I skipped on a trip to Mt. Sinai, but it's not going anywhere, and I really just wanted to relax. As much as I'm enjoying life in Egypt so far, I feel like I'm always busy. There are only 2 nights per week that I just come home and don't go back out. Whether it's dinner, drinks, softball or walks, I feel like I'm on the go a lot more than I was at home. It's nice to have a feeling of community again. At home, as much as I love my family and friends, I always feel like I'm just that guy that pops-up for a few week and then disappears again. Here, I belong and hopefully won't be going anywhere for awhile.
Saudia Arabia across the Red Sea On my first 4-day break from school, I found myself traveling to the Red Sea with a small group of friends. The decision to go to Nuweiba, a small port town on the north-western edge of the Red Sea, was an easy one. I wanted to get away from the lights, horns and military seen everywhere in Cairo. I wanted to simplify and just enjoy serenity once again. And I didn't want to pay much for it. The ride took 6.5 hours directly from school to Nuweiba (with a couple bathroom breaks and a few more check-points). The part of the ride through the Sinai Peninsula that we could see was just barren. Being a Marylander, I'd never experienced desert like this. It was just empty, interesting and boring all at the same time. It wasn't the typical dunes that you see in movies all the time, but more little bluffs, some scrub brush and old gullies running like veins through the barren landscape. The 'Sababa Camp' in which we stayed was only about $6 per day, including a good breakfast. They had beer, shisha and pretty decent food. All meals could be consumed while laying sprawled out on pillows gazing out at the Red Sea and the distant Saudi Arabia. The accommodations were pretty basic, but I didn't need much. I had a small grass-hut with a bed, table, mosquito net, ceiling fan and a light. Considering that the only time I was in my room was for sleeping, I didn't care to have anything else; and I better enjoy it while I can handle it. I spent the days reading, listening to music, swimming and walking up and down the beach. The views were stunning; stepping out of the grass-hut and walking towards the bathroom, the backdrop was towering eroded mountains with gray, brown and black hues seemingly just meters away. On the drive in, there was a point where we could see Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt with a simple turn of the head; just ridiculous. Randee, Annie and I went snorkeling one evening as the sunset behind the mountains in the west. The snorkeling was nice, not amazing, but still pretty cool. There were a ton of lion fish, one just a few feet from the boat when we jumped in, a scorpion fish and a lot of the other usual suspects. Our boat broke down on the way back, but only for a few minutes, and the guide entertained us with "Mambo #5" played by his cell phone as his partner sucked gasoline out of the line. I skipped on a trip to Mt. Sinai, but it's not going anywhere, and I really just wanted to relax. As much as I'm enjoying life in Egypt so far, I feel like I'm always busy. There are only 2 nights per week that I just come home and don't go back out. Whether it's dinner, drinks, softball or walks, I feel like I'm on the go a lot more than I was at home. It's nice to have a feeling of community again. At home, as much as I love my family and friends, I always feel like I'm just that guy that pops-up for a few week and then disappears again. Here, I belong and hopefully won't be going anywhere for awhile.
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Islamic Cairo As I sit here trying to figure out what to write about, I find it really hard to begin. Not because there isn't anything to write about, but because there's just so much going on that I know I'll forget something or I'll be too wordy. The differences between this teaching experience and Korea are ridiculous. I can remember those first freezing weeks in Korea, huddling in my squid-smelling apartment next to the heating fan and wondering what I had gotten myself into. I look back on how I only knew two people in town for a few weeks and how strange it was to never see anybody besides my coworker and her boyfriend. Egypt on the other hand has been a breath of fresh (well, kind of smoggy and sandy) air. The school here is huge. It's k-12 and has an IB program, is partnering with Apple to become the prototype Apple school for the Middle East and is just filled with technology and resources. In Seogwipo I had some books and a whiteboard. Here I have a SmartBoard, 2 computers and all of my students will be getting Mac Books to be part of a trial program. Yes, I teach 4 & 5 year olds, and they will all have their own laptops. The deal is that I learn how to incorporate technology into the classroom and in-turn I show other teachers how to do the same. Crazy. And as for the area; I can order any food I want and have it at my door within 45-60 minutes. I walk everywhere and have not felt threatened in the least. Where in Korea it was really strange to see a non-Korean, here it's strange to walk around and not see a few foreigners traveling from place to place. Sometimes it seems like a good thing (from my point of view) when I don't update my blog very often...it means I have been enjoying my time so much that I just don't have any spare to sit down and type. As I walk around town to ACE or the softball fields or Yoga class, I write blogs in my head. I think about how the traffic flows like water. Cars pay no attention to the dotted lines and merely sway back and forth making 4 lanes into 5 and then back to 4 just as quickly. Trucks breakdown in the middle of the highway without even an attempt to get to the side. Vans will be piled high with suitcases, carpets, furniture and other wares, doubling their height. Egyptians will be piled in the back of pick-up trucks or hanging on the sides of buses 12-deep. Cars often compete with donkeys and tractors for highway space and have little concern for the pedestrians scrambling helplessly across the pavement. (I've been hit twice already.) Back to the updates... A couple Thursdays ago (Thursdays are our Fridays) I organized a Felucca ride for myself and about 10 coworkers. It's such a nice time to just chill after the week, sip some wine on the Nile and watch the sunset behind the pyramids. And it costs just a couple bucks per person. This was my second felucca ride and it was just a bit different from the first one. This time I got to experience my first sandstorm, all while on the far side of the river just after sunset. We could see lights dimming in the distance and we felt the wind turn. Before we knew it we were being blasted from the north and west with sand gusts probably around 40mph. People scrambled to cover up the food and secure the libations before the brunt hit us. With only seconds notice, we ran aground on the west side of the Nile on a reed-covered island and there we sat for the next few hours. A ferry came to rescue us eventually, but was only successful on the third attempt after it rammed us on the first one. But to be honest, it couldn't have been more fun. Despite the circumstances, and thanks to the wine, everybody was in high spirits and enjoying themselves. It was definitely one for the annals. Some recent Saturday I found myself at the infamous Khan el-Khalili bazaar. It's one of the areas that when you visit Cairo, you have to go. They have everything you can imagine from antique binoculars and record players to shishas and carpets. It was also the seen of a bombing a few years ago. Nevertheless a group of us went for the experience, and I came out of it with a couple shishas (hookahs), hand-blown glass plates and cups and a couple trinkets. I hate haggling but the Khan salesmen start prices nearly double what they should be. I had my mind set on what I wanted to spend and would walk away when they wouldn't work with me, and I ended up getting exactly what I wanted. The plates were about $3 per and cups were less than $1. The really nice blue pitcher was only $4. After a few hours around the market and a walk through old/Islamic Cairo we headed to the old British Officers club for a Sakara. It was a nice little place, taking us back to the 1940's with the high ceilings and carved-wood trim. Well, that's about it for right now. I'll try and get another one up soon, there are still a lot of pictures from my trip to the Red Sea to post and stories to tell.
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MuggsJust a little journal about my life. Click 'Comments' or the Titles if you'd like to add anything. The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.
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