Day 10

6/21/10

Today was the day of the early balloon ride. Mark was the only one of us who wished to wake up really early to go. Apparantly the view is spectacular and we charged Mark with taking many pictures. Unfortunately, the balloon rides were canceled due to low visibility after everyone arrived at the launch site. So Mark woke up and left only to come back empty handed.

Karnak temple is today. It is one of the largest complexes and is only a few miles away in Luxor. My camera acted up again today and refused to let me view any pictures I took. Grandma and Karin desperately needed the bathroom when we were on the complete opposite side of the complex. We walked back, and the heat was so much today that I didn't mind one bit walking back and not exploring forever.

We returned to the bus and rode home. Some people actually stayed and walked home since there is a straight route back by walking. They are crazy. When I got back to the ship I changed into my bathing suit again and commenced reading and cooling in the pool. I returned for lunch where it was American Day; pizza, hamburgers, french fries, fried chicken, perfiderols and icecream. True the pizza had tuna on it and the fried chicken had a different crust than we would ever expect and perfiderols are french, but it was a good day.

Karin and Mark found kindred spirits in our seatmates today at lunch. The two of them have been following the college football shuffle and they found others who are much more enthusiastic than Grandma and I have been. I enjoyed listening and learning something new.

After lunch I addressed all of my remaining postcards and decided what gifts are going to whom. I found gifts for my librarians yesterday and I sorted them out.

While we were going through a large lock, several small boats attached to our ship. Then, the people on board whipped out bags of clothing and table clothes etc to sell on the boat. They threw the merchandise up to our third deck sun deck and negotiated from the water. If you liked the product you threw the money down in a bag, if you didn't, you threw it back. It was hilarious and I got a bad picture of it through the glass, because if you opened your window they threw stuff to you too! It lasted until we were through the lock and out of reach.

After our black and white dinner, we had a show in the lounge. It is a play directed by program director of the red group Jihan. I got pulled in by Bassam and was chosen to play the window. Everyone was confused and laughing and trying their best to follow Jihan and it was great fun. I'm go glad i've learned to laugh when i'm embarrassed instead of turning bright red.

After our show there is a crew show. Some of the crew came and performed an Ancient Egypt show and then a modern one. In the modern one they were pulling people in to dance. Again I got pulled in. Only I didn't get pulled into the group circle dance, I got pulled into the middle. Thank you ten years of dance training. I was able to not make a fool of myself.

Throughout all of this Karin and Mark had planned on staying in their room. When I became the window, Grandma fetched them and their camera so this is on their camera and the tape of the show the boat is making. After the second crew show we left (ran away). Before any more silliness could ensue.