Reasons I LOVED my trip.

It was amazing for so many reasons…..here they are:

I rediscovered the joy of “going for a bike ride”. Really! When was the last time you went for a bike ride….just for fun? We rented old (I mean OLD) bicycles for all of the students and biked around the square in the middle of Siwa. It was right before sunset… and it was beautiful and crazy and dangerous! My bike had no brakes…and I almost got into an accident with a donkey pulling a cart full of children! Still….I felt like a kid and I will never forget how hard I was laughing.

I ate chicken cooked in the ground! For me, eating chicken is sometimes a stretch…especially when I see the skin! But, something about this chicken was irresistible. Perhaps it was knowing the process behind it…and trying something that I may never have the opportunity to eat again! (P.S. the process was truly intriguing…I can tell you about it when I come home…in LESS THAN ONE MONTH!)

I was chased by a lion. Well – the lion wasn’t actually chasing me. The person holding the lion was chasing me. “Get in a picture! Get in a picture”. No thanks. I refused to pay 20 L.E. to pose in a picture with a man, holding an adolescent lion, in a sketchy strip mall, in the middle of the desert. NO WAY.

We went “dune driving”. I am not sure if I can describe it with any justice, but let me tell you – it was like the scariest ride at Wonderland, in the Sahara desert. (I hate Wonderland by the way). It all started when we packed 30 people into four land cruisers. None of us expected anything too wild or fun and we were not given any prior warning or description of the drive. Anyways, we started driving slowly…making our way through the sand…admiring the view, listening to Libyan music and trying to wake up. Well…this period of relaxation was short. All of a sudden, the drivers began to speed up! We weren’t exactly sure what was going on until the four cruisers lined up at the top of a steep dune, smirked at each other….and then drove VERTICALLY down! A scream and a cry later, we realized we had survived the decline and the kids all burst into laughter. I, of course, got motion sickness and prayed that was it. Perhaps that was a barrier we had to overcome to get to our REAL destination? Oh no – this WAS the destination. It was our activity for the morning….and it lasted for approximately three hours. So fun and so awful all at once. The good news? I managed to keep everything inside my stomach!

The ecolodge. As much as nature and I dislike each other, I actually enjoyed my stay at the Desert Rose Hotel :) It was so peaceful and pretty….and you could see the STARS! My goodness, I almost forget the sky was home to such beauty :)

Ohhhhhhhhhh so much more to tell you…..but planning is calling me :)

MISS YOU TONS! Less than one month :)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo