The Land of a Thousand...Minuets? Minets? Minerets!

1. Shakira can heal the world. Our class has made a goal to do the Waka Waka dance at every location possible. We’re all convinced that this song not only has immense healing powers, but also will stand the test of time, thus we are all willing to make this our legacy. Unfortunately, we didn’t always know which sites were totally appropriate for “waka”ing. Turns out, Temple of Hatshepsut wasn’t one of them. We wired our radios to play it in everyone’s headsets and did our thing. The security guards didn’t like it very much, so they came running down the stairs to talk to our guide and confiscate the footage. Our wonderful guide, Islam, politely agreed to show them the footage and insisted that it was harmless. But, it’s pretty rare that people accept the excuse of “we’re just stupid Americans who love to dance”. Islam took the video to the security guard to show him and the guard just stared. He stopped, looked and Islam, and said, “That…is….awesome”. As my friend Brandt says, “Waka waka healed that security guards heart”. It was epic. You can be expecting a Waka Waka video montage sometime in the near future.

2. Merchants of Egypt are relentless. Not only are they the worst hasslers of the Middle East, but they NEVER miss an opportunity. I was under the impression that the hike up to Sinai would be relatively peaceful. Just me and the mountain. Not only were there shops every few hundred yards, but an entire Bedouin Shopping Mall rested conveniently at the top. Not at all what I expected, but still a marvelous experience.

3. Fanny packs are awesome. Guess who didn’t get anything stolen for a whole week? This moi. I also learned a little about the bartering world. Rule number 1, “If they don’t give you a price that is less than a third of the original price, just waka wak away”.