Thanks for the reality check, M!

In no way did my time between July 23rd and Sept 25 feel like reality. I was truly living it up. Drinking, eating, sleeping in, living in Egypt without an ounce of stress. It was as though I was floating through some perfect universe where my only reminder of reality was the fact that my intestines did not love Egyptian food.

Then I arrived in M and BAM! Like a smack on the rear, life begins once again. After a delightful 6 hour flight, I arrived in Casablanca around 11 pm with my 60 kilos of luggage (I know it was 60 kilos because the lovely EgyptAir man made me put all of my checked and carryon baggage onto the scale at one time- thanks to him for letting me keep it all despite being way over the luggage allowance!). Mohamed was waiting for me at the airport (Yay!) and we were able to take the last train into Casa and hop in a taxi to stay with a friend for the night.

I was exhausted and landed to receive the great news of- I have no apartment and no place to go on Sunday. Super! Sunday we took the train up to the capital and sensing my irritation with the situation, Mohamed scrambled to find accommodations. For four days I stayed in a studio apartment where I killed at least three cockroaches on a daily basis. Now, I wouldn't call myself a girlie girl, but I do not do cockroaches and I could not wait to get out of there.

Back in Agdal

On a walk into the city

First time back in the Medina

I spent the four days searching for an apartment, meeting bosses and fellow teachers from school and trying to prepare for my first real teaching job while living out of a suitcase. Many of you know how well I do when not completely unpacked and living in a fully decorated place- it is not pretty! Needless to say I was feeling the stress and when my now roommate Michaela found a beautiful two bedroom, two bathroom place a minute's walk from work. We jumped all over it and moved in three days before the start of classes.

Shots of the new apartment- sparsely furnished

The day before I started teaching I met with my director and got my class schedule. We are guaranteed a minimum of 21 hours per week in our contract. When I was hired, I was told 22-23 hours was pretty typical. Apparently people are super excited about learning english this semester because I have a whopping 25 hours of teaching time. Now, those of you full timers are probably thinking that sounds pretty cushy and believe me, at first I thought the same thing. However, as a new teacher, I don't know what the heck I'm doing and I therefore have to spend loads of time preparing. For example, I spent 7 hours this past Monday (one of my days off) preparing for my 6 hours of classes on Tuesday. Ugh.

The good news is we're now into week two and it's already feeling easier. As with most things, I think the learning curve is just quite steep and you just have to work your rear end off to keep yourself from drowning the first week. And thankfully, I like it! I have a fairly varied class/age load which is nice.

I teach university students in Sale business English on Tuesday afternoons, then head back to AMIDEAST to teach adult beginners and then a TOEFL test preparation course. On Wednesdays I have two (two hour) sessions of 7-10 year olds and I get to do lots of games and coloring with them. Thursdays bring my beginner adults and TOEFL class again, then I have Friday off. Saturday is another long day with with another 2 classes of 7-10 year olds followed by a 3 hour TOEFL test prep session. Sundays are a bit like PC in that I teach teenagers on scholarship who couldn't normally afford classes. While this is a population I prefer to be with, having them for 4 hours is a bit much. Mondays are off.

So for right now, my life generally involves hanging out in my minimally furnished apartment (usually in bed) then heading off to work for preparation or classes. I haven't had much time for anything else and it's been raining cats and dogs for the last 4 days. On days off, I usually go spend some time with Mohamed in his store; otherwise, I don't see him until he closes up and we make a late dinner. For now, there's no other big news there. Just spending time and taking it easy.

Mohamed with his niece Oumayma on a visit to his sister's house in Sale.

Life here has certainly begun.

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!

Big 'ole Cairo bus trip

Friday was a big day for the TEFL Alex crew- trip to Cairo! It came as part of our tuition with the program and I'd been looking forward to it since I arrived two weeks ago (has it really onlybeen two weeks?!). We started the day by hopping on our mini bus at 7am. Despite the early rise, everyone was pumped for the day.

After an hour and a half of driving, we stopped at an Oasis for a quick break. Now, these types of Oases exist in Morocco as well- generally a few stores, restaurant, bathrooms, but this one was pretty wild. Besides the typical haunts, this place had a mini zoo and decrepit play land for kids. Of course, I had to play on some of the toys and that may have been the most dangerous thing I've done thus far in Egypt.

Ostriches at the roadside petting zoo

After another hour and a half, we arrived at our first stop- the pyramids of Giza! As we drove up, a friend next to me mentioned "huh, they don't really seem that big." I'm not going to lie, I kind of agreed. They didn't look all that impressive. Flash forward to me looking like a tiny little ant on the side of the Great Pyramid. Make no mistake people, these things are pretty awe-inspiring. One row of blocks was almost as tall as me and I'm not going to even try to guess how many rows make up the Great Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid at Giza

After taking some photos, we drove on to the 2nd pyramid and at that one I paid a little extra to go inside. I know, I got to go inside of a pyramid and you are extremely jealous. It was not at all what I imagined. The tunnels are tiny, definitely not designed for anyone with any sort of claustrophobia. We immediately had to crouch down and began walking down from the entrance into the pyramid. Little wooded boards were nailed to the floor every foot or so to keep you from sliding down. (Our suggestion for the tourism board- let's make it a slide!) After traveling down for quite some time, we were able to mostly stand and walked straight in before the tunnel curved up and we had to once again crouch and use the boards to keep moving upward. Once in the center we found a single room. Fairly small with high ceilings right in the heart of the pyramid. The only thing in the room at this time is the stone coffin of the king once locked inside. A bit eery, but pretty cool.

Me and friend James inside the second pyramid

Silly pics are a must!

After leaving the second pyramid, we stopped farther out for a panoramic view of all three pyramids in the area. Next stop, the Sphinx! Also very cool. Something I'd dreamed of seeing my entire life.

After leaving Giza, we headed to the Egyptian Museum. I think the best way to describe this Museum is crammed. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall stuff. All ancient, all cool, very little rhyme or reason to the layout, not nearly enough labels, lots of guesswork and wandering. It's almost as though Egypt has so much stuff that they can't possibly lay it all out in any sort of logical manner and have it all fit. Overall rating- mediocre.

After the museum was a fairly disappointing buffet lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The only bright spot in this part of the trip was an extremely delicious alcoholic beverage that I payed 11 dollars for.

Finally, we made it to one of the biggest markets in Cairo. It was right before lftur and the place was hopping. Upon entering the market I decided to try to get by on only my Moroccan Arabic. It was fabulous! The shopkeepers looked at me with confused expressions and asked "are you from Tunis? are you algerian?" HA! But I did manage to get my point across and bargained fairly well for a few key items.

The men who I wowed with my Moroccan Arabic and who sold me my sweet scarf!

As we waited for the bus to pick us up on the street, this little kid came up with a handful of bracelets and asked if I wanted one. "2 for 5 pounds (a little less than a dollar)," he said. I thought about it, but frankly, the bracelets were ugly and why on earth would I need two? So I told him no thank you and hoped that would be the end of it. No such luck, of course. He kept bothering me and I kept declining his offer. He went away.

A few minutes later, he's back. More bargaining. This time, I tell him I'll pay 2 pounds (all the change I had) for one bracelet. Nope, he's not having it. I'm not budging either. Finally, he says, "fine! take this one for two pounds" and he proceeds to try and give me a much cheaper looking, uglier bracelet. No way kid. Give me the good one or get out of here! He leaves again in a huff. This same thing goes on for the next five minutes. He continues to come back to me and tries to get me to buy the ugly bracelet. Finally, on the fifth try he yells "fine! take the bracelet for two pounds!" So I take it and give him the money. He starts to leave, but turns around. "You English?" he asks. "Yes," I respond (I know, what a liar). He raises his arm to make his point and says "English VERY BAD!" and walks away in a huff.

Just doing my part to damage the reputation of the English people in Egypt. Hehe.

The souk getting ready to break the fast

Some beautiful girls who couldn't stop taking photos of our group