Trip to Aswan - Day 3

We had to wake up at 3 am to take a bus to see all the touristic places around Aswan: Abu el Sid, Philae Temple, the Dam and unfinished obelisk..

We were all tired and sitting in a packed little mini van; one Russian lady was sick and she threw up. It was a nice day, althoug tiring and we decided to go and see the unfinished Obelisk.

it has been an amazing trip, we enjoyed seeing all the monuments, making fun of the Brits (even though Rach was with us), trying to survive one more temple, or one more Egyptian trying to get an unrealistic amount of money off us just for a 5 min ride on a boat...

When we got back to Aswan we were exhausted! We walked on Sharia El Souk to get some food and most of the shops were closed. What we found, though, were piles of cows' skins, as they slaughtered the animals that morning. It looked and smelt like blood everywhere.

Trip to Aswan - Day 2

So, we found our way to Aswan ... got picked up at the train station by somebody from our hotel. We shared a room, the three of us. Next morning we had breakfast and right after that we adventured ourselves down the corniche, having in mind all the touristic places the Lonely Planet guide talks about: Elephantine Island, Botanical garden etc.

We found a guy and after bargaining we got a felucca for 50 LE for 2 hours. Captain Ziko and his felucca "Relax". We had a good laugh in the beggining of our trip about his felucca and the sign on it, as you can see, but it was only later that we figured out that that was the name of the felucca.

We had a relaxing day ... saw the botanical gardens and just chilled on the Nile.

After that we went to the souk ... that was a challenge.. even for me (and people say i am a good bargainer). Most of the shops had signs that said: "No hassle", but that is what exactly what they were doing. All the vendors were trying to get us to come into their shops. We have met an Egyptian guy who was trying to sell me a silver bracelet.. i have to admit that i liked the bracelet, but could simply not afford it. He was charging 350 LE; he was so funny and kept saying: "What does the computer say?" "The computer says no!". This is from an English commercial. he was married to an English lady. :)

Later in the evening, one guy was shouting that he sells scarves for 5 Le, so we went into his shop. We kept asking how much ofr a particular scarf and he kept ignoring us and showing what he has in his shop. I got mad and said: "how much is this? is it 5 pounds?" He said: "Of course not, madame... who sells this for 5 pounds?". To his astonishment, i said "but you said you have scarves for 5 pounds!". Then he tried to explain that he was just joking to attract us in his shop. I looked at him and said: "Listen, you cant do that! You are wasting my time!!! the foreigners do not like these kind of jokes!" and i left.

We had tea in a very obscure place, but we had so much fun there!! There was a little boy - he was not more than 3 yrs old and he loved Esther's camera.

It seemed that Aswan was very quiet that evening, at least down on the corniche where we had dinner; there was nobody at the restaurant. We had pizza on a boat restaurant that smelled like gas, but we were done quickly and headed back to our hotel for a good rest.

Trip to Aswan - Day 1

We had a short break, for the December Eid, so we decided to go to Aswan. the whole group was suppose to go, but people changed theird mind - so in the end it was just me, Nichole, Rachel and Esther. After a busy week, Esther and Rach went to the train station to get tickets the day before we left. Surprise: there were no more tickets. We decided to go early in the morning - maybe they will add another car to the train.
Early in the morning - we wake up - NIchole is sick. We make it to the metro station ... Nichole throws up. My oppinion - she will get better once she's thrown up. We manage to buy our tickets for 136 LE, French class (whatever that was suppose to mean) while NIchole keeps throwing up.
We were told to go to car 7, where 1st class was - we get on through the crowd of people, find our seats taken. Rach talks to them, NIchole is still sick, telling me she wants to go back home. I feel bad and try to convince her to stay. At the same time, men on the train laugh and make jokes. Angry, i turn around and shout - then the crowd starts calming down.
We found some empty seats, surrounded by Egyptian men. Nichole decides to get off. I accompany her. When i returned, there's a new scenario: our seats might be at the end of the train.
Let me try and describe you how the train looked: PACKED!!!!!!!There were people on the seats, under the seats, on top where you put your luggage, in between seats, on the aisle, pilled up on top of each other like a pyramid.... etc
Me and Rach adventure ourselves to the end of the train, passing from car to car, to see if we can find our places, telling Esther to keep the seats that we already occupied. We get to the end of the train and to ur surprise there was no 1st class there. We come back. Meanwhile, new people claim our seats - the ones we were sitting on. Esther willingly gives them our tickets. At this point we are all standing, led by a man who claims to know what he is doing. He tries to tell us that we have seats at the back of the train, so there we go again. We take our bags and carry it through the train, through the crowd of people. The man didnt even give us the chance to tell him that we've already checked the back of the train. We get to the end of the train - car 12
At this stage we dont knwo what to do ... We talk about getting off the train and heading back to Cairo. Hardly anyody spoke English on that train - our Arabic was limited ... and all around us there are oppionionated people - some say our seats are at the front of the train - car 1. At this point all i wanted was to get off the train and go home. I almost had tears in my eyes. After many debates, plus finding out that the next stop is in 2 hours, we decide to adventure ourselves and walk back - this time through the whole train to get to 1st class.
I an't describe how people were sitting, standing ... unbelieveable!! We managed to get to 1st class, but other people were sitting our on seats. At this point we are standing. I texted Nichole and told her she should be happy, that she returned, coz i was almost in tears.
Many people tried to help - Egyptian help - but htey had no idea what to do. We managed to get two seats - after an old man stood up and let us sit down. I felt so bad and tried to explain that i am ok and i feel bad having him standing. Rach is on the floor...
There was one man, in his 20's that tried to help us - his English was good and he said those are our seats, we paid for them bla bla .... while i was trying to tell him how bad i feel. Later, during our journey, he came back to check on us. After many smiles, he turned to me and said: "you know, earlier, your behavior was totally unacceptable here". Luckily, for him, i kept calm, smiled but inside i was burning .... Don't you tell me what is acceptable, or not acceptable!!!! It is not acceptable for me to argue that i cant have an older man standing, but it is acceptable for men to grab my ass while i go through the train!! Whatever... But, once again, i live in a country that is not my own, so i guess i should live according to their rules.
If you hadnt been through all the hassle and classes, we wouldnt have appreciated as much our 1st class seats.
The train ride was 16 hours, btw ... we got to Aswan at 11 pm... completely tired!!

Christmas present

Hey!

Right before i went to Aswan, i arranged Nichole's Christmas present to be delivered to our house. We've both been waiting for it anxiously - a piano!! Nichole loves playing the piano and missed it a lot, so i decided the best present would be one.

I didnt buy it, i just rented it!

Anything is possible here in Egypt!! It is not a lot of money, so we are sharing the cost. Nichole asked me if it can come with a red bow on it, but i couldnt really arrange that, so i improvised something that evening, as you can see in the pic. It is a beautiful piano and it adds a lot of "flavour" to our flat.

My computer is back!!!!!!!!!!

After 4 weeks i got my computer back!!!!!!!!! It's been out of order and i gave it to some guys to have it fixed ... it took them a while....

Anyways ... i am happy i can blog :) I will try and update asap.. probably during this weekend, as we start our winter hols and i am kind of stuck in Cairo over the break. Tomorrow we have Chase's cousin coming over for 3 weeks, so we need to accomodate her in my room. Luckily, Mohammed is coming tomorrow to clean, coz our house is a bit of a mess. However, i did tidy up more than usual while i did not have my comp.

Funny thing: we always make fun of Egyptians, as they cannot say "Pepsi" but "Bebzi"; Arabic doesnt have the "p" sound". The funny part comes now: i went to Saudi today to buy bread and i looked around to see what kind of meat they have; well, it was written in English: "Lamp meat". It cracked me up! They try and use the "p" sound, but it always comes out wrong!

Btw, talking about Arabic, both me and Nichole admit that we are rubbish at it! We've

been in such an international context that we hardly speak any Arabic; actually, the Arabic we know is called "taxi Arabic" - enough to tell the taxi driver where to go. We keep talking about enrolling in a course, but we never have time!

Our morning terror!!!!!

Some time ago (weeks ago) the door bell started ringing at 5 am ... that is not something usual here, but once again, there are so many things happening here, that there is no definition for normal or usual. It happened that i opened the door the first time. It was a young boy and he was telling me that he is the garbage man and he collects the garbage every morning from our door and that we need to pay him 5 LE. He woke me up ... it was 5 am, so i looked at my watch very puzzled, i looked at him, looked at my watch again and gave him a look that said smth like: "you must be kidding me!". I was too sleepy to react in any way, so i told him to come the next day, coz it was too early in the morning, pointing at my watch.
Surprise!! Next morning he came again... it was around the same time, or earlier. This time, Nichole woke up and gave him 5 LE.
Well, he came again last week, while we were waiting for our piano to be delivered, so i opened thinking the piano was here. Of course not!! It was our dear friend, the garbage man, coming to collect the money again. One thing that i need to mention before is that he is NOT the garbage man and we are not suppose to pay him, but we didnt know this before.
So, he shows up at the door (we had lots of garbage, as Mohammed cleaned our house the day before and he took all the junk from our balcony out).
He says to me: "madame, i collect the garbage every morning and you owe me 5 Le!".
I said: "No, i am not paying you!".
He says: "Madame, kiteer garbage!!" (a lot of garbage)
I said: "I know!"
He says: "Madame, 5 pounds!"
I said: "I am not paying you! Mefeesh money!!"
He says: "Madame, i collect garbage from everybody and they all pay me 5 pounds!"
At this point i am getting frustrated so i go: "Listen, if you dont want to take the garbage it is ok! Leave it here, i dont mind!!"
He goes: "Madame ...."
Then, Nichole comes out of her room, coz she hears me raising my voice; he sees her and jumps with excitement: "Aha!!! Madame arfa!!" (Madame knows!!) - coz Nichole paid him last time. i get even more upset and say: "Laa, madame misharfa!!" (No, madame doesnt know!). Nichole goes back to her room and tells me to call Nora - the landlady - but i was in the mood, and i didnt mind arguing with him. I guess i needed an Egyptian man to throw my anger at.
Me: "what dont you understand?? Leave the garbage here and go away!"
I am trying to tell him that our landlady told us not to pay him, because we have somebody else collecting our garbage. So, i tell him to go and ring the bell at flat 1 (our landlady), and ask her for the money. Then, he asks me if he should take the garbage or not, so i tell him to do whatever he wants. I go back to bed, he takes the garbage down. 15 minutes later, the doorbell rings again. He tells me that he rang the bell at flat 1 but they sleep.
My reaction: "Of course they sleep!!!!! I dont blame them!!! IT IS 6 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!" At this point, i was very upset and i was almost at the point of switching to Romanian and talk him about all the saints.
He backs off coz he sees me going mad, and tries to calm me down; i start shouting at him, saying i am not paying him, so in the end he leaves.
At this point i couldnt go back to bed, so i just made coffee and got ready for school.
Today, at 7 am i was coming back from the train station, after 12 hours on the train - guess who was at our door? THE GARBAGE MAN! He sees me ... i am like: "you again!!". He asks for money, i tell him i am not paying him ... I tell him it is too early and ask him to come at 9 or 10 having in mind to take him downstairs to the landlady and have her talk to him. he never came - i expect he'll be here tomorrow morning. Our landlady advised us today not to pay him at all and not to open the door, coz he is dangerous. I dont know if i will be able to put up with all the ringing at 4-5 am for half an hour - if he drives me really mad, i might just get a stick and run after him on the stairs.
All our conversation was in Arabic - as he doesnt speak English - his only English words were: money, 5 pounds, garbage. My Arabic is limited to a few words as well, but i think i made myself understood...

Ahelen to Israel!

I seem to be behind with my updates, but is only because my computer is out of order and i've been waiting for it to be fixed for 3 weeks now.

At the beginning of November i made a short trip to Israel. I was not planning to, but dont know how much you understand when i say that i HAD to. Anyways, Freddie came with me, so that helped a lot, as i was clueless of buses, hostel, etc. me and Freddie took the night bus to Taba - an Egyptian town by the israeli border. After a turbulent night (loud Egyptian music, incantations from the guy behind us, movie at 2 am, 120 km/h) we made it there and we walked over the border to the city of Eilat.

We managed to get to our hostel (Corinne Hostel - very clean and nice people who speak very good English); we took a shower and headed to the Egyptian consulate to do our business. Israel was very hot - hoter than i expected. One thing that slipped my mind was that Israel is a different country, where the dress code is different than in Egypt, where sleveless tops are allowed and shorts trousers as well; i had only jeans and decent tops, so i burnt!! In the bussiness of packing i forgot to take my swim suit, so i didnt get to swim there at all.

After getting everything sorted, we went back to the hostel and slept - it was too hot to do anything anyway and we were tired.

We went out at night to the mall and had dinner by the sea at a nice restaurant.

We had falafel for lunch earlier that day, when i texted everyone to say that i got everything sorted! We didnt pay a lot for it ... and it came with a drink, fries and salad.

Next day i wandered around by the sea to the little shops there; i bought some little things and enjoyed the scenery.

Israel is very expensive, especially when you come from Egypt. Coming from Europe, might seem affordable, but i found it quite expensive. For example, a night at the hostel costs around 40$ which is a lot, for a hostel. Actually, hostels are cheaper in Europe.

I was happy to be back to Egypt and the girls had cake prepared for me as it was my name day - St Gabriel. We went straight to Pieter and Sid for coffee and cake.

December!!!

It is the 1st of December, Romania's national Day, when everybody has the day off at home and they eat beans and sausages (pork, btw - which we can hardly find here). So, if i were at home, i'd just chill; here, i have such a busy day!! Lots of things to do at school, a meeting after school, life group tonight where i am supposed to do devotions etc etc.
I feel shattered!! I am so looking for the Eid break, even if it's just 5 days! Me and Nichole plus the gang (or at least Rachel and Esther) are going to Aswan. We might take a felluca back from Aswan to Luxor and camp in the desert; that was Rachel's idea. it is getting chilli here, but we can go for the adventure.
Bronwyn is leaving this week to South Africa ... so, in the end it will be just me and Nichole. We decided to stay here for Christmas. We are house sitting, so it should be fun having 3 houses. We'll soon have company as Chase's cousin is coming and she'll stay at our house.
Btw, talking about the devil ... we went to the cinema this weekend wt a huge group of boys ... they're all hilarious!! There were just 3 girls: me, Nichole and Rachel and then a bunch of guys: Ben, Karaboo, Luke, Chase, Benjamin, Matt, Dave. We watched James Bond - Quantum of Solace; not my kind of movie, but it was neat to be wt everyone. After that we wanted to go to our favorite place: Dunes; to our surprise, when we got there they said we need to order of a minimum of 40 LE each, so we decided to leave. We went to our house. Totally inappropriate!! In this culture, you're not allowed to have men over to your house. But, we dont know our neighbours; they dont know us! and besides that, they're all foreigners anyway!
Better go back to class!! This was supposed to be a time off for an "Advent cup of tea".

the spirit of Christmas ... is all over us!

Both me and Nichole are in the Christmas zone ... Ellien went to Sweden for 3 weeks .... So, we went to Carrefour yesterday and got a little Christmas tree and today we started decorating it!! We got some candles, Christmas lights and some other stuff. It started to look nice ...
Tomorrow we are finally going to get fabric and get our curtains made! ... which by the way, reminds me that i need to go and measure our windows!
At school we started practising Christmas carols for our Carol service which is on the 3rd of December .. pretty soon, heh? But, we have one week off starting with the 5th, because of the Eid (muslim holiday). Yuppeee!!

Attacked on the street

Today, during lunch time, me and Nichole decided to go to a nearby shop and get chocolate!! That is the worst idea we could have gotten!!!!!! You might wonder why ...
well, there is a boys' school next to our school, so i dont know their schedule, but it appears that there are always boys out. So, once they saw us, they started whistling, shouting and worst throwing stones at us. I turned around and said in Arabic "what is the matter?"; now they were all backing off, but when i started walking off again, they came after us again!! One of the teachers in our school was just coming out, so she chased them away.
My knees were shaking and i promised myself that if they would do the same on our way back i'd grab hold of one of them and smack him!
We made it safely back to school, though one threw a stone and hurt Nichole's foot. When we got back, one of my kids' parents was at school and she said she scolded them, because she's seen the whole incident! Now i understand when Sarah said she's been through the same incident last year.
Anyway, now we know we shouldnt go out anymore during our break!
It makes me very mad and upset at the same time, and it seems that these boys have no manners! I dont know what they teach them in school...or their parents....
Maybe this explains to a certain extent why there are so many private schools here. the system seems to be quite "unique".
I do have in plan to go and visit an Egyptian school one day and i do have a contact .. i just need time!

Pumkin carving!!

A very American thing is to carve pumpkins in October ... so i joined Heather, Wendy, Sarah and Nichole for this new experience.

We went to Road 9 a few days before and bought pumpkins; they were pretty expensive as it is the pumpkin season, so we couldnt really bargain. I decided to take one that had a little hole on the bottom and agreed to pay less since it has a "bruise".Well, 2 days later, when i wanted to carve it, half of it was soft and soggy so i had to cut half of it - "surgery by Gaby". Well, it looked ok in the end. I took all the inside out and kept it for later, in the freezer. I used it for my pumpkin pie last week. :DWendy has made apple cider for us and John joined us later.

Sarah showed off her artistic skills and carved the pyramids and a camel - it looked really cool!!! very Egyptian; i named my Lebanon as it had a tree carved as a background ...

Two days later, Lebanon died ... :( Even MishMish liked it - he ate a piece of it!

PS: Today Nichole told me what her brother, Adam said about my pumpkin - he said i might not know what carving a pumpkin means, by the looks of Lebanon ... well, when you have a rotten pumpkin, there's not much you can carve ... i was lucky it even looked the way it did!!! I thought i did an amazing job with it (actually, it kind of looks like crap, but hey i did my best!)

Romanian food

My turn has come to cook a Romanian meal ..So i invited the girls on Saturday evening for a Romanian experience! The whole week i thought about what i should cook for them ... early on Saturday i made up my mind - i went to Saudi market to buy what i needed. The decision was made: Salata Boef and ardei umpluti (stuffed peppers) plus pumpkin pie for desert.

It turned out good in the end ... i was proud of my stuffed peppers as it was the first time i cooked that.

We enjoyed our time together.. Rachel has brought icecream and it went really well with our pumpkin pie!! Yummeeee!!

Holiday in Dahab

Ok, i know this post should've come here a month ago, but i completely forgot i didnt post anything about my holiday in Dahab.

We had a one week holiday at the beggining of October, for the Eid. The Eid is a big thing here; it marks the end of Ramadan, when all the fasting is "khalas"; it is a bit like our Christmas day. So, me and Nichole plus some other work mates embarked on the first bus to Dahab. Dahab is a nice little town by the Red Sea - actually more the Gulf of Aqaba... It is close to Sharm el Sheikh, but more relaxed, cheaper, nicer in a very bedouin style.
We stayed at Dyarna Hotel - realy pleasant - not too pricey, with a nice swimming pool and breakfast included.

We went snorkelling by the Lighthouse and it was amazing!!! It was my first time snorkelling but i enjoyed it a lot!! We tried to snorkle further up but it was so windy and i got so many bruises from the reef!! Nichole got excited because she saw a lion fish and got near, without knowing they are poisonous and you can die if you touch them!

Second day in Dahab i tried scubadiving; it was an intro dive and i promised myself that was my first and last experience of that kind.

The water presure was too strong for my ears, plus i didnt see any fish!! Snorkelling was so much better! I went 8 or 10 m under water, which is quite of a thing for me! Well now i can say i've done it!

We couldn't have missed Sinai, so we took a night bus to St Catherine's. It took us 2 hours to get there. We started hiking at 2 am and got to the very top around 5 right in time for the sunrise. Numerous groups of Russians were up for the same thing as us, so it made it even harder to get a good spot at the top, in order to see the sunrise. It was packed!!!!!! We managed to find a spot, which was a bit dangerous, but we were able to enjoy our experience - sunrise from the top of Sinai mountain.

The whole hike was an adventure, with a crazy bedouin who made fun of all the Russians, and staring at the girls' bottoms, saying "babushka".

I forgot to say that the best place to eat in Dahab is the Funny Mummy - the atmosphere is amazing and the guys that work there are really great!!! the owner remembered Nichole, who's been there right when she arrived to Egypt. They have good sheesha there and the best chocolate milkshake in the world!!!!!!

Dahab seems to be out of Egypt, as there are many foreigners there and the rules that apply when living in Cairo, dont apply here ... you can wear any type of swimming suit you want, you can hold hands wt your bf/husband/fiancee ..whatever...

It is a cool place to go to! you can see Saudi Arabia from there!

I love my job!!

As i said before... after a long week, Thursday came!!! Last day of the week, had my kids only until 11:30, i had plenty of time to do some more stuff (working on setting up a shop in our role-play area - i've been collecting empy cans, cartons of milk and juice etc for more than 2 weeks).
There were some experiences this week that made me doubt my teaching skills (one of those moments when you feel the kids just dont get it!), but on Thursday one thing happened. We were watching a Barnaby Bear video, part of our Social Studies curriculum and one of my little boys looked at me and said: "Miss Mocanu, you are a very good teacher!!" He just made my day!!!

Planet Gaby 1

I felt very tired this whole week and i found it hard to get out of bed every single morning. I am supposed to leave the house at 7:30 am, if i plan to walk to school. Well, guess what? every single day of this week, i was still in bed at 7:30!!! My body was not responding at all, but once i got to school, everything went well.
We also had an open evening for the parents to come in and have a look at our classroom etc. Earlier during the week, one of the parents of our kids asked me: "So, what are you doing on Wednesday?" I thought she was asking me if i have any plans after school, and i replied: "Nothing!" She went: "GABYYYYYY!! How come? It is the Open day!!" I gave her the weirdest and stupidest look of all, because i had completely forgotten about that!!
It all went great (i think!); apart from a small detail: open day was on Wednesday and on Wednesdays i have PE the last thing of the day, so i just went to school in PE clothes. Right when we left the flat, Nichole said: you're not wearing that for the Open Evening! I said: yes, of course i will, because i didnt bring extra clothes to change. When i got to school, everyone was dressed smart, so i kind of felt bad all day. I did go back home after classes to get changed!!
I always do stupid things like this!! I guess i need to be more formal and pay more attention to details etc. I call this "Planet Gaby" because i feel i am in my own world at times, with rules and ways that others cant understand.

Ethiopian food!!!!!

I have spent a lot of time lately with Sara from Ethiopia, Bronwyn from South Africa, Ellien and Nichole (my roomies) from Sweden and the U.S.; when we do something, we usually do it together - we call each other and make arrangements. Usually Bron has the initiative!

We all thought it would be a good idea to have "a traditional day" when we'll take turns and cook food from our own country and do some other stuff.

So, Sara volunteered to be the first one; last Friday we went to her place for some Ethiopian food. They cooked it for about 6 hours!! We had potatoes and beetroot, lentils with onions and spices, cucumber with youghurt, sheep stomach with carrots and something else, beef in a spicy sauce.

Of course, the beef was too spicy for me (me and spices = not good friends), the lentils had just enough spices that i could take, the sheep stomach i couldnt eat, just because our Romanian "ciorba de burta" - which is soup with cow's stomach and i find it disgusting, although i have never tried it. It was all served on a pita bread, which was more or less like a pancake or crepe. I did enjoy the meal and had more than enough.

After the meal we were served Ethiopian coffee - we were presented the whole process - frying it etc. Sara's friend has made it for us. You can see her in the pic - she is wearing an Ethiopian traditional costume. Coffee was served 3 times - that's the way they do it in Ethiopia. I had it just once, because it was very strong (just like my mom makes it) and my stomach is too sensitive!!

We enjoyed the meal very much and the whole day we spent together!! We listened to music and tried some salsa moves. :D - me= disaster!!

Sara has braided my hair and it looked pretty. We had Barbara (Ellien's friend from Germany) with us and it was cool that we were all from so many different countries!!!

Rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It does rain in Egypt!!!!

We were at Sarah's house on Friday and suddenly the wind started blowing really hard and to our surprise it started to rain!!!

I Could not believe it!! it is the first time i see rain in 3 months!! I asked Barbara (she is a friend of Ellien from Germany) to take a picture of the rain and she was so surprised that i am asking that; at first she thought i was joking, but then she realised how serious i was.

On Saturday i talked to my mom and she was telling me how cold it is getting there and how they've put the heating on etc. It seems surreal ... i dont feel autumn here ... it is like a continuous summer. And now i think how i never liked autumn, and i always got depressed at this time of the year ...

I would love to see autumn in the nature here ...

An afternoon at Al Azhar

After the whole "ant incident" i got a call from Bronwyn and she invited us to go and have lunch in the park - Al Azhar (finally i managed to spell that properly).

We drove there, paid 5 LE entrance and the funny thing right at the entrance: a note saying what you can or cannot bring to the park; among the things you cannot bring one got my attention: "alchoholics" - they should've left me at home!!! LOL (i did get a bit dizzy two nights before after having some lemonade with vodka).

We had lunch at one of the places there - the service was kind of bad, we had to wait a lot for our food and drinks to come, but it was nice to just chill there.

You can get a nice view of the Citadel from up there.

There is also some sort of a fountain that reminds me of one of the Romanian sea resorts - Mamaia.

We chilled on the grass, tried to get ice-cream, but the man said it will come in two minutes (two min in Egyptian time means more than an hour, or it could even be days), so we just left.

We got ice-cream on the way home, from Road 9 and came home to have coffee as well.

It was a nice afternoon, and luckily when i got back i was in the mood for planning, so i did some work too!!

TerminANTor

Saturday morning.... what i thought to be a calm morning (trying to enjoy my day off), turned into a chaos; i went out of my room, thinking i will have a nice breakfast but to my surprise the girls (Ellien and Nichole) were bouncing around the bathroom, taking everything out of there. Then the news came: there are ants in the bathroom. I was not surprised, as we have ants in our house most of the time anyway - it is part of Egypt; it's like one of those packages you get - 3 in1; The news was that we actually have LOTS of ants in our bathroom. I thought: we'll just spray them and it wil all be ok, coz we had the same problem in the kitchen. Only that, this time, the ants were coming out of the wall.... we sprayed inside the wall, untill we had no more spray, we couldnt breathe anymore etc. The ants kept coming out of the wall; they were bungee-jumping out of the wall, because of the spray - poor creatures, they needed air, but to their surprise, even more spray was waiting for them outside the wall - actually death was waiting for them! Me and Ellien didnt know what else to do - Nichole went to get more spray and we just sat there, feeling like Terminator or TerminANTor; in the end we put scotch tape on the crack and they died there. Some of them, the smart ones, i assume, started coming out on the other sie of the wall which is the kitchen wall. So, the "party" starts again - let's go into the kitchen now and do the same thing.

It was just terrible!!!!! There were like, at least 100 dead ants on the bathroom floor. It was ok, in the end - we killed them all.

Question mark

After talking to one of my top friends, Cristina, i realized i have an assignment ... actually is more of something that i am willing to do, so that it will take me out of the estate i am in.

Assignment is to enjoy the beauty of Egypt, discover new things, appreciate the blessing of being in this amazing country. A part of it is to go around the neighborhood and discover new plants, new fruits and veggies that i have never seen before, that do not grow in my country and find out as many things as possible about these.

Part of the assignment is done: i went around, took pics, but the question is: what are the names of these plants? I don't know the names in English, not even in Romanian so i can read about them!!!!!!!

I am still trying to figure out a way of completing this challenge ... Maybe i will ask an Egyptian for the names in Arabic and then, have them translated into English.

Wish me luck!

Cultural shock ... Round no ..?

I have not been myself for the past few days ... and this evening i thought i am recovered .. but i am not! I painted my nails, thinking i will feel better, had a chat wt the girls, painted their nails just to make them feel better ... but who's taking care of me?
I now realize how much i miss being home, how much i miss friends who call to say hello and check i am ok, that insist when it comes to details ... I miss that so much!!! I feel lonely although i have met a lot of people here and i socialized a lot ... but it is all so different! It is just a surface, as it is not quite "quality interaction", but more of "forced interaction" as i call it. I bump into people everywhere, so i cant really avoid them .. i have to chat with them and they have to chat with me ...
I do miss Romania and Romanians .. people i can be myself around and not having to think twice before i do or say something (which i kind of started doing here in the past week); it is not until you leave your culture and environment that you realize how different you are and what a pain in the ass you can be for the people around you ... who dont really understand you.
I got a bit upset the other day, thinking that everybody around me is so different and so American/British and i thought i should change, coz i am a circle that doesnt fit in their square shape; but then i thought: hold on a minute, why should i change?? We are all foreigners in a country that is not ours; why should i give up my culture and my individuality for one that is not mine, and more important, not of the country i live in?
I already speak a language that is not my native language, so that is a compromise for me; why should i compromise more? Dont think i am willing to do that! I feel i am getting a bit stubborn now and maybe inflexible ... but this is how i feel.
I have lived abroad before, but never encountered such struggles. I was even in an environment with more cultures than here, but i havent felt, not even a single time, that i had to abandon my culture or be someone i am not!
I admit, i am not perfect, but nobody is!!! I admit there are things about me that i dont like either ... i admit i can be very annoying to certain people ... i admit there are people who might not like me (not at home!!! i know u love me, guys!!! LOL) ... i admit i am not the smartest person (although i tend to think that my way of doing things is the best way - that is why i tend to take full responsability of things and i dont delegate);
BUT i know who i am, i know my identity, i know where i belong, whom i belong to ... and in the end, i should care less about my culture and my country because my citizenship is somewhere else!
I like to say i am from everywhere! I could say i am from Romania, but i dont feel my home is there; in the past 6 yrs my home was wherever i was, in whatever country/city i was in; i was like a snail - carrying her house with her, but i do know where my real home is.
Where is yours?

Living in Egypt

Just wanted to say that life in Egypt is cool!!! ..at least to me!! Of course, it is not easy, but i think i like it. I always find myself having fun with the shop keepers, trying to communicate... i just love it!! Besides that, i am good at bargaining... maybe better than some Egyptians (definitely better than John!!! Gosh, did i say that? oops!) I went with John and Sarah to Khan el Khalili some time ago and i managed to get a rug for the price of 15 LE, when they were initially asking 35 LE; i also got a bag for 20 LE, when they were asking for 50 LE. I think this is my favorite part of Egypt - bargaining!!! One thing all the people have to keep in mind when coming here, is: don't pay what they ask!! ALWAYS BARGAIN and pay half of what they are asking, if not less.
It is rather difficult, being away from home, from friends in a new place .... having to deal with so many cultures at a time, when working in an international environment (like me) and living in an international flat.
I like people, i get my energy from being surrounded by them, but sometimes it is just too much for me, and as Wendy says, we all need "cave time". For eg, we had a felluca (still dont know which is the right way to spell that word) ride on Thursday with a bunch of new people - i hated it!!!!! too many new people at a time!!! i cant interract with new people!!! and we were on the Nile for 2 hours!!! it was dark and cold... i wanted to go back!!! Luckily i sat next to Bronwyn and her friend, Tracy and we kept making jokes about certain food that was on the table!! LOL
This weekend i painted the pipes in our bathroom and kitchen; actually i need to do it again, so that it will look better ... probably next weekend, as this week is already full. I just wanted to be in my own world, on "planet Gaby" and i love painting (not pipes, painting beautiful sceneries, but sometimes pipes are good to paint too!) ... so i thought that is a good way to be in my own world. Thoughts and thoughts kept running through my mind about various things, about Egypt, flat, work, home, Christmas ... China, summer etc.
After being in my own world for most of the day, Wendy called and invited me over. So, i went to her place, had a nice glass of white wine, got a bit dizzy ... and socialized; Sarah and John came plus Kathy ... so, even though i didnt feel like having company, it turned out to be a relaxing evening.
One conclusion after the multitude of thoughts today: i might need to change!

Smiles which brighten my day

Many funny and exciting things happen in KG - too many to write them all down. But the ones that make my day, i do want to put down, as they're very important to me and make me forget about the disadvantages of living far from home or living in Egypt (and everything that comes with it).

We are learning to read and two of the words for this week were: "i" and "like"; so we all started talking about what we like (mainly food - chocholate in particular - especially that day, my boss came in and brought me a Snickers bar :D). So, the children started saying: "i like icecream", "i like Mc'Donalds", "i like Barnaby Bear" and suddenly, one of my little boys said: "I like YOU!"

I thought that was so cute, especially coming from this little character that does naughty things and whose name i call out 50 times a day! That was special to me and probably i will keep that moment in my heart for many years from now on!!

PS: the "fat like you" incident repeated ... it did not make me smile, as the first time but once again i asked myself: don't i just love being in KG?

The Citadel

We decided to be tourists every weekend; so our plan is to go sightseeing every Friday or Saturday. This last time, we went with Sarah and John to the Citadel.
It took us a while to find a parking space, but the good thing is that we got to visit this place.
The entrance fee is 40 LE – and we paid a guy to guide us around and tell us the story behind the Citadel. It was all very interesting … I will not go into details now, as I am not in the mood, but we took some great shots there.

There are a few mosques inside the whole site, plus a little museum (with portraits of kings of Egypt). The Citadel is fairly big on the inside, with a huge carpet brought from France, with alabaster walls etc.

From the top you can see almost the entire city plus the pyramids of Giza and Sakkara.

I've been looking for an Egyptian flag, so i can take my pic wt it, so i finally found it, right by the Citadel - i couldn't help not putting this pic on!!

A corner of Heaven: Anafora

A few weeks back we went on a staff retreat to Anafora, which is a nice, quiet place about 1 h drive from Cairo.

We've been looking fwd to that weekend, after being busy at school with the children, plus planning etc. It was nice to be with people, get some time off, relax.. talk, enjoy the nature ...

Anafora is a retreat center - it has a Coptic church there and everybody who works there is a christian - that is surprising, as Egypt is a muslim country; i have to admit it was nice to spend time in that quiet atmosphere. I think i saw more unveiled women in the 2 days that i spent there than in the whole month spent in Cairo.

Anafora has its own farm with cows and sheep, they make soap and some other things. We had a beautiful room, very bedouin style, with a mosquito net that made me feel like a princess. There is a nice swimming pool as well - i really enjoyed that!!! We had Barnaby bear with us in Anafora - he's part of my class, so he had to join me on this trip.

Nichole was saying she could live there; there are even corn fields - that reminds her of home!! no doubt she'd love to live there. i guess it is a nice place to go and relax, as it is far from the pollution and noise of Cairo, but i still preffer the city. I would get bored there!!

Apparently, it costs only 50 LE/day there with 3 meals included (buffet style). There was plenty of food - Egyptian food (not my favorite, but i have to admit i like it - i am not crazy about it, but it's ok). Anafora is a nice place to go and relax if you like peace and quietness etc.

Don't you just love the honesty and innocence of a child?

Wednesday .. special day for many reasons - my sister's bday, my boss' bday, plenty of teacher treats in the kitchen (we've been praying for some) and special because i got to spend another marvelous day in KG.

I just love the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" because you can teach so much using it!! So, we've been using it for Literacy and for Science looking at the life cycle of a butterfly and of course - Art - painting our own butterflies. Luckily, one of the little girls brought in a video and we got to watch that too, after i struggled for half an hour to set up the VCR.

The funny part is that earlier during the day, i read the sotry to them and when i got to the part that says: "Now, he was not a little caterpillar anymore, but a big, fat caterpillar", i imediately got a reply: "JUST LIKE YOU!!" - i looked down and saw a happy face with a huge smile who was just as honest as she can be!! I did not get offended at all - it just brightened my day!! I smiled back and carried on with the story!

Well, i am not that big ... but i guess children see me big and they're not shy about telling me what they think; for eg: "do you have a baby in your tummy?" (of course i dont!) - in the end, i do think i should not wear that long dress, coz it makes me look pregnant; i was talking about my dress with Nichole ... she said i don't look pregnant at all!! Well, children are always honest and say what they truly think. :)

I love them so much and i am happy to be their teacher, though most of the times they are not angels. They bring a lot of happiness to my life at this point and every day with them is a challenge and a new reason to celebrate life!

Being a tourist - the Pyramids

Ok fellows ... long time, no .. posting!! I guess i've been busy with school, plus other uninteresting things called cultural shocks ...

So, i was on MSG/MSN/Skype with many of you and the first question was "Did u see the pyramids?" Well, let me tell you that i didnt get to see them until after 2 weeks.

Now that we had everything sorted (kind of) with our flat, me and Nichole decided to go and see the pyramids. The way to do it is not that easy - i usually think i'll get on a bus, get there, visit, take pics and 'halas' (finished). The way to do it is hire a car with driver included - pay him 100 LE ($20) to take us from Maadi to Giza. Ok, fair enough - a nice car with AC, nice driver ... we leave early in the morning (that's the way to do it) before all the tourists get there; aaaaaa, i forgot to mention - we don't feel like tourist anymore!! Once we got there, we get the "Welcome to Egypt" phrase from one man who wanted to give us a carriage ride aroun the pyramids; he was asking for 100 LE/person but we managed to get it for 50 LE/person.

The carriage driver was a nice guy and we had a lot of fun with him!! He knew exactly where to stop for us to take pics .... we gave him a good tip at the end.

We did not go inside the pyramids because we didnt want to, plus we had the driver waiting for us and we didnt want to make it too long - otherwise he might've asked for more.

One embarassing thing we did was leaving without paying the carriage guy - we completely forgot about it!!!!!!!!! We were on the motorway and Nichole turned to me and said: "guess what? we didnt pay the guy!!!!!!" I am like:"what????? what do we do now?" The net second the driver's phone rings - it was the carriage man asking to talk to us. So, i get him on the phone, apologized a million times, told him we are leaving the money with our driver and said ma'salema. He was a bit annoying on the phone, kept asking how much we tipped the carriage driver - which i didnt tell him anyway.

I got to 'drive' the horse and carriage, which was kind of fun - i forgot the horse's name ...

It was a short visit to the pyramids - we stayed there only 2 hours - but we will definitely go there again, with all the friends wanting to come and visit us.

The best part was at the Sphinx!! We had fun there, taking pictures, making videos .... That was hilarious!!!

Another funny thing is that you have to pay an entrance fee to the site (that is not hte funny part) - it usually costs 50 LE (10 $); if you are a student you pay 25 LE. So, both me and Nichole took out our student cards, gave it to the man, he went and got us tickets for 25 LE. Well, later on, you have to go through some things, just like at the airport, where they check your ticket again. So they asked for our Student ID. I took mine out - it was an international student card, but expired; Nichole's was valid, but not international, so we kind of bribed the people to let us in (we gave them 25 LE). Never do that!!!!

Now, for the end, enjoy watching "Live from the pyramids" by Nichole Book! (or me fooling around when i am not at school)

For Cristina

Cristinq...special pt tine ...

Scuze pt accent ..am fost SURPRINSA cand am vazut filmuletul... nu mi-a venit sa cred ca am asa un accent.. insa vorbesc engleza non-stop aici.. Nu m-am americanizat deloc, insa s-a intamplat atunci pe loc... k am mai vb la telefon cu oameni de pe acasa si nu mi-au zis nimic de accent.... Crede-ma k e numai in filmuletul asta.

Sper sa iti placa!!

te pup!

ps: promit k o sa iti trimit mai multe poze plus u[pdates de aici.... nu am avut timp, k sunt mereu la scoala de la 7 la 4-5.

Wha do you do when...?

What to do when ...

• you had a bad, long day at work wt endless meetings
• you are trying to teach smth and the kids don't get it
• you think you will enjoy a nice walk home, but every single man that passes you stares at you
• you think you will go home and relax but you won't because...
• you come home and the garbage is still in front of the door just like 3 days ago when you took it out, waiting to be collected
• you have people coming to you just to complain about smth, without coming up with a solution
• you realise that the new stove you just got is not working properly and you can't have baked potatoes tonight, just as you planned
• your cat is still wild and dirty (especially after you cleaned him the day before)
• the supermarket is closed at 5 pm, just because it is Ramadan and people need to go and eat, travelling for 1.5 hours home and then coming back (i wonder why they don't pack some food and stick it in the fridge)
• you have huge ants everywhere in your kitchen
• you are craving for some goodies/chocholate/sweeties/biscuits but you have nothing in the cupboard
• you can't help the tears coming out
• ... you don't know what to do...
• ........
• .................

Well, i guess i can't answer any of the questions above; as a friend would say, you just have to ignore everything and get on with ur life or whatever you're doing. This was my life in Egypt today .... I might agree with John and say i will end up hating the country and the people, thought i don't want to...

At this point, i am struggling to love them ... but it is a bit impossible... I need a break away from this place, away from Cairo, Maadi, expats ....

What i could do is to put on some nice music hoping that will calm me down and praying for peace to rule in my heart.

Meet MeshMesh

Dear folks,

Me and Nichole decided to get a cat; we were thinking of getting one but we were unsure of the time and what cat to get (there's plenty of homeless cats here at every corner).

So, last week one of our friends asked us if we were willing to adopt MeshMesh. I have met him on my second day in Egypt, i knew the way he looks and how big he is ... Nichole did not hesitate to say yes, and i was ok with him too, as we've kind of known each other before.

He arrived at our place on Thursday evening or Friday, i cant remember now; we were warned he is a bit wild, but he's been for the first few days. Now he is getting wilder - he runs around the flat, likes to play a lot, eats our food; earlier i caught him with his nose in Nichole's bag of dried apricots (he loves those plus raisins - he attempted to our raisins bag too last week). Btw, "meshmesh" in Arabic means apricot. :))

He is a cute cat and very special in his own way; i guess we needed a man in our house, so MeshMesh came at the right time. :)

Ps: he is playing with an ant now.

Ramadan ... getting used to it

I guess it's been more than a week since Ramadan has started, and just before it, the time has changed - meaning that 7 o'clock became 6 o'clock. The whole reasoning behind this is that Ramadan is a time of fasting, from early morning untill the evening when the sun sets; so they turned the clocks just to make the fasting period shorter.

To give a brief overview on Ramadan i will say that it is a time of fasting for God and a time of prayer; there are about 5 calls to prayer every single day and al the mosques have speakers, so everywhere you are you can hear them - especially the 5 am ones (they always wake me up!).

So, Egyptians fast all day and supposedly pray more - which they do - i've seen them praying and in a way i admire their dedication to this. Once the sun sets, they all go and eat - they call that "iftar". The funny thing is that at that time there are no cars on the street, no shops open .. absolutely quiet; imagine a big and crowded city like Cairo being in silence. Me and Nichole went out for a short walk towards the Grand Mall last week and it was so peaceful!!

Well, once they start to eat they don't stop until next morning - they have a lot of food - it's more like a celebration! People go out and most of the shops reopen after "iftar" and remain open for pretty much a big part of the evening. I think Ramadan is a little bit like our Christian Christmas. They have nice decorations, especially some sort of fabric in bright colours and their Ramadan lamps, which they sell everywhere!

Ramadan is also a time of helping others and doing good deeds - foreginers are usually expected to give bigger tips or to give more to the poor, or to pay the boab more money - but honestly i avent been doing any of that - first of all because we dont have a building, secondly i don't feel in my heart that i should give, because most of the people on the streets are part of a 'begging network' and if i give them money, it will all go to somebody else.

Well, Egyptians are pretty good during Ramadan and they do care for the poor - they set up some kind of tents in different parts of the city for poor people where they can come and eat (food being provided).

From everything i heard before with respect to Ramadan i had a very nasty feeling, thinking: "oh my God, this is going to be terrible!!" Well, it is not that bad! The only thing is that they close shops earlier (around 5 o'clock) until 8 or 8:30, so you rpetty much need to be very organised and make sure you do your shopping before that time, or go to places earlier. Me and Nichole had to get some groceries and by the time we were out of the supermarket, everybody went home for "iftar" so, we had a hard time finding a taxi.

The weirdest thing that happened to us so far during Ramadan was that one afternoon, after school, we decided to go and eat out; so we went to this nice place on Road 9. We ended up sitting outside, as it was quite nice - not too hot and just enjoyable. Well, it turned out to be a bad choice as we had an old Egyptian woman passing our table a few times and probably cursing us in Arabic, as we are not suppose to eat, but fast. The waiter had to chase her away every tiem she came and starting "talking" to us; at one point i turned and i told her: "yes, i know it is Ramadan and we are not suppose to eat, but ... we almost finished now!". I am sure she did not understand a word of that, but in the end, it was our mistake - not being sensible to the culture. Next time we'll know to sit inside!