Wednesday, March 31

Life along the Nile

Well I'm into my tour of Egypt, yesterday was spent at the pyramids, in the pyramids (yep that's right I went in) and by the sphinx. I also toured the Egyptian Museum and went into the mummy room. So I feel like I'm really here. Actually it was pretty amazing to see items produced so long ago and that have survived so long. The engineering and artistic feats of the egyptian pharohs and people are awe inspiring. However, the best thing I've seen so far was Alexandria. The meditranean is beautiful, the weather was amazing and the town was so beautiful. It also has the most amazing library :D I could live in that library. They are also doing some amazing things with digital collections and trying very hard to create free access to their collection through the world wide web. I was in rapture the whole time we were touring. I think I've found my true calling to work with libraries :D now to just get the school work done so I can get down to it.

It's pretty warm here in Aswan but I've been assured this is the hottest part of our tour :D so I should survive. Actually it's been really nice, there is almost always a breeze coming off the nile and we do most of our sightseeing before noon, then we have free afternoon time before supper. Our tour leader is very nice, she's from here in Aswan and is very knowledgeable about egptian history and culture which is the best part of these GAP tours I've been taking. The group is very multinational, we have 2 from china who live in London, 2 brits who are just back in the EU after years teaching in Singapore, a frenchmen and columbian who live in New york, a norwegian couple and a family from Minnesota (I think that's right) so it's a pretty amazing group to chat with and learn from. Because everyone else had a partner I get a room to myself and I'm not complaining. This is also a luxury tour so I'm really not complaining :D

Despite my efforts to keep sunscreen on and carry an umbrella I'm getting quite the tan. I've also been enjoying the local cuisine and tonight we're going to a nubian village for supper after we sail there up the nile on a fellucca. So exciting things are ahead, unfortunatly internet is spotty here and time to access it is slim so I'll update when I can but if you don't here from me know I'm having a blast here and I'll have lots of pictures to share when I get to London.

Oh yeah the cats are awesome here I'll be lucky if I don't come home with like a 100 cats in tow :D they're everywhere!!!

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