Beth In Egypt

Well this is it!  Our last day in Greece!  And it couldn’t have been any better . =)  We rented a car yesterday to take to Corinth today.  We left pretty early (8-ish) so that we could get out of the city while there wasn’t much traffic.  This was my first experience driving in another country (aside from driving it back to the hotel last night!), so I was just a little nervous.  Fortunately, Sarah is an excellent co-pilot, and gave good directions…in the morning anyway. =)

 

We made it out of Athens and were on our way.  Most of the drive was along the water and it was beautiful!  It was the same blue color that we saw on the cruise.  We arrived in Corinth, and after a little maneuvering to get to the ruins site, parked the car and walked to the entrance.  The little village around the ruins site is so cute!  It’s very little town-ish, with cobblestone streets and cute little shops.  I was excited to see the ruins, especially with the history from the Bible, and everything.  Like the other places we have visited, you could tell that this was an amazing city at one time, but now is just a skeleton of what it used to be.  I like to imagine what it must have been like.  We saw Apollo’s temple, which was neat, and the site of a cool looking fountain.  We spent about an hour wandering around the site, just enjoying the day.  It was much cooler today, and quite breezy.  We commented several times on how we are going to enjoy the weather because tonight we go back to Cairo, where it was 100 degrees today…yuck.

 

We walked around the shops a little bit, buying last minute gifts and postcards, and then went to one of the little restaurants to get a drink and decide what to do next.  We had the car for the whole day, and we wanted to get our money’s worth!  As a side note, I ordered hot chocolate at the restaurant and it was so good!  It was so thick, it was almost like drinking hot pudding.   Yum!  We looked at some options, and found that we could drive almost to the top of a cliff that we were admiring to see the Acrocorinth ruins.  It was so fun to drive our little miniature car up the winding road!  Man, I do miss driving!  It was REALLY windy when we got out of the car, but we headed up to the top anyway.  It was really like a fort with a small city inside.  You could see the temples and where houses or shops would have been, but very little was labeled.  It was really nice to go on a “hike.”  It was steep, and there was a lot to look at!  We walked all around, going up and down the peaks.  When we got to the very top, there was a view so gorgeous it would be hard to describe!  You could see the whole Corinth region, including the sea.  And once again, the water was so blue, you could hardly imagine it!!  I just don’t think the pictures do it justice.  It was truly amazing.  We walked around a bit more, and headed back to the car.

 

When we got back to the little village, we ate lunch.  One thing I can say about this whole trip is that all of the food has been to die for!  Today, I had another Greek salad, and a gyro (so as to be REALLY Greek!).  I had a little dog friend that sat by me the whole time we were eating.  He wasn’t bothersome, just laid down at me feet!  The dogs around Greece are much different from the dogs of Cairo.  These dogs actually look nice, and most are even fat because they get fed so much!  I have seen several that resemble my mom’s dog, too.  But enough about the dogs! =)  After lunch, we walked a bit more and decided it was time to go back to Athens.  We tried going to same way we came, but there were so many twists and turns that it made it hard.  Eventually we found some side roads, and were on our way. 

 

When we rented the car, the guy suggested that we stop at the water.  We pulled off the main road and crossed a bridge over the canal.  There is quite a story about the canal, so if you want to hear it, ask me sometime. =)  We parked just on the other side of the bridge, and as we were looking at the water, the bridge started to disappear!  It just started sinking!!  We walked back over to the end of the bridge to watch it.  Then a boat came through the canal, and after it passed, the whole bridge came back up out of the water!  It was pretty  neat to watch.  I think it would have been easier to make a drawbridge, but no one asked me. =)  This was more entertaining anyway! 

 

On the other side of the bridge, there was a sign pointing towards Athens, so we decided to follow it, instead of going back to the highway.  It actually ran parallel to the highway, but was much closer to the water, so we enjoyed our “scenic” drive.   Eventually we ended up back on the highway.  As we got into Athens, Sarah was in charge of the map.  In her defense, it was not her fault that it took forever to get the car returned.  There are NO left turns in Athens!  And when you want to turn right, you can’t.  But with our trusty map, we wound our way back to the rental place and dropped off our little Kia Picanto (but I prefer to call it Picante Sauce!).

 

We came back to the hotel to pack, and then went out for one last dessert…apple pie and ice cream!  It was delicious!  It’s too bad that good dessert is hard to find in Egypt.  That just made us enjoy it all the more!  Now we are back at the hotel waiting for the time when we should leave for the airport.  Our flight leaves at 12:50AM, so we should be back to our respective “homes” by 3 AM.

 

I really had a great time on this vacation!  It was unplanned, but I think we got a lot accomplished for it not being planned!  We got to see some amazing things and eat delicious food, and enjoy another culture for a few days.  Now I just can’t wait for my next vacation!!!

Until next time… =)

We had another fun day today!  We didn’t do much, as we needed to spend a bit of time doing the touristy “buy something for everyone you know” time that I bypassed during our sightseeing.  We originally wanted to go to Corinth on Sunday, but found out that there wasn’t a tour on Sunday.  We devoted a part of our day to finding another tour, or renting a car to drive there.  We went to a couple of tour companies, but they all essentially operate on the same schedule, so we had to rent a car.  It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it was going to be, and now I get to drive!!!  But more on that later =)

 

We walked around Plaka and bought a few things here and there, and then headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases.  When we bought our tickets to go to the Acropolis, the tickets included entrance to six other sites.  We had one left, Keramikos.  Keramikos is an ancient cemetery.  It is quite green and very quiet, so we enjoyed walking through there.  We ate Greek salad for an early dinner/late lunch and decided to eat dessert later on in the evening.  There was one other thing on the map that sounded interesting, the Panathenaic Stadium.  For lack of anything better to do, we walked over in that direction, through the National Gardens (that were closed the day of our walking tour, probably due to the protesters!).  It was very green and beautiful!  On the other side, we found the stadium.  It would have been neat to see, but they were setting up a stage for a concert.  You could just see the Olympic rings on the back side of it.  But hey, it didn’t cost anything to get over there!  From there, we walked back to the rental place to pick up the car.

 

If you read the blog from yesterday, you may remember that I wrote about how much better the drivers in Athens are than the drivers in Cairo.  Fortunately for me, that was still true as I drove!!  Sarah didn’t want to drive, so that left me.  Good thing I’m 25!! =)  It was a piece of cake getting from the rental place back to the hotel, and there was even a parking place for me!  The real test will be tomorrow when we drive out of the city!  But tomorrow is Sunday, and we plan on leaving pretty early, so hopefully there won’t be much traffic. =)  Sarah read that Syntagma Square (across from the Parliament building is a WiFi spot.  We decided to check it out and took our laptops over there.  The city of Athens has several places with free WiFi so that everyone has access to the internet.  What a great idea!  We sat there until our batteries died, and then headed back over to Plaka for dessert.   

 

We passed a place earlier that Sarah thought looked good.  It was great!  I had a brownie dessert (of course!) with ice cream, and we shared the Greek doughnuts, just because they looked so yummy!  They actually tasted a bit like sopapillas, with the honey and everything.  It was a little breadier than a sopapilla, but you can imagine about what it tasted like. =)  They were definitely good!  After that, we got back on the train, and went back to the hotel to rest up for our big trip to Corinth tomorrow!  We didn’t do anything real exciting, but it was definitely a good day. =)

It’s Friday!  We got up really early this morning to go on our 1-day, 3 island tour (not to be confused with a 3 hour tour!)  We had to leave before breakfast was served at our hotel (hence the doughnuts the night before!), and walked to a nearby hotel where we would get picked up.  This was our first time driving through Athens, and it is WAY different from Cairo!  Cars actually obey traffic laws, which is unheard of in Cairo. =)  We boarded a nice cruise ship with a LOT of other people!  But there were only a few times during the day that it ever felt crowded.  We wandered around the ship for a while and booked our excursion for the last island.  There was also a Greek dancing lesson!  That was really fun.  I hope that I can remember it when we get back to teach my students!  It was a long boat ride to the island, but it didn’t seem that long.  There was a lot to look at, as we passed a lot of other islands.  I just loved looking at the water!  I have never seen water so BLUE!!!  I took a lot of pictures to try to capture it, but the pictures really don’t do it justice.  It was clear, too, so you could see a lot.  I’m sure Sarah got tired of me commenting about how much I loved the water, but it was amazing to me!! 

 

The first island we went to was Hyrda (He-dra).  There was a fort that we walked up to and then walked to the other side of the port to the windmill.  There were little shops along the way, but I really wasn’t interested in shopping.  We only had about 45 minutes at the island because the port authority has a strict time table, and we had to leave.  Hydra was really rocky and mountainous, and you could see the houses going up the mountain.  I really would have liked to spend some time exploring the island and checking out the side streets, but we didn’t have time.  It was enough that I want to go back, though! =)

 

When we boarded, it was lunch time.  This was one of those times that it REALLY felt crowded!  We were all crammed into the dining room, but I was amazed at how efficiently everyone was served!  I ordered kiwi juice and it was DELICIOUS!  Our main dish was pork, so you can imagine how happy I was!!  Sarah didn’t like the food much, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. =)

 

The second island we went to was Poros.  We only had about 35 minutes here, and it was a lot like the port at Hydra.  We did find a place where I could put my feet in the water.  It was so refreshing and felt great!  Again, I wish that we had more time to explore the island, but it was just a 1-day cruise…

 

The last island was Aegina (a-JEEN-a).  This is the second largest of the Greek islands.  We had about 2 hours here, and we booked a tour while we were on the boat.  We got on a bus and it took us around the island.  This island has 365 chapels, one for each day of the year!  Each one is, of course, named after a different saint.  There is one hill that has 33 chapels on it.  It was a lot like Cairo where there is a mosque on every corner. =)  We also visited the church dedicated to Saint Nectarios.  He is the island’s saint.  The church was beautiful!  I am always amazed at how they make these churches.  They are so ornate!  Aegina is also known for its pistachio plantations, and we drove by several of those.  The tour ended back at the port, where we got to have some local seafood and try some ouzo again.  Fortunately, they told us on the bust how to drink it!  We realized that the first time we had it, we did it all wrong.  We just sipped it straight from a glass with ice.  But you are actually supposed to add a lot of water to it!  It makes it change to a milky color.  So this time it was better, but I still didn’t like it!  Black licorice is NOT for me! =)  Our seafood platter had a lot of different things, but I ate the octopus.  I have had it before, so I thought I would try it again.  And guess what!  It tasted like octopus!  It is rubbery and hard to chew, but it has a good taste!  Then it was time to head back to the boat.

 

Back on the boat, we sat in the dining room again because they were going to have traditional Greek dancing.  It was fun to watch, and even participate a little. =)  Then this guy came out and did a REALLY bad comedy show.  But oh well!  We were still entertained.  We took some pictures of the sunset, and before we knew it, we were back in Athens!  It was such a great day!  It just makes me want to go back to the islands and do some exploring on my own.  I hope I can someday!

 

That was pretty much the day, but on the bus on the way back to the hotel, we saw a guy juggling in front of the cars that were stopped at a stoplight!  It was some impressive juggling, too!  And I’m sure the people stopped at the light were glad to have something to look at while they waited. =)

 

That’s it for Day 3!  Stay tuned for Day 4 tomorrow!!

Good early morning!  Sarah and I both slept REALLY well, and were ready for all the excitement of a new day.  The night before, we decided to do the walking tour that our guide book suggested.  We had seen a couple of the places on the tour yesterday, but there were so many others, that we thought it would be a good idea.  We had another delicious breakfast at our hotel, and during breakfast, it started raining!!!  Now, I add the exclamations marks out of excitement, not disappointment.  I LOVE RAIN!!!  And, as you know, it rarely rains in Cairo.  We both had jackets, so our walking tour was still on.  It ended up that it was done raining by the time we finished breakfast and got our things ready to go.  We also booked a 1-day cruise to 3 islands for tomorrow (yay!).  We took the Metro (that I still love!) to the start of our walking tour and were on our way!

 

I won’t bore you with all the details of what we saw on our walking tour.  I will just give you the highlight.  The tour starts across the street from the Parliament building.  That is where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is, and they change the guard there ever hour on the hour.  As we walked out of the Metro, it was just about 10:00, so I made Sarah run across the street with me so we wouldn’t miss it.  It is nothing like the guard change at Buckingham Palace.  There are no fences or anything!  But it was still cool to watch.  I got some of it on video, as well.  After that, we walked back up the street and saw a whole bunch of protesters!  They were marching up the street and they even had police with riot gear!  This was definitely something to stick around for.  All of their signs were in Greek (obviously), so we didn’t know what they were marching for, but we did need to watch!  They completely blocked off the street and the police had to divert cars.  A couple minutes later, there was another protest group coming up the street!  They were different protesters…how strange that they would be protesting on the same day!  They were blocking the street the other direction.  We thought maybe they were the opposition for the first group (because everything was in Greek!  How would we know!?).  So after watching that for a bit, the second group moved on and the first group clapped for them.  At this point, I really needed to know what all this was about, so I just decided to go up and ask one of the protesters that was handing out literature.  She said that the first group was marching for “free hospitality and free health care,” and the other group was for higher wages.  That was all I found out, but that was enough.  Sarah and I talked to two older ladies from New Zealand and shared my newfound information =)  We then continued on our way.  It wasn’t long though, until we saw yet ANOTHER protest!  This one was BIG!  And they were headed in the same direction.  This group had smoke bombs that they would set off occasionally, but they were otherwise peaceful.  I can’t imagine that there are that many protests every day, but it was sure interesting to see it!

 

The next part of the tour worth mentioning (but it was all great!), was our walk up through a small neighborhood.  There was only one small path through a maze of houses.  It really felt like we were trespassing, but the book said to keep going!  We kept seeing signs pointing the way to the Acropolis, so it was alright.  The houses were all whitewashed (like the pictures of Greece you usually see!), and they beautiful plants and flowers.  It was so “Greek-like!”  It was really neat.  We saw some other historic sites, and stopped a cute little café for a break and something to drink.  We actually ended up walking some of the same streets we were on yesterday, but didn’t know what these things were!  Another cool site was Hadrian’s Library.  It must have been an amazing place back in the day!  Just the fact that they had facilities like that (complete with lecture rooms and a theater, and a pool!) was amazing to me.  We also ended up back at Starbucks for another potty break. =)   We decided to end the tour there instead of continuing on to museums that didn’t seem all that interesting.  We walked some other streets and did some more exploring before getting on the Metro to go to the Olympic Stadium.  It is WAY out there, so we were on the train for a while.  I didn’t mind!  It was really cool to see the site of the Olympics.  I was surprised though at how run down everything was.  I guess there isn’t enough money to maintain everything after the Olympics are over.  We got to see most of the facilities, but most of it was blocked off.  We could just walk around the grounds.  We could see the pool just a bit, and there were actually people swimming in it!  It’s nice to know that it is being used, even though the grounds look shabby now.  You could tell that it must have been beautiful at one time because there were lots of fountains that are now empty.  It was strange, because it was almost like the rest of the city.  You can see the ruins of the ancient civilization that at one time was flourishing and successful.  You can tell that it must have been an awesome place to be, but all you see now are the ruins.  The stadium in on its way to ruins, so to speak.  But in any case, it was still neat to see it!

 

We went back to the hotel to relax for a little while before dinner.  We ventured out again, this time to the area around Parliament.  We walked up and down the side streets and went in to some of the shops.  There was one shop that had dresses in the window, and most of them had the gaudy look of the dresses in Egypt, but there was a blue one that was really pretty, so we went in to look at it (I need a new dress for the Christmas ball!).  I tried it on and it was gorgeous!  But it was also 225 Euros, or about $300.  WAY too much!  But Sarah took a picture of it, front and back, so that I can take it back to Egypt and have it made for a fraction of that cost!  Hopefully it will work out =)  We walked around a bit more and settled on a restaurant near the Metro station.  After dinner, we went in search of some of the giant doughnuts that they sell on the streets so we would have something to eat for breakfast.  Then we went back to hotel and crashed.  Early day tomorrow!!

Well, we made it to Greece!  It was a long night, even though the flight was only 2 hours!  We arrived in Athens at 5:45 and got our bags without any problem.  I had done my research, so I already knew to take the Metro (subway) from the airport to a station pretty close to our hotel.  The director of our school and his wife were on the same flight and also needed to take the metro, so we all went together.  We found the train and got on, although the train didn’t leave right away.  We also never bought tickets, but we thought it might be one of those things that you buy the ticket after the fact, so we just went on our way.  I LOVE THE METRO!!!  It was so clean, and pretty fast!  We had to change trains, and decided to look for a place to buy tickets there, but realized that we were supposed to buy our tickets before we got on the train, but we never saw it at the airport!  Oops!  There wasn’t anything we could do about it at that point, except finish our free ride! =)  Fortunately, no one was checking tickets because the fine is 60 times the price of the ticket!  That would end up being about $500!!  Just don’t tell anyone about our mistake =)

 

So we changed trains and got off on the stop that was close to our hotel.  The total time in the train was about 45 minutes.  It was great!  We came out of the Subway and saw Athens for the first time.  There wasn’t much to look at where we were, but Sarah and I both commented on how clean everything was!  It’s still a city, but compared to Cairo, it was amazingly clean!  What a nice change! The weather was also much cooler, and felt WONDERFUL!!  We were looking around for our hotel, because it was supposed to be very close to this stop.  I asked a woman who was pushing a stroller if she knew, but I soon realized that she either didn’t speak English, or didn’t read English.  Oh well!  We would find it eventually!  Sarah happened to look in the right direction at the right time and saw the sign for it.  Hooray!  It was only 7:30 in the morning, but we were hoping we could check in anyway and get our day started.  It turned out that our room was available and ready.  Hooray!  We dropped off our things, went up to eat a quick breakfast, and set out trying to get to the Acropolis.  I knew there was a Metro station nearby, so we headed back to the station.

 

This time, we actually did pay for our tickets!  And we found out that we could buy one ticket that would be good for 7 days and it wasn’t terribly expensive, so now we have our tickets covered for the next few days. =)  Did I already say that I LOVE THE METRO!!  It is so easy!  We got off the train at Akropli station and easily found the entrance.  I don’t know much about the Acropolis, so I was relying on the map that they gave us.  It wasn’t a very good map, unfortunately, so I had to read a lot of the signs to know what we were looking at.  I didn’t really know what to expect, but what we saw was really cool!  It was like walking back in time and looking at all these old buildings!  Well, really, it was just pieces of the old buildings, but you could imagine what it would have looked like.  There were only a few stones here and there.  I bet though that at one time, it was really beautiful.  It was also nice to just see all the green trees!!  SUCH a contrast from Cairo!  The further you walk into the Acropolis, the higher up you get.  We could see more and more of Athens.  It was beautiful!  It’s amazing how the city has just grown around, and in some cases, on top of the old city.  The further we got up to the Parthenon, the more people there were.  That made it a bit difficult to get good pictures.  All I can say about the Parthenon is that the ancient Greeks were smart to build such a prominent building at the highest point in the city!  Wow!  It was a nice view!

 

We walked around the Acropolis complex a bit more, and ventured out to see some other sights.  The nice thing about going to the Acropolis first is that the entrance fee covers the entrance fee to most of the other archeological sights around Athens.  We visited several of these, and walked around the Plaka area (mostly touristy shopping).  By this time, we were quite tired, as we have not slept since the night before.  So we headed back to the hotel (using the Metro!) for a quick 1-hour nap.  The nap was excellent!  It was just what we needed. =)  When we went back out, we decided to walk around some more and just do some exploring and eventually eat dinner.  We found a few more archeological sites that we visited and then ate dinner at the base of the Acropolis.  It was pretty cool to sit so close to such an historic site!  I ordered a Greek salad (and they really do call it Greek salad, not just salad!) and PORK!!!  Man, I love Greece!  After dinner, we continued walking around with the intention of finding a place to have dessert and ouzo, the traditional Greek drink.  We walked up and down the shop-lined streets and even found a Starbucks (a guaranteed clean bathroom!).  But we stopped at another small roadside café for our dessert.  I ordered chocolate pie, which was actually more like chocolate cake, but it was delicious anyway!  Sarah and I both ordered ouzo, and they brought us a (small) bottle to share.  Having never tried it before, we were both a bit hesitant to fill out glasses, so we just poured a little bit into our glasses.  SMART MOVE!!!  I don’t know if you have ever had ouzo, but it tastes a lot like black licorice…only not just licorice, licorice AND rubbing alcohol.  Gross!!  But we have evidence that we did try it!  Another teacher at school was raving about how delicious the ouzo was, so we put the cap back on the bottle and decided to bring it back for her. =)    We headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

I can’t say that there was anything too terribly interesting this week.  But I would like to stay in the habit of updating this blog about once a week, just so I don’t get so behind this year.

I had a bit of a let down on Sunday.  I had been planning a trip to Jordan for the Eid break (the end of Ramadan), and was going in to the travel agency to pay for the trip.  The agent had told me on the phone that the trip (without airfare) would be 650 LE (Egyptian pounds).  That amounts to less than $150.  The plane tickets were about $500, so that would be pretty affordable. I even asked her twice if it was LE or USD, and she assured me that it was 650 LE.  Great!  I was ready for a trip!  But when we went in, she said it was going to be $650…WHOA!!  With the plane tickets being so expensive neither of us could afford it, so we had to cancel the trip.  I was really disappointed and thought I wouldn’t be able to find anything else for the break because it was getting kind of late.  There are a whole bunch of people going to Dahab on the Red Sea (Sinai Peninsula).  I like the beach, but not enough to spend a whole week there!  I looked into a couple of other places in Egypt (Aswan, Abu Simbel), but realized there wasn’t much to do there.  Then I had a thought!  Why not go to Greece and stay in hostels?  I’ve heard it can be pretty cheap, so I looked into it.  Thursday morning I found a flight AND hotel for MUCH less than my trip to Jordan!  And on Thursday afternoon, Sarah was in my room and we were buying tickets!  We have absolutely NOTHING planned, don’t know how to get to the hotel, or how to get around, but we are both so excited to go!  It should be quite an adventure!   So that was the big story for the week.

Here’s a funny story.  On Monday, I was teaching a lesson and giving my kids their morning bathroom breaks.  One of my girls came running back into the room screaming, “Miss!!!  Jeena is locked in the bathroom!!!”  To which I replied, “Well, go let her out!”  Nada said she had tried, but the door wouldn’t open.  Now, the stalls at my school have doors that go almost to the floor.  There definitely is not enough room for Jeena to climb under the door, but there also isn’t much I could do, seeing as how I had 15 other kids in my room.  So I sent one of my brighter girls down to see if she could get the door open.  Still no luck.  At this point, Jeena had been in the bathroom for over 10 minutes.  Feeling sorry for the girl, I decided to have Owen (the 5^th grade teacher next to me) just keep an eye on my kids so I could go get Jeena out of the bathroom.  By the time I had gotten down there, a security guard had already tried to open the door, couldn’t do it, and left.  He didn’t even try to get her out!  Looking at the door handle, it was definitely broken.  Never trust and Egyptian door handle!  I went into the stall next to her and assessed the situation.  There was no way out except over the top.  She wasn’t tall enough to climb over, so I had to reach over the top and lift her out.  Good thing she is one of my smaller students and I am so strong!  I managed to get her out of the bathroom, and we went back to class.  But I had to warn the rest of the class that if they locked themselves in the bathroom, they were on their own!  I can only lift one 5^th grader per day.

The other good news of the week is that I got my SMART board installed!  It’s not hooked up yet, but it’s on the wall.  They were going to try to get them hooked up this weekend, so maybe tomorrow I can start my technologically awesome lessons.

Not much else this week.  We had softball practice and a game on Friday.  We lost but only 3-1!  That’s a big improvement over last year!  We had a softball BBQ after the guys’ game, so that was fun.  And that’s about it!  A busy week next week, and then to Ein Soukhna for the weekend for the staff trip.  So if I don’t get a chance to write next weekend, check back soon.

So I realize that is has been almost a year since my last updated story, but I am going to be better this year about updating on a regular basis! Feel free to read as much or as little as you would like

You may already know that I was considering staying home this year. I was even offered a job at a school in Greeley. And even though that is what I thought I wanted, it turned out God had another plan for me. I never felt good about the job I was offered, and something kept pulling me back to Egypt, so here I am! And let me tell you, in the 4 weeks I have been back, it has been VERY interesting!

I got back to Cairo on August 18 at 2:00 in the afternoon. I met up with some other teachers at the airport in Frankfurt, so it was nice to know we would all end up in Cairo together. When I landed, I helped a teacher from another school get her bags and find her transportation while I waited for my bags. And I waited for my bags. And I waited for my bags…they never came. Oh man! I knew I should have stayed home! One of the other teachers also lost his bags, so I was glad I wasn’t alone in that headache They didn’t know when the bags would be there; either early the next morning or the morning after. I ended up sharing a cab with Vic, the high school PE teacher, since he lived on the same street as my old place and the place I would be staying that night. I was trying to remember what clothes I still had in Egypt and where they would be, since all of my things were being stored in my neighbor’s apartment for the summer. I did know that I had all of my shower stuff in one place. It was VERY nice to be able to take a shower after traveling for 25+ hours! I also had to go pick up the keys for my new apartment. My landlord offered to send a truck to move my things to my new place that same night, so I took them up on that! Getting everything to the new place in one trip would be SO much easier! Well, they never came, and I ended up sleeping on Chuck and Shannon’s couch. They were not back yet, so it worked out well for me

The next day, my friend Sarah came over from Heliopolis and even brought be shirts to wear. The only things I could find to wear were jeans and long sleeves. Needless to say, I was SO thankful for short sleeves! We got a taxi to shuttle us back and forth between my old building and my new building to get most of my things moved. Enough anyway that I could sleep in my real apartment! I still didn’t have the bags, and because I couldn’t remember my new address, I gave the bag place my old address (well, Chuck and Shannon’s, anyway!). I kept calling to find out where they were. I really needed them because the next day I would be helping the new teachers find apartments. Still no bags…

I got back to Cairo early in order to help the new teachers get settled, so I spent Wednesday helping them find apartments…wearing the same jeans I had been for 2 days at this point, and one of Sarah’s shirts It was nice to look at apartments and not have to worry about finding one myself! And the prices had really gone up over the summer. I am SO glad I have the apartment I do! The new teachers are all really nice, and most got into apartments the first day. That was a relief! So I spent that evening unpacking what I did have. I also got a call at midnight that my bags were arriving! Yay!!! They wanted to deliver them at 2AM, and I said NO WAY! Plus I was in my new apartment and the bags were going to Chuck and Shannon’s. So I told them to deliver them at 7 the next morning. And contrary to common Egyptian practice, they actually showed up! The guy was even 5 minutes early! Yay!!! Something was going right…for now!

 I was busy getting things organized in my apartment, and it seemed like things kept breaking! First the washer didn’t work, so they had to come and fix it. And when it was fixed, the water heater quit working! I managed to fix that myself, but in the process of fixing the washer, they also cut off the water to the dishwasher. I decided not to touch the dishwasher, as I am perfectly capable of washing dishes. Then I didn’t have to worry about something ELSE breaking! At least both of the air conditioners work well

I went to Carrefour with the new teachers the next day. My TV is old and I couldn’t hook up my DVD player to it, so I decided to buy a TV at Carrefour. That may not seem like an important detail, but it is for the next story… In the meantime, I was busy showing around the new teachers, unpacking, and going to the Sound and Light show at the pyramids, which I happen to love!

I got my new TV home and hooked everything up, but the DVD player didn’t work! I didn’t know what was wrong and even had a friend come over to look at it and adjust the settings. It was actually the TV that was broken, not the DVD player…also an important detail. So I would have to return the TV to Carrefour. I HATE Carrefour, but it had to be done. My friend Jen was kind enough to go with me, so we got in a cab. Now keep in mind that the TV didn’t work. It legitimately DID NOT work. We put the TV on top of the cab and went on our way. I really was unsure about the TV being on top of the cab, but hey, you don’t argue with a cab driver. So we’re driving down the street and the first corner we go around…KA-THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP…there went my TV…rolling across the street…Oh no. It was in front of a flower shop, so some of the guys from the shop came and looked at the TV, said it was ok, and put it in the front seat of the cab, where it SHOULD have been in the first place! Yeah right. A TV doesn’t fall off a cab, roll across the street and is just “ok.” Once again, I need to remind you that the TV didn’t work in the first place! I decided to just try to return the TV anyway. It didn’t work, they just didn’t know how much it didn’t work! I’ll spare you the long, nervous details, but it all worked out and I did get my money back for my LEGITIMATELY broken TV…

So that was my “welcome back to Egypt” story! I was busy going to work, setting up my classroom, and moving things, since it wasn’t done over the summer like it was supposed to! One more frustration. But after getting all that straightened out, my classroom came together nicely! I spent the weekend before school started at the Red Sea with some friends and had a great time! We went to a place that is just an hour south of Cairo. We’re actually going back in a couple of weeks on a school trip. Should be fun! But it really was a great way to relax before school started.

The first day of school was also the first day of Ramadan, which meant that our school day is an hour shorter, and most of my kids are fasting. It is not easy to keep kids engaged when they are not allowed to eat or drink! But we’re managing. It’s nice to get home by 4 every day, but everything closes between 3:30 and 5, so it’s hard to get anything done. It opens again after If-Taar, but by that time, I’m going to bed! Oh well

I’ve been busy going out with friends, playing softball, and doing school things, but it’s been good so far! I’m excited to be getting a Smart Board in my room in the next couple of weeks! That will really improve my teaching

I’m sure there are other things that I have forgotten to write about, so check back periodically! As I take pictures, I will post those as well. I have wireless internet, so I have been using my Skype phone. Feel free to call anytime! It’s a Colorado number, and it doesn’t cost anything for people to call me, and it’s always a treat to talk to people at “home.” And the offer is ALWAYS open for you to come visit!!

Take care!
Phone Number: 970-372-5458

So we’re up to about the middle of October. Ryan left, but still had a long weekend. It was the end of Ramadan, so we had a long weekend (Sunday and Monday off!). Ryan left on Saturday night. Arni went with me when I took Ryan to the airport, and stayed at Erin’s house with me that night (Erin was out of town). We went back to my apartment the next day to get things packed up. I didn’t have a place to live yet, but I still needed to move! There are some other teachers at my school, Chuck and Shannon, that said there was an apartment available in their building. I had looked at it earlier with Erin, and again with Ryan. The rent was a little more than I wanted to pay and there was more space than I needed (4 bedrooms!), but it was a very nice apartment and I felt a lot better knowing that Chuck and Shannon were right upstairs. The apartment had recently been redone, so everything was brand new! I decided to take the apartment…it was worth it to pay a little more. So that same day, Arni and her husband Peter helped me move (I was SO thankful that they had a car!). It didn’t take too long, and I was in my new apartment!

My first night there, I went to take a shower, but there were no shower heads in either of the showers! Not exactly the way I wanted off in my new apartment, but hey, it is Egypt! I did the best I could with what I had, and think I got myself clean J

We had school the next day…back to work! So I really didn’t have much time to unpack and get settled into my new place. The kids were still difficult, but I was starting to adjust to their habits… J

Things were rough for a while. I was having a hard time getting over the bad things that were happening. I’ll spare you the details, as it would be a LONG blog entry! But there was one night in October that a RAT ran across my kitchen floor! That was it for me. I was ready to go home! I still hadn’t unpacked my things from my move, and I literally had two bags by the door and was searching the internet for a cheap one-way ticket home. But my WONDERFUL landlady and her husband came down to my apartment and said they would take care of the rat for me. They are wonderful people! But it was time for me to go…

Even in the midst of all the troubles I was having, there was still some reason that I couldn’t leave. I really wanted to go home, but I couldn’t.

A few days later, a friend of mine invited me over to her apartment to carve pumpkins! It was the first time in a long time that I enjoyed something! Now, Egyptian pumpkins are not really pumpkins. They are really more like a big gourd. It makes it interesting to carve! So I took my “pumpkin” to April and Mark’s house and we had a GREAT time! They had acquired some carving stencils and knives, so our designs were quite exciting J You’ll have to see the pictures! That weekend, I went to a Halloween party with Mark and April. Now, the kids like to get dressed up for Halloween, but there aren’t a lot of Halloween costumes for grown-ups in Egypt… It takes some creativity! I have a Superman shirt that I brought with me, so I decided to start with that. I found a child’s costume for 50 LE (about $10!) and bought it. Then I at least have a cape! There are plenty of places here that have spandex kinds of pants, so I was able to find some pants to wear. Wow! What a costume! Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of my fantastic costume, but take my word for it. It was great J

We had conferences at school in November. That actually went better than expected. You can’t really tell about parents when you meet them for the first time. But most parents are good to work with J And the week after that, my mom and Katie came to visit! But you’ll have to wait for the next blog…coming soon!

Ok, time to get caught up!

I left off visiting the Khan, so that’s where I will start. Friday afternoon, I went to the market, like I do pretty much every Friday afternoon. When I came back to my apartment, I was getting my keys out of my bag and a man came up behind me and grabbed me (I‘ll leave out the rest of the details). I was able to fight him off and make it into my apartment, but it was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me. Fortunately, there are some wonderful people that I work with who came over to my apartment right away. They didn’t leave me alone in my apartment and came back with me to get some clothes. I really didn’t want to stay at my apartment by myself, so I stayed with Peter and Arni. Everyone was so nice to me and a lot of people offered me a place to stay for a while. I stayed with Peter and Arnie for a few nights, and then stayed with Erin again for a few nights. Ryan was supposed to come out in November, but was able to change his ticket to come out right away. It was great to have him out there to help me pack up my apartment and look (yet again!) for another apartment. We didn’t do very much while he was there (it was only 4 days), but we DID manage to make it to the Pyramids! The first night he was there, we went on a felucca (sailboat) ride. I love sailing, especially at sunset. It is so beautiful and relaxing, and the city is quite pretty at night! We went with a bunch of people from school and we all brought some food to share (a typical thing for a felucca!). We had a great time!

Ok, on to the pyramids! We got up early Friday morning and took a taxi to the pyramids. We called a “yellow cab,” the metered cabs to get there. I was surprised that they were on time! That is an unusual thing in Egypt. We had to get there early because there are a limited number of tickets to go inside the Great Pyramid. They only sell 150 in the morning and 150 in the afternoon. We walked around looking for the ticket booth to buy tickets to go in, but couldn’t find it right away, so we walked around the pyramids a bit. That was when we were approached by a camel man! You have to understand that there are camels EVERYWHERE and even the guards ride camels! But this guy looked nice enough, so we decided to give it a try. Well, I decided to give it a try. Ryan was not too keen on the idea of riding a camel J My camel’s name was Charlie Brown, which is important for a story later on… Riding a camel is a very interesting experience. They don’t just get up and down. They get up on their knees before standing up and they get down in the same fashion. Now, when I got on this camel, I thought that it would be a short ride, take some pictures, and get down again. Oh no. I rode a little ways, got my picture taken, and then he made Ryan get on! We went on a short ride over to the Sphinx and back to where we started by the Great Pyramid. It is a little bit like riding a horse, but bumpier. It was so fun! And these guys know where all the best places are to stop for pictures, so they just take pictures for you. The tricky thing is, and I knew this was coming, is paying the camel guy. I have been told that they don’t let you get off the camel until you pay. But we did get off the camel. And I tried to pay him what I thought was a reasonable amount, but he was not having it. He kept giving excuses like “It’s Ramadan! Be generous!” Actually, Ramadan was over that day…but I gave him a little more, just to be nice. He also gave each of us a little blue scarab. It was so fun to ride the camel!

Ok, so we went on the camel, and are now looking around for the ticket booth again. We asked a guard, who said, “it’s over there,” and pointed in a general direction. Not especially helpful! So we kept walking around. We were approached by a man who was selling pyramid paraphernalia. Well, he was giving it to us, more than selling it. This is a classic trick, however. They give you things so your hands are full, and then they want your money! When you try to give back the stuff, they won’t take it. And you ask them how much, but they never give you a price. So, we had this little ordeal with the man. Going back and forth for a good 10 minutes, and I finally told Ryan to just put the stuff on the ground and we walked away. It was crazy! They are quite pushy in Egypt…

We still hadn’t found the ticket booth, but we saw a little run down building, so we decided to give it a try. It was quite late by this time…too late to get tickets for the morning, and too early to get tickets for the afternoon. But, being the superstar pseudo Egyptian that I am, I thought I would try a little Egyptian manipulation of my own! I told the girls in the booth that if they gave us tickets for the afternoon now, we would give them a little “something extra.” The fortunate thing for us is that the morning and afternoon tickets look exactly the same, they just sell them at different times. The tickets to get in cost 100 LE (a little less than $20). Ryan gave them 300 LE, so they made out pretty well by Egyptian standards! And we got our tickets! There is no time specified on the ticket. You can just go in whenever you want. So, off we went! Why wait? You have to climb up a part of the pyramid to get to the entrance. There is a man there that takes your ticket and checks to make sure you don’t have a camera. Ryan had his camera, and mine was hidden in my backpack. So Ryan left his camera by the entrance, no problem (important note for later on!). To get in, you first go down a small hallway. The whole interior of the pyramid is poorly lit, so it’s quite dark. It was also October, so outside was hot. Inside was not much cooler! You walk down the hall and there is a ladder/stairway. It’s kind of hard to explain. You are going up and there are just little boards to walk on, like steps. It is very narrow and short. You have to walk hunched over…especially tricky with a backpack! It gets REALLY tricky when people start coming down the same way! Wow. Talk about close! It seems like you are never going to reach the top of this dark, hot, sticky tunnel, when you get to a break! There is place that you stand up and rest, which you really need to do. Then, more stairs! Keep going, keep going…made it! Another place to stand up! Now you walk a little ways and have to crawl under the wall into a small room. Then you have to crawl under another wall and voila! We reached our destination! I have to say, it is a little disappointing once you get in there. It is a big empty room with an empty box over to the side. There isn’t much to look at, but just to think that you are standing in the burial room of Khufu and that he was buried in there some 6,000 years ago is truly amazing! It was really neat because Ryan and I had the whole room to ourselves, just to enjoy being in there. It was really cool. At this point, I hadn’t been to the museum to see everything that was in the pyramid. I wish that we could still see the hieroglyphics and things, but still…

Ok, we’ve been in the pyramid…now it’s time to get back out. Getting in was tough enough, but getting out was even harder! Let me tell you, my legs were SORE after all that walking! But it was well worth it! We got Ryan’s camera back, and decided to walk around the pyramids a bit. We wanted to take a few pictures. All over the grounds, they have these men called “Tourist Police.” I’m not exactly sure what they’re supposed to do, but sometimes they tell people to not climb on the pyramids and that kind of thing. Anyway, one of the said police offered to take a picture of us, so we let him! Then we walked us around to a few more places and had us pose in different places for great pictures. I would have thought that the “tourist police” would take pictures for free, but for a minute there, I also forgot that I was in Egypt. He took some pictures and then, of course, asked for money…this trip is getting expensive! Oh well. We gave him some money and went on our way. We walked back over to the Sphinx to take a few more pictures. By this time, we were quite hungry, so we walked around the area outside of the pyramids. There was a KFC (how weird to see KFC right outside the pyramids!), but they weren’t open yet. So we walked around a bit. Nothing. We found a taxi and paid 50 LE to get back to Maadi. Maybe it was a little steep, but you can expect to pay more for a “black and white” cab than a yellow cab. But we made it back!

The hunger was a little too much for us to handle and really didn’t want to walk to a restaurant, so we tried something else new…I called and ordered food! We had food delivered for the first time, and it was fantastic! I LOVE ordering food and having it delivered to my door J

The rest of the time that Ryan was there, we walked around Maadi, ate some more food, and just hung out. It was SO great to have someone come and visit me and I was really glad he could change his ticket to come out early.

That about does it for this blog! I’ll be posting another soon with more adventures! Here is a little warning…it gets worse before it gets better, but I have some good times in between J See you soon!

Here is a link for more pictures! 

http://bethel.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20891&l=eb465&id=517501429

Here are some pictures for you to check out!  I’ll post more when I can tell you what they are pictures of

El Arish   http://bethel.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22062&l=5a867&id=517501429

The Khan   http://bethel.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22060&l=bf25a&id=517501429