A Couple Tidbits of Information

I don't have much to tell this time. Nothing too exciting has really happened, but I'll give you a few tidbits.

First of all, I finally ventured over to the Egyptian museum. Two of the other teachers - Wendy and Shana- and I went there on the last day of break. The thing about the museum is that while there is a lot of amazing stuff there, it is not labeled at all. Someone warned me before we went there, and Shana had been in before so she knew better. When we got there, there were plenty of 'doctors' of history or whatever hanging around outside of the entrance. Once we bought our tickets, we were approached and bartered a deal for him to show us around the museum. It ended up being a great idea, because once I was inside I realized we would have just wandered around aimlessly without him. While we didn't really see everything, we hit the high points of the place with tombs, artifacts and King Tut's things. The king tut's stuff was by far the most interesting, and I would definitely take anyone that visited me to see it again. The place doesn't allow cameras so I can't show you what is there, but trust me, it was pretty cool. The tour guide added to it because he was able to describe what everything was. I for instance didn't know how King Tut had died. He fell of a horse and banged up his knee pretty bad. That knee got infected and he developed gangrene which he eventually died from. He was like 19, which is horrifying to me. I'm pretty sure what I was told - I may have misunderstood. If anyone knows differently, let me know.

Exam week is in three weeks. We have our review sheets due on the 30th and the exam due the 31st, so my Christmas holiday will be a little sad. We actually do get Christmas off, but that is more of a nod to our beliefs and traditions as Western culture inhabitants than something school related. We have been told we have the day off, but I heard that the kids actually still have school. The next three weeks are four day weeks, which is pretty awesome. We have Christmas next week, an Islamic holiday on the 29th and then Coptic Christmas on 1/7. I'm pretty sure that's the same thing that many Catholics celebrate as the day that the three wise men arrived at the manger, but I could be mistaken. It doesn't really feel like Christmas here, with it being the desert and all. I think this has taught me that snow is very important to my feelings towards Christmas - it puts me in the mood. Or at least the actual cold. I see Christmas decorations here (not a lot, but they are there if I look hard for them) and yet, I feel like I'm faking or trying too hard when I listen to Christmas music. It feels odd, I just can't explain it. I can't really get my head around the idea that its December.

The oddest thing about our schedule at this time is the fact that after the exam in three weeks (1/12) we have about two weeks until our vacation starts (1/27). The kids aren't in school, but we all have to come for half days and do grading. Last exam, the grading took me one night to finish. There are two girls here from last year, and they said that most of those two weeks are filled with DVDs and gossiping. It seems odd that the school wants to pay us to sit around, but hey, I'll take it. After the 27th, we get two weeks off which most of us are taking to go out of Egypt. I'm not sure where I'm going yet - its still being solidified.

And as the most random part of this entry, I wanted to tell you something funny about television here. American tv is shown here - usually a few seasons behind, like Grey's Anatomy is shown, but only Season Two (so far). But the funny thing is, as someone who has seen many of these episodes, they cut out anything remotely sexual. This is a very prude country, so even just a kiss in the elevator is removed. There are things that most likely make no sense to anyone seeing them for the first time, because seriously whole story lines are cut out. These are sort of expected here, one of those things that you shrug and say "well, its egypt'. But what struck me as funny is that any type of cross dressing is cut out immediately. There was an episode of a Disney show (not mentioning it to save SOME pride) that I saw where two girls dressed up as boys to trick others. I've seen it before, so I remembered what happened. They cut from the girls talking about doing it, to the other people's reactions without showing what they even did! It made me laugh. I didn't expect it.

Oh and also - the term spicy food is almost non-existent here. I ordered fajitas the other day. Not like any mexican resturant I've ever been to. The salsa was more like just chopped tomatoes and onions. Kinda disappointing, when you like the food I do. I'm going to want some hot wings when I get back.
I'll add that to the list:
Things not found in egypt: Hot wings.


Anyway, besides creating worksheets for the next century, I don't have much going on. Let you know some more later.