ok.. lets finish Egypt...
day four. Family Farm.
We wake up.  Get dressed.  Watch things get slaughtered.  Yep.
Basically spend the morning eating foul (kinda like bean dip and bread) on one side of the porch, while 2 cows and a ram were slaughtered on the other side.  It was interesting.  Ya see, Eid al Adha, the whole reason we had a week off, is a muslim holiday, celebrating the end of the pilgrimage. ( Ya know, Mecca? Look it up.) As part of it, they slaughter in remembrance of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son, and God providing an animal instead.  Christians and Jews have about the same story.  So they portion out the meat in thirds to their immediate family, extended family or friends, and the poor.  Its a requirement.
And you have to slaughter a very specific way, the most humane way possible. Its really similar to Jewish Kosher meat practices. And all Islamic meat has to be done this way.
So we watched our dinners go from mooing to cooking. It was interesting.  Only the smell bothered me, by the end of the day from all the blood.  And the flies. Everywhere.
And then there was a huge feast.  Its was kinda like Thanksgiving.  They have certain foods every year. And the uncles and aunts kept trying to feed everyone more, not just Anna and I.  Although we got the most attention.
Then we had to head to Cairo to catch the train.  Our friend Sara's cousin's drove us, and even insisted on taking us, not to our train, but to our seats on the train, to make sure everything was set. It was really sweet.
Overnight train to Luxor. Slept, kinda. It was hard, bc the train makes stops all night long, so they don't turn off the lights, and people are getting on and off the whole time.  But I woke up in time to watch a beautiful sunrise.  So that was really neat.

Day five Luxor.
Luxor is split in 2 by the Nile.  So the ancient Egyptians lived on one side, and built all their tombs on the other. We end up joining a tour group to see the west bank of Luxor.  This had Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hapshtsots tomb, Colossi of Memnon, and other neat stuff.  And lots of it.  This stuff was the kind of thing you go to Egypt for, the painting on the walls of the whole process of mummification, and gods, and myths.  It was amazing.  But you cant take pics. So you'l have to believe me.
Then we ditched the group, ate lunch and tried to see 2 things ourselves.  Thats it, 2 things.  The temple of Karnak and the Temple of Luxor.  Well, we managed to take the back way, thereby seeing the real side of Luxor, like people's homes and such. Basically, we walked like 45 minutes down the correct road, its just not the tourist version.  opps.  But really nice people kept reassuring us, yes, that way. So we continued.  Then we managed to come up on the back side of the Karnak temple complex and have to walk all the way around... pain the in the...  The temple complex was totally neat though, huge. It wasn't just one temple, but a whole huge complex of old temple-y things. Then we did Luxor in the dark. Which turned out awesome. Ended up meeting up with our friends from school who happened to also be in Luxor for dinner, so that was cool.
Then we caught the train back to Cairo.  It was about the same as the train there, but I was ready for it, so I slept better.

Day 6 Cairo
Arrived and went to see the pyramids. We rode horses.  You can walk and see them, but they're kinda far apart.  And you dont get the views.  So, We rose around for a few hours, with this crazy tour guide.  Got to TOUCH a pyramid! Again, you can't usually get close to them. There is a rope around the perimeter about 10 yds around the edge.  But the tourist police guard saw me go find a rock that was obviously off the pyramid, and take a pic touching it.  So then he let me and Anna over the rope and take pics touching the middle pyramid.  Heck yes.
And we saw the sphinx.  It was pretty neat.  Hear lots of explanations about why its missing the nose.  The most popular is that Napoleon's troops used it for target practice and blew it off. Also, possible someone pried it off bc locals were worshipping the Sphinx.
So we ended up that evening wandering around the downtown area for some local food. When Sara's cousins called us! They ended up picking us up and taking us out to coffee and then driving us to the airport.  Once again, they took us as far as they could go to make sure we were safely on the right flight. It was really adorable and just another case of arab hospitality.
But the Egyptian guys wouldn't let me through the first round of security to the check in desks without a confirmation of my ticket. Like, ya know how you often have the print out of your ticket, but you have to arrive and get the real one? well, i have misplaced the paper, but you just hand over your passport and no big deal... Not in Egypt.  They held me back, and sent some guy with my passport to check that i was on the flight I said I was on. It was frustrating,  bc its not like I can go any farther if I'm not on a flight and I can't get a ticket there anyway.  Like, if that  is your security measures, stop wasting time.  And then, as we're waiting for our flight, the gate is open, so we walk through to sit down.  There is security here, but no one operating it.  They are just sitting there watching us,  and a few others. And one of the guard is sleeping...But after a few minutes inside our gate, we all get hustled back out, and told to wait a half hour, until they open and run us through security.  Ummm...maybe the sleeping person should have stopped us?  Then, finally, we're about to board the bus to shuttle over to the plane.  And there is a guy going through everyone's passport's again, just hassling and even pulled someone out of line. So we're a bit nervous, like, what's he gonna do to us? what is he looking for now? I mean, there is nothing in our passports that would bother Egypt but still.  It gets to us, and he just waves us through with a smile.  Another case of being a white girl.

So Egypt was really great.  We did amazing things.  We def got the best treatment b having the hook up through Sara.  Getting to share Eid with a family is a huge deal, and it was really cool.  Its like bringing someone who's never had Thanksgiving home with you. They were overwhelmingly welcoming. And the stuff from the ancient Egyptians is just like is looks in the movies.  Surreal.  Especially the painted stuff. Cairo is so overwhelmingly crowded I really don't think I can accurately share that.  Its like an ant farm.  Really. Imagine a Bug's Life, inside the hill.  Then make every one bigger and trying to drive a car or sell something or be somewhere else. But again, I just love Jordan.  Its so much more chill than Egypt, but still has a distinctly Middle Eastern flavor.  And they aren't as used to tourists, so you don't get hassled as much.  I mean, you don't blend in much better, but they don't see you and always assume they can screw money out of you.   Its just more chill.