Hey Guys! It's me again… I am sure you are getting sick of these emails cluttering up your inboxes, but here I go again. I've been to two countries since I last wrote: Egypt and the UAE.
We arrived in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) located nearest to Saudi Arabia. It is the wealthiest and fastest growing city in the world. Dubai was founded only 50 years ago along the Persian Gulf and it has grown outrageously fast, mostly due to oil. There was so much construction everywhere; every road it seemed has something new popping up on it (or the road itself was under construction). Because it is such as young city, all the buildings look brand new. Even the ones that look old are designed to look old, but they are really new. There is so much modern architecture. You have probably seen the famous hotel in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, it's the world's largest hotel. It's the one on its own island and is shaped like the sail of a boat. Dubai is also currently building the world's tallest building. This building you can see from just about anywhere in or around Dubai.
We stayed in the UAE Youth Hostel. It was really nice for a hostel. We met these guys, (and I know what you're thinking and it's not even like that) who were carrying around a volleyball. So, I naturally asked them if they played because I wanted to play. They said just for fun, but that they did "Athletics," which I guess means track. Well, turns out they are members of the Algerian track team training for the Olympics and staying in Dubai for 10 months. Leah and I hit the ball around with them for quite a bit. Let's just hope they are better at running than they are at volleyball. :)
Also, in Dubai we had a free day, so a few of us decided to go to the Dubai Women's Tennis Invitational. We missed Federer and Nadal by just a few days. We would have seen Sharapova but she dropped out because of the flu. But we did get to see Muresmo, which was cool (I think she won Wimbledon a few years back). This was my very first tennis tournament, and it was a lot of fun. We had pretty good seats and could see the court really well because it was a small venue.
Another day in Dubai, we went on a desert safari in which we drove over the desert and got amazing pictures of the sun setting over the dunes. After they took us to a show where we ate dinner, we got henna tattoos and smoked sheesha (which is hookah). Sheesha is a cultural thing in the Middle East; most all restaurants offer it on menus. Then we got to see a belly-dancer. Inevitably, I got pulled up on stage, along with Lindsey, and I drug Leah with me. We had to "belly dance" in front of everyone. It was fun and we got into it. By the end, practically the whole class, including Denny, was up on stage with the belly dancer, and we have the whole thing on video. We were only in Dubai for a few days so we were really limited on what we got to see.
In Egypt, we saw all the sites: The pyramids, the sphinx, the Egyptian Museum, etc. All of this in one day. It was crazy to try and process all the information and the sights we were seeing. The pyramids really are all they are “cracked up to be.” It is amazing that they were built over 4000 years ago. I think that is really what impressed me the most--how old everything was and how well preserved most things were. We got to go into one of the pyramids, which is really tiny and you have to crouch down to get in there. Not really much to see inside, or of what we were allowed to see anyways. We took tons of pictures in front of the pyramids and the sphinx…all of them gorgeous of course.
Then we went to the Egyptian Museum. This is where King Tut's jewels and such are. We got to see the famous King Tut head piece that covered his mummy, no pictures here though which was a bummer. But, the elaborate detail of everything that was in his tomb with him was nuts!!! And everything was so well preserved. Hundreds of necklaces, jewels, gold boxes within boxes within boxes, gold chariots, beds, chairs, dried food (THAT IS STILL PRESERVED), tools. You name it King Tut needed it in the after life. His body was placed in so many decorated boxes and boxes. Similar to those dolls, I think they are Russian, that you have to open boxes upon boxes to get to the doll inside and when you do it's really tiny. You know the ones I'm talking about? The Egyptians used the same principle for ensuring safety of the body of their kings and pharaohs from robbers. The truly amazing thing about this was that Tut was found in the Valley of the Kings, his was the smallest of all the tombs found. He died at age 18 so you can only imagine the extravagance of other kings and pharaohs.
Today we went to a bizarre place with lots and lots of little shops selling necklaces, shirts, souvenirs, etc. And let me tell you, those Egyptian men running the shops they will charm you left and right. That's how they make their sales they just talk to you like a friend and get you to feel comfortable so you will trust them to give you a fair price. They are very good at it; they totally talked me into a price I didn't want to pay. But oh well, it's all about learning right?
Well that's all I have for now. It's off to Istanbul, Turkey tomorrow morning. Here we will meet back up with our other professor, David Anderson. I think everyone is really looking forward to having David and his wife back with us… they are so much fun. Turkey is the second to last stop on our journey and I can't believe we have less than a month left of our trip. The time has gone by so fast. We've just been so busy going and going and going I haven't really had a chance to process all that I've seen so far. I hope this email finds you all well and don't worry Spring is coming soon. Today starts March after all :)
Peace,
Megan
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