From breakfast we went to the Egyptian Museum. There were tons of school groups there today. At first it was crazy and all the kids were looking at us and trying out their English. "Hello, hello, hello". We finally realized that we are attracting much of this attention due to Maria. There just aren't many Western children here. Most people don't bring their 7 year old to Egypt. And the westerns that are here and usually touring in a large group.
While in the museum, Maria and I were approached by three different groups of girls. This is the typical conversation:
Egyptian (usually the boldest in the group) - Hello, what is your name?
Me - My name is Dana, and this is Maria. What is your name?
Egyptian - Says her name that my Western ears have trouble understanding.
Me - I say the name back as a question and listen to their correction. Then I would say, Nice to meet you.
Egyptian - Thank you
Then the next boldest would start the whole process over again. I, no joke, was asked my name by at least 12 girls today. I think they liked hearing me try to say their names. I loved talking to them. They would touch our clothes and hair. Some even kissed Maria as they left. I would love to be able to hear and understand the conversations around their dinner tables tonight.
One actually said, "You are a very beautiful lady". Now, I consider myself attractive in a "clean cut" sorta way, but beautiful - not in appearance! Then I understood. I was standing there looking at them and thinking how exotic they looked in their colorful head dress and all. To them I was exotic! I have been "exotic" even less than beautiful in my life. They also asked me several times if I was Maria's mother. I must have seemed too young to be a mother. I think that is due to the "Western" dress being seen only on the teenagers here. I wish I could have taken Maria's picture with these girls but you had to leave your camera at security.
We also stood and looked eye to eye with the death mask of King Tut (shown above). All the treasures from this burial chamber were staggering. He was wearing 15 rings and lots of bracelets and necklaces. We saw mummies from around 2000 BC. Some still had hair and teeth and nails. It was very interesting.
We had Thai food for lunch then headed back to the hotel to rest up. All we plan on doing is napping and resting before supper. Maria has been fighting a sore throat/cold/ear infection thing for about 2 days. The Daddy has some big 13 hour surprise lined up for tomorrow and we want Maria to have the energy to enjoy it!
