I added a few new photos into Flickr today. They are from our Christmas celebration at school. The school has essentially taken that materialistic aspect of Christmas and transformed it into a odd celebration for everyone. Basically they tell the parents to send in a wrapped gift worth about L.E 20 and then Santa hands them out on Christmas Eve. Santa in this case is Ms. Maha, one of the teachers at the school. She was a terrific Santa, but she has to do all of the Kindergarten, Preschool, First grade and second grade classes. pretty much, she is in the costume all day which kind of stinks for her. She was tired at the end. But the kids loved it! One of the funniest things after the kids got the presents was in my next class. Even though there were explicit instructions to BUY BOOKS for the kids, it was obvious that message didn't get through to half the parents. A lot of coloring books instead, and there were a bunch of big gifts too. One parent gave her son Ziad a Spiderman Monopoly game, which he promptly opened in class (of course) and started to pass out the money to the other kids in the class(!), which cracked me and my assistant up.
Tomorrow the two Scottish girls at the school are hosting Christmas dinner, which should be fun/interesting. I find everyone else's versions of the holidays I celebrate incredibly fascinating. Interesting factoid: In Australia, Santa wears shorts and sunglasses, and his sled is pulled by eight Kangaroos.
Merry Christmas!
A few other random things to tell:
- Recently all of Cairo lost their internet connection for the weekend. The reason being that the main source of internet runs through a cable at the bottom of some canal. That cable was severed by a boat, and it hasn't been working up to full capacity since then. This happened last year too, so you would think they would put the cable somewhere were A BOAT COULDN'T RUN OVER IT!
- Our elevator was broken this week, and for some reason, since its been fixed, now has a bell that rings when it hits our floor.
- our water heater is broken AGAIN. I don't know why. Our charade game with the landlord leads me to believe that the gas was not hooked up properly when we got the propane tank refilled. The whole apartment has smelled like gas for weeks, so i think its on too loose. I think it should get fixed tomorrow.
- I'm definately coming down with something, and yelling at my kids to be quiet doesn't help. But its funny because some of my girls get concerned and yell things like "be quiet!" for me when I can't reach full volume.
- There is about a month until break and I have no plans yet. I'm going somewhere...I just don't know where. I'll let you know when I do.
PS: Congratulations to Jamilyn and Sean on their wedding! (thats for 12/26).
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Egyptian politics and prices
On holiday this week, one of the other girls and I have just really been exploring the Cairo area. We had her friend Amr take us to Coptic Cairo which is where there are old churches and even a synagogue for us to look at. The churches were all Greek Orthadox, but they were interesting to look at.
Afterwards, Amr explained to us that there had been cops where he had tried to park. They didn't want us to park close to the churches but Amr told them that we were from the American Embassy so they quickly changed their tune. He explained that as Americans, we have sort of a free pass when it comes to cops. They tend to bend over backwards for foreigners and let things go that native Egyptians would be arrested for. He also explained that bribes are extremely prevalent here. If you are able to pay off cops instead of getting a ticket or arrested, you do so. Amr said that a trip to get your drivers license involves paying bribes to everyone you interact with. Even the guy that just signs a form need to be bribed.
Also, Amr bought Shana and I ice cream bars. The woman tried to tell him that we had to pay more for them since we were foreigners, but since he ended up paying, she allowed him to pay "Egyptian Price". This is completely normal. Everywhere we go that does not have posted prices will charge "Egyptian Price" and "Foreigner Price". When we buy things, we always have to work ourselves down to Egyptian price, and it generally helps to have one of the local friends with you when you shop.
I just thought you would find that interesting.
Afterwards, Amr explained to us that there had been cops where he had tried to park. They didn't want us to park close to the churches but Amr told them that we were from the American Embassy so they quickly changed their tune. He explained that as Americans, we have sort of a free pass when it comes to cops. They tend to bend over backwards for foreigners and let things go that native Egyptians would be arrested for. He also explained that bribes are extremely prevalent here. If you are able to pay off cops instead of getting a ticket or arrested, you do so. Amr said that a trip to get your drivers license involves paying bribes to everyone you interact with. Even the guy that just signs a form need to be bribed.
Also, Amr bought Shana and I ice cream bars. The woman tried to tell him that we had to pay more for them since we were foreigners, but since he ended up paying, she allowed him to pay "Egyptian Price". This is completely normal. Everywhere we go that does not have posted prices will charge "Egyptian Price" and "Foreigner Price". When we buy things, we always have to work ourselves down to Egyptian price, and it generally helps to have one of the local friends with you when you shop.
I just thought you would find that interesting.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Exam Week, ugh.
I feel like everytime I sit down to write, I'm about to write an essay of events that have happened. Honestly there are days I walk around and think about what I should write in here, but I think it might be a bit of overkill. I'll put things in headings for you to easily stop and come back.
School
So this week was Exam week, which means plenty of tears for me. The week before all we did was go over EVERYTHING they have learned in the past month. They have a monthly exam, so we have about three weeks of material to cover. I had to write the exam, the review worksheets and outline. Everybody has the same responsibilities so don't feel bad for me. Its what we have to do, because it changes from year to year what people cover. I've looked through old lesson plan books, and some of them are on point with me, but others are not. It depends on the teacher I suppose and the way they get through the material.
The teaching itself is frustrating some days and others its exciting because you know that they understood what you tried to teach. I'm getting really good with the names, there are still a few I stumble over pronunciation wise, but most of the kids laugh and tell me the right way. They are helpful when it comes names and assisting in class, but when they get upset they revert to Arabic, and I have to remind them that I don't understand them and to speak in English. I haven't given the grades yet, but I know it will result in tears because these kids are OBSESSED with getting 'full marks' or basically 100%. One point off, and they go ballistic. Its not something I'm looking forward to.
The Apartment
Our apartment has been under construction since the day I got here. There are workers coming in to install some sort of gas line, and my roommate and I just try our best to stay out of their way. The problem comes when they tear holes in our walls and then leave dirt, rocks, concrete, putty or anything else just laying around the area. It takes forever to clean up, and we never know when they might be coming back or anything. You learn to shrug and say "Well, its Egypt" and hope it'll be over quickly. They'll be away for weeks, and then show up for two days in a row. The last guy that came here broke our toilet and a screen in the window. Besides that, the apartment itself is fine. It's remarkably safe, and I feel better being on the sixth floor. My roommate is gone home for the next week (we have a week long holiday next week), and while I normally get uncomfortable being alone, I feel ok with the apartment. Don't get me wrong, I'll miss having someone else around, but our door can't be opened unless you have a key and we have a doorman. And we're on the sixth floor. So all those things combined make me feel safe.
Life in General
I wanted to make mention of the food here. Mostly, american food is prevalent - burgers, pizza, etc.. but there are a few foods that the girls eat daily. One is called Kosheri (I'm trying to spell that phonetically, I'm not sure of the actual spelling) which one the girls described to me as a bowl of carbs. It has macaroni and rice and other pasta, plus chickpeas and a tomato sauce of sorts. Its a relatively big bowl of stuff for only two pounds (which is like forty cents). We also get sandwiches of sorts. Its actually more like a pita pocket. The guy at the store opens the pita and we point to the tray of stuff we want, he puts it in, wraps it and hands it to us. Then we give him one pound for one sandwich (About twenty cents). The fillings can be anything from refried beans,tomato and scramble egg, feta/cucumbers/tomato, eggplant/tomato/potato or even just mashed potatoes. I've tried the eggplant one and the feta one and they are both delicious. The place that sells all this stuff is literally around the corner from our school and people go there pretty much everyday.
I also don't think I've mentioned that Egyptians HATE giving change. You pretty much have to have exact change for taxis, the shop we eat at, and they love you if they don't need to give you change at the restaurants.
Oh and speaking of taxis, I have to say one of the oddest things I have experienced is getting a cab that has no idea where its going, so it stops and asks people on the street where they are going. Its kind of funny, but frustrating at the same time.
Ok, I think thats enough :)
Miss ya!
School
So this week was Exam week, which means plenty of tears for me. The week before all we did was go over EVERYTHING they have learned in the past month. They have a monthly exam, so we have about three weeks of material to cover. I had to write the exam, the review worksheets and outline. Everybody has the same responsibilities so don't feel bad for me. Its what we have to do, because it changes from year to year what people cover. I've looked through old lesson plan books, and some of them are on point with me, but others are not. It depends on the teacher I suppose and the way they get through the material.
The teaching itself is frustrating some days and others its exciting because you know that they understood what you tried to teach. I'm getting really good with the names, there are still a few I stumble over pronunciation wise, but most of the kids laugh and tell me the right way. They are helpful when it comes names and assisting in class, but when they get upset they revert to Arabic, and I have to remind them that I don't understand them and to speak in English. I haven't given the grades yet, but I know it will result in tears because these kids are OBSESSED with getting 'full marks' or basically 100%. One point off, and they go ballistic. Its not something I'm looking forward to.
The Apartment
Our apartment has been under construction since the day I got here. There are workers coming in to install some sort of gas line, and my roommate and I just try our best to stay out of their way. The problem comes when they tear holes in our walls and then leave dirt, rocks, concrete, putty or anything else just laying around the area. It takes forever to clean up, and we never know when they might be coming back or anything. You learn to shrug and say "Well, its Egypt" and hope it'll be over quickly. They'll be away for weeks, and then show up for two days in a row. The last guy that came here broke our toilet and a screen in the window. Besides that, the apartment itself is fine. It's remarkably safe, and I feel better being on the sixth floor. My roommate is gone home for the next week (we have a week long holiday next week), and while I normally get uncomfortable being alone, I feel ok with the apartment. Don't get me wrong, I'll miss having someone else around, but our door can't be opened unless you have a key and we have a doorman. And we're on the sixth floor. So all those things combined make me feel safe.
Life in General
I wanted to make mention of the food here. Mostly, american food is prevalent - burgers, pizza, etc.. but there are a few foods that the girls eat daily. One is called Kosheri (I'm trying to spell that phonetically, I'm not sure of the actual spelling) which one the girls described to me as a bowl of carbs. It has macaroni and rice and other pasta, plus chickpeas and a tomato sauce of sorts. Its a relatively big bowl of stuff for only two pounds (which is like forty cents). We also get sandwiches of sorts. Its actually more like a pita pocket. The guy at the store opens the pita and we point to the tray of stuff we want, he puts it in, wraps it and hands it to us. Then we give him one pound for one sandwich (About twenty cents). The fillings can be anything from refried beans,tomato and scramble egg, feta/cucumbers/tomato, eggplant/tomato/potato or even just mashed potatoes. I've tried the eggplant one and the feta one and they are both delicious. The place that sells all this stuff is literally around the corner from our school and people go there pretty much everyday.
I also don't think I've mentioned that Egyptians HATE giving change. You pretty much have to have exact change for taxis, the shop we eat at, and they love you if they don't need to give you change at the restaurants.
Oh and speaking of taxis, I have to say one of the oddest things I have experienced is getting a cab that has no idea where its going, so it stops and asks people on the street where they are going. Its kind of funny, but frustrating at the same time.
Ok, I think thats enough :)
Miss ya!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!
Yesterday our little teaching family got together for a nice Thanksgiving dinner. We had to work on the actual day of Thanksgiving, but two of the girls, Erin and Wendy, invited everyone to their apartment with the promise of turkey. There are a bunch of Americans that work here, which isn’t always the case, and everyone was craving some turkey so it became very exciting for everyone. It turned out great, everyone brought something – mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn pudding, gravy, chips, mac and cheese, apple sauce, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple crumble, apple pie – everything was delicious, and the school ended up paying for our turkey. Our supervisor Boni and our boss Mohamed came (as did his wife Laura), and most of the girls from the school were there also. It was nice seeing everyone out of work mode, and into a party mode. The two girls from Scotland came, as did the girl from Austraila. It was all of their first Thanksgiving to which one of the girls said “Its like Christmas with out the presents and the baby Jesus! Its all about the food, this is great!” (which btw, she has converted to Islam, so that makes a bit more sense). It was funny, because they then also brought balloons, not knowing what types of decorations to bring. It was nice though, and gave it all a very festive feel. This was a lot of our first Thanksgivings away from our families, and I’m really glad that we were able to make it special.
Tomorrow is exam day for English classes, which should be not so much fun. The grading part is going to be horrendous, but at the same time, the end of next week is the beginning of our week long break! Whoo! Classes are going well, they seem to be beginning to listen to me. I’m a tough teacher…Erin and I are the hard asses of the group. We’re probably the most disciplined of the teachers or at least expect the most discipline. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
Tomorrow is exam day for English classes, which should be not so much fun. The grading part is going to be horrendous, but at the same time, the end of next week is the beginning of our week long break! Whoo! Classes are going well, they seem to be beginning to listen to me. I’m a tough teacher…Erin and I are the hard asses of the group. We’re probably the most disciplined of the teachers or at least expect the most discipline. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
Friday, November 21, 2008
This is going to be a long one...
So this week was interesting, and the last 24 hours have been packed with stuff. I'm going to keep the school stuff out, but it still leaves a lot. I'll try to keep it less detailed, but its going to be long no matter what.
The little things first. I did my first load of laundry this week, which was a blast (not). We have a washing machine in our bathroom that is pretty tiny, but it gets the job done if you have a few items. The problem is that i don't necessarily trust the water here...as you shouldn't...so I feel like washing my clothes in it is kind of backwards logic. The flip side of that coin is that once the clothes are clean, we have to hang them outside to dry. My roommate and I both have lines outside of our windows in order to hang our clothes, but our apartment is on the sixth floor so its a little nerve wracking. I'm pretty sure that at some point, I will drop clothes down there and never see them again. I didn't this time, thankfully, but the air is so full of dust, sand and whatever that it probably makes them just as dirty as when they were being washed in the first place. Its a problematic cycle. But then again, I never really feel too clean in general, dirt is everywhere. Its just a state I'll have to live with until I leave. The upside is that I think everyone feels the same way.
Thursday night (the weekend here is Friday and Saturday, I'm not sure if I've mentioned that before), I went to a bar downtown Cairo called Mojitos. Bars are not really prevalent in Egypt. Its against Islamic beliefs to drink alcohol, so most resturants don't sell it. I went to Chili's with Erin and they had 'margarita' on the menu, but they really just meant 'slushie'. Any way, I went to this bar for the first time, but its where most of the girls go on the weekend. Its at the top of the Hilton, and there is another bar at the bottom of the Hilton called Latex, which just is weird. I think they pick English words that they think sound cool, but don't really know what they mean. The signs outside of all of the bars say you have to be over 21 to get in, but they don't check IDs at all. We asked a guy there (who happened to be 18 and IN the bar), and he said that its really more about the IDEA of not letting people in, but they generally don't care. The bar seems to operate on the 'idea' of rules. It doesn't have a closing time, just whenever the manager feels like closing is the time they start kicking people out. But even then, people hang around. This is standard in Egypt. I'm pretty sure people just do what they want and ignore you if you say something different. Also at the bar, their alcohol choices are limited. I asked for a Jack Daniels and Coke and the waiter almost bit my head off. They didn't have Jack, they had Captain. The had limited liquors and like three beers, the only one recognizable being Heineken. I'm going to be drying out a bit here I suppose, but I guess the trade is worth it.
This morning, Erin, Anna (an American teacher at my school) and I went to church at Maadi Community Church, which is a non-denominational Christian worship space that caters to foreigners. Website is here: http://www.maadichurch.net/Home/tabid/77/Default.aspx if you want to check it out more. It was interesting, and obviously nothing like a Catholic Mass. But it was comforting, and felt more like a group bible study than anything else. It was all in English, and half of the worship were upbeat songs that we would or have sung at LifeTeen Mass at St. Elizabeth Seton at home. Everyone gets into it, people around us were raising their hands and doing motions along with people on the stage. It was like being at YLC (Youth leadership conference directed at teens for those of you that don't know). I think all of us had a good time. At the end, it was odd being able to understand all of the conversations going on around us. In the classroom, the kids speak in Arabic to each other so I'm use to tuning them out since there is no point to listening. But here, everyone spoke English. It was something that just seemed to remind me how adapted I've gotten to this environment. We met up with Anna's roommate Shana (another teacher from America) for lunch and got some breakfast type foods at a deli nearby.
More food that is impossible to find:
Pancakes (though Erin and I heard rumors of a place that has them. We're trying tomorrow)
French Toast
Bacon - I didn't know this, but Egyptians don't eat pigs. There are no pork products whatsoever. They do have beef bacon, but its just strange.
Later in the day, Erin, Shana, Debbie (another girl from the school, she's from Scotland) and I went to Giza to see the pyramids and ride camels. It was pretty amazing. Debbie has been there before, so she knew of a stable we could rent the camels from that wouldn't rip us off. We arrived there after about a half hour cab ride, and proceeded to wander a bit while Debbie tried to remember where the stables where. There are so many stables in the area, but most of them rip of tourists. I have been told before that you shouldn't go to the pyramids without an Egyptian man, because otherwise they'll charge you ridiculous prices. One girl went with a local guy she was dating and they charged them 40 pounds for the ride, but said if she came by herself, they would have charge up to 200 Euros. Its crazy. We knew Debbie's stable would charge us a good price...if only we could find it. Fortunately, we happened to run into her contact while we were wandering around and he took us to the barn. The pyramids themselves were closed by this time, but we rode up next to them in the desert and took picture in the vicinity of them. And we rode camels to do it. The scariest part of riding a camel is the fact it needs to be sitting in order for you to get on or off. When it stands or sits down, its terrifying. Well, to me at least, but I'm pretty sure I heard yelps from the other girls as well. We had two boys leading our camels, and two men from the stables rode up with us to explain things we saw and I'm assuming to keep us safe. They were pretty funny, and took some great picture for us. We also saw a lot of dead horse and camels on our travel, which we turned into a game. Ten points for camel or horse, five for a dog, three for a cat and none for a donkey because that is just sad (these are the rules that were explained to me, almost verbatim). The point totals ended up being like 30-40-30-53 or something like that. Mostly horses, which is sad at first but they aren't fresh. Its mostly skeletons or looks fake, so its not as sad. People were whizzing by us on four wheelers and dune buggies but most people were on horses, speeding up the sand. It was pretty cool to see. The ride itself was all about the scenery and photo ops, of which I took advantage of. It was the perfect day, not too hot and not too cold. The worst part was all the dust, everywhere. My hair felt so grimy afterwards.
On our way back to the stable, we went through the town and passed this small field and/or play area. There was a car parked with its doors wide opened, and about four guys on horses near it. The car was blasting music, and the horses were actually dancing. Seriously one of the oddest things I have ever seen, but also really fun. It was too dark to take a video or picture, but the horses looked like they were having a blast. We saw two more guys on the way back as well dancing on their horses, but the car with the music just added to the strangeness of that. Our guides said that it isn't that odd, sometimes they have parties where people bring their horses to dance. There are even horse dancing competitions, which they had pictures of in the stable. I took picture of those, but they don't even begin to illustrate the randomness that horse dancing looks like.
After we were done and paid (40 pounds each with ten pound tip for everyone, so really 50 pounds each. Awesome), we went to get food at KFC. Don't judge. The KFC was directly across the street from the entrance to the "Light and Sound Show" that plays at the pyramids in 5 different languages, but it is like eighty pounds to get in. We sat on the third floor of the restaurant (very small floors, so three is more like one normal sized KFC at home. And there was a Pizza Hut on the second floor. ) and while we were sitting there, the show started. We figured out how to get on the roof, and were able to kind of watch some of the show and hear most of it. It was neat to see the Sphinx lit up, since we couldn't see that on our ride. We watched for a while, but it was hazy so we left. It was a long day, but fun!
Pictures are up on Flickr from the ride. I uploaded them in the same folder as the previous pictures, just keep clicking till they're new.
Miss you all! Go Bucks!
The little things first. I did my first load of laundry this week, which was a blast (not). We have a washing machine in our bathroom that is pretty tiny, but it gets the job done if you have a few items. The problem is that i don't necessarily trust the water here...as you shouldn't...so I feel like washing my clothes in it is kind of backwards logic. The flip side of that coin is that once the clothes are clean, we have to hang them outside to dry. My roommate and I both have lines outside of our windows in order to hang our clothes, but our apartment is on the sixth floor so its a little nerve wracking. I'm pretty sure that at some point, I will drop clothes down there and never see them again. I didn't this time, thankfully, but the air is so full of dust, sand and whatever that it probably makes them just as dirty as when they were being washed in the first place. Its a problematic cycle. But then again, I never really feel too clean in general, dirt is everywhere. Its just a state I'll have to live with until I leave. The upside is that I think everyone feels the same way.
Thursday night (the weekend here is Friday and Saturday, I'm not sure if I've mentioned that before), I went to a bar downtown Cairo called Mojitos. Bars are not really prevalent in Egypt. Its against Islamic beliefs to drink alcohol, so most resturants don't sell it. I went to Chili's with Erin and they had 'margarita' on the menu, but they really just meant 'slushie'. Any way, I went to this bar for the first time, but its where most of the girls go on the weekend. Its at the top of the Hilton, and there is another bar at the bottom of the Hilton called Latex, which just is weird. I think they pick English words that they think sound cool, but don't really know what they mean. The signs outside of all of the bars say you have to be over 21 to get in, but they don't check IDs at all. We asked a guy there (who happened to be 18 and IN the bar), and he said that its really more about the IDEA of not letting people in, but they generally don't care. The bar seems to operate on the 'idea' of rules. It doesn't have a closing time, just whenever the manager feels like closing is the time they start kicking people out. But even then, people hang around. This is standard in Egypt. I'm pretty sure people just do what they want and ignore you if you say something different. Also at the bar, their alcohol choices are limited. I asked for a Jack Daniels and Coke and the waiter almost bit my head off. They didn't have Jack, they had Captain. The had limited liquors and like three beers, the only one recognizable being Heineken. I'm going to be drying out a bit here I suppose, but I guess the trade is worth it.
This morning, Erin, Anna (an American teacher at my school) and I went to church at Maadi Community Church, which is a non-denominational Christian worship space that caters to foreigners. Website is here: http://www.maadichurch.net/Home/tabid/77/Default.aspx if you want to check it out more. It was interesting, and obviously nothing like a Catholic Mass. But it was comforting, and felt more like a group bible study than anything else. It was all in English, and half of the worship were upbeat songs that we would or have sung at LifeTeen Mass at St. Elizabeth Seton at home. Everyone gets into it, people around us were raising their hands and doing motions along with people on the stage. It was like being at YLC (Youth leadership conference directed at teens for those of you that don't know). I think all of us had a good time. At the end, it was odd being able to understand all of the conversations going on around us. In the classroom, the kids speak in Arabic to each other so I'm use to tuning them out since there is no point to listening. But here, everyone spoke English. It was something that just seemed to remind me how adapted I've gotten to this environment. We met up with Anna's roommate Shana (another teacher from America) for lunch and got some breakfast type foods at a deli nearby.
More food that is impossible to find:
Pancakes (though Erin and I heard rumors of a place that has them. We're trying tomorrow)
French Toast
Bacon - I didn't know this, but Egyptians don't eat pigs. There are no pork products whatsoever. They do have beef bacon, but its just strange.
Later in the day, Erin, Shana, Debbie (another girl from the school, she's from Scotland) and I went to Giza to see the pyramids and ride camels. It was pretty amazing. Debbie has been there before, so she knew of a stable we could rent the camels from that wouldn't rip us off. We arrived there after about a half hour cab ride, and proceeded to wander a bit while Debbie tried to remember where the stables where. There are so many stables in the area, but most of them rip of tourists. I have been told before that you shouldn't go to the pyramids without an Egyptian man, because otherwise they'll charge you ridiculous prices. One girl went with a local guy she was dating and they charged them 40 pounds for the ride, but said if she came by herself, they would have charge up to 200 Euros. Its crazy. We knew Debbie's stable would charge us a good price...if only we could find it. Fortunately, we happened to run into her contact while we were wandering around and he took us to the barn. The pyramids themselves were closed by this time, but we rode up next to them in the desert and took picture in the vicinity of them. And we rode camels to do it. The scariest part of riding a camel is the fact it needs to be sitting in order for you to get on or off. When it stands or sits down, its terrifying. Well, to me at least, but I'm pretty sure I heard yelps from the other girls as well. We had two boys leading our camels, and two men from the stables rode up with us to explain things we saw and I'm assuming to keep us safe. They were pretty funny, and took some great picture for us. We also saw a lot of dead horse and camels on our travel, which we turned into a game. Ten points for camel or horse, five for a dog, three for a cat and none for a donkey because that is just sad (these are the rules that were explained to me, almost verbatim). The point totals ended up being like 30-40-30-53 or something like that. Mostly horses, which is sad at first but they aren't fresh. Its mostly skeletons or looks fake, so its not as sad. People were whizzing by us on four wheelers and dune buggies but most people were on horses, speeding up the sand. It was pretty cool to see. The ride itself was all about the scenery and photo ops, of which I took advantage of. It was the perfect day, not too hot and not too cold. The worst part was all the dust, everywhere. My hair felt so grimy afterwards.
On our way back to the stable, we went through the town and passed this small field and/or play area. There was a car parked with its doors wide opened, and about four guys on horses near it. The car was blasting music, and the horses were actually dancing. Seriously one of the oddest things I have ever seen, but also really fun. It was too dark to take a video or picture, but the horses looked like they were having a blast. We saw two more guys on the way back as well dancing on their horses, but the car with the music just added to the strangeness of that. Our guides said that it isn't that odd, sometimes they have parties where people bring their horses to dance. There are even horse dancing competitions, which they had pictures of in the stable. I took picture of those, but they don't even begin to illustrate the randomness that horse dancing looks like.
After we were done and paid (40 pounds each with ten pound tip for everyone, so really 50 pounds each. Awesome), we went to get food at KFC. Don't judge. The KFC was directly across the street from the entrance to the "Light and Sound Show" that plays at the pyramids in 5 different languages, but it is like eighty pounds to get in. We sat on the third floor of the restaurant (very small floors, so three is more like one normal sized KFC at home. And there was a Pizza Hut on the second floor. ) and while we were sitting there, the show started. We figured out how to get on the roof, and were able to kind of watch some of the show and hear most of it. It was neat to see the Sphinx lit up, since we couldn't see that on our ride. We watched for a while, but it was hazy so we left. It was a long day, but fun!
Pictures are up on Flickr from the ride. I uploaded them in the same folder as the previous pictures, just keep clicking till they're new.
Miss you all! Go Bucks!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
School
The resources at the school are limited. While at home, any of the elementary schools would have a nice computer lab or two, a library full of research material and gigantic amounts of printer paper, our school has barely of these things. We do have a computer lab, but there are about eight computers in it, and one printer. We have one computer in our staff room that sometimes has internet, sometimes doesn’t. We have to wait turns for the computer and the printer, which isn’t a huge inconvenience but when I think back to my schooling, it makes me a bit sad. We hardly ever have printer paper. Most of our worksheets are printed out on old worksheets, and then taken to the one photocopier in the school. When I say photocopier, I not only mean the machine, I also mean the person. We have one woman that does all the copying for us, which is actually a good system. You drop off your worksheet, and then come back the next day and there are 100 copies waiting for you. She generally has printer paper, but occasionally your worksheets have something on the back. I had a worksheet the other day that was printed on leftover Halloween coloring sheets, which ended up being good because my kids love to color.
I’m not trying to sound down about the school, because I do like this school a lot. But when I think about how much my schools had when I was young had, I feel sad for these kids. The standard of living that allow me to live cheaply are also the same ones that inhibit these. Its just a little sad.
I’m not trying to sound down about the school, because I do like this school a lot. But when I think about how much my schools had when I was young had, I feel sad for these kids. The standard of living that allow me to live cheaply are also the same ones that inhibit these. Its just a little sad.
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