not so baadi in maadi :)

The past 2 weeks have brought some very interesting turns.

I had some good news (career related)

Some bad news (also career related)

Some great news! (A WEDDING!!)

And news that could potentially keep me in cairo longer than I expected.  Of course, none of this is set in stone, and I find myself changing my mind on a weekly/daily/hourly basis.

For one, it is easy to stay here for the weather:

    Secondly, it is easy to stay here when you have awesome teachers and awesome students:
 



egypt culture day (dress-up day!)

And, we painted- and with my ‘winnipeg décor’ I brought from home my place is becoming more of a home as opposed to a ‘blank hole’.

 

Luther also couldn’t stand our small crappy tube TV and literally-less than 10 hours of getting off our flight from Canada, he bought a flat screen at Carrefour (arab walmart).  So, this idea also adds incentive to stay. The fact that we are beginning to invest in our lives as opposed to considering these two years as simply a temporary state.

I should add, we have been blessed with an AMAZING neighbour who has lived in maadi for most of her life.  She has amazing stories to tell, and a son my age who is a pilot. He is also very nice. :)  She has come to our rescue COUNTLESS times.  Its great to have a 'mom' down the hall. :) 

As my co-worker Kerry would say, (imitating that adorable little-girl-in-mirror-folgers commercial):

‘I like my house! I like my friends! I like my life!’

Cos’ right now, I certainly do. J

 

WELCOME (back) TO EGYPT !

 My first post since coming back to Cairo.

At first I was not looking forward to coming back “home”; (ie: Egypt-home) but I have to say, once I settled in, had a fresh piece of balady and blasted my heaters to maximum capacity (there was a brief cold snap) I was glad to be home, and excited to begin the next half of the school year (or as my expat friends have referred to it as: THE BIG STRETCH’). As I glance at my school calendar, I realize it IS quite a stretch because there isn’t a decently sized holiday until the end of march (spring break).  There are a few 3-day weekends scattered about so I hope to get some activities done during that time.  Camel riding and bazaar-hopping are on the top of my list.


My trip to Winnipeg was great.  It was nice to see my family and do normal-ish routine Winnipeg things with them. Things like going for coffee, shopping, cooking, and just talking about nothing.  I’m pretty sure I had a timmys cup permanently grafted into my hand while i was there. Every photo of myself taken that week is clutching either a timmys to-go cup or timmys coffee mug. Kuckily,  my family is well aware of my addiction, and was sure to provide me with a coffee every morning, and send me home with 4 cans of beans.  This may seem like a lot but from the perspective of a teacher who gets up at 5:30am every morning- it must be carefully rationed until june.

I was also sent home with maple cookies from luthers family. Let me repeat. I WAS ALSO SENT HOME WITH MAPLE COOKIES FROM LUTHERS FAMILY. Now, the nice thing to do would be to let my American and egyptian friends sample the deliciousness that is a maple cookie- HOWEVER- the evil maple cookie-loving demon in me has decided to hoard them for herself because there is a new season of the BACHELOR downloading on my ipad right now; and I can’t think of anything better than maple cookies and rose ceremonies.

I also got to see/maul my furry 4-legged child. 


She stayed at dads the entire time and had a great vacation.  It was also nice to see my Gido play with her.  He got a kick out of the fact that they are the same age.  I gave her a whole holupstsi because she is comparable to a holuptsi. (brownish, reddish, lumpy, cylindrical, kinda smelly but you still want one near you…)

I spent a good chunk with friends as well.  Making the most of the snow, we hit up holiday mountain (note: upon hearing this, all Canadian staff from the west coast thought the idea of ‘holiday mountain’ was pretty laughable. They refer to it as ‘holiday mound’)None the less,  It was awesome to see everyone, and then right when I got back I hear one of them is getting MARRIED!!

(when I found this out, I got so excited I cried. I seriously cannot go a day without getting giggly and giddy and squealy and girly-annoying! I hope I can be there for it!!!!!  It also motivated me to immediately book my flight home.  That way, I can be giggly and giddy and squealy and girly annoying with my best friends!)

So until next time! (won’t be for awhile, at least until the next long weekend.  That’s coming up next week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PROPHET MOHAMMED!….)