai, because surprise it was COLD! I was still pretty tired, but managed to wake up at 2 and was ready in time for the bus to leave. It was pitch black when I got to Mount Sinai. The original path was pretty flat, but soon got quite a bit steeper making the journey up a bit of a challenge. It was very rough, however completely worth it once I got to the top. The view was amazing, and we had a great seat (there were a BUNCH of tourists) to see the sunrise! It really was a majestic experience. A couple of us decided that instead of taking the easy route (the route we took up the mountain = NOT SO EASY lol), we took the 3750 stairs of penitence down. The path was amazing, and not nearly as difficult going down as it would have been going up!
After Sinai, we took the bus back to Cairo - another 6 hour bus ride. We arrived at the Cosmo hotel in Cairo at about 6PM and had dinner by 7. That day was my friend Shannon's birthday, so we had cake and a small 21st birthday celebration, and I went to bed as soon as I could in order to be able to be awake for all of the busyness that was going to happen the rest of the week. (Just to help you follow, we woke up on 2AM Sat morning and arrived at the Cosmo hotel at 5PM Sat night.)
On Sunday morning, we left the hotel at 9AM to tour the new campus of the American University in Cairo. It is gorgeous! I could barely believe it. I am really sad that our group doesn't get to attend that part of the University - it seemed like such an amazing and fun place. After our tour we had class for two and a half hours. We got back to the hotel in time for dinner at 7. It was a very long day, but since I my midterm is due on Thursday I figured I would spend a little bit working on it after dinner. I finally got to bed around 10!
Today, we took a bus tour of Cairo and saw all the different aspects of the city, including the outlines of the Pyramids rising through the haze (which is not fog - it is pollution...ew). After our tour, we had a lecture by a former St. Olaf prof who is from Egypt and now works here. Again, another pretty long and busy day! All I can say is I can't wait for this weekend because we have Friday AND Saturday FREE!!
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