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!….)


 

happy birthday mom. :)

cairo-kinda-christmas :)

 

Luther comes home tonight at 11:00pm-ish.  I have my staff Christmas party (pt.2/3) and I’m SO sick!  Stuffy, runny nose, coughing, chills…  I called in sick once this week and came back only to have a complete relapse.  I lost my voice and that means no Christmas caroling for awhile. L  I also have this swollen, itchy ear and putting in large dangly Christmas earrings is probably not the best idea..but I received these AWESOME red Christmas ball-earrings in an extra special xmas care package (thanks mom!)  So ear infection or no ear infection- the Christmas ball earrings will be making their grand Egypt debut at the staff party. J

Christmas is quickly approaching.  Although the majority of the population here in Egypt is Muslim, they will welcome ANY excuse to eat and shower their children with gifts.  So- if you are looking for a country that appreciates a good ‘ol commercialized Christmas – Egypt is it. (This is ironic, considering there are many cathedrals here who claim to be built on grounds where Mary and Joseph stayed while fleeing Egypt/looking for shelter for the birth of their child)  So, in true commercialized form, santa is EVERYWHERE.  You can also buy artificial Christmas trees here (I would imagine they are mostly for foreigners) and Christmas decorations and lights. 

The country does their seasonal best for expats such as myself…

The British, Swiss and German embassy held Christmas bazaars (ie: craft shows) but I wasn’t able to attend them.  Luther and I did a bit of decorating from what we were able to buy in Maadi but since the decorations here are kind of scary looking (cheap…old…cheezy) I took the liberty of making some of my own. So here is our home.  The ‘store’ stuff is luthers, and the crafts are mine. J  This is what being an elementary school teacher is all about.




picture wall

                    

stencil lamp

 

 

 

 

Of course, in tropical/desert countries where evergreens aren’t available; the next most ‘christmassy’ plant u can find is…….POINTSETTIA PLANTS!!! They are everywhere!!!  The flower shops along Rd. 9 and in Maadi are FILLED with beautiful red and white pots of plants.

The Christmas crafts on the elementary school floors of the school are also being stuck up on the bulletin boards. You can hear the classes rehearsing for the concert.  It’s quite exciting. :)

charity.

A few days ago, we had an unexpected knock on the door.  While we have no one from the school (both Luthers and mine) that lives in our block, we could only assume it was either our ‘bowahb’ (doorman) or the amazing Egyptian-American woman who lives on the ground floor with us.  She has rescued us MANY times, to teach us how to use appliances, lend us matches and translate strange looking letters and bills.  Actually, just last week she invited us to her apartment with her family to have an amazing Egyptian-American thanksgiving. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. Imagine roast turkey with Egyptian style stuffing.  Get this, she even cooked lamb because she remembered Luther is a huge fan. It was AMAZING!  It was not her at the door though. (Or her attractive Egypt-air pilot son) J  It was a woman who had lived in the apartment block for over 20 years and explained to us that a family of 12 has just moved in upstairs.  They are Syrian refugees who were a middle class family in Syria but escaped to Cairo when things got dangerous.  They are now living with nothing. No blankets, food, money, clothing etc.  She told us they are currently making money by selling baked goods and Middle Eastern dips (mezze) but it is not enough to cover for kids, mothers, grandparents and 2 small babies.

I have seen this family and they are very sweet.  We bought some food from them (AMAZING BABA GHANOUSH!!) and have given money to supply milk and food for the babies and children.

The woman came in for tea and INSISTED we call her 'mama'. She found out Luther was going away and has since called 3x to make sure i am okay. :) 

Anyway, this family is very close to home. They are literally, our neighbors.  If you plan on giving a charitable donation this year for Christmas, please consider sending some cash home with Luther and I to help these people out.  They have been through hell and will accept ANYTHING.  This is not giving money to some organization and hoping it goes somewhere helpful.  I will actually be able to see these children wear clean socks. J

 

dinner = baladi bread, baba ghanoush and meat filled syrian perogies :)

 

cairo-crazy

Things around here have been quite crazy.  This is for many reasons:

1.)    Luther left for Portugal to attend his grandfather’s funeral in Lisbon.  I have had the house to myself which I would LOVE under normal circumstances but I have to say the house feels MUCH emptier when u are alone without a dog L.  Also, we don’t have many things on our walls to make our place feel ‘home-ey’ so the apartment feels cold, empty and lonely.  Luther and I have skyped once or twice but it’s hard because he is catching up with family he has not seen in years.  So in his absence, I have taken this opportunity to crank the heat, put on sweatpants, look crappy and catch up on  ‘project runway’ and ‘glee’ episodes.  Also, mom has provided me with some magazines and CDN. Kitkat bars that have kept me in good company.

 

As for dinners alone, to the shock of many…I have only ‘otlobbed’ (‘take-out’ website) ONCE! (Yesterday I cracked and got pizza.  Today MAY be a Korean/sushi night…)

 

2.)    The craziness of politics in Cairo has forced the school to cancel once and have 2 ‘early’ dismissals. (2:30 instead of 2:50) This is mostly to beat the traffic that the protests cause. Most JK/SK parents opt to keep their kids home and most buses going anywhere through the city would have another 1-2 hours stacked on an already 1.5 hour long drive.  While most events are happening in Tahrir square, many have slowly trickled into other areas of Cairo. One serious incident took place in Nasr City; where Morsi’s headquarters are located.  I believe this protest made the news.

Another area is on the Nile corniche, a very popular street that runs along the Nile and a 10 minute drive from my apartment. This is a street that I take to and from work every day and it just so happens the Egypt Court of Law is smack dab in the middle of it.  So things have gotten a bit crazy over there as well. Driving past, we see a large tent city and food carts, and a TON of riot police.  No actual protests though J we are home by the time things get ‘riled’ up.

The last two nights though, protests have found their way in Maadi.  One night I went to sleep to chanting and a few gunshots. I’m sure they were weren’t directed at anyone, but still. Last night a co-teacher said people marched past her apartment. Some schools have been shut down today, including 2 Canadian schools.  Not ours. :P

Anyway, the big day comes on the 15^th, when the referendum is released.  Stay tuned…

There is talk that if things get ‘crazy’- the Christmas concert will be cancelled. I REALLY hope not!  I just spent 3 periods and a recess making leis for grade 2’s rendition of ‘mele kaliki maka!’

 

 

intimidating graffiti of cairo

careful! speeding banana cart!!

 

 

scents of cairo...

Dear Cairo,

Please go back to smelling like fresh fruit and freshly-baked baladi

Burning garbage is not as pleasant to wake up to.

However, the streets are cleaner.

I am torn as whether or not i prefer burning garbage smells but a clean walk to work..or walking through trickling 'mystery juice' to get fresh bread.


Every morning i wake up and walk to work.  I am reminded of those 5 line poems that depict the  senses of the body,  and begin to conduct one inside my head.  Sometimes the poem is a beautiful serenade to the sights, sounds and smells of egypt. Other times, the poem is..well....'mystery liquid'

:)