WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

Things accomplished thus far on the classics trip:

1. saw royal shakespeare company show
RSC may be having its residency at Davidson right now, but we saw them in London – “Antony and Cleopatra” starring Patrick Stewart… you probably either remember him from star trek or his acting repertoire, including those sweet john barton workshop movies we watched in my acting Shakespeare class last semester. Pretty fitting before our travels to Egypt.

2. bought a rosetta stone backpack
Katie Eastland and I bought matching rosetta stone backpacks that are absolutely swell. I plan on wearing them EVERYWHERE. Nuff said.

4. British Museum
the Elgin marbles* from the Parthenon! Wooooooo!
[more grandiose explanation to come when we visit the Parthenon]

3. made / continue to make constant references to mcguyver
for quite some time, I thought this was a code name for anyone who called toumazou’s cell. Turns out – mcguyver is toumazou’s friend who is mentioned constantly and helps work out things for our group while in cyprus. Examples of references to mcguyver include every time toumazou’s celly rings, he dances around and say “it’s mcguyver! It’s mcguyver!” also, toumazou brought in a box and said, “LOOK! Presents from mcguyver for our trip to eygpt! He brought us adaptors and diarrhea medicine!”

4. ate fish and chips
self-explanatory.

5. building up the first encounter of uncle phillip
This was the first conversation he came up in:
Catherine knepp is @ toumazou’s for the group dinner.
Toumazou brings out a jar of olives and says, “try some!”
She does and says, “these are delicious!”
He replies, “Guess who picked them!”
Catherine answers, “you?”
Toumazou corrects her, “No. Uncle Phillip!”
Turns out uncle Phillip is toumazou’s 94 year old uncle. He is 3rd oldest in his village. He often climbs trees and picks olives. Another story includes toumazou rapidly driving a car down the road, and uncle phillip passed him on his bicycle. That’s all I know about him, but that’s plenty.

6. bonded with a middle-aged Cypriot woman during flight to Cyprus. I asked questions and she told me facts about her family, job, and country. Facts learned include: Cyprus population = 730,000; capital = Nicosia; produce = oranges, olives, other vegetables; 3rd largest island in the Mediterranean; daughter goes to college in London and had her quarterly exams last week

7. met Syrian diplomat
after the day in larnaca, cyprus seeing st. lazarus’s tomb, the choirokoita neolithic village, and the ruin of the ancient city amathus, we ran into a Syrian diplomat at Hala Sultan Tekke (the temple for Unn Haram) in Cyprus. he asked to take a photograph with us, then proceeded to invite us to his country… including a free lunch in the deal.

8. saw the valley of the kings*
like I used to see in my 3rd grade ‘weekly reader’, only REAL. We went into three of the tombs – which was sweeeet. You entered in the little hole in the mountain, and after some stairs up n’ down, you reached the all kinds of chambers that were sculpted / painted - imagine: art and hieroglyphics from 3,500 years ago w/ some still in color. LOOOOVED it!

9. Memorial temple to queen hatshepsut*
HUGE! In many momuments women were dressed in male kingly costume, which included a “false beard”

10. mo’ Egypt
Egypt is just what you’d expect, only bigger -- Sand, dust, camels, arabic, men in turbans, ruins on the side of the road, etc are the usue. karnak and luxor temples were amazing.*

*google ‘em! google’em! [optional… but just do it.]



fun facts for 3rd graders about Egypt (… and Caitlyn Culbertson)
• “good morning” in Arabic is pronounced: “SABA HELL HEAR”
• “LA” means “no”
• Driving down the road you can see sugar cane, banana trees, lemon trees, lime trees, etc, etc
• Houses built mainly of mudbrick. Why? Cause they absorb heat in the summer
• The nile is the longest river in the world. Followed by the amazon, then the Mississippi
• 212 towns in Egypt (45% of peeps live in towns)
• 7,400 villages in Egypt (55% of peeps live in villages)
• 73,000,000 = pop of Egypt
• 17,000,000 = pop of Cairo
• there was a shepherd followed by his sheep crossing the road
• two different cultures of Egypt: city culture and country culture
• city culture = pretty modern, like in the US
• country culture = more traditional, ex. = in villages, men wear dresses and turbans
• land is either blue (water), green (land), or brown (desert). 95% of Egypt is brown
• never rains in the south
• education = subsidized by the government
• 6 yrs in elementary school (required)
• 3 yrs intermediate school (optional)
• 3 yrs secondary school (optional)
• university is free
• start school at age 6
• both public and private schools with mostly same differences as in US
• national dress = gallabaya (prob not spelling this correctly)
• most popular color = black
• married women are recognized by wearing black clothing
• single women are recognized by their colorful garmets
• Differences in west and east bank of the Nile:
• East = temples (sunrise)
• West = tombs (sunset)
• Egypt = developing country (can’t drink their water)