We Finally Did Something Interesting

So, contrary to what you might think, our lives are not all that glamorous. Sure, we've seen and done some pretty cool things, but our days are more likely to be filled with things like, "She's looking at me," "Do not make me tell you one more time," or "Really? You're hot? I can't imagine why."

But last night we got a taxi and went over to the Nile and hired a falucca--a boat--to take us on a ride. We took dinner along and had a picnic while we enjoyed the view. We were out for about an hour, and we seem to have timed it just right because we caught the sunset.

Waiting for the ride to begin:
This is our cap'n, getting the ship ready to go:
Some other boats at the dock:

Leaving the dock:
Oh my but Sam was so excited. He spent the whole hour running back and forth saying, "Bo!" (Boat, in case you couldn't figure that out. It's kinda like code.) This is a new addition to his vocabulary. Or rather, "vocabulary," since all it really consists of is animal noises and identifying forms of transportation. But either way, he was darn happy to be riding on a bo.
Here's another ship. The orange sails are big advertisements for Mobinil, one of the cell phone companies here. It's in English on one side and Arabic on the other. Emma had a lot of fun waving at every boat that came close enough to us that you could see the other passengers. Thus we had a lot of people waving at us. One man called out, "Where are you from?" and Kevan answered, "California!" To which the man said, "Why you not say, 'America?' California is not an independent nation!" And our only answer to that was, "It thinks it is."
Pensive Maggie:
The only picture we could get Sam into with the other kids:

Y'know that picture at the top of the blog? Not an anomaly.
See?
All of us but Kev. Notice that Sam is being held down. Also notice the expression on Megan's face. It is classic Mags. It says, "I'm smiling, I'm doing what you said to do, but I am sooo not paying attention."
And here is where it became clear just how cool our falucca driver was. We thought this was our last glimpse of the sunset:

See? No more light (and also what a falucca looks like with its sail out).
But then, he turned the boat and angled it just right as he was taking us back toward the dock that we were able to get every last bit of sunlight.
Really the only advantage to the pollution is really great sunsets.

Going...
...going...
...gone. This time for good.
Back on land, at the top of the stairs leading down to the dock.
Shortly after this, we were crossing the street to get to our taxi, and Jessica almost got hit by a car. Seriously, if she hadn't frozen the second I yelled out her name, she would have been creamed. The guy was speeding up and everything. So this is what we're realizing Cairo is like--the truly amazing cohabitating with the truly strange/downright scary.

We've also figured out that "Walk like an Egyptian" is really just a handy tip for how to get around the streets while dealing with a complete lack of discernible traffic laws.

On the good news front, we will be getting our household goods delivered on Saturday evening. This is very good. Kids will have toys, I will have things to organize, life will be grand.

I also want to thank everyone for being so kind and supportive of us. You all leave the best comments, and I totally stink at replying to them. I am most impressed with how many of you knew the song reference in the last post title, and Nathan, you did not teach it to me. Robin, I am not even a little surprised that you have it on iTunes. Tamara, I have always been funky ;) No, really. (Nathan, no need to pipe up on that one, thanks.)

Oh, and what's a blog post from me without a quote from Megan? Useless, that's what. We're in the taxi on our way home, and she collapses back into her seat, lets out a huge sigh, and says, "This is the sweatiest day of my WHOLE life!"

Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia

King Tut!
(Can anyone besides Becky Fullmer name that Obscure Pop Culture Reference?)

Today we ventured into downtown Cairo and went to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Very cool. Except hot. (No air conditioning.) And also kinda confusing--no real organization and very little labeling (and what labeling there is isn't very helpful). But very cool stuff to look at. If we had hired a guide, I'm sure we would have learned a lot more, but we are quite certain that the kids (read: Sam) would not have had the patience for the extra time that would have taken. It worked out just great though, because we just wandered around, saw what we wanted to see, and then left when we (read: Sam) were done.

Thanks again to our Egyptian ID cards, we were able to get in for free. And even better, we were able to get into the Mummy rooms for free. Mummies = cool (and also a wee bit creepy), paying roughly $35 to see them = not so cool. Ok, maybe I would have paid that, but mostly because the Mummy rooms are air conditioned. My cheapness aside, I'm glad we saw them. It's pretty amazing how well-preserved they are. Jessica said she kept expecting them to sit up. Now that would have been creepy. And also? Awesome.

Today's Quote of the Day (a new game we've been playing; usually it's said by Megan) comes from the first Mummy room we went into. Please enjoy:
Jacob: That guy looks exhausted.
Jessica: Yeah, that's probably because he's dead.

Regardless of my everso charming title to this post, we didn't actually see King Tut. His mummy is in his tomb (can you believe it?) somewhere else. I could tell you where else, but then I'd have to look it up and that would take effort, so you can see why that isn't going to happen. But we did get to see a lot of really cool jewelry and other stuff that came from his tomb. The best thing was his death mask (I think that's what it was; again, really bad labeling). You know, this. That was great.

We couldn't take the cameras into the museum, so all of our pictures are from the outside. And also very self-explanatory.




After we had had our fill of all them antiquities, we had lunch at a great Lebanese restaurant by the embassy. Best. Pitas. Ever. And really great garlic sauce. Meatballs? Disgusting. But now we know not to order those bad boys again.

Probably the most fun I've had since we got here happened tonight. Kevan and I went on a date. Sure, some might more appropriately term it a "Donut Run," but we're sticking to our date theory. We took a taxi over to the other side of the neighborhood (hey, it a big neighborhood, traffic's crazy, and I was worn out from the day; I'll thank you not to judge!), got our donuts (and some for the kids, cuz I'm just that nice)(and I'll thank you to stifle you're laughter while you're at it!), and started meandering home. We were going to catch another taxi, but decided to wander through a few shops first. I've been looking for some baskets (I know! You're just shocked, aren't you?!), and Kevan had seen some outside a shop down a little street off the main road. We found the shop, but the baskets weren't what I was wanting, but they were right next to an antique shop, and the owner wanted us to come see. Kevan started talking to him, both of them mixing English and Arabic, and we ended up staying there for over an hour. He was just the sweetest man. His shop was stuffed to the gills with everything you can imagine, most of it really dirty and disorganized (you can't even get to probably 95% of it), but the stuff I poked through while Mounir (the owner) was showing Kevan the grandfather clocks was really neat. (I found a really beautiful silver teapot I think I'm going to have to go back and get.) (Kevan doesn't know that yet.) After we looked through things, and he showed us some of his favorite pieces, he invited us to sit outside with him and had a man in the next shop over bring us all some cold sodas, and we sat and talked for awhile. He was thrilled that we are American, and he loooved Kevan. He kept saying, "You have great personality!" He couldn't believe that we have 5 kids because, he said, "You are always smiling!" He is 75 and has owned his shop since 1960. He told us stories of different friends he has met through the years, stories of some of his best sales, and taught us both a little Arabic. He said several times how the greatest profit he has made over the years is the relationships he has made. When we left, he kissed Kevan on the cheek, shook both of our hands, and said, "You are my friends." He is a gem. I can't wait until we can go back and see him again. I was going to take his picture, but I forgot that I had taken my camera out of my purse when we were at the museum to be checked with our other cameras, and it was still in Kevan's camera bag. I will be sure to take it next time.

Two!

Thursday was spent celebrating the wonderfulness that is Sam. Well, not the whole day. After a whole bunch of sitting around, unpacking a few bags, more sitting, a little napping, and a little more sitting, we had cupcakes! I'm pretty sure it's a time-honored truth that where you have cupcakes, you have a party.

He looks entirely too grown-up, doesn't he?
Here's the birthday boy with the cupcakes. He knows the colors, but the only ones he can say are "boo" and "lellow," hence the frosting color choices.

He went through and named the color of every cupcake--"boo, lellow, boo, lellow..."

Just as cute as can be:
He tried very hard to blow out the candles,
but couldn't quite get it
so we tried turning the platter and bringing it closer to him,
and tried bringing the cupcake with the candles right up to his face, but still no luck,

but with a little help from Mom, he finally succeeded.
We haven't yet gotten our shipments that have his birthday presents in them, and the presents Grandma mailed haven't come yet, but Shon and Kirsten and Steve, another Marine we met here (Emma described him like this, "He's fun like Uncle Dave, but you can't climb on him;" we're just glad she's finally starting to differentiate), came for dinner and brought him a couple of toys. Sam is pretty easy to figure out, so he was of course thrilled with the box of cars from Steve and the giant Pooh Bear from Shon and Kirsten.

Luckily, being two, he neither noticed nor cared that that was all there was and had a grand time playing with them.
Plus once our shipment comes, it will feel like Christmas! Not that he knows what Christmas is, but still.

It was a perfect day. And not just because there were cupcakes.

Wow.

Dude. Pyramids are cool.

We left early yesterday morning in a hired van complete with driver and guide, picked up Shon and his wife Kirsten, and headed for Giza. Since it's a suburb of Cairo, we've been told that on a clear day you can see the pyramids from the city. It was not a clear day (nor have we had one since we've been here). Kevan and I were chuckling because our guide kept saying how "foggy" it was. Uh, Monterey--foggy; Cairo--not foggy. But either way, we were all pretty excited when we caught our first glimpse.

Can you see it?
Look closely...
I promise they're there.
It's almost like "Where's Waldo," except with an ancient wonder instead :)
Driving down the main road into Giza, the kids were delighted when we passed this guy, probably on his way to work at the pyramids:

Catching a glimpse over the buildings:
Getting closer:
Driving into the parking lot:
Fortunately for us, our Egyptian resident cards showed up at the embassy on Sunday, which means we were able to get into the pyramids for free. One of the guards at the gate was going to make us pay for the kids, but after we started showing him their passports (proving they belong to us) he let them in for free, too. It probably helped that Megan started smiling at him, too.

As we passed through security, I said, "Shukran" (Arabic for "thank you") to the guard who handed me my camera, and he started smiling and said, sort of excitedly, "Arbeia!" As in, "You speak Arabic!" I used my thumb and forefinger to make the sign for "a little bit." As in, "What I just said to you is pretty much the extent of my Arabic." Kevan just laughed.

Now, does it surprise you at all that we go to the last original 7th Wonder of the World and almost immediately Megan and Sam set to...playing in the dirt?

After our guide gave us a brief history of the pyramids, we got to go inside the Great one. We climbed up a long steep passageway, bent over double because of the low ceiling and then up another long steep slope (but thankfully almost upright) to end up in a small empty room (well, there was an empty--yay!-- sarcophagus inside, but that was it). Megan was not happy to be there and wanted to turn right back around, but I think the rest of us wanted to get our step-climbing effort's-worth out of the room. So the kids stuck their hands in a little hole in the wall, Kevan tested the acoustics, aaaaand...we were done. On the way back down, Kirsten and I decided we would make our fortune by designing an aerobics class patterned after this workout.

So basically, a whole lot of effort for not a lot of return, but it's still pretty cool to say we've been inside a pyramid. Oh and hey, did I mention, I've been inside a pyramid? That will probably be my go-to topic of conversation for at least a month. Aren't you all glad you don't have to go to any parties with me any time soon? I'm sure to be insufferable.

After we came back out, Megan said, "That was the sweatiest pyramid I ever been in!" As opposed to all the temperature-controlled ones she's used to visiting, I guess.

This is the kids on the outside of the Great, Sweaty Pyramid:

And here is all of us, a little blurry, but it's the best one (we had joked about "Smile pretty; this one's going on the Christmas card," but alas, it was not to be):
The obligatory "Camel at the Pyramids" shot. Thus far the whole morning, Megan had been saying, "I want to ride a camel, I want to ride a camel!" To the point where we were ready to tell her that if she said it again, no camel for her. But then as we were taking the above family picture, a camel kneeled down very close behind us so that a rider could get on, and in the process it (the camel, not the rider) made a loud noise, and Megan immediately started saying, "I don't want to ride a camel, I don't want to ride a camel!" (So much so that we were getting close to threatening her with a mandatory ride if she didn't quit it!)
There are (warning: understatement alert) a lot of peddlers around the pyramids, selling just about everything you can think of--postcards, cold drinks, trinkets, etc., even the privileges of taking pictures of them on camels (Kevan had to sneak that picture above in order to not get swooped upon for a tip), but this guy sorta snuck up on us and put these head coverings on Megan and Emma (it was fine thought; they loved it).

He also offered Kevan 50,000 camels as payment for me (apparently I'm pretty fabulous; must be my awesome Arabic), but I told him that I'm high maintenance. First for the initial outlay, but then there's also the ongoing upkeep to consider.

We went inside the tomb of the chief engineer of the pyramids and saw some hyroglyphics. Very cool. On our way out, I told the guard, "shukran," and he smiled big and said, "You live here in Egypt?!" I told him, "Yes," and then he told me that I speak Arabic very well. So the lesson here is: You only need to know one word. And to think of all that time Kevan wasted at DLI learning the whole language!

Fun with perspective, Shon edition:

And Emma:
And then Jessie, just being cute:
Our van came and picked us up and took us to a viewing area where we could see the entire complex in panorama.

Kevan and Shon, not necessarily in that order:
The two of us:
Just the pyramids:

Sam was absolutely not willing to sit for a picture, but he was happy to go down the row of kids, passing out goldfish to anyone who wanted them:
Hot, tired boy:
Then we drove over to the Sphinx. It's not really that far away, but it was h-o-t enough, and we were all still feeling the effects of our Inner Pyramidial workout that we were grateful for the ride.
Jessica:
Jake, having some fun with his camera (this is my favorite from a series of about 5):

Emma, who is a nut (it was so bright that I couldn't see until I downloaded the pictures that she had a water bottle on her head):
See? Nut. (I knew about the bottle this time, though.) The guy behind her is our guide.
After the Sphinx, we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. This was the view from our table:
And at our table:
Really, we had just the best time. I was expecting it to be neat, but I didn't have any idea just how amazing those structures are up close. We'll definitely be going again, and not just because we didn't get a Christmas-Card-worthy picture.