October 19, 2018: North Coast

This weekend my friends and I drove a couple hours away to the North Coast.  I spent the weekend sleeping on beach chairs.   Every once in a while, I got up to wade in the water or look into the sea, but mostly I just slept on the beach chairs.

October 18, 2018: pool time shenanigans

One of my favorite things about Schutz is sitting by the pool in the evenings.  

October 17, 2018: Mermaid Bread

The bread here is some of the most delicious bread I have ever eaten.  Most days the bread isn't mermaid shaped, but some days they really step it up.  I felt a little guilty cutting into this loaf, but there was no way I was going to skip this tasty carb intake just to keep her looking intact.

October 16, 2018: Hurry up so we can relax!

Tuesdays.  We have staff meetings until 5:00 then straight to the spa for the weekly massage.  Today's meeting went a little late, and by the time I left the meeting, we were cutting it close to be able to get any extra relaxing in (steam room, sauna, hot tub) before our massage started.  I literally ran home after the meeting (yes, it's technically only about .08 miles from my classroom to my house, but there are 3 flights of stairs in there, so yes, it was still a big deal).  By the time we left school, we were definitely cutting it close.  We sped walked down the street, but kept getting held up behind slow walkers.  At one point, I can't remember which one of us it was, but someone muttered, "Hurry up so we can relax!" Which we both found extremely amusing.  Looking back, I have no memory of why I took this picture.  There was a large crowd of people inspecting one of the trams.  No clue why I thought that was picture worthy.  But Danielle was nice enough to pose to give me a reason to take it.

October 15, 2018: tuk-tuk classiness

I passed this tuk tuk on the way home today and it was DECKED OUT!  A lot of the tuk tuks in the neighborhood are decorated with things hanging from the rearview mirror or windows.  Lots of them have something painted on the side or play interesting music (very, very loudly).  I think it's a way to draw attention to their tuk tuk and get your business.  This tuk tuk was unlike anything I had seen yet.  As it drove past me, all I could do was stare at it with my mouth wide open.  Pink and taffeta and sparkly things were covering the front of it.  And hanging from the passenger side window was a gigantic stuffed doll.  Between the frills and the doll, I can't imagine the driver could see much from inside.  He waved from the driver seat, and I finally thought to take my camera out and snap a picture after he passed me.  This, unfortunately, caught his attention, and he did a quick U-turn in the middle of the street, pulled up next to me, and started honking at me.  Thankfully I was right near the school, so I just avoided eye contact and ran inside.

October 14, 2018: SAP!

We are going to play a round of short a "I have, Who has?" with the kids later this week, and I am so excited about the picture of sap!  I'm fairly certain they are unfamiliar with this word, so I got really geeked thinking about the maple syrup conversation that is bound to happen...

October 13, 2018: Gherkins

I have no idea what a gherkin actually is, but it made my night.  I went down to dinner, and right away one of my coworkers, who lives down the hall from me, asked me about a mystery package that was sitting outside of my door.  (The same door I had just walked out of in order to come down to dinner).  I hadn't noticed anything on my way out, so I was definitely a bit curious.  A few more minutes into dinner, the coworker who lives on the other side of the hall from me texted me and asked if I knew that there was a package sitting outside my door.  She told me that it had been there a while.  I must have passed this package a few times in the evening and never saw it.  Further proof that I am the least observant human alive.  Pray that I never witness a crime against you.  Well, pray that a crime is never committed against you, but if it is, pray for a better witness.  When I finally got to open this mysterious gift, I found these.  I had been telling a different coworker that I really missed pickles.   Egypt loves to pickle just about everything except actual pickles.  I miss me some vlasic dills.  My coworker had found these and decided to share them with me.   And they are the closest thing to pickles I have had yet.   WOOHOO!

October 12, 2018: Nice place for a nap

I noticed today that there are two things that I really enjoy looking for while walking in Alex. 
1- interesting doors.  Alexandria has a ton of cool iron doors with intricate details and patterns. 
2- stray cats in funny places.  Like this one.

October 11, 2018: directed drawing

We are making a calendar for our kids' parents for Christmas this year.  Each month will have a different directed drawing that the kids do.  Today we drew back to school owls for September.  I love doing these drawings with the kids.  Kim Raisely, the most amazing Kinder teacher who I want to be just like when I grow up, did a lot of directed drawing with her kinder kids.  Coming here, I wanted to try it, and my first grade partner teacher also loves the activities, so we are having a blast.  I love how the kids are following the same directions, but they all come out with different personalities. 

October 10, 2018: Longest run yet!

There is a half marathon in Alex at the end of the month, and for a hot second, I considered signing up.  I've only run 4 miles since being here.  Speed is not my gift, but my body can usually handle jumping back into long distance running without training.  I aimed for 6 miles tonight, but stopped at 5 because the field where I was running was overrun with bats!!  As soon as it got dark, they all came out of nowhere.  There were 15-20 bats swooping over the field.  I ran my last mile just around the school buildings, eliminating the loop onto the field, but by that time I was so tired of running in circles, I decided to call it quits. My body can handle jumping into the longer distances, but my brain is having a bit more trouble!

This picture is one I took from the field (before the bats came), looking toward the middle school and the playground.

October 9, 2018: Smarties

We have been keeping track of the days of school.  I had the kids come up with math equations that equal the number of days we have been in school.  This is what they came up with.  I was impressed!

October 8, 2018: Alex tour

My friend Elizabeth took this picture of me when we were touring Pompeii's Pillar.  It's a huge pillar, flanked by sphinxes.  I learned a lot about the history of the towers, but promptly forgot it all.  There's only so much history my brain can hold, and after spending 3 days in Greece, my learning has been maxed out for the week.  We went to the Catacombs today, where we learned a lot from our tour guide, only to find out later that most of the information she had given us was incorrect.  If you ever come visit, you can discover for yourself the marvelous history of the pillars and the catacombs.  All I can tell you is they were cool to look at.  Judge away; we all have strengths and remembering facts (or really caring about facts) has never been mine.

There was a moment today when we were staring at these sphinxes, that the call to prayer began.  There have been a few moments here and there where it hits me that I live in Egypt, but this one was one of the most powerful.

October 7, 2018: Panathenaic Stadium

This was one of my favorite stops in Athens.  The stadium was originally built in 330 BC, but has been rebuilt and renovated a few times.  It was the site of the first modern olympic games in 1896, and it's the ending point for the Greece Marathon each year.   I've never been a huge competitor, but I often forget I had a few good years of competitive running in my past.  Competing at the state level in high school and running competitively in college is something I can be proud of (who cares that it was over 15-16 years ago)!  And having 4 finished marathons (one being close to Boston qualifying time) is a big accomplishment.  Being in the stadium made me proud to be an athlete, even an old washed up one.  :)

I have said that I was done running marathons.  While I LOVE the actual marathon experience, I hate the training.  It takes up so many hours of your life, and your body is sore every day for 3 months.  But being here, at the site of the very first marathon, made me want to run this one.   If you don't know the legend of the first marathon, I'll give you a very brief version.  Greece was at war with the Persians.  Pheidippides was a Greek soldier fighting in the battle of Marathon.  Greece was victorious over the Persians, and Pheidippides was sent to Athens to tell of the victory.  The legend says that he ran from Marathon to Athens (26.2 miles), exclaimed to the officials, "we won!" then collapsed and died.  Nobody really knows how historically accurate the story is, but from that, the Marathon race was born and every year there is a race from Marathon to Athens to commemorate this first run.  I'm going to do it.  Even if it means training by running laps and laps and laps around the school campus.  Worth it!  Then I can be done for good. :)

October 6, 2018: Greek immersion

We decided we wanted to catch an authentic Greek play held in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a theater built in 161 AD.  The play was in Greek, and would be 2 hours long.  We didn't know anything about the storyline, but we were really looking forward to this authentic Greek experience.  The tickets were $40 each, which is more than we anticipated spending, but figured it would be more than worth it.

As soon as we got into the theater, Barbara (an art/theater/music guru) noticed how unproportionate and unauthentic the set statues looked.  I never would have noticed on my own, but she took it as a warning sign for the quality of the performance to come.  I thought she was overreacting.  Then act I started.

The play began with a king-ish looking man addressing a small group townsfolk looking people.  Within the group of townsfolk there was a 9ish old child standing next to an elderly man.  All of the townspeople were looking intently at the king man except this kid.  She kept fidgeting with her hands, turning away and looking behind her, playing with her outfit, and then finally, pestering the man next to her.  She pulled on his arms, tugged at his sleeves, and tried touching his face.  Each time, he swat her hand away and kept staring at the king.  We couldn't tell if this was part of the play or if this girl was just that terrible at playing her role.   A few minutes into the play, it was very obvious that the man addressing the king forgot his lines.  He stammered a little, until the King loudly whispered his line under his breath, at which point the man resumed his speech.   The lines were long.  LOTS of dialogue with very little acting, which I kind of expected.  At numerous points in the play, there was a group of about 15 people, dressed in black, with darkened eyes who would dance while one of the men "played" a flute.  It was clear that the music they danced to had been prerecorded, because every once in a while it would play at the wrong time, and the flute player would be caught off guard, so he would hurriedly pick up his flute and begin to "play" along, but it was clear his fingers weren't playing along with the music, and that he was a half a step behind.    At one point an elderly man came out wearing the most fake looking santa beard I have ever seen.  At another point, a man came out wearing a pink striped jumpsuit with a huge collar, and a furry vest over the top of it.  At another point, there was a queen-ish looking woman who forgot her lines and laughed out loud at her mistake.  Throughout the entire show, there were awkward pauses while people tried to remember what they were supposed to be doing, and numerous times in the show, people back stage poked their heads around to see what was happening on stage. 

We died laughing.  The rest of the audience clearly didn't find the play funny in the same way we did, although they would burst out laughing after certain lines that we obviously didn't understand.  There were so many times during the play that Barbara and I could not stop laughing.  And we didn't want to be rude (we were sitting front and center and our section was crowded with spectators) so we tried to laugh as quietly as possible, but it was uncontrollable.  Tears were streaming down my face and I was having trouble breathing.  As soon as I got myself under control, Barbara would start up again and it would throw me into another laughing fit.  The poor people in front of us.

When the play ended (11:30PM) we sat through another 20 minutes of the main character giving overall remarks about the play.  Then we sat through 10 minutes of applause while flowers were distributed to the actors (at which point the wayward child actor ran forward and grabbed flowers that clearly didn't belong to her).   During this time we found out that the woman sitting in front of us was the very proud wife of the flute player and we swore under our breaths for laughing at his fake playing skills out loud. woops.

Ok, so the overall storyline of the play.   From what I gathered, a king's kingdom was in trouble.  His people were unhappy.  A group of dancing men (pirates? ghouls?) came and spoke with the king.  A different man comes to speak at great length with the king.  The king is sad. Santa beard comes out with a small boy (the king's son) and the king and queen are very upset.  The dancing pirates shoo the boy away and dance some more.  The pink furry clown comes out and speaks with the king and the other man.  The king begins to die, but the pirates dance with him and bring him back to life.  The other man leaves and the king is well again.

Barbara looked up the play afterward, and it turns out it was actually a play about God's call to Abraham to sacrifice his son.  WHAT???  From what I remember, there were no dancing pirates in Genesis, but we figure the play had a Greek spin on it and incorporated the Greek chorus.  Either way, I'm now figuring that santa beard was actually God and furry clown was the ram.  I'm a terrible Christian for not recognizing such an important Biblical story.  I'm actually feeling zero guilt about not seeing the "obvious" Biblical threads in the story, but I am feeling a little guilt at thinking the play was so hysterical.  Apparently these are really renowned Greek actors, and we kind of thought the whole thing was a bit of a joke.  I'm going to chalk it up to not being able to understand the language- I'm going to give the actors the benefit of the doubt and say they meant for the play to be like that. Either way, it was an evening I will not forget.  I sure wish this hadn't cost us $40 a piece, but I wouldn't trade the experience.   I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.

October 5, 2018: Athens!

We had a four day weekend (Egyptian Armed Forces Day) so a couple of my friends and I went to Athens!  It is about an hour flight from Alexandria, and cost a little over $300 for the ticket.  Greece has been on my bucket list, and while I know that 4 days is not nearly enough time to see everything I want to see, it was enough to get a taste of Athens.  We arrived on Friday and spent 3 hours on a guided bike tour around the city.   I'm enjoying my time in Alexandria, but I have missed greenery and fresh air.  Riding a bike over cobbled, tree lined streets was exactly what I needed.  Our tour took us past many of the major sights and neighborhoods in Athens and gave us a good idea of where we would want to spend more time the following days.   This picture is of Zeus' temple. 

October 4, 2018: aaaahhhww (sung in an angel's voice)

My beautiful, angelic sister.  How I miss her!

October 3, 2018: safety nets

This is our neighbor building.  I'm pretty sure it's an apartment complex.  They have been doing construction on this building since I moved here.  For the first few weeks, they were adding floors to the top of the building.  It's actually pretty fascinating to watch.  They use a pulley system to bring materials up to the level they're working on.  They work ALL THE TIME, and the floors went up very quickly.   A little while after the floors looked complete, something must have happened (codes not met, permission not granted, etc), so they began tearing the floors down again.  During this time, a couple chunks of concrete fell from the building and landed on our campus, smashing up someone's car in our lot.  We had to block off a section of campus so no children would be hit by falling concrete.  During this time, one of the parents walked by me at lunch and said, "Have you been hit by concrete yet?  Welcome to Egypt."  Now the building put up safety nets and can tear down without the chance of knocking out a small child.  :)

October 2, 2018: why aren't we all sleeping?

Tuesdays are spa/massage days with Danielle.  We've been trying to go around 6pm, but we forgot to make reservations until yesterday, so my only option was a 7:45pm massage time.  This meant I got done around 9:15pm.  The spa is located inside the mall, and while I knew that Egypt is a nocturnal culture, I was still shocked to see a full food court at 9pm!  The mall was full, and there were tons of little kids walking around with their parents.  I'm usually in bed shortly after 9:30, and I was definitely dragging by the time my massage was finished.  Seeing all these people out and about and being social so late in the evening of a school night (yep, I'm basically a grandma) just made me feel that much older.  I even ran into one of the teaching assistants from our school.  She looked really surprised to see me, and after greeting me, exclaimed, "I didn't think you were someone who would stay up this late!"  Apparently my old lady vibes are strong.

October 1, 2018: Slug bug!

Much to my surprise, I've seen quite a few of these cars around town.  This one is just a few blocks from our campus.  There's a bright teal one a few blocks in another direction. Though I pass each of them a few times a week, I still get slugged by various coworkers.  Gotta be quicker than that.

September 30, 2018: It was bound to happen...

Here it is.  My first, of what I am sure will be many, picture of my ceiling fan.  I took it from my bed, after realizing I took no other pictures today. 

September 29, 2018: fully stocked

The other day, my friend asked me if I happened to have any eggs in my fridge that she could borrow to make brownies.  I had to laugh.  This is the inside of my fridge.  Contents: juice, gatorade, coffee shakes, beer, coke, more juice.  The only food items I had were a few plums, some peanut butter, a single serving of yogurt, and some leftover pasta sauce. (pasta sauce is evidence that I did, even if only once, make food for myself).  But when the kitchen provides tasty meals three times a day, why would I have food in my fridge?  Beverages on the other hand...

September 28, 2018: On a boat.

A group of my coworkers and I rented a yacht for the day and sailed around the coast of Alexandria.  We sailed up toward the citadel and got a good view of it from out at sea.  Then we sailed in the opposite direction for a couple hours until we reached this tiny island.  We jumped off and swam out to the island and explored a little bit.  We heard rumors of HUGE ants living on the island, so of course we needed to check this out.  We found none.  A couple tiny boats were also anchored nearby and a few other people were enjoying the water surrounding the island. Pleasant company, cool breeze on deck, warm water to swim in (and jellyfish free!), and excellent music selection made this a pretty great day.

September 27, 2018: safety first

Playing dart with your coworkers after a long week of teaching could get quite dicey.  It's important to take as many precautions as you can.

September 26, 2018: Run with a view

There are quite a few things I appreciate about Alexandria, but the workout situation is NOT one of them.  I usually love running and working out, but here I have come to dread it.  The heat makes it almost unbearable to run unless it's dark outside.  Today I needed to get my run in right after school, so I used the treadmill in the workout room for the first time.  It's hot and stuffy in the workout room, so it's not much better than running outside.  And the view is terrible.  I forgot to bring my headphones, so I just stared at this man doing his laundry on his balcony for nearly 40 minutes.  For about 10 of those minutes, he went inside to do something else, and I nearly died of boredom.

I try very hard not to complain.  But this running thing is the WORST!  I want to sign up for the half marathon here in November, but the thought of running miles and miles in loops or on a treadmill is enough for me to give up working out altogether. 

Not really.  I'll still do it.  If anyone has really stellar podcast recommendations, let me know.  I currently listen to This American Life, the Moth, Criminal, In the Dark, and Radiolab.  I might need something more long term story based to really hook me for these long runs.

September 25, 2018: moonlight

After yesterday's cramping episode, I decided to walk a few, slow laps around campus rather than run.  The view from outside my apartment building was pretty incredible.  My iphone didn't capture the spooky stillness, but you can get a general idea. 

September 24, 2018: Feels like death

I was warned that upon arrival to Egypt, most people experience "The Egyptian Cleanse."  I've been told that this consists of stomach cramping and lots of pooping.  I had some minor restroom issues the first week I got here, so I figured that's all there was to it, and I had gotten away with a very easy version of the cleanse.

I was wrong.  The revenge of the Sphinx (the other term people use for it) came for me almost two months into my move.   I was up all night with the most terrible cramps I have ever experienced.  At about 4am I was convinced I was dying and contemplated calling my mother to tell her goodbye.  There isn't a 911 service in Egypt, and I wondered who I should call if I really thought that medically I was in danger.  Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I didn't sleep for most the night and spent that time writhing in pain.  So it wasn't pleasant.  I took the next day off of school because I was still sweaty, crampy, and other non-mentionably.  I called down to the school nurse and she delivered magic medicine to my apartment.  I also called down to the kitchen, and they brought me up an amazing spread!  This was the best home sick experience I could have asked for!

September 23, 2018: do try this at home

This week is short vowel week.  We have a selection of songs for each vowel sound, sung to the tune of "Are you sleeping."  Noor is musical and awesome, so she is going to play the songs on her guitar for her kids.  I am awesome, but not musical, so I was going to sing the songs acapella and off key.  Noor convinced me to try to play the song on her ukelele.  This picture of her fingers was so I could go home and practice all night.

September 22, 2018: a whole new world

This is Danielle.  She's fantastic.  Tonight Danielle introduced me to the Four Seasons Hotel and Spa.  My life in Alexandria will forever be changed.  They offer incredible deals on massage packages.  If you buy enough, the massages only cost $37 a piece.  Self care has always been very important to me. With my depression, I've learned that I have to be very intentional about listening to my brain's needs.  Exercise and being outside in nature have always been the ways I relax and refuel.  Living here has been hard to do both.  Today I discovered that for $37 a week, a massage is a fine substitute.

Danielle also introduced me to custard apples this evening.  She used to live in Burkina Faso, and she ate them there.  I had never seen them before, though I have tasted something similar in Hawaii.  They are sweet and mushy on the inside.  You can just tear them apart and suck out the insides.  How cool!

Also tonight I tried to get a pretzel from Auntie Ann's for the first time.  I asked for a classic pretzel but they said it would be more than 10 minutes for them to bake one.  So I went for the little pretzel bites instead.  They looked a little different than the bites in the US, but it's Egypt, and most things are pretty different here.  Even American things.  So I paid, grabbed a cheese sauce, and walked away.  My first bite in I realized they were potato wedges, not pretzels.  I've always known I'm unobservant, but this was plain blind.  What a disappointment!!

September 21, 2018: still in love with the morning run

I miss kayaking so much that I was very tempted to hop in one of these boats and paddle out to sea.  New goal: Make friends with someone who has a rowboat.  Or buy a rowboat and make friends with someone who has a place to store it for me.

September 20, 2018: -----

No comment. 

September 19, 2018: I regret nothing

I locked myself in my apartment, had two beers and this entire pizza while binge watching The Good Wife after school today.  It was that kind of day.