Freaky thing

Yesterday I was walking back to my office after teaching, and I saw a freak accident. Where my building is, there is a hill. This kid on a bike comes WHIZZING past me and a few other people down this hill and runs SMACK into this girl walking to class. He hit her so hard that she fell to the pavement and laid there for a sec and I thought we would have to call an ambulance. After about 30 seconds though, she sat up holding her head while the kid on the bike was apologizing profusely and some people had stopped and helped her gather her books and purse. I kept walking b/c I was on the phone, but I kept looking back and by then, she had stood up and was talking to the kid on the bike. Hope she got his name in case there are injuries. : / Slow down bikers!!

Survivor

What kind of ASSININE idea is it to split up the teams according to ethnic group?!?!?! Society needs to unite and find commonalities, not split apart and make stereotypes even THAT more apparent!! Ugh. Worst idea in the history of tv.

Been a while.....

Sorry for the lack in posts-the Nile cruise ship didn't have internet access, and since then I have been catching up. : P

So I keep thinking about the Egypt trip and I still can't believe I was there and I saw all these amazing things. The Saqaara step-pyramid (2750 BC), of course the real pyramids in Giza, the mosques in Cairo, the Aswan dams, the Roman catacombs in Alexandria.... I could go on and on. Egypt is the most incredible country, and the antiquities police surely are no joke. They guard those tombs and monuments with their life.

I was also so surprised at Cairo. The city was so much bigger than I thought. Our tour guide said that 17 million people live there-in an area that should really fit 4 million. During the work days, that number swells to 20 million with everyone that commutes from local villages. Traffic jams at 3 AM. Man. No wonder the Egyptian government doesn't make people finish their houses before they move in-the over population is so bad there that people need housing asap. Don't worry, I have pics of all of this.

Just had to share some of my thoughts on the trip. Everyone that reads this blog will get the pics anyways, so you will see the daily events of our trip soon. : )

Quick post from Cairo...

Again, I only have a short time, so this will be quick. The sound and light show was amazing last night and I got some great shots of the pyramids and Sphinx at night. Today we went to two mosques, ate lunch on the road, and went to the Egyptian museum. We saw King Tut's tomb, golden mask, and other incredible things from as early as 2500 BC. Tomorrow we have to get up at 330 AM to catch a flight to Luxor and start the Nile cruise! Til then............. sorry so short. Oh, and I can't believe how HUGE Cairo is-17 million people fit into a city that could hold maybe 4 or 5 million (based on land area). It is incredible.

Continuation of the Middle Eastern summer.....

..... or North African-whatever you prefer. : ) I am sitting at the business center at the hotel Mom and I are staying at. The hotel is about 300 feet or so from the pyramids. NO LIE. Today we went to the pyramids, went into one of them (the second largest), took a camel ride which scared me half to death (although Mom was loving it and even made the camel guy RUN with the camel and I almost flipped out), went to Saqqara pyramid (the oldest one in Egypt and the oldest one in the world made of stone-2750 BC), went to the city of Memphis (the old Egyptian capital) and saw a statue of Ramses II, ate lunch by the Sphinx, and went to a kids' carpet school. Their hands were moving SO fast-it was unbelievable. The tour we are with is sooooo organzied and it's great. The tour guide buys all the tickets for us, gives us advice on the pesky people trying to get us to buy souvenirs and following us around, and gives us discounts on things to buy. : )

What else... I am trying to write fast b/c I bought an internet card and I only have a limited time. I fell last night (what's new) in the road at the hotel and hurt my knee. Nothing bad, but it hurts today (not bad enough so I couldn't go climbing down into the pyramid though). haha We also met the cutest little boy on the flight from Frankfurt to Cairo... he said his name is Eliah but people call him Buster. LOL BUSTER. How funny is that! Tonight is the laser light show in front of the Sphnix and pyramids. I can't wait. : ) Tomorrow is another mosque day where we will see the mosque I studied about in my art history classes: the Sultan Hassan.

Okay well guess I will go. Oh, and if you ever fly, take Lufthansa. They are awesome. Just like Turkish Air. All these foreign airlines give you tons of food.

Alaskans in Iraq....

.... present an interesting story. A couple of months ago I read an article about how the adjustment for soldiers from Alaska sent to Iraq is so great (more than the other 49 states) and how their villages suffer without them during fishing and hunting season. I couldn't find the original article I was looking for, but I did google "eskimo" and "Iraq" and found one from the LA Times from June 5, 2006. Here are some exerpts.

The Iraq deployment in western Alaska comes at an especially poignant time: Late spring is known as "breakup" in the Alaskan bush, when the ever-lengthening days finally melt the snow and ice that have blanketed the tundra for more than half the year and kept it eerily quiet.But as the Yupik men at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River ready themselves for the hunting, fishing and seal-catching that still provide a significant component of people's diets here, they find themselves preparing for a breakup of an almost unfathomably different sort.

In this village of 386 people, six men have been notified to report for duty next month. Though all the men knew they could be called when they signed up years ago for Guard duty — an important source of cash here — several said they were struggling to adjust to the reality."When I signed up, I never thought I would go to war; I mean, you never really think of Alaska being at war with anybody," said Harold Azean, 23, a Guard specialist.Ben Lupie, 30, a Kongiganak carpenter who is also going to Iraq, said he was optimistic that all the men would come back alive. "Us being a hunting people, I think it gives us an advantage," he said, going into an impressive series of mimes: the light prancing of a caribou, the ripple of a fish just below the surface of a river, even the flapping wings of the ducks, cranes and geese that are just arriving on spring migration."We notice the tiniest motions," Lupie said. "So I think we'll be aware if something suspicious is up, and we'll know how to react."

The call-up in the marshy delta country to the west reaches villages so remote that there are only two ways to get here most of the year — by airplane or snowmobile — and a third from May to September, or perhaps October in a warm year with a late freeze-up: the river.

So in places with Eskimo names such as Kongiganak, Kwigillingok and Manokotak, elder leaders and wives find themselves planning how to carry on without strong young men who serve as vital providers of food.

Very interesting dilemma. You can find the article here.