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.

4th of July

On Friday we went to the 4th of July celebration put on by the embassy. It was held at the British school (hello, Irony, how are you?) and was quite the big deal. It was free, but you had to show your American (or Canadian, take your pick) passport to get in, and once you were in it was burgers, hot dogs, soda, popcorn, cotton candy, and cake to your heart's content. Plus several playgrounds, jumpy houses (and as my friend Kelly once said, "If there's a jumpy house, you know the Lewises are going to be there!"), big inflatable slides, and a band. The kids had a great time running around, trying very hard to do every fun thing there was and eat every bit of free food they could. Here are some of the best pictures from the evening:




This is how we think Megan is going to look for most of the year here--red-faced (when we were leaving the party heading back to the cab, Megan was making conversation with our friends that were with us and said, "Egypt is the sweatiest place I've ever been. Isn't it sweaty here?"):

Jake, a budding Grandpaparazzi in the making:
Watching Sam boogie (Jess, Jake, and Kevan all had cameras trained on him; I'm holding cake):
Fun with a pinwheel:





As for what we're doing tomorrow, today Jake was asking Megan if she knew what today was (he's still enjoying the novelty of Sunday being a weekday here), and I said, "Today is the last day in your whole life you'll ever be able to say, 'I've never seen the pyramids.'"

Home, Fake Home

Well, that's what we call it, anyway. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until we're in our real home, but until then I thought you might like to see pictures of where we're living now.

View from the foyer (you may pronounce that "foy-er" or "foy-ay" however you desire; we ain't judgin') into the dining room:
To the left is the half bath and the laundry room, respectively:
To the left of that is the kitchen. Yeah, it's fancy:
It's hard to choose my favorite part about the kitchen, but I've narrowed it down to two--the bucolic tile scenes sporadically splashed about the room and the "Lilo and Stitch" washcloth hanging decoratively in the middle of the wall above the table. They are best viewed together:
Giant living room, as seen from the dining room:
Then upstairs (when we walked into the place our first day here, the first thing out of Megan's mouth was, "We have an UPSTAIRS!") we find the kids's bath:

Jake, Megan, and Sam's room, complete with all three of them, plus Emma:
Jess and Emma's room:
View 2, now with Jessica!
The master bath:
Another view, and yes, that's a bidet. When Jess asked what it was for, Kevan said, "Well, instead of the water going down, it shoots up on your rear." To which Jessica replied, "That sounds...uncomfortable." He is not allowed to explain things anymore.
My favorite thing about this room is easy (and no, it's not the bidet)--the fishing wire attached to the ceiling that holds up the shower curtain rod:
And finally the master bedroom, Kevan included:

Swimmin'

So here's the Maadi House pool. Ok, mostly just us in said pool, but really, it's a pool--a pool-looking pool. Pictures aren't exactly necessary.
Please note Sam's extremely manly purple and pink flowery floaty vest. I think it really brings out his eyes, don't you?

My first peek at the Nile

Other than flying over it, that is.

All this week Kevan's been going into the embassy to take care of his paperwork and checking in and all that, but yesterday I got to be the one to go so that I could go to the mandatory newcomers's welcome brief. I was on the wrong side of the road to get any good pictures of the river on the way into downtown, so I tried to get some on the way back. Traffic was pretty light, so we were going pretty fast, and therefore the pictures are pretty bad. But it's better than no pictures, right? (Just say, "yes.")


(You totally want that car, don't you?)

The Maadi House

This is a great club here that's right by where we'll be living. It has swimming pools, tennis courts, a playground, and some restaurants. We went there for a little while the other night.

The playground (Sam was sooo happy):
I was trying to take a picture of the patio, but Jess thought I was taking it of her, so got hammy on me:
So then I did take a picture of her. She is demonstrating her displeasure with not being able to say the "H" word:
But it only takes a little ridiculing, I mean, er, joking around to get her smiling again:I would have taken a picture of the pools and courts, but that would have required getting up, and I was, well, let's just say I wasn't cold. :)

Riding back from the airport

Unfortunately for you and me both, I didn't pull out my camera until after the bull in the truck, etc.

One of the outside walls of The Citadel. You will have to ask Professors Google or Wikipedia if you want more information than that.
More of The Citadel:
Emma asked why I had my camera out, and I told her it was so I could take a picture of anything interesting I saw. She said, "Take a picture of me!"
Then Megan said, "Take a picture of me!"
Then Megan said, "Take a picture of me without Emma!"