December 15, 2018: Tis the Season

You're not doing Christmas in first grade right until you're covered in paint and glitter. 

December 14, 2018: Christmas play day

Our campus was transformed into a winter wonderland today.  The PTA put on a Christmas play day for the kids.  I went down early with my friend Kate so she could get a family photo of her and her two kitties in Santa's chair.  The place was decked out.  Here's just one little corner of the campus, where they had a cute little snow village. 

Also, I missed seeing our head of school dressed as Santa, but I saw pictures of him the next day.  I am PRAYING there is another reason for him to be in costume this year, because the Santa beard our school has is the most hysterical beard I have EVER seen.  Please pray with me that he dresses up again so I can snap a picture and use it on this blog.  You will never forget what you see.

December 13 and 14, 2018: Soccer tournament

I chaperoned the 4th and 5th grade soccer tournament trip to Cairo this weekend.  I took other pictures, but they all had kids' faces in them, so I'm combining yesterday and today's post.  I've never taught older kids, but have done lots of youth group and tutoring with them in the past.  Our first grade class has a buddy class of fourth graders and we love doing activities with them.  Big kids are a whole different type of child!  There are some things about older kids that I really enjoy though, and there were a few really great moments on the trip.  I appreciate that I got to know a bunch of the these kids (many of whom are my kiddo's siblings).

December 12, 2018: mystery cookie

I went to the bathroom and when I came back, this cookie was on my desk.  No clue who put it there.  I asked my assistant, but she didn't have any idea either.  Obviously I ate it.  If it was from you, thanks!  It was tasty!

December 11, 2018: fake stained glass

I love making "stained glass" with students.  Last year we made Alaskan animal stained glass by melting crayons.  This year we made them using tissue paper.  I'm officially starting a collection of fake stained glass.  From here on out, I will choose to live only in places that have a heavily stereotyped animal associated with it.   Yes, it may limit the choices I have in the future, but we make sacrifices for the things that are most important.

December 10, 2018: World Cafe

Tonight our school hosted a "World Cafe" so that alumni, teachers, students, parents, and board members could have open discussions about various aspects of Schutz.   It was a really great evening of collaboration and vision casting.  Every table had a talking stick with Mohamed Salah's face on it.  Clearly this was one highlight of the evening.  I can't wait to take it back to my classroom and use it during morning meeting times!

December 9, 2018: a little Christmas moment

It's not much of a tree.  But it's something.  And if you squint a little, it kind of looks like the reflection of the light on my balcony window is actually snow falling.   Either way, when I got up in the middle of the night to pee, I felt a little cozy inside. 

December 8, 2018: YAAAASSS!

There was an Armenian Christmas bizarre this weekend, so a bunch of teachers went.  CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS GALORE!  I found some great handmade Christmas goodies.   Among the booths of crocheted scarves, carved ornaments, recycled paper Christmas trees and handmade earrings, there was a woman selling knock off designer fanny packs.  Obviously I stopped to browse, but refrained from buying (I do already own three fanny packs).  I later found out Michele liked my fanny pack so she got one of her own.  Yes Michele.  YES!!  Spread that fanny pack joy!

December 7, 2018: Full rainbow!

I saw rainbows all the time in Kodiak, but only once did I see one this clear and complete.  And if you look closely on the right, you can see it was a double rainbow (insert hysterical shrieking).  I saw this while running with my friend, Deepesh.  The rainbow got progressively more beautiful as the run continued. Poor Deepesh had to keep stopping mid run so I could take pictures.  Between this week's distracted picture taking and last week's fall, I am not sure I'm turning out to be the most pleasant running buddy...

December 6, 2018: flooded sidewalks

When you need to walk to class and it's raining hard, but you thought you were moving to Egypt and wouldn't need anything other than sandals.  Yes, I know it's just a 45 second walk, but those sidewalks are FLOODED.  Rain boots will definitely be in my suitcase coming back from Christmas break!

December 5, 2018: It's time

Let the classroom Christmas festivities BEGIN!

December 4, 2018: shoo fly

I HATE the flies here.  Flies are never awesome, but the ones here are super rude.  They land on your face and in your hair all the time.  I try not to complain, because lots of places around the world have mosquitos that give you deadly diseases, or huge spiders that hide in your shoes, or all sorts of worse creepy crawlies.  If all I have to worry about are the flies, I'm ok.

Still, they drive me nuts.  There are tons of them, and they don't leave you alone.  This morning, I killed 7 before the kids came to school.  Two of them were unfortunately slaughtered on this poor kid's math book, leaving some juices behind.  I brushed the flies into the garbage can and closed his book.  When we worked in the books this morning, he didn't notice and I didn't say a word.

December 3, 2018: hairdos

I got my hair cut a few weeks ago and it looked great when the guy styled, but when I do it, not so much.  Looks a bit triangly.  I think I need more layers on the sides.  If I pull pieces back it doesn't look so bad, so I've been experimenting with braids and other things.  I obviously can't see the back of my head, so I took this picture to determine how wonky it looks.  Acceptable. 
I really need to start checking to see if I have good, blog worthy pictures before I go to bed each night!

December 2, 2018: Field trip!

We began a math unit on numbers to twenty.  We took the kids to Montazah, a beautiful garden area in the city near the beach.  The kids collected shells, rocks, and other objects to count and sort later in the unit.  Then they got into groups and began hunting for objects in nature that are in various numbers.  One cat.  Two trees.  Three windows on the building, eight wooden slates on a bench.  Their goal was to find a picture of every number 1-20.  This group got creative for the number twelve.  We didn't really need to come all the way to Montazah for this picture, but it worked.   :) 

*Since the trip, the kids have used google classroom to create a slideshow presentation of their pictures.  They have labeled each picture from 1-20 in both word and number form.  They added number sentences for each slide.  And the coolest part is that by using google classrooms, they used a shared document so they each had their own computers but were working on the same presentation.  I am amazed at what kids can pick up on these days.  This was some major teamwork for a group of 6 and 7 year olds!

December 1, 2018: Neighborhood wanderings

My friend, Danielle, and I spent some time wandering around our neighborhood.  We had no goal in mind other than to zig zag through the streets and find our way back when we got tired enough.  It was a lovely morning.  We found great architecture, some unique streets, a Metro grocery store close by, and were impressed that we found our way back home with no help needed.  Go, us!

November 30, 2018: Crash and burn

Took a nice little spill on my run today.  Tore my pants, bruised both my knees, scraped both hands and one elbow.  The cement here does not give.  You should have seen how quickly I popped back up though.  Definitely not my first running related fall.  Definitely not my best either.  Which brings me to "Mandy's most awesome running wipe outs"

3.  In high school we were running before school.  I was wearing these ridiculously baggy sweatpants and I tripped over the bottoms of them.  I fell over and then rolled INTO the ditch on the side of the road.  It was super dark outside, and I remember my friend Heidi yelling to the rest of the group, "Stop guys, Mandy's in the ditch!"

2.  Once I fell while running along a pretty busy road in Chicago.  It was such a bad spill that I hit the ground and rolled hard across the sidewalk.  Two different cars stopped in the middle of traffic to yell out their windows, checking to see if I was ok.

3.  In Kodiak my friend Stephanie and I were running in a hot chocolate 5k.  This was winter, so the sidewalks were slick.  I stubbed my toe on some frozen ice chunks and went flying forward.  Tore both knees of my pants and was bleeding on my hands, knees, and elbows.  We were a few yards from the hospital and Steph asked if I needed to check myself in :)  We kept running, and she and I ended up getting first place for our age division.  Only in Kodiak can you wipe out mid-race and still win because you might have been the only two people in your age group.

You're going to have to try a little harder, Alexandria.

November 29, 2018: Pajama Day

If only the children actually listened...  (She said jokingly). 

November 28, 2018: Warning- this post contains graphic images of poop

My friend, Kate, and I are running a half marathon in Cairo (around the pyramids!) in February, so I went to her house today so we could register and look at hotels. I was sitting in Kate's chair, typing away when I heard an airy gurgling sound, followed by the most awful smell.  I looked over, and Kate's cat, Winnie, was crouched in the back corner of her litter box, butt against the wall, staring into my eyes, and clearly trying to rid her intestines of some intense poop.  I've always told Kate that Winnie reminds me of an elegant queen.  She is a long haired beauty and walks with poise and grace.  So watching her diarrhea into her litter box struck me as absolutely hilarious.  About midway through the poop, we realized her butt was not actually in the litter box, but up against the wall.  At this point, we both lost it.  I had tears running down my face, anticipating the pile of liqui-poo that was going to be on the wall.  When Winnie finished, we moved the box away from the wall, and this is what we found.  So nasty.  I offered to help, but by the sounds of my dry heaves, I think she figured I wouldn't be very useful.  Kate is a great cat mom.  She was reassuring and comforting to poor Winnie, in between her bursts of laughter. 

November 27, 2018: Book Character Day

I love me some Pete the Cat.  Especially this Groovy Buttons book.  If you have kids and you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and either buy it or borrow it from the library.  It's pretty great.

November 26, 2018: Crazy Fashion Day

I've been trying out some new fashion trends here in Egypt.  Facebook nearly blew up when I posted a picture of my new, crazy baggy kneed pants.  :)   This weekend I bought some peacock printed flowy pants and was very close to purchasing a pair of black pants with a severe drop crotch in them.  This is definitely not Kodiak.   Today I went with a bright pink tutu and spring earrings.  Too much?

*Today was crazy fashion day at school, so this was totally acceptable.  My other purchases I have to get up major gumption to wear them out in public.

November 25, 2018: COTTAGE CHEESE!

Ahmed Fouad is the best.   He read my blog post a couple weeks ago about how much I missed cottage cheese.  Turns out, Egypt has it!  Yes, the consistency and flavor are a bit different than I am used to, but it's still here!  He showed me exactly where to get it and what type of packaging it comes in.  Many Egyptians eat their cottage cheese with oil and vegetables (like cucumbers).  I tried it, and it was definitely good.  Won't completely satisfy my cravings, but it will hold me off until Christmas!  Thanks, Ahmed!!

November 25, 2018: New ornaments!

Picked these beauties up at a refugee market and a fair trade store.  I like to collect ornaments from different places I visit (preferably handmade ones).  I have my favorites from Kodiak, along with a new one from Greece and one my mom got me from Switzerland.  My tree is going to look so awesome.

November 24, 2018: typical cab ride

Poor Issa.  Squished in the backseat of a cab between me and his mom.  Desperately wanting a sip of water, but too confined to be able to reach the water bottle.  All the while, his friend Mandy is laughing at him and trying to take his picture.  Sometimes life is rough, little buddy.

November 23, 2018: Cairo skyline

The view from our hotel room.  Today was filled with mummies, haggling for deals on tapestries, Lebanese food, and more mummies.   A good day.

November 22, 2018: Happy Thanksgiving!

It's pretty safe to say I never anticipated spending a Thanksgiving at the Great Pyramids.  Since we had an extra day off from school. that's exactly what a group of us decided to do.  I hadn't seen the pyramids since moving to Egypt.  I was anxious, nervous that I was going to be underwhelmed.  You grow up seeing pictures and learning about these ancient structures.  I've pictured them being massive and awe inspiring.  It seemed a bit unreal that I was on my way to see that last remaining ancient wonder of the world, and I was terrified I'd be disappointed.

They were just as awesome as I'd imagined them being.  My head was spinning from thinking about the ingenuity of designing and building something so massive so long ago.  I'm thankful for smart people who can figure this stuff out, because Lord knows my brain doesn't work that way!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year.  This journey has been a good one.  I've been blessed with the opportunity to see parts of the world I never imagined I'd see.  I'm blessed with a family who supports this crazy, wandering, nomadic lifestyle I've chosen, even though it probably gives them ulcers.  I'm blessed with old friends who have loved on me fiercely from across the world when I needed it the most, and new friends who already feel like family. 

Most of all, I'm thankful for a God who is faithful.  I've struggled a bit in my time here.  I miss worshipping alongside family and singing hymns with my nephews in my arms or dancing on the pew beside me.  I miss Sunday potlucks, good long conversations, and praying hand in hand with my neighbors and friends.  But I am thankful for a God who has shown me that He alone is enough. 

November 21, 2018: Tis the Season!

A few days ago I bought my little Christmas tree and decorated it.  It took about 45 seconds considering I didn't bring many ornaments with me.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many people in Egypt celebrate Christmas.  It wasn't too hard to find a place that sold little plastic trees and ornaments. I got this one right down the street from my house.  The little shop couldn't find the box it came in, so they unsuccessfully tried shoving it into a different, smaller box which resulted in half the tree sticking out the top and the box busting open on my walk home, but it was all worth it.  It might still be 72 degrees, and all my Christmas sweaters are back in Michigan, but by golly, it's beginning to (feel) a (little) like Christmas.

November 20, 2018: between the chairs

Getting creative again in the way we study position words.  The kids took pictures of each other placing themselves above, near, under, beside, inside, and between various things in the room.  Thankfully this little guy decided to hide his face, otherwise I wouldn't have had any pictures to share today!

November 19, 2018: Between the balls

My students are obsessed with Mohamed Salah.  We are studying position words in math, so I made this poster.  I got about a third of the way through it before I realized I was going to have to write "Mohamed Salah is between the balls."  Don't even care.  I contemplated placing the balls a little more tastefully so they didn't look as phallic, but there was clearly no fun in that.  I love first grade because kids don't get stuff like this yet.  A couple years ago my student teacher was doing a lesson about tidepools, and she was adding details from a text to a thinking chart.  She kept saying things like, "I already have crabs, so I don't need more," and "I don't want more crabs."  I was dying, which made her laugh, and pretty soon the both of us had lost it.  I heard one kid say to another, "Why are they laughing, crabs aren't even funny."   Most of the time, kiddo, you're absolutely right.  But sometimes crabs are hilarious.

November 18, 2018: yoga

I'm about a month behind with writing my posts for this blog.  I was searching through the pictures I took, and this is the only one I had for this day.  I have no idea why I took this picture.  I have a backpack.  I use it to bring my yoga mat to class with me.   It's profound, I know.

November 17, 2018: Saturday adventures cont..

This is my Saturday adventure crew.  We like to get out and explore different parts of the city on Saturday mornings.  Today we were on our way to a beach on one end of the city.  There are these little microbuses that can take you up and down the corniche for 2 pounds per person, so we started our journey by hopping on one of those.  We weren't aware that some of the buses take little detours, so we ended up in a neighborhood pretty far from where we wanted to go.  We hopped in a cab and were greeted by one of the most enthusiastic drivers.  This guy was stoked to have us all crammed in his little cab (you can't see it, but my knees are up to my chin because his seat was pushed all the way back).  Some cab drivers here couldn't care less if you're American or not, and some absolutely love it  This guy was one of the latter.   He was so excited to have us (and by "us" I mostly mean Rhonda).  He cranked his music up, and she danced in the front seat, which HE LOVED.   There's no such thing as staying in lanes anyway here, but this guy was swerving all over because he was watching Rhonda.  Finally, between laughs, Sherry told her to stop because our driver clearly wasn't watching where he was going.  When she stopped, he turned the music up louder and tried switching songs- anything to get her going again.  :) 

I like these morning trips because we never quite know how the day is going to go.  I was pretty laid back to begin with, but Egypt has really taught me to just go with it.   The days here are full of surprises.  Some days I have to search harder to find the beauty I'm looking for, but it's there.  Other days it's impossible to miss.   Today's beauty was found in a sandy beach, a little girl writing an Arabic message in the sand, the breeze in my face from the top of a double decker bus, laughs with friends, and an enthusiastic cabbie.