tahrir-craziness

It has been quite a long time since I’ve written.  I’m sitting in ‘Costa Coffee’ which some will recognize as a European franchise similar to starbucks.  Its close to where Luther is tutoring so I’m killing some time here before heading home.  He put a whole chicken out to thaw but at 7:30-8 when I get home theres no WAY I’m cooking that entire thing lol.

I felt compelled to write even though things have been quite busy.  Things in Ciaro (specifically, tahrir square) have gotten kind of crazy.  So just so everyone knows, most locals don’t venture near  tahrir square on protest days because everyone knows that it is the extremists who cause the trouble for everyone.  So unless you feel like getting into a fight for no reason, people just carry on with their lives outside of the square. Luther and I have no reason to go down there and its about a 40 minute drive from where we live.  Normally we pass through when going to tutor in Dokki but we have been going around it lately just to be safe.  On Wednesday I took a cab through it and it was kind of cool to see.  Lots of burning flags and yelling but most people were grabbing koshari and shawarma (awesome Egyptian fast food) Clearly, one cannot protest on an empty belly!  My cab driver was explaining to me that its harmless right now because the people who are peaceful choose to protest early in the evening and the extremists come out at night.

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. On thursday, a few kids were absent but it was more because of the traffic that protest days cause (most main streets in cairo run through tahrir)- the kids would end up being an hour or more late for school.

Today the entire faculty was called down and reminded about safety/seclusion procedures and evacuation instructions.  The returning teachers tell me its nothing to worry about and just make sure you have some water and canned stuff just in case.  They also said its not uncommon to cancel school on days because the commute could be another 2 hours longer than it has to.  So that being said, school is cancelled on tuesday afternoon! :) 

Luther and i are going to go to egyptian wal-mart tomorrow (carrefour) and stock up on stuff...plus we have no groceries and having been living on OTLOB for a few days now (some of the things we have ordered...indian...korean...japanese...subway...hardees...- its a terrible addiction! but an incredibly convenient and cost effective addiction!)

hmm...what else...

OH- there was 2 flaming cars on the cornishe (road that runs along the nile) on the bus ride home on thursday.  That’s it.  I don’t even know if it had to do with the protests or if it was just…crazy cairo traffic lol

p.s. that reminds me…on Thursday- our bus HIT someone. He was OK..but not such a pleasant sound to hear..

cairo-ed out :P

Winnipeg is expecting 15-30 cm. of snow this weekend.

I wish i was there. :( OK- when i tuned into the radio and heard what a skating rink the roads are i felt a bit better.  Driving down pembina at 7 in the morning on a bed of ice was not my idea of a good time.

Not such a great couple of days.  Its been wicked awful because of luthers mid-terms, reports being due and 4 'late-bus' days in row where i don't get home until 6.

On a lighter note, the school held its annual egypt cultural day.  The field was set up and the arabic teachers hosted a large concert with the kids singing, dancing and parading around the field dressed in egyptian attire (gallabeias, pharoahs, bedouins etc..)  I even decked out in a jangle dress.  Luther came to visit as well.  It was the first time he saw the school.

Check it out on Heritage International Schools 'FACEBOOK' page:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Heritage-Canadian-International-School-Egypt/218640688193402?fref=ts


I'm kinda missing home right now.  The thought of peering outside and seeing a blanket of white would be amazing.  Not to mention, its hard to think of getting into the christmas spirit when:

1.) christmas isn't such a big deal here (y'know...with the whole 97% muslim population an'all)
2.) view outside in july: sunny and hot with lots of sand...view outside in december: sunny and hot with lots of sand

So i'm thinking of what to put on my bulletin board at school that doesn't have any type of blatent christmas-ey theme (even though the school celebrates christmas. I'm simply anticipating my laziness for AFTER christmas when i can still get away with a 'winter' theme for a few more months before i have to change it again.)  So...winterey-not-religeous-yet-seasonal..= PENGUINS! :)

MAYBE some snowmen thrown in there. we'll see ;)

On that note, i'm going to start thinking of christmas gifts. please send your requests my way. 

No requests for magic lamps with genies though.  Those are hard to find. :) Ditto with magic carpets.




 

Halloween in cairo

Well, Halloween in Egypt has OFFICIALLY passed. (although tonight, many embassies are holding their Halloween parties.  I know a few staff members who claim the Swiss embassy holds the best Halloween party in all of Cairo and will be going tonight.  Last night was my “BIG” night out- and I got home in somewhat of a panic of how I was going to manage a good costume with NOTHING on hand.  I didn’t wanna do my school-teacher ‘snow queen’ costume with snowflakes pinned to my white skirt.  Its Halloween!  I mean, I’m used to having props, costumes, and professional grade make-up and prosthetics at my disposal.  So I pulled out my street make-up, went into the kitchen and started scavenging.

The result:

shoot zombies in the head to kill them

My eyes have never seen so much sephora make-up in their lives, my face was pale with white ‘highlighting’ shimmer powder and baking flour and the best part: my blood!! (Or should I say: crystal light mix and dish soap) I was so pleased with the result. I consider myself a ‘hallo-genius’ Not many people could have thought of this master idea.  And trust me, ketchup is NEVER the answer for a quick fake blood recipe. It just looks like you attacked a sloppy joe.

Oh, in case you didn’t know, we went as the sheriff and zombie from HBOs ‘walking dead’ series

We were supposed to attend the CDN embassy Halloween party but by the time we got ready it was too long of a cab ride and I was not planning on setting foot on the metro looking like that (let us not forget, most Egyptians do not celebrate Halloween, and even if they did, the walking dead on the metro near tahrir square does not sit well with me..) 

I should add, many egyptians have adopted the traditions of the holiday and on halloween night we saw many masked faces and devil horns walking around the neighbourhood.  Not trick-or-treating, just scaring people, having fun and yelling 'hahhhpee halloweeeeeen!' in naturally awesome egyptian accents.

In 6th of october, where my school is- halloween is celebrated with trick or treating because the area is so heavily populated with western expats with children and Egyptians and their children. 

ANYWAY, We decided to go to the ACE club in Maadi which is about a 4 minute walk from our apartment.  Luther and I met up with some friends we have made around the neighborhood and made our way to the ACE (Association of Cairo Expatriates)

The place was just FILLED with all sorts of costumes, from jesus to a rubix cube. 

I would have to say, I have happily gotten Halloween out of my system.  I am okay with not going ‘all out’ because I got to carve a pumpkin (which we made a delicious stew with), decorate my school and ended up having an awesome costume that a lot of people recognized and I got to party with awesome friends from all over the world.

fellow teacher creatures :)

happy halloween everyone!

My gift to Luther: 2 bags. one says 'trick' and one says 'treat' - you had to pick ONE.  So he picked 'trick' and found a box of his favourite western cereal- 'trix' .  I let him open the other bag (treat) because it was BACON. Something you cannot find so easily in Cairo...

my gift was trick-or treating in our apt.!! I  got good chocolate like twix and dairymilk!! And tickets to Cairo Operas production of the Magic Flute in November!!

Halloween. Egypt-style :)

Halloween at the school has passed with great success!

On wednesday our kids came dressed up and we had a big parade around the hallways.

It was such a great time, and the students loved dressing up.

Here are some pictures of the day..



grade1

ms. allis room

monster craft!

entries for monster contest

hmmm...monster?

grade 2

 

handful of witchies :)

snow queen and devil!

                                        



            

 

EID (aye-eed) mubarak!

EID MUBARAK!  A much needed 5 day holiday in occuring here in Egypt. 

Once again the streets are dead until dusk when everyone rushes home to break their fast.  Traffic is at its absolute worst at this time.  At around 8 or 9 when people have feasted, the streets, markets and malls open up again.  This particular EID has alot of gift giving.

So the rumours of the EID traditions of 'slaghtering animals in the street' is hardly true.  Well, they ARE true but CERTAINLY not as graphic as we were warned.

Basically, if one wants to participate in CLASSIC traditions, they will bring a sheep home from the butcher shop.  The butcher shop is quite a sight around this season.  They have flashing twinkling christmas lights around it and meat hanging everywhere.  The butcher shops around the time of EID  also turn into a bit of a farmyard with random animals fenced in in the front.  You come in, pick your live animal, take it home in a truck and haul it up your apt. to the roof where it sits (quiet happily, i should add- being fed and fattened up) until it is killed for the feast. 

Anyway, while some egyptians choose to slaughter their own animal, there are many wagons trotting around with butchers yelling out their service (so, if you have a sheep and do not want to kill it or have no idea how to prepare it, they will gladly do it for you)

Throughout the week i haven't seen anything crazy.  Just really brightly lit, flashing butcher shops, wagons with men and boys covered in blood happily calling out their services and my personal favorite:

The toy shop window. 

 




Okay, so EID sheep are treated very much like turkeys around Thanksgiving.  They are characterized, cute and somewhat of an icon.  We see commercials with eid sheep, and we do crafts at school with cottonballs and sing songs about wooly sheep- and then we go home and promptly slaughter them :P

Many egyptians choose not to participate in this because:
 1. its gross.
 2. its ALOT of meat even for a large family
 3.its 'old-school' and most egyptians would much rather buy nicely sliced pre-packaged lamb from the large supermarkets


Also, its customary to take the blood of the sheep and smear it on family doors, windows, shops and cars for good luck.

No lie.  We have seen this EVERYWHERE around egypt. Even if you don't have a sheep to kill.  We have not been hit yet but this is another old tradition that doesn't not have much room in modern maadi.  Its more in the older parts of the city.

Luther and I had sushi on our first night of EID. The next night we ordered indian.  He got his sheep, i got my chicen and we both got our curry fix. :)

  

A word from Luther...

Power of the Students…

 

 

“Do not come closer or we will throw stones at you” was one comment shouted by a student protestor as I walked up to the chained, car blocked, human barricaded gates of the AUC campus. I was not worried about my safety – this was a very “peaceful” protest, although dramatic action was taken and some people were injured when they tried to leave campus by climbing fence, in fact, one colleague of mine juped the fence to get to his assistant work he needed to complete! Background: a couple of weeks ago, the student union and a large supporting group of students began their protest against the 7% tuition increase implemented this year, and to be added for the next two years equalling to a (aprox. Cumulative) 25% hike over three years. It has been a while since I have written and there has been so much that has happened. To be honest, the details of the protest are not important, what is important is how I went to campus and found that my right to an education had been taken from me along with the access to an institution that had I paid for.

When I realized what was happening (this was the second protest, the first one, a week back, consisted of a human chain that most people broke through and did not cause much of a disturbance on campus) I became frustrated but waited patiently to see if the gates would be opened. After 2 hours of waiting, I decided to hitch a cab and go back to Maadi where I could study from home and await any communication from the university. Sure enough, a few hours later, the AUC sent an email out to the community notifying that it was suspending operations until further notice. Let me tell you that I was not very happy about all this. Myself, along with the other graduate students immediately began communicating on the matter and the possibilities of outcomes. Would the semester be cancelled? This was our biggest fear. In order for the AUC to keep their accreditation, there are a certain amount of credit hours that must be held for classes. Would they lose accreditation? Not knowing of the outcomes, the Egyptology department was driven to keep things going and try and do everything possible to keep the semester alive. After a week and a half of not having classes, the possibility of a cancelled semester was looking more like a reality. Although there were no official classes, I was going all over the Cairo to meet for classes arranged by professors and the students. My week consisted of: waking up in the morning, checking email, and IF there was a class – I would take an overcrowded metro then usually pay for a cab from the metro stop to the coffee shop or place.

I was so pissed off about the situation. First of all, I came all the way to Cairo for graduate school and DID NOT want to be held back longer. Also, it was very difficult to remain focused on school and classes with such a large disruption. Granted, yes, for most of the time of the protest – I was at home in my PJ’s studying or doing my readings for classes. However, it was almost impossible to be in the same mind-set when the routine of a grad student is thrown such an enormous curve ball – I can only duck so low! Anyway, I somehow managed and was able to memorize some hieroglyphics and study for a mid-term. An agreement was finally reached between the student movement and the administration and classes begun again last week. In order to fulfil accreditation requirements, most classes are now required to hold make up classes, which luckily for my faculty will be held in the form of field trips! I look forward to going to Saqqara, Dashur, Giza, Bubastis, Tanis, and the Museum with my profs!

SICK SICK SICK! My first trip to a Cairo clinic..

Alright, I should also add that I have been fighting a crazy cold these last two weeks which has not helped with my motivation and frustration with “Cairo”. My chest cold has now turned into a sinus infection that causes me to sneeze and go threw boxes of Kleenex by the day! Im serious, I sneeze every minute – this makes things very awkward in lectures and sometimes causes me to step out of class and really release the gunk!

Finally, once campus opened again, I went to the campus clinic. I was in and out in 20 minutes with a diagnosis of Rhinitis and three prescriptions – Clairton, amoxicillin, and nasal spray! The best part was I walked in and out without paying a cent – even for the drugs! Gotta love an expensive university. I am feeling better now, although im almost out of the drugs and still sneezing and sniffing now and then…might do another trip. Due to the pollution and environment, people say that it usually takes you longer to get better than it does back home. 2 Weeks and still counting… J

I am feeling better though, and classes are back – it feels like life is back to normal again (or whatever normal in Cairo consists of..haha). It is time for me to stop procrastinating on learning this hieroglyphic vocabulary and get back to work. By the way – I am writing this as I am looking out the window in this brightly sunlit library. I am writing to the view of a desert in the background, palm trees in the foreground, and a mosque in the distance that looks as if it was just placed in the desert sand. Despite all that has happened these weeks… I really do love Egypt.

اليقطين/ pumpkin

ITS NOT AUTUMN WITHOUT A اليقطين !!! (pumpkin)

Inspired my moms package, i decided to decorate as best as i could for the season that i love so much but do not have the opportunity to enjoy in this climate.  I have seen a few live pumpkins around the markets which carry eastern european groceries so i will be buying one soon. :)

Being on the halloween committee at the school has really helped out.  I am in charge of the elementary grade festivities  (1-3) so i'm really excited to get involved with the kids. :)

The school will have its party on the morning of Oct.24, beginning with a prade around the school and then some games.  Its a half-day, so the kids will be let out at noon and then we are on a week long break to celebrate 'Eid' (more on this later..)

In the days leading up to our big party, i have a few awesome things/contests/activities planned.  But of course, i will not disclose them on the world wide web... ;)

I will also be keeping my costume idea on the down-low, for those who are curious..

So, thanks to mom, the house has a bit of autumn warmth to it.  It also helps that Luther found a 'pumpkin spice' candle at metro market (the local grocery store) and bought every one he could find.  I also found some stuff at the market.

I have also been tipped off that there is a costume/party shop somewhere around a mall that is about 20 minutes from here.  It MAY be worth checking out.  In the meantime however, here is 'Autumn in apt.3 on Rd.221'....

the white/communication board :)

ceramic pumpkin
 

Our Thanksgiving potluck was also this weekend.   A fellow teacher and I made perogies (which were not as good as gidos but we ARE in egypt...) and I made apple crisp, Luther brought cheese sauce (a la dads awesome veggies with cheese sauce) and his fresh beetroot salad with feta.  It was a success and our food went in a snap (perogies did not make it for the stragglers!) 

perogy party

our thanksgiving contribution

feast (or about 80% of it- the rest was on another table!)

We didn't have pumpkin pie, but we had pumpkin TART which was awesome. (I'm still going to make some kind of pumpkin-ey dessert. i haven't quite had my filling of pumpkin)

Some of the yummies that were eaten at the staff dinner (there was about 35-40 of us!)
*turkey (duh)
*cranberry sauce
*candied squash
*marshmellow sweet potatoes
*mashed potatoes
*stuffing (3 kinds)
*gravy
*cheese and veggies (luther!)
*bannock
*pasta salad
*greek salad
*cornbread
*meatballs
*perogies (yours truly with ms.ashley)
*beet salad (Luther!)
*rice
*roasted veggies
*veggie pot pie

and more but i can't remember..
dessert consisted of dozens of cupcakes, 4-5 fruit flavoured tarts, and my apple crisp :)

It was nice to visit the teachers who dwell on the 4rth floor (secondary) and see how they are because i NEVER go up there unless i am visiting the library (which RARELY happens)





Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  It was wonderful.

oh! That reminds me! EID is coming up and for those who do not know, it is a weeklong holiday where muslims celebrate the story of abrahim willing to sacrifice his son for God.  The traditions are very similar to Easter or Thanksgiving where there is much worship, giving thanks for family and friends and lots of feasting.  Its customary to purchase an entire animal and feast on it throughout the week.  My students tell me that it is usually lamb, goat or cow.  To follow the muslim law of giving to those who are less fortunate, many will purchase another animal to give to the poor.  If you are not as wealthy, you give what is left of your animal at the end of the week.

Luther and I may drop by Alexandria for a night or two. :)  He is not sick anymore.  Now, he is just tired and overloaded with information about when make-up days for lectures are.  He has recieved some awesome news about  a lecture coming up but i will let him explain it because i am completely clueless about that type of thing...