Joyeux Noel.... French. Feliz Navidad... Spanish.
Mele Kalikimaka... Hawaiian
I wish I knew how to say Merry Christmas in Lugandan. It's okay, everyone here speaks English, so a plain "Merry Christmas" will do.
It's almost 8pm in Uganda and Tom and I are making calls home and writing this blog. We finished a special "Christmas Meal" at our camp, and will likely join the loud crowd and louder music for a beer (or two) before bed.
We've had a great time over the past week in Uganda. The highlight has certainly been gorilla tracking. We hiked through the rainforest for about 2 hours to find a family of gorillas then spent an hour with them. It was a really unbelievable experience, one we'll never forget. Unfortunately we can't share any pictures with you until we get back to Cairo onto our computers. We promise we'll put some up though.
Another thing we loved was paddling and camping on Lake Bunyoni, a lake with many many islands. We paddled a dug-out canoe, which was a great workout. It didn't glide quite as nicely as Willow (our Canadian canoe).... not for us anyway... the Ugandans who paddle them everyday didn't seem to have any problems at all... not even the woman carrying the baby. Still, being on the water was really relaxing.
We're now back on the East side of Uganda, ready to visit waterfalls, do some white water rafting, a sunset cruise, and a safari (including a game drive and boat launch). We'll update you (photos and all) when we get back to Cairo.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Black and White
There are so many types of beauty in this world. In Canada we love to paddle to beautiful forested areas overlooking lakes. We have visited some countries with beautiful architecture, like France, and beautiful mountain ranges, like Peru. We recently spent the weekend in the Black and White desert, probably the most unique landscape we've ever visited. Although there is almost no vegetation there, it is one of the most beautiful place we've ever been.
The black and white desert is exactly what it sounds like, a desert that is black in white. Actually it is two separate deserts, one black (from magma coming up through cracks in the earth's surface). One white, from the limestone. The photo above is at the beginning of the white desert.
Our second day was fun, we stopped at a sand dune, a natural rock bridge, and a cold spring. The meals were good, the company was better, and I even won a game of Settlers of Catan (nerdy but true!) Tom and I tried to climb a big mountain, but it turns out that climbing limestone is very difficult. Everytime I would try to grab onto something, it would break off. The evidence is all over my gray pants! We did manage to climb up this white desert "mushroom" for a photo before we were told that it is forbidden to climb them. Oops!Our second night was awesome. After playing games we sat around the campfire, sang some arabic songs (who knows what we were saying?!) while our guide played a drum, and had roasted marshmallows and traditional mint tea. We were still asleep by 11pm. It's amazing how cold it can feel at night when you were sweating under the sun all day. I guess that's part of being in the desert. We brought our warm sleeping bags from home, so we managed to stay very warm through the night.
Our last morning was quite cold, but Tom made all the ladies happy by preparing hot chocolate. After breakfast we just headed back to the entrance, and soon back to Cairo craziness. The white desert was probably the "whitest Christmas" we'll be getting this year as we fly to Uganda tomorrow for the holidays.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sweet Movember!!!
What do you think about that beautiful upper lip?!?! First of all, if you are unfamiliar with the month of Movember you should really read the following webpage: http://ca.movember.com/about/. I was approached to participate in Movember by a colleague who was trying to enlist every male teacher on our staff to grow a moustache over the month of November to raise money for prostate cancer research. My first reaction was, “I can’t even grow facial hair!” However, I believe in the importance of fundraising, finding cures for cancers, and brotherly fellowship so I begrudgingly agreed to participate. There was only one male teacher on our staff who declined the invitation. I must say that it was not an easy month for me. My beautiful wife was not particularly enthusiastic about receiving kisses from my manly Mo and my upper lip was itchy and uncomfortable for almost the entire month. However, I managed to “suck it up” and “take it like a man” and power through the month. In the end I raised around 250 Egyptian Pounds from my students (which is less than $50) and I had my upper lip shaved by a fellow Mo Bro in front of a small audience of elementary school students. I wish I could have contributed more to the cause but my students were particularly apathetic about the entire event. Hopefully, this year’s event has formed the foundation for an even better event next year. I’m not in a rush to grow another Mo but who knows what the future will bring.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Travels in Ancient Egypt
When Tom and I chose to move to Egypt I was imagining a land of pyramids, temples, pharaohs, and mummies. I didn't expect to see all these things on a daily basis, nor did I expect to see people walking with one arm bent in front and one arm bent behind, "walking like Egyptians". Still, I thought Egypt would look a little more like you see it in books or on tv. In reality, we live in a neighbourhood that looks a lot like a big city in Canada, with way more garbage and sand, and way less order and green. I suppose those big triangle things we drove by on the way to our science field trip did scream "Egypt!", but we're not seeing them very often.
With a week off for Eid-Al-Ahda, a religious Muslim celebration, Tom and I had the opportunity to visit more of Egypt and see many of those things that Egypt is known for, like temples and mummies (yup, we saw a real one!) We had a busy week, visiting many (many, many) temples, museums, and even a botanical garden. The vacation certainly was not as restful as many of the trips we've taken, but we saw so many interesting things. Above is our collection of entry tickets from the trip.
We began at the southmost point of our trip, Abu Simbel, a small town on the Nile, famous for its 2 enormous temples. We stayed in a "hotel" room that I couldn't bring myself to shower in, and got up early to beat the crowds to the temples. Although the 5am alarm was not my idea of vacation, the ends justified the means. I don't think that words or photos can capture the size of these gigantic temples. The temple of Ramses doesn't look THAT big with Tom and I standing in front of it.
The camera was awfully far away from the temple. Tom made me stand right in front of it for a picture, which gives a much better sense of scale. What's more is that nearly every square inch of visible wall and ceiling in the temples is covered in hieroglyphs, the ancient Egyptian form of writing. From small script to large pictures, the walls are all carved with impeccable detail. I can't help but wonder if these temples are the first evidence of overactive male egos. That being said, the second temple (not in these pictures) was dedicated to one of Ramses II's favourite wives: Nefertari. Supposedly he had many wives, and cose to 100 children. In the very cheesy yet enjoyable Abu Simbel Sound and Light Show, Ramses II was described as a "verile bull". It's amazing that he even had time to have these temples built.
The next stop on the Nile was Aswan, a larger city with a large Nubian museum (with too much writing for tired travelers) and a few nearby sites. To be honest, my highlight in Aswan was the koshary, Egypt's national dish. It is a vegetarian's dream dish, including rice, pasta, lentils and chickpeas, with a top layer of fried onions and a delicious tomato sauce. All this for 5 egyptian pounds a plate (that's under $1). Other than our two visits to the same restaurant for koshary, we saw the impressive Philae temple after far too much arguing to pay a reasonable amount for the 5 minute ferry to the island. We also visited the much overrated unfinished obelisk, and the botanical gardens in Aswan. It was really refreshing to walk around a very green area. In Cairo we don't have greenery, we have "beigery".
From Aswan, we took a felucca, an Egyptian sail boat, along the Nile to Luxor, a large city full of Ancient Egyptian sites. We were on the felucca for two days and two nights, with 8 other people, plus the teenage felucca captains. We met some incredibly well-traveled people. We got pretty close (literally anyway) as we all lived, ate, and slept in very close quarters for our couple of days of travel. I was glad not to be tall for this sleeping arrangement (left). Does the eating space (below) look familiar?!
One young American couple had been traveling through the middle east since February, after working for a couple of years in New Zealand. They were headed back home to live in Texas in a couple of weeks, for the first time in four years. (See moms, we could be worse.) Another middle-aged couple were on their way up from South Africa, where they'd bought a jeep and travelled all the way north through Africa. They would soon be headed "home" to Holland. One Japanese man worked as a trekking guide all over the world. There was a single Dutch girl who was "just on a short vacation" ... 3 weeks to be exact. The British pharmacist was taking 6 months of leave to travel. he stories were amazing. All of a sudden our living in Cairo seemed like a very stable and uneventful lifestyle. We were able to find out a lot about potential travels, and will likely be headed to Uganda for our Christmas break because of the advice of many of these world travelers. I'm sure that will merit a picture-filled blog.
We took a bus from the felucca drop off to Luxor, stopping at two temples on the way: The temple of Kom Ombo, and the temple of Horus, in Edfu. It's amazing how easy it is for the grandeur of these temples to start feeling normal. Several times Tom and I stepped back and really took in the size and work that went into these temples. They really are masterpieces. In days with far less technology than we have now, it's incredible to imagine the building and carving of these enormous and detailed structures.
Luxor itself certainly contained the highest density of impressive sights, although the lowest density of nice people. If our memory serves us correctly, we only spoke to one non-traveler in our three days in Luxor who did not try to sell us something (for a ridiculous price), or simply beg us for money. In Luxor, the sights justify dealing with the people. We spent our first evening at the Luxor temple, another enormous temple, right in the middle of the city. You can see the Nile, plenty of restaurants, hotels, and even a squash court from the temple.
We got up early the following morning to visit Karnak, a temple complex about a half hour walk away from Luxor's city centre. It turns out that if you don't go the right way, it takes closer to an hour to get there. This enormous (I can't use the word enough) temple complex was really interesting as it was built in steps by different kings over a really long time period. Different areas of the complex have very different styles of architecture. This less ancient addition caught Tom's attention. We were able to revisit this temple complex the following night for its "Hollywood-style" sound and light show. The laser show was not quite as impressive as the one in Abu Simbel, but the reflection of the temple on the lake was awesome, and gave Tom a photography challenge (which he passed with flying colours in my opinion). You can judge for yourself.
We spent our last day on the West bank in Luxor, visiting the valley of the Kings (tombs for Ancient Egyptian Kings) as well as a few more temples, including Deir al-Bahri, which is built right into a cliff face. We rented bicycles to get from site to site. I think they were slightly newer than the temples we were visiting, but not much. Nonetheless, we enjoyed riding around along the farmland, and not having to argue with taxi drivers to get around. Tom's bike sounded like it was breaking with each pedal, but it made it through the day. Mine was at the height for an 8 year old, but again, I was happy not to be any taller, so that my knees didn't quite hit me in the face with each pedal.
The bikes did turn out to be excellent getaway vehicles. We rode them to this spot on the side of the road to each lunch after we sat near a site and were surrounded by children holding out their hands and saying "money please, money, hello, money, welcome, money". It's sad but annoying all at once.
All in all we really enjoyed the trip, although we could have used a vacation to rest from our vacation before heading back to work. Luckily we are just coming into a long weekend, and we will be heading out for some desert camping, a much more relaxing holiday (we hope!) I realize that I failed miserably at blogging more in November. My excuse is that Egypt failed miserably in providing me with reliable internet. I hope to share our desert camping with you soon.
We began at the southmost point of our trip, Abu Simbel, a small town on the Nile, famous for its 2 enormous temples. We stayed in a "hotel" room that I couldn't bring myself to shower in, and got up early to beat the crowds to the temples. Although the 5am alarm was not my idea of vacation, the ends justified the means. I don't think that words or photos can capture the size of these gigantic temples. The temple of Ramses doesn't look THAT big with Tom and I standing in front of it.
The next stop on the Nile was Aswan, a larger city with a large Nubian museum (with too much writing for tired travelers) and a few nearby sites. To be honest, my highlight in Aswan was the koshary, Egypt's national dish. It is a vegetarian's dream dish, including rice, pasta, lentils and chickpeas, with a top layer of fried onions and a delicious tomato sauce. All this for 5 egyptian pounds a plate (that's under $1). Other than our two visits to the same restaurant for koshary, we saw the impressive Philae temple after far too much arguing to pay a reasonable amount for the 5 minute ferry to the island. We also visited the much overrated unfinished obelisk, and the botanical gardens in Aswan. It was really refreshing to walk around a very green area. In Cairo we don't have greenery, we have "beigery".
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We took a bus from the felucca drop off to Luxor, stopping at two temples on the way: The temple of Kom Ombo, and the temple of Horus, in Edfu. It's amazing how easy it is for the grandeur of these temples to start feeling normal. Several times Tom and I stepped back and really took in the size and work that went into these temples. They really are masterpieces. In days with far less technology than we have now, it's incredible to imagine the building and carving of these enormous and detailed structures.
Luxor itself certainly contained the highest density of impressive sights, although the lowest density of nice people. If our memory serves us correctly, we only spoke to one non-traveler in our three days in Luxor who did not try to sell us something (for a ridiculous price), or simply beg us for money. In Luxor, the sights justify dealing with the people. We spent our first evening at the Luxor temple, another enormous temple, right in the middle of the city. You can see the Nile, plenty of restaurants, hotels, and even a squash court from the temple. 
We spent our last day on the West bank in Luxor, visiting the valley of the Kings (tombs for Ancient Egyptian Kings) as well as a few more temples, including Deir al-Bahri, which is built right into a cliff face. We rented bicycles to get from site to site. I think they were slightly newer than the temples we were visiting, but not much. Nonetheless, we enjoyed riding around along the farmland, and not having to argue with taxi drivers to get around. Tom's bike sounded like it was breaking with each pedal, but it made it through the day. Mine was at the height for an 8 year old, but again, I was happy not to be any taller, so that my knees didn't quite hit me in the face with each pedal. 
The bikes did turn out to be excellent getaway vehicles. We rode them to this spot on the side of the road to each lunch after we sat near a site and were surrounded by children holding out their hands and saying "money please, money, hello, money, welcome, money". It's sad but annoying all at once.
All in all we really enjoyed the trip, although we could have used a vacation to rest from our vacation before heading back to work. Luckily we are just coming into a long weekend, and we will be heading out for some desert camping, a much more relaxing holiday (we hope!) I realize that I failed miserably at blogging more in November. My excuse is that Egypt failed miserably in providing me with reliable internet. I hope to share our desert camping with you soon.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
We Were There
People are doing crazy things all over the world all the time. I sometimes wonder why someone ever thought to do many of the things in the Guiness Book of World Records... like jumping up the CN tower on a pogo stick, or running hurdles wearing swim fins. Last weekend Tom and I were fortunate enough to be a part of someone's world record. Her record may not be as bizzare as the ones I've mentioned, but any runner knows that what she did was just crazy! Tom and I helped with Marie-Louise Stenild's Cairo marathon, which was a part of her 7x7x7. That is 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents. Her marathon here in Cairo was her 6th of the 7. If she completed all 7, she would be the first woman ever to do so, and only the second person.
The news of "7x7x7" made its way to us a little over a month ago when we joined a running group in Maadi (the area of Cairo that we live in). Marie-Louise had asked this group to help organize her Cairo marathon, and would be visiting less than a week later to check out possible courses. Two days later we were on a felucca on the Nile with this crazy woman who would not only travel to 7 continents in 7 days, but who would run a marathon on each one. I expected her to have a personality to match this wild goal, and was surprised that she was a very quiet and laid back individual.
The night of the run, Tom and I showed up at the course around 6:30pm. I was responsible for making a schedule of who would be running with her throughout the 5+ hour run, to make sure that she'd never be alone. We had an abundance of runners (probably about 15), so that job was easy. Tom and I were also the "official timers", so we had a little table set up with a couple of stopwatches, as well as water and snacks for Marie-Louise and all the other runners/volunteers. The run got started no more than five minutes after she arrived, around 7:20pm. Marie-Louise seemed high in spirits, while tired in body. I can only imagine how grumpy I would be after flying to 6 continents in 6 days... I don't know how she managed to be so pleasant.
Unfortunately running in Cairo on a Thursday night is a nearly impossible thing to do. It is the busiest night of the week here, and even when it's not busy, it is nearly impossible to run anywhere at night. The marathon was planned as 10 loops around a university campus... not ideal, but not dangerous... success for a night run in Cairo! Even with our timing duties, both Tom and I managed to run 3 loops (about 12.5km total) with her. Tom and I ran different loops, but both ran the last one (around 1am) so that we could be part of the exciting finish. Marie-Louise is the runner directly next to me.
Marie-Louise left within an hour after her marathon run to catch her next flight, but not before Tom made her a hot chocolate on our camping stove. I realized that she had just the right personality to be doing this crazy challenge... a calm and determined one. She finished her 7th marathon in 7 days on 7 continents the following day in London. She is the first woman ever to do this. We're glad that we were able to be a part of it, and we definitely will be buying next year's Guiness Book of World Records. Ok, so we're not going to be in it or anything, but we'll know that we played some (tiny) part in it.
If you are curious about Marie-Louise Stenild and/or her 7x7x7, check out her site: http://www.7x7x7.co.uk/
The news of "7x7x7" made its way to us a little over a month ago when we joined a running group in Maadi (the area of Cairo that we live in). Marie-Louise had asked this group to help organize her Cairo marathon, and would be visiting less than a week later to check out possible courses. Two days later we were on a felucca on the Nile with this crazy woman who would not only travel to 7 continents in 7 days, but who would run a marathon on each one. I expected her to have a personality to match this wild goal, and was surprised that she was a very quiet and laid back individual.
The night of the run, Tom and I showed up at the course around 6:30pm. I was responsible for making a schedule of who would be running with her throughout the 5+ hour run, to make sure that she'd never be alone. We had an abundance of runners (probably about 15), so that job was easy. Tom and I were also the "official timers", so we had a little table set up with a couple of stopwatches, as well as water and snacks for Marie-Louise and all the other runners/volunteers. The run got started no more than five minutes after she arrived, around 7:20pm. Marie-Louise seemed high in spirits, while tired in body. I can only imagine how grumpy I would be after flying to 6 continents in 6 days... I don't know how she managed to be so pleasant.
Unfortunately running in Cairo on a Thursday night is a nearly impossible thing to do. It is the busiest night of the week here, and even when it's not busy, it is nearly impossible to run anywhere at night. The marathon was planned as 10 loops around a university campus... not ideal, but not dangerous... success for a night run in Cairo! Even with our timing duties, both Tom and I managed to run 3 loops (about 12.5km total) with her. Tom and I ran different loops, but both ran the last one (around 1am) so that we could be part of the exciting finish. Marie-Louise is the runner directly next to me.
Marie-Louise left within an hour after her marathon run to catch her next flight, but not before Tom made her a hot chocolate on our camping stove. I realized that she had just the right personality to be doing this crazy challenge... a calm and determined one. She finished her 7th marathon in 7 days on 7 continents the following day in London. She is the first woman ever to do this. We're glad that we were able to be a part of it, and we definitely will be buying next year's Guiness Book of World Records. Ok, so we're not going to be in it or anything, but we'll know that we played some (tiny) part in it.
If you are curious about Marie-Louise Stenild and/or her 7x7x7, check out her site: http://www.7x7x7.co.uk/
Friday, November 5, 2010
Farewell October, Welcome November
It is with a little sadness that I bid farewell to the month of October, my favourite month of the year. October is a month of leaves changing colours,Thanksgiving dinners (delicious even without the turkey!), Halloween, and most importantly: my birthday! (Glenda and Derek's birthdays too). October in Egypt did not disappoint. While no leaves changed colour, my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Halloween were all fun, along with some other interesting events. Here's the (not so) short version.
The month started with a long weekend which we spent in Dahab. You've likely already read our blog about our long weekend in Dahab including climbing Mount Sinai. It was great! Upon returning we went to a Thanksgiving dinner at one of our colleague's houses with more food than you can shake a stick at. I did miss Joan's broccoli casserole and my mom's whipped potatoes.
My birthday was actually before Thanksgiving, but because we were leaving for Dahab on my birthday, Tom
gave me tickets for a Nile dinner cruise with a belly dancing show, which we would go to the weekend after our travels (and also a nice watch). The cruise was great, the dinner was good, and the belly dancing was fantastic! Tom had been following this belly dancer's blog in preparation for our move to Egypt, and he contacted her via e-mail prior to the cruise. Lorna (the belly dancer) reserved our tickets and got us front row seats for her show, as well as for a sufi dancer. Her dancing was amazing, she wished me a happy birthday, and we even got to chat with her after the cruise. It was a relaxing and very entertaining night.
The following weekend Tom and I participated in the "Run for the Cure", a charity run to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. We signed up for the event through our school, and rode a bus with about a dozen other teachers and probably a dozen students to the pyramids for the run. This wasn't quite like a run in Ottawa. First of all, the course was only about a mile long... 1.6km... not much of a "run". It was about the least organized event I've ever attended. Tom and I renamed it "chaos for the cure". Upon arriving at the pyramids, there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of people standing in front of the Pyramids gate, with no idea what to do or where to go. We finally headed inside the gate, where hundreds (maybe thousands) of people who still had no idea what to do or where to go. We eventually go onto a bus to the furthest pyramid, where we had our free t-shirts thrown at us from a booth crowded by people.
An announcer tried to get everyone between the gates for the start, but people neither stayed within the gate, or behind the start line. As he was counting down, and wasn't anywhere near zero, everyone took off. We walked, like most, and probably took close to 20 minutes to finish. Don't worry Sam, I didn't count it as a run or anything. In the end, I'm sure that a lot of money was raised for a good cause. Maybe I'll just make a donation next time. Actually the cost of the run was cheaper than admission to the pyramids, so I can't complain.
On the last weekend of the month we participated in another running event, the "Rehydration Hash". The best way I can describe it is as a desert pub crawl. This was a run, no sorry a walk, maybe even a stumble, through a desert area about a half hour outside Cairo. The course consists of ten stops, each hosted by a different country. The country hosting the stop is responsible for providing a traditional drink (alcoholic of course) and food from that country, to give to about 150 participants. You can imagine how straight people are walking by their fifth or sixth drink, especially with countries like Sweeden serving vodka shots. Tom and I were asked to help with the Brazilian stop, so we served caparingas (a delicious mixture of vodka, lemon, sugar, and ice) and snacks. Here is the whole of team Brazil, with only two true Brazilians.
We were able to do this after making the first four stops, then we continued to the last five. We were actually fairly well behaved, while still enjoying international drink and food (especially the Swiss and Dutch cheeses, French crepes, and homemade Polish perogies). Here is "Team Brazil":
Finally (I know you must be tired of reading), we did make it out to a Halloween party, something we haven't done in Canada in the past couple of years. We decided to dress up as tetris pieces. I took some old student project from school for use of the cardboard, and had big dreams of making full-body tetris blocks to wear, with only holes for our arms to come out. About an hour and a half later, when the front of each piece was not done, we decided that we'd just wear the front of tetris blocks. Far too long after that, we finished our sad one sided costumes, and headed to the party down the street from us.
Although we were a little disappointed with the outcome of our costumes, our friends seemed to think that they were pretty cool. After two and a half months of life in Egypt, we are still fitting together as well as we ever have.
We're five days into November , and we already have new adventures to share. With (slightly) more reliable internet, we will blog more frequently in November, inshallah.
The month started with a long weekend which we spent in Dahab. You've likely already read our blog about our long weekend in Dahab including climbing Mount Sinai. It was great! Upon returning we went to a Thanksgiving dinner at one of our colleague's houses with more food than you can shake a stick at. I did miss Joan's broccoli casserole and my mom's whipped potatoes.
My birthday was actually before Thanksgiving, but because we were leaving for Dahab on my birthday, Tomgave me tickets for a Nile dinner cruise with a belly dancing show, which we would go to the weekend after our travels (and also a nice watch). The cruise was great, the dinner was good, and the belly dancing was fantastic! Tom had been following this belly dancer's blog in preparation for our move to Egypt, and he contacted her via e-mail prior to the cruise. Lorna (the belly dancer) reserved our tickets and got us front row seats for her show, as well as for a sufi dancer. Her dancing was amazing, she wished me a happy birthday, and we even got to chat with her after the cruise. It was a relaxing and very entertaining night.
The following weekend Tom and I participated in the "Run for the Cure", a charity run to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. We signed up for the event through our school, and rode a bus with about a dozen other teachers and probably a dozen students to the pyramids for the run. This wasn't quite like a run in Ottawa. First of all, the course was only about a mile long... 1.6km... not much of a "run". It was about the least organized event I've ever attended. Tom and I renamed it "chaos for the cure". Upon arriving at the pyramids, there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of people standing in front of the Pyramids gate, with no idea what to do or where to go. We finally headed inside the gate, where hundreds (maybe thousands) of people who still had no idea what to do or where to go. We eventually go onto a bus to the furthest pyramid, where we had our free t-shirts thrown at us from a booth crowded by people.
An announcer tried to get everyone between the gates for the start, but people neither stayed within the gate, or behind the start line. As he was counting down, and wasn't anywhere near zero, everyone took off. We walked, like most, and probably took close to 20 minutes to finish. Don't worry Sam, I didn't count it as a run or anything. In the end, I'm sure that a lot of money was raised for a good cause. Maybe I'll just make a donation next time. Actually the cost of the run was cheaper than admission to the pyramids, so I can't complain. On the last weekend of the month we participated in another running event, the "Rehydration Hash". The best way I can describe it is as a desert pub crawl. This was a run, no sorry a walk, maybe even a stumble, through a desert area about a half hour outside Cairo. The course consists of ten stops, each hosted by a different country. The country hosting the stop is responsible for providing a traditional drink (alcoholic of course) and food from that country, to give to about 150 participants. You can imagine how straight people are walking by their fifth or sixth drink, especially with countries like Sweeden serving vodka shots. Tom and I were asked to help with the Brazilian stop, so we served caparingas (a delicious mixture of vodka, lemon, sugar, and ice) and snacks. Here is the whole of team Brazil, with only two true Brazilians.
We were able to do this after making the first four stops, then we continued to the last five. We were actually fairly well behaved, while still enjoying international drink and food (especially the Swiss and Dutch cheeses, French crepes, and homemade Polish perogies). Here is "Team Brazil":Finally (I know you must be tired of reading), we did make it out to a Halloween party, something we haven't done in Canada in the past couple of years. We decided to dress up as tetris pieces. I took some old student project from school for use of the cardboard, and had big dreams of making full-body tetris blocks to wear, with only holes for our arms to come out. About an hour and a half later, when the front of each piece was not done, we decided that we'd just wear the front of tetris blocks. Far too long after that, we finished our sad one sided costumes, and headed to the party down the street from us.
Although we were a little disappointed with the outcome of our costumes, our friends seemed to think that they were pretty cool. After two and a half months of life in Egypt, we are still fitting together as well as we ever have.
We're five days into November , and we already have new adventures to share. With (slightly) more reliable internet, we will blog more frequently in November, inshallah.
Monday, October 18, 2010
My First Egyptian Haircut (Blog by Tom)
Well that was certainly an experience. I just got home from my first Egyptian haircut. My first mistake may have been going into a men’s hair salon that doesn’t have any windows. The entire front of the store is covered in giant pictures of men’s hairstyles. So I walk in and ask for a haircut. The man behind the counter directs me to a barber’s chair and I compliantly sit down. The hair stylist then comes out of the back room and welcomes me. He asks what I want and I tell him that I just want my hair shortened. He asks, “How short? Long, medium, short, or very short?” My instincts tell me not to go short so I tell him that I would like my hair medium length. He then proceeds to cut the left side of my hair in a fairly normal fashion. He stops and asks me what I think of the length and I tell him that it looks good. The stylist then instantly transforms into Edward Scissor Hands and proceeds to cut my hair at a frantic pace working his way around my head and then back to where he started and around again. At this point I realized that my “medium” and his “medium” did not mean the same thing but it was too late. The haircut proceeded at this frantic pace until he asked me if I wanted my hair washed. I politely declined but he insisted that it would only take a moment and so I obliged. The real excitement of the experience came after the washing. I sat back in the barber’s chair and he began to brush my hair with a small round brush in a style that I couldn’t quite determine. He then broke out a hair dryer and continued with the round brush. I wasn’t a big fan of this styling but I thought that I would just buy a bottle of water after leaving to unstyle my hair on my way home. However, just to foil my plans the stylist then put gel in my hair and began to sculpt it into a strange form with meticulous care making sure to adjust every stray strand. This was strange to me but I thought that I would just go with the flow. Then he proceeded to spray my entire head with hairspray and continue this meticulous sculpting. This process was so foreign to me and so absolutely amusing that I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud. After paying too much for this treatment I decided to keep my hairstyle until I could photograph it for this blog. When I met Katie in the internet café she didn’t even recognize me. Needless to say I will not be going back to that particular hair salon. Here are some pictures (check out the bangs and the stylish part at the side):
Friday, October 15, 2010
An Egyptian Chill
We spent the Thanksgiving (and Armed Forces Day) long weekend in Dahab, one of the most “chilled out” cities I’ve ever visited. During the trip we climbed Mount Sinai and experienced the first chill (as in cold) we’ve had in Egypt so far. It’s mid October and the afternoon temperature is still getting over 30 degrees celcius in Cairo.
Dahab is a coastal city in the Sinai Peninsula. It is known as the “Thailand of Egypt” because of its backpacker atmosphere. The main boardwalk along the water is lined with restaurants, dive shops, and souvenir boutiques. Most of the restaurants have lots of pillows on the ground to sit on and enjoy shakes, tea, sheesha, or a full meal. Tom and I 
enjoyed many meals sitting on these pillows along with our travel buddies. This was a particularly enjoyable meal because it was accompanied by cold beer and a game of Taboo. As you would expect, Tom and I kicked some behind. We are “Team Invincible” after all. 
Beyond its religious importance, it provides spectacular views, most famously at sunrise. In order to be at the top of Mount Sinai for sunrise, we took a bus to the mountain at 11pm, and started the climb at 2am. It was exhausting, but given the chance I would do it the same way.
Despite the nearly 3000 people who were at the top of Mount Sinai by morning, the sunrise was peaceful.
We took our time and checked out all the views while most people headed back down the mountain. After taking in the panoramic views and the simple but beautiful chapel, we headed back down via the stairs, where there wouldn’t be any camels.
Back at the bottom, we visited St. Katharine’s Monastery which houses the burning bush, Moses’ Well, and some incredibly old icons and manuscripts (as far back as the 4th century). The bus trip back to Dahab was quick, and we made it back just in time to get our hotel’s complimentary breakfast. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of banana pancakes. We napped and spent the bulk of the day relaxing. We needed to get our energy back up for the scuba diving we planned for the following day. The two scuba dives we did the next morning had very unique seascapes. Our first dive was into “The Canyon”, quite literally an underwater canyon, and the second was into “The Blue Hole”, an extremely deep circular reef. Of course we saw fish… lots of them… in lots of colours… and the largest parrot fish I’ve ever seen by a longshot.
We left a couple of hours after scuba diving to head back to Cairo to a more hectic life. Dahab must have affected us though. We stopped for lunch on our way grocery shopping a few days ago in Cairo and chose to sit at one of only a few tables with pillows on the floor for seats. Our dining room décor may be ery different when we get back to Canada.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Back to School
The first week of school in Egypt was fairly successful and uneventful, but we’ll share some stories anyway. We had been warned by teachers returning to the school that the students would be very challenging. The first day of school started with an assembly for all high school students. When each teacher was introduced, the students all clapped. With that, we were officially Mrs. Katie and Mr. Tom.
We were shocked at how loud the students were while the principal was addressing them. That being said, when we went to class, we both found our first morning class to be very quiet and respectful. Tom’s class asked if they could call him “Mr. T.” We’re not sure if they know who “Mr. T.” is, but some of the students do call him that.
My first morning class was, and continues to be, a class sent from heaven. If every class was like my first period class here, everyone would be a teacher. Here are a couple of my students doing their first lab of the year. They were pretty excited to get to work (a.k.a. play) with fire the first week. Ok, so was I!
(In case you're curious, I did ask these students permission to take their picture and put it on my blog.)
Tom and I are each teaching three classes, some of which are more challenging than others. That’s not different from any school or any group of teenagers in the world though. On the other hand, our students can be pretty unique. We teach at private school. Our students (or at least their parents) are paying tuition. During a physics lesson Tom asked his students one day whether any of their parents knew how to weld. He got the response “Mr. Tom, none of our parents would know how to weld. Maybe our driver would know how.”
There are also little things around the school that remind us that wearen’t in Canada anymore.
One is our office door:
Another is the sign on the fume hood in my classroom. If you’re not sure what I mean, get your brain back into teenage mode for a moment.
All in all we’ve had a successful first week of school. We certainly need to get back into the swing of things and spend less time prepping and more time living… and sleeping. I’m sure we’ll get there soon. If we get too tired, we will soon have time to unwind. We have the Egyptian Armed Forces Day and Canadian Thanksgiving weekend coming up soon to give us a four day weekend very soon. We know… we can’t complain!
Monday, September 20, 2010
A Jordanian Journey
They say that “life’s a journey, not a destination.” If that’s true, then we certainly are living. In just over a week-long trip to Jordan, we spent more than 20 hours on buses, 6 hours in taxis, and 5 hours on ferries. It was all worth it though for the breathtaking trip. We couldn’t possibly share all the details and sights, as we don’t have the time to write it, nor do you have the time to read it. Here’s the highlight reel:
The Dead Sea
We visited the Dead Sea on our second day in Jordan. It is unique in two ways. Firstly, it lies at the lowest point on the planet. More entertainingly, it is about ten times saltier than the ocean, so you float on it like a cork. The feeling is just unreal. Even if you try to sink (cannonball position and all), you just bob. When I tried my hardest to get my entire body underwater, I managed to get my entire body underwater for a couple of seconds before bobbing back up. Tom liked floating much more than swimming in the actual pool.
Petra
This was this site that drew us to Jordan in the first place. Petra is an ancient city, primarily carved out of mountains. Instead of bringing in stones to put up buildings, the Nabateans literally carved lodgings, temples, tombs, and the famous treasury right into the mountains. Later the Romans built some temples in the more traditional way, and the contrast is quite interesting.
Our first Petra experience was “Petra by Night”, a candlelit walk through the Siq (natural gorge leading into the city) and Bedouin story-telling and singing session in front of the Treasury. It was quite beautiful, despite some obnoxious tourists interfering with the quiet mood. We went to Petra the two following days, arriving before 6:30am both days in order to beat the crowd. Even on repeat viewings, the architechture never failed to take my breath away. For a view from above, I followed Tom through some Indiana Jones type climbing on the second day. We found an empty plateau and watched the sun come over the mountains onto the treasury. Stunning!
Wadi Rum
We spent our last few days in Jordan doing one of our favourite things: camping. Unfortunately we’re unable to canoe camp here (#1 – it would have cost a small fortune to fly the canoe here, #2 – it’s the desert). We did the next best things; we camel camped. We met our guide and got on our camels around 9am one morning, and headed into Wadi Rum, a large mountain desert. We stopped at several sites including sand dunes, natural springs, and rock bridges. We drank a lot of tea, ate a lot of pita, and eventually made it to the Bedouin camp where we would stay the night with about a dozen other campers. The best part of camp was letting our thighs rest. Canoes don’t give sore thighs.
The following day we headed into a less “tourist” part of the desert on our camels, saw a few more sites, drank plenty more tea, ate more pita we have in the past year, heard “camel ghost stories” (which were actually not about ghosts at all, just about camels rolling over on people during their sleep), then camped under the stars with just a mattress and blanket on a large flat rock. I can’t imagine many things that would be more spectacular. Don’t worry, the camels didn’t come near us in our sleep.
We came back on the third day and slept on the tour company’s office (don’t ask!), and got up bright and early to catch a bus that we had to sit on the floor of because it was full. It got us back to the ferry cheap though!
After a lot more travel and the most disgusting bathroom I’ve ever seen, we are back in Cairo to start our first week of school. Hopefully that will not provide too many adventures to write about!
The Dead Sea
Petra
Our first Petra experience was “Petra by Night”, a candlelit walk through the Siq (natural gorge leading into the city) and Bedouin story-telling and singing session in front of the Treasury. It was quite beautiful, despite some obnoxious tourists interfering with the quiet mood. We went to Petra the two following days, arriving before 6:30am both days in order to beat the crowd. Even on repeat viewings, the architechture never failed to take my breath away. For a view from above, I followed Tom through some Indiana Jones type climbing on the second day. We found an empty plateau and watched the sun come over the mountains onto the treasury. Stunning!
Wadi Rum
We spent our last few days in Jordan doing one of our favourite things: camping. Unfortunately we’re unable to canoe camp here (#1 – it would have cost a small fortune to fly the canoe here, #2 – it’s the desert). We did the next best things; we camel camped. We met our guide and got on our camels around 9am one morning, and headed into Wadi Rum, a large mountain desert. We stopped at several sites including sand dunes, natural springs, and rock bridges. We drank a lot of tea, ate a lot of pita, and eventually made it to the Bedouin camp where we would stay the night with about a dozen other campers. The best part of camp was letting our thighs rest. Canoes don’t give sore thighs.
The following day we headed into a less “tourist” part of the desert on our camels, saw a few more sites, drank plenty more tea, ate more pita we have in the past year, heard “camel ghost stories” (which were actually not about ghosts at all, just about camels rolling over on people during their sleep), then camped under the stars with just a mattress and blanket on a large flat rock. I can’t imagine many things that would be more spectacular. Don’t worry, the camels didn’t come near us in our sleep.
We came back on the third day and slept on the tour company’s office (don’t ask!), and got up bright and early to catch a bus that we had to sit on the floor of because it was full. It got us back to the ferry cheap though!
After a lot more travel and the most disgusting bathroom I’ve ever seen, we are back in Cairo to start our first week of school. Hopefully that will not provide too many adventures to write about!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Diving In
4 days, 9 dives, 1 awesome trip!
We arrived home around midnight last night from our 4-day boat safari on the Red Sea. We left Thursday with about 20 of our colleagues at 1pm and arrived at Safaga to get on our boat (Spyrodream) by 8pm.
We had a buffet dinner and a night of socializing on the unmoving boat. It was tame enough to keep us in good shape for the following morning of scuba diving, but fun enough to keep us up until a small group of French divers joined us on the boat at 2am.
By 9am the next morning, we were on the deck as the boat started its journey. We ate a breakfast of crepes and eggs, and soon had a briefing with our dive master Ahmed. The boat was anchored and we were ready for the first dive of the trip. Tom went with the advanced group, since he's already certified, while I went with the beginner group to do my open water training. My dive consisted mostly of kneeling in the sand at the bottom of the sea and practicing skills such as pulling off the air regulator while underwater and putting it back on. My least favourite skill was clearing the mask after the instructor deliberately filled it with salt water. While my eyes burned and my knees got scraped, I could take comfort knowing that Tom was nearby exploring the beautiful marine life of the Red Sea, likely without any water in his goggles. His group came in early enough for him to take pictures of me moments after surfacing after the dive.
We ate lunch and headed out for an afternoon dive. This dive involved less skills and more exploring. If I knew my fish at all, I could give names of all the unique and impressive fish I spotted. Unfortunately all I can say is that there were many colourful fish, both big and small. Oh, I saw some Nemos (I do know that they are called Clown Fish... although I don't know their technical name).
Friday's third dive was my favourite. It was a fun dive, so the beginner and advanced groups got to mix and Tom and I dove together. My tank hadn't been refilled until I asked, so we were running behind the group, and wound up in a small group of stragglers. It was so nice to have lots of space underwater, and a much better view all around. A fairly large (maybe the size of a frisbee) angel fish sort of joined our group and swam with us for several minutes underwater. Very cool!
Tom got to go out for a night dive on Friday, although I couldn't be jealous as a party had transpired on the boat. The Egyptian staff starting playing drums and singing and dancing. The teacher you'd least expect it from got up and belly danced to a few songs. Although I've taken a couple of classes myself, I didn't break out my belly dancing until a little later that night, when the pros were all done. We slept out on the deck of the boat with some of the other teachers. The night breeze and starry sky were beautiful enough to help me forgive the blazing 6am sunrise.
The following two days included much of the same... dive, eat, nap, repeat. We saw eels, octopus, lion fish, scorpion fish, stingrays, and way too many small fish to name. We also saw an old ship wreck. I got to do a night dive on Saturday as part of my advanced course. I didn't see a huge number of fish, but diving by flashlight was far more serene and less scary than I would have imagined. Saturday night was pretty quiet since most people (us included) were quite tired. We did get the camera out for some evening photography, and Tom even let someone else use his baby... I mean camera... to take this picture of us.
Two Sunday dives followed by 8 hours on a bus got us back to our apartment in Cairo, only to prepare for the next adventure. We're heading to Jordan tomorrow and will be traveling there until next Thursday night (Sep. 16). We'll update when we get back, hopefully with some great pictures.
We arrived home around midnight last night from our 4-day boat safari on the Red Sea. We left Thursday with about 20 of our colleagues at 1pm and arrived at Safaga to get on our boat (Spyrodream) by 8pm.
We had a buffet dinner and a night of socializing on the unmoving boat. It was tame enough to keep us in good shape for the following morning of scuba diving, but fun enough to keep us up until a small group of French divers joined us on the boat at 2am.
By 9am the next morning, we were on the deck as the boat started its journey. We ate a breakfast of crepes and eggs, and soon had a briefing with our dive master Ahmed. The boat was anchored and we were ready for the first dive of the trip. Tom went with the advanced group, since he's already certified, while I went with the beginner group to do my open water training. My dive consisted mostly of kneeling in the sand at the bottom of the sea and practicing skills such as pulling off the air regulator while underwater and putting it back on. My least favourite skill was clearing the mask after the instructor deliberately filled it with salt water. While my eyes burned and my knees got scraped, I could take comfort knowing that Tom was nearby exploring the beautiful marine life of the Red Sea, likely without any water in his goggles. His group came in early enough for him to take pictures of me moments after surfacing after the dive.
We ate lunch and headed out for an afternoon dive. This dive involved less skills and more exploring. If I knew my fish at all, I could give names of all the unique and impressive fish I spotted. Unfortunately all I can say is that there were many colourful fish, both big and small. Oh, I saw some Nemos (I do know that they are called Clown Fish... although I don't know their technical name).
Friday's third dive was my favourite. It was a fun dive, so the beginner and advanced groups got to mix and Tom and I dove together. My tank hadn't been refilled until I asked, so we were running behind the group, and wound up in a small group of stragglers. It was so nice to have lots of space underwater, and a much better view all around. A fairly large (maybe the size of a frisbee) angel fish sort of joined our group and swam with us for several minutes underwater. Very cool!
Tom got to go out for a night dive on Friday, although I couldn't be jealous as a party had transpired on the boat. The Egyptian staff starting playing drums and singing and dancing. The teacher you'd least expect it from got up and belly danced to a few songs. Although I've taken a couple of classes myself, I didn't break out my belly dancing until a little later that night, when the pros were all done. We slept out on the deck of the boat with some of the other teachers. The night breeze and starry sky were beautiful enough to help me forgive the blazing 6am sunrise.
The following two days included much of the same... dive, eat, nap, repeat. We saw eels, octopus, lion fish, scorpion fish, stingrays, and way too many small fish to name. We also saw an old ship wreck. I got to do a night dive on Saturday as part of my advanced course. I didn't see a huge number of fish, but diving by flashlight was far more serene and less scary than I would have imagined. Saturday night was pretty quiet since most people (us included) were quite tired. We did get the camera out for some evening photography, and Tom even let someone else use his baby... I mean camera... to take this picture of us.
Two Sunday dives followed by 8 hours on a bus got us back to our apartment in Cairo, only to prepare for the next adventure. We're heading to Jordan tomorrow and will be traveling there until next Thursday night (Sep. 16). We'll update when we get back, hopefully with some great pictures.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Adventure Begins
"Welcome to Egypt. Make sure you go to the duty free shop before we leave the airport." This was our greeting from our new principal holding up a Canadian International School of Egypt sign in Cairo's airport. After picking up the "necessities" from the duty free shop, we got in a bus for a ride to our "nice" hotel, and enjoyed a good night's sleep in separate single beds... well-deserved after nearly 20 hours in transit. It's hard to believe that was almost exactly two weeks ago. It has been somewhat of a whirlwind since then, combining being tourists, new residents, and high school teachers. We hope to blog weekly so that you don't have another two weeks to miss us!
Our first few days were like a convincing infomercial for living in Egypt. We went on a felucca ride down the Nile at sunset, with the rest of the new teachers. Here it is before our rowdy bunch got in.
Two days later we saw the pyramids "in case they disappear this week" said our school director. I was in complete awe. They are overwhelmingly large, and tucked within bustling streets. I am amazed at the fact that these massive structures were built from sheer manpower.
We also went to a mall that could easily be mistaken for a mall in Ottawa. Wow! Egypt seemed both beautiful and comfortable. That perception hasn't changed entirely, but our days as tourists have quickly become days of being new residents, a slightly less magical and more practical role.
We moved into our apartment in Maadi (a suburb of Cairo), and started working (only administrative duties and prep) less than a week after our arrival. Despite several challenges including a leaking fridge, a washing machine that wouldn't drain, and ants in our honey, we've kept our heads up.... okay, often down searching for any more ants... but our spirits are up. Our landlord has been fairly efficient, and all of those problems have been fixed.
It is currently Ramadan in Egypt, a holy month of fasting and increased prayer for Muslims. For us this has meant that most stores and restaurants are closed in several hour chunks each day, so it's been somewhat of an inconvenience. While complaining about it one day, it occurred to me that the Muslim people are actually fasting all day in this tremendous heat... they do not consume any food or water during daylight. It makes the slight bother of having to shop after 8pm seem pretty trivial. Their devotion to their religion is quite admirable. Luckily the 4am call to prayer over loud speakers in the streets hasn't woken me up yet, or I may be less positive about it all.
Our school year was postponed until after the end of Ramadan, so Tom and I have an unexpected vacation starting tomorrow. We are headed on a boat safari with about 20 of our colleagues for a few days of scuba diving in the Red Sea, supposedly one of the world's premier dive spots. After that, we'll come home for a couple days then head to Jordan to see Petra and do some desert camping. We're looking forward to enjoying the life of tourists again!
Our first few days were like a convincing infomercial for living in Egypt. We went on a felucca ride down the Nile at sunset, with the rest of the new teachers. Here it is before our rowdy bunch got in.
Two days later we saw the pyramids "in case they disappear this week" said our school director. I was in complete awe. They are overwhelmingly large, and tucked within bustling streets. I am amazed at the fact that these massive structures were built from sheer manpower.
We also went to a mall that could easily be mistaken for a mall in Ottawa. Wow! Egypt seemed both beautiful and comfortable. That perception hasn't changed entirely, but our days as tourists have quickly become days of being new residents, a slightly less magical and more practical role.
We moved into our apartment in Maadi (a suburb of Cairo), and started working (only administrative duties and prep) less than a week after our arrival. Despite several challenges including a leaking fridge, a washing machine that wouldn't drain, and ants in our honey, we've kept our heads up.... okay, often down searching for any more ants... but our spirits are up. Our landlord has been fairly efficient, and all of those problems have been fixed.
It is currently Ramadan in Egypt, a holy month of fasting and increased prayer for Muslims. For us this has meant that most stores and restaurants are closed in several hour chunks each day, so it's been somewhat of an inconvenience. While complaining about it one day, it occurred to me that the Muslim people are actually fasting all day in this tremendous heat... they do not consume any food or water during daylight. It makes the slight bother of having to shop after 8pm seem pretty trivial. Their devotion to their religion is quite admirable. Luckily the 4am call to prayer over loud speakers in the streets hasn't woken me up yet, or I may be less positive about it all.
Our school year was postponed until after the end of Ramadan, so Tom and I have an unexpected vacation starting tomorrow. We are headed on a boat safari with about 20 of our colleagues for a few days of scuba diving in the Red Sea, supposedly one of the world's premier dive spots. After that, we'll come home for a couple days then head to Jordan to see Petra and do some desert camping. We're looking forward to enjoying the life of tourists again!
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