Egypt Winter 2011 - Day 3

Day 3 for us was the same as last semester. What we didn't know, until we got to our hotel in Luxor that night, was that this day, January 25, 2011, was the beginning of the Egyptian demonstrations against Mubarak.
We spent the day in Giza which is probably an hour or more from Cairo where the demonstrations were taking place. We noticed nothing different about the traffic, security, or crowds in Giza. The pictures below are by one of our students - she's a professional and they are GOOD! This is the whole group. The man on the far left, next to the red shirt - was our guide Islam. Standing next to Kent is our Ancient Near East professor, Jeff Chadwick. Kneeling in front of us are our other 2 professors - Frank Judd [whose wife, Jill, is hugging him in the photo] and Kerry Muhlestein. I'm not sure why our other guide, Ahmed, isn't in this photo.

After our busy day and the Pyramids etc. we drove to Heliopolis, which is right next to the airport. We went to the Meridian Hotel there, and had a delicious dinner. We then flew to Luxor where we spent the night. This is a view from the dining area!

It wasn't until we started getting ready for bed, that we saw the news on what had been happening back in Cairo. We were shocked. Our guides and Tour agents were, of course, very concerned about the whole thing. They had friends and/or family that were in the middle of Tahrir Square - some were taken to jail.

Our poor boss, Eran, was on the phone with Kent immediately - fearing the worst. He was relieved to hear that we were totally safe and secure. HE had been getting calls from our BYU boss, Jim Kearl, who had been getting calls from mother's. The news is so, not good, for giving a true picture.

Anyway, that was OUR January 25. :)