At Last

Over the past month, every single Egyptian I've chatted with in the streets has asked me one question: "Have you seen the pyramids?" My answer: "Well I drive by them on my way to work..." until today. This morning we finally made our obligatory visit, for once not caring that we all looked like tourists (though we by far weren't the most obnoxiously obvious ones there - we actually saw one woman wearing a pink and white pharonic headdress). There isn't really much to do at the pyramids except look at them and take pictures and think, "Omg. These are the pyramids," but we all had a great time doing that all morning. After we took pictures at the base of the two biggest ones and climbed a little ways up (to take more pictures), we headed up a sand dune where there's an amazing panoramic view... and we took more pictures. Then came the camel ride. I've actually ridden a camel before, but the sensation is kind of weird, so I wasn't used to it. Probably the strangest thing is the standing up part - a camel's legs are long and it straightens its back knees first, so you go from sitting straight up to pitching 60 degrees forward and then straightening again. We rode down the dune, all the while taking more pictures of ourselves on camels with the pyramids in the background. Finally, we traveled over to the last pyramid and the sphinx (by bus, not camel) to take even more pictures. Here instead of taking pictures ourselves, we were accosted by small Egyptian children who helped us take pictures. I have to say this was really annoying at first, and I freaked out when one kid took my friend's camera out of my hand to help, but they were amazingly skilled at setting up the kind of cheesy/touristy pictures that are appropriate to take by the sphinx (e.g. kissing the sphinx, petting the sphinx, putting your sunglasses on the sphinx). By 1 o'clock, we were all exhausted (that much smiling really takes it out of you), plus we'd been standing in the sun in the middle of the desert all morning, so we went back to our apartment to relax.

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to shop (not in touristy places, but in normal Egyptian book and clothing stores). Though I didn't by any clothes, going into the store was an adventure in and of itself - people were ridiculously pushy, and the sales lady who was helping us got in an argument with some other people about a fitting room at one point. All in all, I was way to overwhelmed to try anything on. Besides, almost everything in Egyptian is bedazzled with rhinestones or beads - not really my thing. I did make one quality purchase however - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Arabic (aka Harry Botter wa Hajr al-Philosof). I'm pretty excited to start reading, though I'm not sure how much success I'll have.