host family, the pyramids, museum, hospital

    met our host families the night before - my host mother is a grandma who lives alone, we(my floridan roomate and i) call her mameena, or grandma in arabic. she made us spaghetti and we ate in the most kitchen. she made us have lemon juice on the salad because she thinks it is a cure all. lorna and i share a room, and we have a little air conditioning. we live on the third floor of an apartment building in dokki, giza. we walked down the street and we bought fruit to eat with dinner. we ate lots of mangoes - the best mangoes i have ever had. 
    in the morning our neighbor's personal driver picked us up, taking us to the nearby amideast headquarters. other members of my group were staying outside nasr city, up to an hour and a half away.
    seeing the pyramids was the first thing to do. it was spectacular. very hot, especially since it was july. did a lot of heckling. i almost feel bad getting this so cheap - i got 3 little pyramids, 15 postcards, and a hat for 85cents. am i a bad person? maybe. we climbed on the blocks drank a lot of water and sort of just sat in awe. we walked around the faux market nearby, and took some great touristy photos. some of the guys got ripped off - taking a camel ride for a 100 feet for 50 egyptian pounds (like 10$). a cute little boy tried to get me to ride his horse.
    we then had lunch at felfela near al tahrir square - INCREDIBLE. wow. that is all i have to say. cheap and quick, great dips, fresh tomatoes, wonderful warm pita. THE BEST.
    we then went to the amazing museum in the center of town. unfortunately, no one had any water with them, and there was none inside the museum, and to leave to buy water we would have to pay to reenter. one kid got so desparate that he drank tap water, which made him very sick.
    another group member was already really sick, from tap water as well. that evening i went to visit her at a british hospitable, where i saw a doctor in the emergency room smoking. the hospital experience was so different from that in america.
    it was an AMAZING day, but one of the most exhausting of my life.......