Egyptian excursions, exploits, explorations, excitement, exodus, and Elat. Part II...

Ok, back again. Just a warning that the stories may be shorter/this will be more basic because I have about a thousand things to do and about 4 days to do them. Anyway, Egypt:

So we got to Luxor about 10 in the morning on Sunday - Easter Sunday, which was weird because it was not at all like any Easter I have ever had. We crossed the Nile (it's an Egyptian pound per person every time, fortunately a pound is worth less than 20 cents, so it was no big deal) and found a hotel. It was a nice one, family owned, quiet (except for the flock of fighting birds that were in the bush outside my 3rd floor window the next morning) and clean - a big plus in Egypt. After settling in and catching our breath we crossed back over the Nile and walked around Luxor. We viewed the Luxor Temple from outside the gates, it sits right in the main area of town so you can see all of it. Then we walked the 3 kilometers to the Karnak Temple, which is pretty impressive. It has well over a hundred giant pillars and lots of etchings in the rocks and some painting and plenty of other cool things to look at. It was a hot day and we walked a lot, thus began our drinking of gallons of water per day. I would say that on the average day it was over 95 degrees and we sweated about 2 liters each, but it was well worth it.

After a mini-Resurrection day time of singing and reading the resurrection account on the roof of the hotel we went to bed and I slept solid for the first time in days. I used to think under 7 hours was bad news, that day it was glorious. So we went to the Valley of the Kings and perused three of the tombs, Walker and Jason almost lost their expensive cameras to some cranky guards and half of the tombs we preferred to see were closed. But it was cool. A few of us paid the extra 10 bucks to go to Tut's Tomb, viewing it as a one-time chance and something we would regret everytime we bought our friends coffee for 15 bucks back in the states. It was definitely not a large tomb, but the paintings were cool, the sarcophagus they left in there was impressive and his mummified self is still in there, waiting for the afterlife boats to take him away. The whole place is kind of sad because you realize the emptiness of the whole idea. Gold, holes in the ground, paintings... it's worth nothing in the end. Throw my body in a furnace and spread it in the mountains when I am gone for all I care, the glory of my eternity is not dependent on riches or fancy depictions of my accomplishments. Jesus Christ's work on the cross one day and 1,979 years before I walked into those tombs did the job for me. Baruch Hashem. (a Hebrew phrase, means blessed be the Name, similar to praise the Lord).

After the Valley of the Kings we sort of just frittered away the afternoon, relaxing, taking a felucca (sailboat) that rocked Bob Marley half the time up the Nile to Banana Island. Which is a place that we still are wondering if it is an island. The favorite video of our entire time in Egypt was made on Banana Island. I forget if I have explained that already so I will recap. Daniel and I decided to document funny stories with video recaps the whole time, Courtney was always a good source of ridiculousness so we enjoyed the production of our mockumentary of Egypt. We have been watching the videos and falling off our chairs laughing. Anyway, so after bananas on Banana Island we headed back to the hotel for a real Egyptian dinner (yum - and no one is dead or sick yet so we think it was good on all counts :). Then Daniel, Danae, Courtney and I split with our favorite group (that of Jason, Walker, Lily, and Heather) and boarded the train with Mikey, Seth, Stef, and Annie to go back to Cairo.

After not much sleep, but more than the first train trip, we got to Cairo, went to a hotel to check on Mikey's bus connection for our trans-Sinai trip. Thus began the sketchy-est day of them all.
First issue: Mikey's connection failed. First we had a bus, but then it had to come from Taba so it wouldn't get to Cairo til 4, which was no good. Then we had another that would be there in a half hour (= never Egyptian time) and then another that would be there at noon, so we left. We had gotten into town at about 8, killed time getting breakfast and getting ripped off, and then waited and got nothing so we headed back to the train station to find a mini bus. At this point Mikey was done. He had had enough and so Daniel and I decided to run the show. Except that bartering with taxi/bus guys with a confused group of 8 americans (actually 6 americans, a german and a guatemalan-american) is no good. So we dropped them at the train station, talked to the tourist people, got a connection and went outside. We were doing ok, getting close to a good deal and then mafia man of the mini-buses who had chosen to hate us 20 minutes before courtesy of the tired Mikey-big group combo came over and shoved them all away. Any mini-bus driver in Cairo who gave us a ride would probably wake up with a horse's head in their bed the next day. So we found a couple of taxi drivers, decided that despite the higher cost and pain of being separate and in cramped cars we should just get the heck out of dodge. So we did.

And it was crazy. Our driver went between 15 and 140 kilometers per hour the whole time while slowpoke mcgee, the driver of the other car went a solid 80 at the fastest. Our driver also enjoyed driving halfway in the other lane or halfway in the shoulder. Now all Egyptians drive bad and make up their own lanes, but our guy must have been the daredevil of Cairo in that realm. By the grace of God and thousands of angels acting as bowling bumpers we made it across the great and terrifying wilderness. Once at Taba we had some paying issues with the taxi fiends, a story best left til I get home it is so long and good.

We went through the border, they stopped me and one of our gals and swabbed everything in our pockets, which means that the traces of drugs that covered the hands of the 30+ egyptians who handled my passport are now on the Israeli swab that has my name on it. Oh joy... Apparently young american guys who haven't shaved in 5 days and have been to Israel twice are pretty suspect. I will have to be more careful from here on.

Then we walked the 6 miles from the border to Elat because we were in stingy egypt mode and didn't pay the 2 bucks a person to save our feet and stay out of the sandstorm, but hey it was an experience to write about. Then the blissful relaxation of two days in Elat began. We slept. We ate. We slept on the beach. We ate on the beach. We got more sun. We drank enough slushies to keep 17 dentists employed full time and loved it. The original plan to go to Jordan/Petra was nixed due to group consent that a. Egypt was satisfying for Arab country travel. b. the cost-value ratio was not good (100 bucks for the day if we were lucky). c. the border crossing issue had potential for disaster having "been in Israel too long" at first, going to Egypt, the next day going to Jordan for just a day (sketchy drug deal possibilities you know) and then coming back to egypt to "continue touring" after three months of doing "only" that. All in all we were totally fine with our decision, enjoying the relaxation and friendship of two days in the sun. Then we bused back up to Jerusalem on Friday morning and our adventure was complete. Well worth it, tiring, fun, hot, crazy, unsafe, near-death, awesome, etc. That was Egypt.

Now I have to joy and privilege of doing a big project (aka 20-ish page paper or project-style equivalent) and read about 1,763 pages - give or take 2 or 3 hundred :)
So I am busy out of my socks and I we are done in 11 days. How does time go so fast?

That being the case, I have some prayer requests that are pressing hard on my heart. I need to finish strong and I am tired and have a ton of stuff on my mind. Being excited to be home, sad to leave Israel, pumped to travel with my brother in Europe, not wanting to leave my good friends here, wanting to rest, having to do a ton of stuff and all the while not wanting to waste a single moment of the last 11 days of IBEX is giving my heart a workout like you wouldn't believe. Pray that I relax and enjoy, that I give it ALL to the Lord and just take one thing at a time. My heart is heavy today friends, real heavy, but in a bunch of good ways and some just confusing ones, so if you don't mind too much I would love some prayer. And pray that I will pray too, it's hard in busy times like this.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

A General Introduction...

Here You have it folks, the first post. Obviously, I have not yet left for Israel. That day is still about 19 days away. I'll try to keep this updated pretty regularly once my adventure begins, but for now, I will not say much. Those of you that are reading this are part of a select few so to speak. As this will often be an outlet for me as much as an info boost for you I just ask that you use your best judgment in who you share this with or ask me if you're really that worried. It is really no big deal to me, but I like to know who my audience is as it may occasionally change the content of my chronicles.
As you already know (I think), I will be spending about 3.5 months in Israel with the Israel Bible Extension program (IBEX) which is a semester study abroad program hosted/run by The Master's College in CA. There are about 40 of us crazies going, two others from Corban I believe. We get to live in the Holy Land, take some really cool (and I'm guessing super-challenging) classes and have the experience of a lifetime. There is only a little more that could be said, so I will save my breath and tell you all about it once I get there.
In the way of a general and quick overview of what is coming up. I leave January 17th at 7:30 am from PDX, fly to Newark NJ, and then to Tel Aviv. When I get there they pick us up and then the truly unknown begins. Here's a fun fact: I won't know who my roommate(s) is/are until I get there, fun huh? (prayers appreciated in that area). So between now and then I have a sweet young lady to visit, a week of work to accomplish, packing to do, people to catch up with, time to spend with the family, and even some homework to do in preparation.
That pretty much wraps it up for now, I appreciate your prayers in the meantime...