Amy here. We're in Be'ersheva right now, and Aunt Edie's neighbors were kind enough to let us use their computer to email home. The nearest internet cafe isn't within walking distance, and according to Sara's guide book, it's 50 cents per minute. Outrageous.
On Saturday, we spent the night in Nuweiba, Egypt. We spent the afternoon exploring the town, which seemed to be comprised of twenty souvenir shops (all with exactly the same things for sale), ten locals and maybe two other tourists. We had dinner that night at Dr. Shesh Kabab's restaurant and met THE Dr. Shesh Kabab himself! Shesh in the flesh! He sat with us and told us about how he had two restaurants and then enthusiastically shared with us his life story. He told us about his family and how he fought in the Yom Kippur war and served in the Egyptian army for...some amount of years. Then he and our waiter, Sammy, told us they wanted to throw us a party. They brought out drums and cheerfully sang Bedouin songs, right on the patio of the restaurant. They asked us to sing an American song, so since Sara and our friend Leah were both sick with sore throats, it was I who was elected to do a solo performance. I chose to sing "Tequila," because it was song I could think of. A strange evening, altogether, but nice. After dinner, we spent the night in huts on the beach. We stupidly decided to forgo the mosquito nets so we could feel the fan more, and woke up with about thirty bites each. Word to the wise: if your beach hut comes equipped with a mosquito net, take advantage of it. It's probably there for a reason.
Sara: After the fairly shady bus ride to Nuweiba, we opted for a taxi to the Israel border. This turned out to be a great move; it was only a few dollars more expensive and the driver (a friend of the hut-owner) brought a huge van so that we could spread out our things. Walking across the border turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than we expected-- our passports were checked about a dozen times, but all the guards were quite nice about it, and there were even some duty-free souveneir shops.
Once we crossed the border, we separated from our friend Leah and made our way to our hostel in Eilat. Amy and I didn't really have anything we needed to see there, so we decided to just spend time sleeping until we were ready to head to Jordan. A long nap in the afternoon was so luxurious we felt as if we'd rested for a week, and we decided we could take a day trip to Petra the next day.
Amy: We were able to book the day trip through Eilat Youth Hostel, so a van picked us up at (sigh) 6:30 in the morning, just outside the hostel. We crossed the border, and after two hours in Jordan we arrived at Petra. We decided to ditch our tour group, because we had lecture exhaustion; after spending two weeks listening to a tour guide explain the history of every temple, every building, every hill, just getting the preview of what was to come from our Jordanian tour guide on the bus to Petra was enough to make our eyes droop with fatigue. Petra itself was awesome. The colors of the rocks were incredible, and we got some fantastic photos of the place. We also befriended a young Bedouin girl, who gave me a necklace as a gift! After exploring Petra, we met up with the group for lunch and then headed back to Israel.Sara: The next day, Tuesday (if we've got our days straight....) we headed to our great-aunt Edie's house. We'd been looking forward to meeting her, and she is such a sweetheart. In the day and a half we've been here, she's taken us shopping twice, and bought a necklace and bracelet for me and earrings for Amy. The only challenge, though, is that she's losing her hearing. For instance, she asked me twice, "You went to London with your orchestra, right?" I explained both times that I'd gone to London once with my school's drama department, and once with my friends. However, last night Amy and I heard her have this conversation on the phone with her son Alec....
...Aunt Edie: "Yes, yes, the girls are here. ....Amy goes to school in California." (At this, Amy and I look at each other, and Amy mouths, "Just me.") Edie continues, "and Sara....Sara plays the oboe in an orchestra." (Amy and I shrug and nod.) "Yes, she plays in the Los Angeles....in the Los Angeles Philharmonic! A great orchestra." (Amy and I look at each other in shock, and both bite our lips, desperately trying not to laugh audibly. Edie doesn't notice.) "She toured with
them in London."
I tried to hold in my laughter for a split second longer, then covered my mouth with my hands and ran to the back bedroom and burst out laughing. Amy joined me a few seconds later, and I think we both laughed until we cried. Part of me feels like my life is a bit more complicated now (I begged Alex's sister Panina to explain that I was not, in fact, in the L.A. Phil) but the other part of me just can't stop laughing.
In other words, life is grand.
Much love,
Sara and Amy
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