The Sand of Siwa

This past weekend we spent our last organized trip out to the beautiful land of Siwa. This is a part of Egypt that is known for it's traditional roots and non-Western influence (except tourism has been hitting the place big time). After a night bus ride out to the place, we stayed the night in a hotel. Our hotel was awesome because it had no electricity so everything was by lit up by candle and kerosene lamp. I loved it.


The next morning we rented bikes and were out for the day. This is the day that I had been terrified of from finding out all the things we do on this semester because I will publicly announce that I never really learned how to ride a bike. Though I did ride a motor bike this summer in Nepal (terrifying!), I was still nervous about this experience though I knew there was no way I was gonna give up. I ended up taking it on really well and never fell. It was exhilarating! Everyone was surprised when I told them this was basically my first time really riding a bike and everyone was cheering me on and said I looked like a natural.


The first thing we did was to go to the Oracle Temple, which was ruins in the mountainside. Then we biked to Cleopatra's bath, one of the many but most famous fresh water pools in Siwa. This is where we swam in Cleopatra's bath, ran and jumped in, and played games like synchronized diving and dominoes. After that a crew and I explored a fortress and then saw a mountain that looked like Pride Rock from the Lion King so we decided to climb that too.

Then all the MESPers got together and we took a 30 minute bike ride out to a salt lake. We floated on the water as we watched the sun go down and then rode our bikes back in the night. (Two crazy first time biking things: off-roading and riding in the dark).



The next day we spent some time at a friend of the program's house and then got on jeeps and headed to the desert! Riding the sand dunes reminded me of the times of off roading in jeeps going to villages in Ethiopia. I loved all the bumps and swerving and close calls. We hopped out and went sand boarding for a little bit. (which isn't as cool as it seems because you get a really slow start on sand). Then we stopped at a place to spend the night. Our food was cooked under the sand and it was delicious. We spent a lot of time around a bonfire and headed off to bed under the stars.

It was a wonderful adventure!

Now it's time for the 3 papers and 2 finals that will coming up these next two weeks before we go on our travel component to Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Israel/Palestine. Time is going by so fast!