Holidays in Sinai, teaching practice, goodbyes, oh my!

Me on my balcony, last day in Alex

My five weeks in Egypt have come and gone far too quickly. As usual, it's not so much the place, but the people who've made this time so memorable. 15 people from all over the world, living in one apartment complex, learning to be English teachers and hoping to familiarize themselves with the people and culture of a pretty complex place. You can't help but become an insane little mini-family.

Two weeks ago a group of seven of us hopped on a bus and took the 12 hour ride to Sinai. We had a four day weekend due to the end of Ramadan and Eid, so we had to take advantage of the time and get away from Alexandria.

Our first stop was the little town of St. Katherine where the Mt. Sinai of Moses is supposedly located. Up to 1400 people per day hike to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise and in many cases pray. We left our hostel at 2 am and hiked through the night to make it in time for the sunrise. Night hiking is something I'd never done before and it was a pretty unique experience. No sound but our footsteps on the rocks and dirt and no light except from the stars and our small flashlights. The stars were absolutely incredible. The band of the Milky Way was very distinct across the sky and I saw two incredible shooting stars.

The hike was challenging towards the end, but we made it to the top in time to see the sun start peeking out over the barren, rocky mountains. On this particular day we shared the peak with around 700 other hikers and pilgrims. After the sunrise, we began the long hike down to St. Katherine's Monastery. Being so secluded and off the beaten path, St. Katherine's is said to be the oldest functioning Monastery that's never been attacked or harmed in any way.

Sunrise over Mt. Sinai

The hostel that we stayed at in St. Katherine's was great and we did our fair amount of lounging in their tented sitting areas, but after a few days in the heat of these desert mountains, we were ready to head for the sea.

Hostel in St. Katherine

Next stop, Dahab, a seaside tourist-infested wonderland of hotels, restaurants and bars. We found a cheap place right on the water and spent the majority of our time laying around in the cozy seating area of the hostel's restaurant. Laying, eating, drinking, smoking hookah- doesn't get much more relaxing.

Another highlight of our two days in Dahab was snorkeling in the Blue Hole. One of the most famous diving/snorkeling spots in the world, the Blue hole is a 127 meter deep hole just off the coast surrounded by the most incredible coral reefs and sea creatures. It was my first time snorkeling and I when I put my head under the water for the first time, I was in absolute awe of what lie just below the surface. If only I had an underwater camera!

The Blue Hole

Vacation over, back in Alexandria we started our official teaching practice. Each student taught five hours alone and two with a partner. Our schedule completely changed for teaching practice, so our beach days unfortunately came to an end. The students who come to our classes are all volunteers and classes lasted from 3:00-9:00 pm. Depending on our class time, we picked from three different departure and return times. With class prep, teaching and observing other teachers, we ended up at TEFL for at least 7 hours per day, often times more. While it was nice to be able to sleep in a bit, I did miss our daily evening swims.

Hanging out at TEFL

For me, the teaching practice was fairly stress free. I've had experience creating lesson plans and teaching all kinds of students and the whole thing just comes fairly easily to me. I guess I'm just fortunate to have found a career path that I both like and am good at! For many of my classmates, though, this was the first experience they had with any kind of teaching. There was stress, tears, 10 minute classes, blank stares, praising of nonsense and more. In the end though, everyone got through it and I think came out with more respect for all of the great teachers out there. There's no question that it's hard work!

Only 7 of our original 17 are staying in Alexandria for the optional 6 week teaching internship and intensive Arabic course. As all good things must come to an end, we spent the last 3 days saying goodbye and wishing people well as the headed off to their next adventure. It's really quite incredible how dependent you can become on others in such a short period of time.

Going away celebration

Thanks to James, Amanda, Zane, Laura, Laura, Danielle, Read, Simon, Jules, Oscar, J.P., Faizal, Mohammed and Sara for an incredible month! And a special shout out to security guard Hamidou who made me delicious tea.

Now it's Cairo until Saturday, then off to Morocco!