[Kate] Three Strikes, You're Out! (A Story of the Third French Strike We Encountered and How It Heavily Impacted Our Day)

Ah, the French.  Wonderful food, breathtaking art and museums, expensive fashion and fun streets.  And, apparently, it's the land of strikes.  In the last few weeks, three strikes have really thrown us for a curveball.  First a French air control strike cancelled our flight from Grenada to Paris (for more details, see my live report on the events here), and then the metro workers were striking when we arriving in Paris, so we couldn't take the metro from the airport to the apartment.  Instead we took a taxis, which took a while and cost us a lot more money.  And the third strike...well, here is the story:

My parents have friends that live in the suburbs of Paris, so we were planning to take the train out to visit them.  One train runs straight to a train station a five minute walk from their house, so we thought we were all set.  It was only a twenty two minute train ride.

SO (*clears throat to get ready to tell a depressingly long story*) we got to the train station (underground by the metro) and, as we were buying tickets, my mom saw a sign that said certain stops were not woking at present because of strikes.  And guess which one was included?  You guessed it, the one we needed to get off at.  But Mom asked one of the ladies behind the service counter, and she said that we could just get on the train, and it would take us to the correct stop, regardless of strikes.  Okay then.  We got on the train.

So as we were on the train, Mom and Dad looked intensely at the map on the wall.  They discussed it and finally realized that the train would stop well before our station.  Great (sarcasm used).

The map on the wall of the train stops.

Now a short intermission to provide some information.  Dad and Cannon had bought a soccer ball the previous day (we're here during the World Cup, so I guess soccer/football/whatever-you-want-to-call-it fever is in the air).  And we thought we could bring it to our friends' house, and maybe play some soccer/football/I-don't-know-what-to-call-it in their backyard.  And we had also bought a cake to give to their family that morning.  So Grace is walking around carrying a new soccer ball and Mom and I are taking turns holding the beautiful new cake in its orange box.

We got off at the train at the last stop it would go to and walked around the metro/train stop, trying to figure out was was going on.  Mom went to ask for help, and Dad and the kids spent a lot of time looking at various maps.  Finally (and I mean finally), we decided that if we took a certain train to the right stop we would be within walking distance of a bus station.  And then a bus could drive us to another train station, and from that train station we could take another train to the train station by our friends' house.

So, when they figured this out, we got on another train and made it to another train station, then started a short walk (five to ten minutes) to the bus station.  We then waited about five minutes and then got on the bus that arrived.

A picture from the inside of the bus.

So then we waited ... and waited ... and waited ... for forty five minutes we were on that bus, until finally we arrived at our stop.  We ran inside and tried to get through the ticket barrier, but our tickets weren't working.  Apparently they expire after two hours or something.  Anyway, someone behind the ticket counter let us in through a gate anyway (after waiting in line), but that had cost us precious time.

We raced up the steps, but literally as we got to the top the train we needed to be on started moving.  It left without us, leaving us stuck until the next train came.  How bad could that be?  I checked the screen.  Turned out the next train didn't arrive for another twenty six minutes.  And then it was delayed, so it was more like a half hour.  We were all kinda bitter at that point, having traveled for so long (traveling around Paris, we mean, but traveling around the world too).

Grace waiting at the station, with her trusty
soccer ball sidekick.

Finally the train arrived and after about a ten minute ride and we got to our stop, able to see our friends.

Remember how the original train that wasn't working because of the strike was supposed to get to our stop in twenty two minutes?  Well, all that traveling we did took OVER THREE HOURS. A hundred and eighty minutes!  That was annoying, to say the least...but at least that soccer ball got to see Paris. :)

[George/Cannon] The World Cup

My family and I are huge soccer fans.  And thankfully while we are in Paris we have a TV so we can watch the World Cup.  The sad thing is AMERICA DIDN'T MAKE THE WORLD CUP. But this allows us to root for other countries that we wouldn't normally pay any attention to.  Below is a list of the countries that I personally want to do well.

Portugal:  I like Portugal only because one of my favorite pairs of Pajamas are Portugal national team PJs.  And they have Ronaldo.

This is Ronaldo.

Spain:  I really enjoyed Spain when we stayed in Seville and Granada for a couple of days.  It was really fun, so why not support Spain?

This is Seville near where we stayed.

Iceland:  Iceland is perhaps the team I most want to win (sadly they probably won't to that).  I want Iceland because Iceland population is roughly 330 thousand people. That is about the size of a town in America.  Good job Iceland!

This is Iceland compared to the U.S..  

Brazil:  I only like Brazil because I think that it's fun to watch them play.  They like to show off and I think that's fun to watch.  

This is Brazil's flag.

In the end I am still very sad and annoyed that the U.S. didn't make it in the World Cup.  And even though it has been very fun to root for all of these different teams I still want the U.S. to make it into the next World Cup.

[George/Cannon] Things to do in Paris

Paris is one of our favorite cities in the world.  It has baguettes, crepes, and pastries of all kinds.  Because of all of this we are staying 3 weeks in Paris (as you might have guessed my family is a bit biased towards France).  During these three weeks we have a lot we want to do.  Below is the list.

Eiffel Tower Light Show:  The Eiffel tower needs no introduction.  And every night they do a light show on the Eiffel Tower.  Pretty simple.

The Eiffel Tower lit up

Museums:  Ugh, I hate museums.  And sadly we have many museums to go to in Paris like the Louvre, Musue Dursay, Centre Pompidou, the Piccaso Museum and others.   I am not looking forward to this.

The enterence to the Louvre

FOOOOOOOOOD:  Paris has amazing food.  They have Crepes, Baguettes, and all sorts of Pastries (Including my personal favorite the pain au chocolate).  And not to mention our families' favorite candy, Bams.  Bams are these banana candies made by Haribou that we can only find in France.

Those were my families' personal favorite things to do in Paris.  There are many others that we will try to do, like sailing toy boats in the Luxembourg Gardens, however these are some of the ones that we want to do most.

[Kate] The Mona Lisa

Since we're in Paris, going to Louvre is a given.  All of us have already been there, so we had a general idea of the kinds of things inside.  Each of the three kids made a list of their top five things to see (with no overlap), and so we had a list of things ready to go before we even left the apartment.  Nobody put the Mona Lisa on their list (we had all seen it before), but we stopped in to see it anyway.

When you see a picture of the Mona Lisa online, you probably see something like this:

Right?  But if you were in the room, you might end up with a picture that looks very different.  Maybe like this:

See that teeny tiny painting at the end of the crowd of people?  Yup, that's the Mona Lisa.  Or if you get closer, you get something like this:

It's a heavily filtered picture, but you get the idea.  Often some random heads on the way even if you get close enough to see the painting.

You can't get very close to picture, for obvious reasons.  The painting is covered bullet-proof class, in a temperature controlled container.  When it's not being displayed to the public, it's apparently lowered in its elevator-like contraption to a different level for storage.

So how would one go about stealing it?  Not that we're planning to, of course, but it's fun to speculate.  Cannon declared as we were leaving the room that he thought Danny Ocean could pull it off.

(This lead us to a side conversation about The Coronation of Napoleon.  If you wanted to, you could hide the Mona Lisa in a backpack--once you got past all the high security that is.  The point is that it's pretty small.  But what about a heist focused on The Coronation if Napoleon, which is 20.5 feet by 32 feet, approximately.  That could never fit in a backpack.  So what?  Hot air balloon?)

And when you look at all of the security, you have to wonder why.  Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the Louvre?  And, for that matter, in the world?  If it was in the Grand Gallery, lined up with all of the rest of the Italian paintings, I probably wouldn't pay it a lot of attention.  Nothing about it strikes me as super captivating.  The smile is something, but it's not that interesting to me, as it seems like something a lot of paintings can have.  It's never struck me as making the painting a lot more mysterious.

Yes, seeing the Mona Lisa is a bucket list item for a lot of people.  Not necessarily for the painting itself, but just to have seen the most famous painting in the world.  I can understand why.  I mean, seeing the most famous of anything is a cool experience.  But the painting itself is definitely not my favorite.  For me, this:

is much cooler than this:

[Grace] Utah Wedding Intermission

Three and a half months into our trip, we flew to Utah for a week, mainly because of Tristan (my mom's youngest brother) and Cassie's wedding. While in the States, we also managed to finish a few other important tasks, such as house hunting and eating at Cafe Rio.

We arrived Sunday night (if you would like a full recount of our crazy travel day, read Kate's blog post), stopped at the grocery store to buy essentials like Lucky Charms, then headed back to our AirBnB for an attempt at a full night sleep when our bodies thought it was 8am.

Monday morning was the start of a whirlwind week. My parents spent some time house hunting, my siblings and I prepared for our math test and when we were all done we got to spend time with family.

When Friday rolled around, it was a busy day. The wedding was in the afternoon and the Kate, Cannon and I had our math test at BYU in the morning. After the math test (which all three kids did well on), we spent some times with family in the valley, getting ready for the wedding before driving down to the Ogden temple.

Getting to the temple was quite the adventure, as we parked far away, which meant we had almost a mile to walk. Normally, this would be no big deal, but we hadn't factored in that the women would be wearing heels...I still have blisters.

Ogden temple

Once we got to the temple, it was the job of the my siblings and I, as the oldest cousins, to babysit the younger kids while the adults went into the temple. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it was delightful to sit out in the temple gardens with all of the cousins.

Once the marriage ceremony was over, and the newlywed couple emerged, we spent some time taking pictures.

After the pictures, we all drove to a nearby burger restaurant and had a delicious dinner. We spent time with cousins, and I met two of my great-aunts. Good food, good company, celebrating a wedding of two wonderful people. What more could you ask for?

Congrats Tristan and Cassie!

[Kate] Utah Exchanges and Changes

When we were in Utah, we had the chance to leave behind some things and grab some of our other possessions (one duffel bag of each of our stuff had been sent to Utah ahead of time).  My bag had different kinds of things.

I had day clothes that I could pack instead of the ones I've been using.  After wearing the same clothes for months, you start to get a little sick of them.  Luckily we packed other shirts and pants and shorts a few months ago, so I exchanged some things.

There were two pairs of shoes.  Church shoes for the wedding (on his trip I've been using my flip flops for church) and a new pair of sneakers.  I packed new shoes because my plantar fasciitis (flat feet) acts up when my shoes start to get worn down, and so my mom had the idea of buying and packing new shoes in February when we left California, so I could exchange shoes when we got back to America for the wedding.

There were two dress options for the wedding.  I had multiple dresses!  For the first time in ... um, three months?  I've kinda lost track of time, being on the run (that was a very obscure Harry Potter reference).  Anyway, although both were left behind for lack of space, it was nice to have a choice in what to wear besides what's clean and what's not.

I got new contacts.  I got a new prescription at the doctor and now have brought sixty days worth of contacts, with thirty more left in my duffel bag.

Top Ramen!  I've been missing Top Ramen for ages, just wanting something simple and familiar.  When I finally got it, I was determined to keep it as long as possible.  Between the two of us, Cannon and I have packed many (I haven't counted our inventory yet) servings of Top Ramen to eat while we roam.

Three servings of Top Ramen, a small part of
our complete stash.

And last but not least...

My blanket!  Yes, I know, I'm a little old to have a blanket, but it's sentimental for me.  Plus, I assure you, it's a very hot commodity to have a blanket in our traveling.  Whenever we find one in an AirBnB or in a hotel room, it's immediately a source of fighting as every tries to get it.  The fighting part isn't great, but still ... everyone loves a fuzzy blanket.  I was sad to leave it behind.

We also left some things behind, things we either didn't need or didn't want anymore.

I left behind some clothes.  The ones I got sick of or that just weren't practical anymore.  Like long underwear.  We had only needed those for Everest.  Speaking of Everest, I also left my rain pants, which we bought in Kathmandu and have never used since, either traveling or trekking.

I left some paintings we made in Vietnam.  I've been carrying these for a while, and leaving somewhere definitely improved my available suitcase space, which is a big deal when that's your wardrobe, pantry, and pretty much everything combined into one box on wheels.

I'm glad we stopped into Utah to switch our stuff out, and hopefully we're more prepared to get through the last six weeks of traveling!

[George/Cannon] Math Struggle

As I think most of you know we (meaning Kate, Grace and I) are taking a math course through BYU.  And while we are in America we are all going to be taking our finals.  In this post I'm going to talk about the preparation for our finals.

Notes:  For the exam we are each allowed one page of handwritten notes.  This takes a lot of time.  What I did is I did the practice test several times, and each time I found a question I didn't know how to do I figured it out and wrote it down in my notes.  (For example I wrote down how to turn a repeating decimal into a fraction in my notes).

Calculator:  This semester I took algebra I.  That means that I needed a graphing calculator.  So today we went to Walmart and bought two $125 graphing calculators (one is for my sister who is taking algebra II).  I have no idea what half of the buttons do.

LOOK AT ALL OF THE BUTTONS!!!

Doing the practice test over and over:  Thankfully BYU gives you a practice test so you can know what to expect in the real test.  And it doesn't count towards you grade so you can do it over and over again.  This is all I have been doing in math for the last couple days.  I am soooooooo sick of it.

In conclusion I think that we are all very sick of math and can't wait to be done.  Our exam is on Friday and I think we are all very nervous but exited to be done with math.  Wish me (and my sisters I guess) luck!!

[Grace] Abu Simbel Ruins in Egypt

Over the course of this trip, we have seen amazing things in all different parts of the world. In Cambodia we went to Angkor Wat, seen white sand beaches in Thailand, hiked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal and saw lions in South Africa. After South Africa, we flew to Egypt - and while it was not always the most pleasant country (it reached 115 degrees Fahrenheit), the ancient Egyptian ruins are so far beyond anything else.

After spending a few days in Cairo, our family was going to fly to a town on the Nile, Aswan, and get on a river cruise. Before that, we were going to fly down and back to a town near the Sudan border named Abu Simbel to see ruins with the same name as the town.

The day was blisteringly hot, and I was peeved that we had to take two extra flights just to see the Abu Simbel ruins. The schedule for the day looked like this:

Fly from Cairo to Aswan
Fly from Aswan to Abu Simbel

Sightsee at Abu Simbel
Fly from Abu Simbel to Aswan

Board boat

Basically, it would have been much simpler for us to skip Abu Simbel, and I was confused at why this site was so important. I am a big Egyptian history nerd and had never heard of Abu Simbel before, so I was skeptical. However,  I had done some quick research to learn the basics, and this is what I learned:

Abu Simbel was built by  the pharaoh Ramesses the II (commonly known as Ramesses the Great). At the location there are two temples, but they also serve as monuments to Ramesses and his wife, Nefertari. They were built around 1250 BC (for reference, the pyramids were built in 2500 BC).

All my uncertainty about the monuments disappeared instantly once we arrived. 

All four of those giant statues are of Rammesses. He positioned himself in the typical position of a God.

You can see how large the statues are with the perspective the people provide.

There are enormous reliefs of Ramesses carved into the red rockface. They are not in perfect condition but that does little to damper their effect. In the middle, there is an entrance into the temple. Inside, the temple walls are almost 100% covered with carvings, depicting Ramesses' victory in battle as well as tribute to the many gods. One of the most interesting things about the temple is the fact that some of the carvings still have remnants of paint.

The second temple at Abu Simbel is much smaller and dedicated to Ramesses' wife, Nefertari. The front of the temple is in a similar style to the first, if at a much smaller scale. Even though the temple is in Nefertari's honor, she is only depicted in 2/6 of the 6 large figures in front. Ramesses, who was quite the arrogant pharaoh, had 4 large statues of himself out in front too.

From left to right: Ramesses, Nefertari, Ramesses, Ramesses, Nefertari, Ramesses

The inside of the temple is, again, smaller but quite similar to the first temple.

Overall, Abu Simbel was incredible and totally worth it. The ruins were some of my favorite by far. Also, now I want to build my own version of Abu Simbel, except with giant statues of me instead of Ramesses. Stay tuned for how that goes.

[Kate] LIVE REPORT: Canceled Flight Odyssey

6/9/2018 6:34 PM

I'm currently sitting on the very hard and suspiciously wet airport floor in Granada, Spain, immediately right of the entrance.  Right in front of the doors is the big information chart that shows the gates, check in desks, and other general information of the departing flights.

We walked about half an hour ago, maybe a little more, to see that our flight to Paris had been canceled.  This is a big problem, because tomorrow morning, a plane will take off from Paris heading to Salt Lake City, Utah, which we need to be on.  And it's not possible to be on that plane unless we get to Paris pronto.

The sign that shows the flight details.

The three kids are sitting here on the floor (some of our mobile devices are plugged into an outlet in the wall) while our parents figure out what we can do.  We're not in the loop right now, so we can't be sure of what's going to happen.  So far Dad has come over asking me to look up driving time to Madrid (four hours and five minutes), and the departing trains to Paris (which we can't catch).

We haven't seen Mom since we started trying to figure this out, but we have seen flashes of Dad as he tries to get this to work.

A few minutes have passed.  Dad came over while I was typing and took my computer to look some things up.  I just got it back.  I can see from the tabs we left open that he was trying to book a rental car, and, at least on the Avis sight, there were not any available.  It looks like Expedia might have some cars though.  From the snippet of phone conversation I heard, Dad's expression, and the tabs left open on the computer, things aren't looking up.

Mood: Exasperated, Frustrated

6/9/2018 9:30 PM

At the moment all five of us and all our luggage are crammed into a car, driving to Madrid.  The computer is on my lap, and my backpack and plastic bags of gas station food (our dinner) are wedged between me and the window.  The Spanish countryside is rushing past, and it's golden hour right now.  Or, as my sister Grace calls it, picture time (okay, so I can't cite a time when she called it that, but it sounds like a Grace comment).  The car stereo system is blasting Annie's Song by John Denver as we burn though Dad's old road trip playlist, from back when we drove from Seattle to San Fransisco when we moved.

The road to Madrid.

A while after I finished writing last time (around seven) Mom and Dad both came over, telling us that we were renting a car and driving to Madrid.  Then tomorrow morning we would get on a plane to New York, and after a long layover, we would take another plane to Salt Lake City, arriving at about eight in the evening, whereas before we would get there at about one in the afternoon.

Once we were in the car, and had bought some snacks at the gas station, Dad gave us some more information on what had happened.  Since our flight had been canceled (it's not clear why at this point) we had to consider all different types of getting to Paris, but at some point it became clear that it wasn't going to work.  Dad went on all kinds of calls, trying to figure out how to get us to Utah.  He figured some flights out, but tickets would have cost $15,000.  He was on the phone talking to Delta trying to see what they could do (Dad has super-status with Delta from flying so often), when they pulled through, dropping the price way down.  Go Delta!

Mood: Hopeful and Reasonably Content,
but still Tired and Stressed

6/9/2018 11:59 PM

I'm in the hotel room, really wanting to finish up get to sleep.  A little after eleven we got to the hotel, but then we spent another 15 plus minutes driving around, trying to find the right entrance and parking.  Of course, then we discovered it was where we had started in the first place.  It took us a while to get the trunk of the car open, and even longer to get checked in.  Now I'm sitting on my hotel bed typing this up, while really craving Top Ramen.  I'm also downloading a movie for the planes tomorrow.

Mood:  Get me out of this country.  And a big bowl of ramen.

6/10/2018 7:22 AM

So...our flight from here to New York has been delayed one hour.  That can be seen as good news because we get more time to eat breakfast.  But, on the other hand, now we're carrying on baggage because we need to move quickly in our two hour layover in New York.

I'm sitting on my hotel bed, fully packed but exhausted.  We've been trying to stay up late and sleep in to get ready for the Salt Lake time zone, so waking up at seven feels really early to me.

Mood:  Exhausted

6/10/2018 9:35 AM

We're in the Madrid Airport with our gate in sight.  Boarding should begin at around half past ten, and we have our fingers crossed that our flight won't be delayed anymore.  If it is, then we're in deep trouble, because missing our connecting flight to Utah would be catastrophic.

Check in took a while because we were trying to sort out the seat arrangements, although we didn't check any bags.  It looks like our seats might be closer together now, which is great because before we were scattered throughout the plane due to our late booking.  Then we had to get through security and immigrations, which is pretty much second nature to us now.  We did have a slight hiccup with Cannon's model obelisk that he bought in Egypt.  In the scanner it looked like a weapon, so they had to check what it was.  But it made it through in the end, and I guess all's well that ends well.

We tried to get into the lounge in the airport, which we can normally do with Dad and Mom's (mostly Dad's) frequent flying status.  But for some reason there was an issue with letting us (meaning the three kids) in, so instead we're sitting in the main area a stone's throw away from our gate, separated only by a final small security checkpoint.

We're all feeling run down, exhausted and ready to get on a plane and make some progress.

Mood:  Get. Me. Out. Of. This.
Country...please.

6/10/2018 10:17 AM

Now we're just outside the gate, having gotten through the final hurdle (hopefully).  In the security checkpoint Dad and I were marked for extra security, which seems to be chosen by random.  They pulled us off to the side of the room and we sat in a roped off section until it was our turn to be screened.  We had to put our bags on a table and they looked through everything, taking swabs and putting them into a machine which seemed to search for any evidence of dangerous chemicals.  We also had to take our electronics out and take their cases off, which posed a bit of a problem since my computer case was being stubborn.  In the end they pried it off with a screwdriver.  They also did a full body scan and swabbed our hands.  After what felt like half an hour, but what was probably more like fifteen or twenty minutes, we were free to go.

I've got Oreos and chips and gummy bears for the flight, and it looks like I'll be seated next to Cannon.  Hopefully we'll have seatback screens on the plane.

Mood:  Still Freaked out but Oddly Happy

6/10/2018 3:04 PM (New York Time)

We're in New York!  Right now we're waiting just outside our gate, but it's been a trip to get here.  After we landed we went to immigrations (we have global entry so it was pretty snappy) and customs (just walking through), then went to a desk to reprint our boarding passes and to see if we could get better seats.  Once again, I was flagged for extra security, but the rest of the family had TSA PreCheck.  Dad volunteered to go through the slow line and extras security with me, so we split up.  But at the desk right before security they told us our boarding passes were not useable, because they said we started in Madrid, not New York.  So we went to another desk to try to get new passes, which took quite a while, but eventually we got them (it looks like we all have middle seats, but maybe they can change that at the gate), and this time I had PreCheck like the rest of my family.  Great!  But, since getting the boarding passes took so long, we couldn't get Shake Shack like we had intended.  Instead we bought food from a convenience store, and right now I'm eating Pesto Pasta Salad.

We're so close to the end!  Fingers crossed it goes without a hitch.

Mood:  Tired, but hey...
at least we're in America!

6/10/2018 10:10 PM (Salt Lake City Time)

We're here!  I'm sitting on my bed in our AirBnB and typing things up in the dark.  When our plane landed we left the airport to find my Dad's friend Jason with our Tesla, which was filled with the stuff that we had sent ahead to Utah before we had left America in the first place.  

We drove to a grocery store and picked up some food for the evening and morning, and then got to our AirBnB.  There was a lot of squealing and even crying as everyone was reunited with their long lost items (not all of them, just some clothes and maybe a blanket or another comfort item).  I have my blue blanket!

We had a dinner of ramen (Chicken Top Ramen, since they didn't have the oriental flavor, which is pretty much the only one I've ever eaten) and instant mashed potatoes.  Now I'm ready for some long earned rest, since I haven't slept in who knows how long.

Mood: Tired BUT HEY WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!

[Kara] Bidet, Mate!

We have been traveling for over three months now.  We have stayed in a lot of hotel rooms, ranging from super cushy to bare bones.  The hotel room feature I didn't expect to find all around the world and in all price brackets is the bidet.  I think we've had bidets in 75% of the hotels we've stayed in.  But for much of the beginning of our trip, I didn't realize that we had bidets because they didn't look like traditional bidets.

This is what I think of as a bidet.  How does one use this thing?  I mean . . . really.  It has no seat--just the equivalent of a toilet rim, so you can't sit on it.  At least I can't.  (According to the good folks at bidet.org, you might prefer to sit on it facing the wall.  However, that necessitates removing your pants and makes it even less likely that I'd use this thing.)  The nozzle points down when the part you want washed is up (especially when you can't sit on it).  Nothing about this contraption makes me feel happy or clean.  We've had a couple of traditional bidets in our hotel rooms, but not many.  None of us have used them.

What we have seen a lot of are these hand-held sprayers.  For months, as we traveled across Asia, I had no idea what they were for.  I speculated that perhaps they were hand-held mini showers next to the bathroom sink.  You know, like the spray nozzle at your kitchen sink.  (Though why someone would want a sprayer at their bathroom sink that would spray water all over the bathroom, was perplexing.) But then I realized that the only times these were located next to the sink was when the sink was next to the toilet.  So maybe this sprayer was for for hosing down the toilet and/or bathroom to clean it?  

Eventually I Googled it.  It's called a "bidet shower" or, more euphemistically, a "health faucet."  You pick it up, point it where you need to be cleaned (with the inside of the toilet bowl as your backstop) and pull the trigger.  The bidet shower is connected to the toilet plumbing, so it doesn't require much space or significant alterations to your bathroom, should you wish to install one at home.  The only drawback of this setup compared to the traditional bidet is that you can't control the water temperature, so you might be in for a cold shock.

The final bidet option we've encountered is the bidet/toilet combination.  I thought these only existed in wacky Japanese toilets, but here is a picture of a non-Japanese toilet with a bidet feature built into it.  If you pull out the white knob on the side of the toilet, a stream of water sprays out of the nozzle in the back of the toilet bowl--it's aim is directed so that if there's no body part sitting on the toilet, the water will go quite a ways.  We know this because Grace, in an attempt to flush the toilet, pulled that white knob.  Mercifully, she was standing out of the line of fire because the water sprayed for several feet and hit the wall opposite the toilet with significant force.  (Yes, she knows how to flush the toilet.  It just so happened that the flush mechanism on this toilet was broken and so she didn't know if she was using the right knob . . . and got quite a shock when the water shot past her.)

We hit the motherlode of all bidet features in our hotel room in Cairo which had ALL THREE types of bidets in a single bathroom.  (All of these pictures came from that bathroom.)  I can't figure out why they had all the bidet bases covered.  But after so many nights in hotel rooms I've learned that there's not necessarily any rhyme or reason to hotel fixtures.  (But that's the subject of a future blog post.)

[George/Cannon] To-Do-List in America

For those of you who don't know, in about a week we are flying back to America (Utah specifically) for a wedding (Yayy!).  As you might have guessed we are very exited to return to the U.S., and when we get there we will be very busy.  Down below are some of the things that I are most looking forward to.

• FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!  My family and I (me in particular) are looking forward to having food that we know and is reliable.  We have had some weird and sometimes delicious food on this trip, but to be honest I will be happy to have predictable, reliable food.

• Exchange our clothes.  In Utah we each left a duffle bag with a bunch of clothes and other things.  And since we have been living with a limited amount of clothes for over 3 months we are all very sick of our clothes.  We might also go shopping for some new clothes while we are there.

• Go shopping!  It has been very hard to shop on this trip.  For example we can't get many clothes, or food except bread, and some fruit and vegetables.  So when we get to Utah my mom has a big shopping list of things to buy. 

• Top Ramen  This is a weird one.  My family and I like a certain brand of ramen called Top Ramen.  So when we get to Utah we will buy loads of Top Ramen and shove it into our suitcases.  Top Ramen is easy to make and really good, so it's perfect for traveling (besides the fact that it takes up space in a suitcase).

Those are some of the things that we are most looking forward to doing in America.  There are plenty of other things that we have to do, like get a haircut, and take a math test, but I'm not looking forward to that as much (for many reasons).  However I might (notice that I said might) do a blog post on the things that I'm least looking forward to doing in Utah **cough cough math** .

[Kate] The Medina

I wasn't sure if I was going to like Morocco, partially because I saw it as one more country I had to go to before I could go back to the united states and fill my suitcase with TOPramen until it burst (a constant thought in my mind).  But I had been presently surprised by Morocco.  I love the architecture, the mosques, the picturesque scenery, but one of the prominent highlights are the medinas.

The medinas are the local markets in Moroccan cities.  The only big one I've been to so far is the one in Fes.  It wasn't a wide open court like I had sometimes imagined.  It comprised of little, often very narrow streets, sprawling out in every direction like some enormous spider web.  It would be so easy to get lost there, so luckily we had our guide (Samir) guid us through the streets.  There isn't enough room to get a car in their, so any traveling is done by foot, donkey (or other pack animals), bike (not very often), or motorbike (even less often).  Those carrying large loads often use carts. One we saw a cart with live snails inside.

The small shops range in size, from barely enough room for chair, to the size of a small Starbucks.  Other vendors simply place their products out in the streets for people to see while bustling past them.

It was odd walking through the Medinas, because there were sometimes bursts of cold wind from a dark alley to our side.  Sometimes we'd have to duck our heads when entering a new alleyway through a side street or building.  Different smells permeated the air every few feet, smells of dust, freshly baked bread, fruit, gasoline, or other distinct odors. 

There were many, many goods and services for sale, some repeating, others strange and unique purchases.  Here is a list of some, but not all, of the goods/services for sale (some list below them some examples, but not all):

• Various leather products
• shoes
• bags
• jackets
• Various juices
• Many different types of bread
• bagettes
• fried bread
• local flat breads
• Souveniers
• keychains
• magnets 
• etc
• Various beauty products
• Henna
• Haircuts
• Various meats (sometimes still alive)
• chicken (mostly alive)
• beef
• lamb
• camel
• etc
• Fabrics
• Furntiture
• Rugs
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Eggs
• Many different types of clothes

These aren't all of the things we saw, as listing everything would take up at least a page, but this is a list that represents the general kinds of things we saw.

Walking through the medina in Fes was very, very interesting, since I got to see the local markets and the way ordinary people in Morocco lived their lives and purchased their objects.  I'm excited to see the way the medina in Marrakech compares.

A street of the market. 

A street of the market.

A street of the market.

A street of the market.

A street of the market.

A street of the market.

A street of the market with some clothes.

A street of the market.

A street of the market.

A street of the market. 

A street of the market.