Watch the sunrise

#82. Ride in a hot air balloon.

Number 82 is the third on my list of 100 things to do before I die that I got to do by going to Egypt.

Originally I wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride because a) I’m afraid of heights and I’m all about conquering my fears (except spiders) and b) when I was a teenager and printing other people’s photographs, someone came in with the most beautiful pictures from a hot air balloon ride in Ottawa. You see, the best times of day to go on a hot air balloon ride are dawn and dusk. When I was little (and even to this day) I used to watch the bright balloons appear one by one on the horizon as the sun began to set. We used to count them out loud and pick our favourites.

I never imagined that I’d get to go on a hot air balloon ride in Egypt.

When Chandra and I booked our Egypt package, I saw that there was a supplement you could add for a hot air balloon ride. It was expensive. I was afraid to mention it. But Chandra said it first. “How cool would it be to go on a hot air balloon ride over Egypt?” And done.

It was worth every penny. It was even worth waking up at 4:30am. Because we watched the sunrise over the Nile. Because we saw the Valley of the Kings stretch out beneath us in the early morning light. Because we glided over the city of Luxor.

I wasn’t afraid, not for a second. I thought I might be. But I was too busy taking photos, and then suddenly we were in the air, 200 metres up.

It was one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever done in my life. And that, my friends, is why my list of 100 Things to Do Before I Die exists.

Africa, culture shock and number 89

#89. Go to Africa.

In case you didn’t know, Egypt is in Africa.

I knew this. I think. I mean, my brain knew this. It’s pretty much common knowledge. It’s just that when I thought of Africa, when I wrote #89 on my list of things to do before I die, I wasn’t thinking about Egypt. I was thinking about safaris and places like Kenya or Madagascar. Or maybe even someplace like Rwanda (since I was a member of Journalists for Human Rights at the time and we were working with the Rwanda Initiative.)

The only images I had in my mind of Egypt were pyramids, temples and sheer linen dresses. We are a product of the media, and my expectations were fabricated mostly from historical fiction and BBC documentaries.

But Egypt is one of the most populated countries in Africa. Cairo is the largest city in Africa. There are about 25 million people in Cairo on any given day. In one city. There are 33 million people all of Canada. Our largest city, Toronto, has just over 2 million people.

Cairo isn’t just the home of the Great Pyramids of Giza, it’s also the home of millions of people and is the densest metropolis that I have ever seen.

Needless to say, it was an intense culture shock. I have never been to a city even a little bit like Cairo before. The traffic is so bad that it can take over three hours to make a 30 min drive. Every time we were on the roads, I thought we were going to die. There are no road rules, no traffic lights. There’s only pure determination. Every vehicle is dented, scratched, damaged in some way by its life on the streets of Cairo.

And there aren’t just cars on the streets either. There are also carts, drawn by donkeys and horses. Egypt is very much a city where the modern and the antiquated are thrown together and live side by side. I half expected to see a Bennett Buggy driving down the street.

The houses in Cairo are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are thousands of huge apartment buildings, stacked almost on top of each other. There are buildings that look more like shacks, with satellite dishes on top. Everything seems to be in a minor state of disrepair and in need of a good paint job.

There’s another aspect of the culture in Egypt that I wasn’t prepared for. As an obvious tourist, I meant only one thing to the people of Egypt. Money. Everywhere you go in Egypt, someone is trying to sell you something or ask you for money. They will take your luggage from you and then ask you for money for carrying it, even though you were perfectly capable of doing it yourself. They charge you 5 Egyptian pounds for a camel ride, then ask for another 20 for you to get off.

Everything is about hassling and haggling and it is thoroughly exhausting. No one even speaks to you unless they want you to buy something. And when you walk through the market, the vendors yell things at you to get your attention. “Do you want Egyptian husband?” “You have beautiful eyes!” “Are you from the moon?” “I will kill my four wives for you!” “You walk like an Egyptian.”

They offer camels in exchange for your hand in marriage. Someone offered me 2 millions camels. It was a good day.

Egypt was a definite culture shock. It was my first African country. Next time, I’ll be better prepared.

Next time, I probably won’t go to Cairo. Luxor was much nicer.

See the pyramids along the Nile….

#100. See the pyramids.

I’ve seen the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the world, have you?

The first thing that I ever wrote down on my list of 100 things to do before I die was to see the pyramids. I have been fascinated by Egyptian history since reading Lloyd Alexander’s Time Cat when I was little and finding out that the Egyptians thought that cats were gods. I’ve always been a cat person, okay?

There’s something iconic about getting to see the pyramids. Eiffel towers, Colosseums, Statues of Liberty are the bookmarks of travel guides, the milestones of trips around the world.

The question is, do you see the pyramids to say that you have seen the pyramids, or do you actually see the pyramids? Do you stop and think about what you’re seeing? About how long it has survived? About the thousands of people who built it, or the millions of people who have stood where you’re standing and looked up?

The pyramids aren’t what you think they’re going to be. Behind them you can see downtown Cairo. Across the street from the Sphinx there’s a Pizza Hut and a KFC. The pyramids are no longer a relic of a great civilization. They are, instead, a magnet for tourist dollars and cheap souvenirs.

I wouldn’t let them ruin it for me. As I stood there on the sand, I forced myself to look up and not at the merchants circling nearby. I forced myself to remember every favourite moment in all of my favourite historical fictions that made me fall in love with ancient Egypt.

The pyramids are a feat of engineering and design. A colossus, withstanding the test of time and giving the Pharaohs what they desired most - immortality. Because thousands of years later, we still stand amazed.

Number 22

#22 on my list of 100 Things to do Before I Die: Buy a really expensive item I don’t need.

This is the story of my Xbox.

When I went to visit Fae in April, she introduced me to the game Fable 2 on her Xbox 360. I have never been a huge gamer, but I do love a good fantasy rpg. Fable 2 was gorgeous and so fun. It reminded me of a prettier, more plot based Diablo. And I have been a Diablo girl since Diablo II first came out.

I have never owned a video game system before. I had friends growing up who did, but I was never really passionate enough about any game I tried to want to play it at length. When I played Fable 2 I couldn’t get enough. And so I decided to buy an Xbox 360 on Ebay, used, for less than half the price of a new one.

It shipped very quickly, and I had the system in a couple of days. I had to wait a few more days to buy the game, more my pay cheque to come in. Finally, the Thursday I got paid I rushed to EB Games and bought a copy of Fable 2. I got home and immediately put it in to play.

That’s when Fae texted me excitedly to sign up for Xbox Live so we could play together. I went to sign up and the Xbox told me it had to install some updates and then I would be able to play.

Three and a half hours late, I was ready to go to bed an the updates were finally done. I would have to wait until Saturday to actually play. But it was okay, because Fae and I were going to have our first nerdy gaming date.

Saturday morning arrived and I woke up before 10, very excited to get started. I popped the CD into my Xbox and signed on. I started playing the game again, just barely starting the first quest.

That’s when it froze.

I spent the next three hours starting and restarting the game and the system, on the phone with the Xbox hotline half the time and Fae and Sean the other half of the time, trying desperately to figure out why everytime I started Fable 2 it froze less than a couple of minutes in.

Finally, around 2pm the Xbox people decided that I had a faulty console. Luckily for me, I had bought  it from a really respectable guy on Ebay, who had a 7 day exchange policy. I shipped it back the next day for a new one.

Yesterday when I got home, another Xbox was waiting for me. I opened it eagerly, this time anticipating the hours of updates and not asking too much from it. So last night I let it do it’s thing, and at about 8pm it was finally ready. I got up to put the game in and play some Fable 2!

Only to discover that I have somehow lost the CD for my game.

There are two options. Either I left it in the first console. Which sounds like something I would do. But since it’s so much something I would do, I remember thinking exactly that and checking. Or at least I think I did. The other option is that somehow between this week and last the CD got moved and no longer wants to be found.

Either way, I have not been able to play Fable 2 at all yet. And I can’t afford to buy the game again, at least not right now.

#22 on my list was designed to please the capitalist in me. To give myself something for the sake of it.

Clearly this is a lesson that capitalism is a bad idea. The truth is that capitalism is never over, there’s always something else to buy - even if it’s justified by trying to improve something else. And in the end, how much of this stuff do we really need?

Live like there’s no tomorrow

#7. Dance like no one’s watching.

Last night was by far one my best nights out with the girls yet. And the funniest thing was that it really didn’t work out all that well, but we had a great time anyway. First of all, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go out to begin with, because I still wasn’t sure if I could drink after the New Years fiasco last week. But then Chris came over for dinner, and we started getting ready to go out, so I had a beer. I love the getting ready part of the night, that everyone gets to dress their hottest, wear makeup and clothes they don’t normally get to wear.

We went over to Kyomi and Tessa’s house next, to continue the pre drinking. And after a game of Kings, a game of hockey, and three more beers I was definitely excited to go out. Unfortunately, we had difficulties getting a cab (or making it downstairs before the cab left…) so we didn’t get downtown until after a 11. This is a problem, because it’s widely known that you’ll never get in if you get there after 11 on a weekend. The line ups are jut too long. We waited in line for a long time (I even went to my sister’s work to pee, came back and they still weren’t inside). Finally, we gave up. As we were walking around wondering what to do (and getting more and more sober and cold) some guy came out of a door nearby and said “Hey, this is the best bar ever! Come in!” So, obviously, we did. It was not the best bar ever. It was actually a really expensive bar that played dance club music but no one was dancing.

Well, after having a vodka and lime (I know, broke the resolution already….) I decided I was going to dance, because that was why we came out! So I dragged Kristen on to the “dance floor” (aka the open area in front of the bathrooms) and we danced. I spent at least an hour out there, with Kristen for a bit, then Chris, then Kyomi and Kristen. And I was having so much fun! I was sober enough that I think it took guts to keep dancing when everyone else in the bar was watching and I did it anyways. We owned that dance floor.

The reason for #7, for me, was always to be comfortable enough just to do whatever I wanted to do, regardless of other people. And I did that last night. And I loved being that person. I don’t think I’m going to let her go.

“Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like no one’s watching.
Sing like no one’s listening.
Live like there’s no tomorrow.”