Day 100 - Canada Dry, Never Die

I have returned home to spring weather...brrrr. It is a strange feeling not to have sweat running down some part of my body due to the heat...

I am extremely tired at the moment and totally looking forward to sleeping. Ok this shall continue when I am not passing out...

Day 98-100 - The Last Days

My lack of blogging my last days in Cairo is so not cool...malesh. I shall catch you up on what I was up to or at least try to remember best what I did...

Natalie moved on to the greatest house boat ever! A boat full of winners. This was on Sunday...I think.

Definitely had a house warming/Caryn going away party on Monday. Good times, even with the 5 or so stray cats hanging around. Naa anorkor and I went to Khan el Khalili to get last gifts for people and to give Naa anorkor the experience of a true Egyptian meal. She told me not to tell her if she was eating camel or not....which she definitely did eat and thought it was very good. Then if my memory serves me correctly I went to The Curtain, the best roof top lounge/bar ever.

Tueday was a day for packing and last minute running around. We made another trip to the Khan again. Had some drink, oh man, I don't remember the name of it, at my friends shop. Then we began the adventure of finding/getting everything we needed. We were machines, walking fast through the market streets. We got everything just in time to head back home to get ready for our flights home. Naa anorkor was leaving earlier than me so I said my goodbyes to her, then went to the houseboat to say goodbye to all my friends there. My last meal in Cairo was Koshari or a version of it. My friend, has a driver friend, so I did not have to take a taxi to the airport.

This was probably the hardest goodbye I have had in all my travels. The moment I stepped in the doors the tears started to flow and they did not really stop until I got on the plane. I probably looked like the most ridiculous person but I did not care. So it was a sad departure but I got on the plane and found that I had a seat in business class...so random but awesome. I like to think it was my going away present from Cairo. The rest of my flights were pretty good, except from the time I landed in Amsterdam to the time I landed in Toronto I was freezing. I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Soloist and an hour of X-Men: Wolverine. I didn't sleep. In Toronto I waited over an hour for my luggage. I made it to my gate with just enough time to call home and then I boarded on my last flight home. Mom, Dad, Cherilyn and Uncle Bruce were there waiting for me at the gate in Calgary. It was nice to see their faces. No tears surprisingly from Mom...well done :)

It was strange to be back home and to feel natural cold weather that was not being produced by an air conditioner.

Day 95 - 97 - Nuweiba

I got back this morning at 7am from Nuweiba in the eastern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

I left Thursday on the night bus. It took around 9 hours to get there. I attempted to sleep the whole way but delta buses are not the most comfortable places to be. A short person sat beside me so I had more room than I would have had if a tall person sat beside me.

I arrived and Naa anorkor met me at the gate, along with 4 other friends who were on the same bus. I got to our hut, which was like 6 meters from the water. I had a wonderful nap on the mattress in our hut till noon. We got up and walked 3 camps over to Little Rock where Naa anorkor and her friend ate and hung out the whole week they were there. It is run by a very nice Sudanese man. The food was delicious. Best shower ever!

Susan and I decided to swim across the bay. All was fine and dandy until we had to swim into shore and there was reef half of the way so we ended up swimming closer to the middle of the bay just to get out of the water. It was fun even though I was having panic attacks about what was going to touch me or what I was going to touch in the water.

We made friends with some Egyptian guys...they are architects and told me a foreigner woman painting in Cairo could make big bucks...We had a nice fish meal with them and they actually ended up giving us a ride home. So it was a 6 hour trip not 9. Awesomeness.

Possibly more to come...

Day 94 - Another Day Gone By...

Today consisted of sleeping, being woken up by Ammanuel and then sitting in on the Youth LEAD staff meeting all afternoon. Quite entertaining...

I went to the Khan again today and spent more money...but my purchases are awesome! I ate a real Egyptian meal...which I only just found out was camel meat! Walahi! Haha...While I was eating it I thought to myself this is definitely not beef but you know me, I couldn't think about what I could be eating or I would not have eaten it. Me and my picky self :)

SOOO many cockroaches in the kitchen!!!!!!!! Eww. Eww. Eww.

Day 92-93 - Sittin in a cool flat drinkin some Nescafe

I have become accustomed to Nescafe now...I may almost miss the familiar taste once I come home...

Yesterday was a day of running around, getting keys cut, printing a picture and trying to track down my luggage.

I now know where my luggage is but still can not go get it because the key that was supposedly hidden outside the door is not there and the winner I am, I did not get the number of the girl who has by bags from Naa anorkor when I finally got a hold of her. So continues the adventure of getting my bags.

In hopefully a half hour I will be going to Khan el Khalili if is can get my butt in gear and then I am going out for dinner with Diana. Should be good times....

Day 91 - Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary my dear and lovely parents. I hope your day is wonderful.

Today I am supposed to go to Luxor, but the friend I was going with has been unreachable for the last day so I have no clue what is going on. This is a problem, but I think I have found a solution so enshaalah I will be going to Luxor tonight...

I am sitting on the deck of the house boat waiting to leave for a meeting with a teacher from school. I will probably be late now that I have internet here:) Malesh...Egyptian time will work for me today.

No rats last night thank goodness...

EDIT: So now I am at Kathy's house, (the director of StARS). I will be crashing here till I leave which is good because now I will have a central place to leave my things and to come home to instead of wandering from place to place...

I spent the afternoon downtown with Faten and then with a friend at a coffee shop. I came back to the boat later in the evening and just chilled on the deck with Natalie and her friend Mark (he is from Ontario).

Now to figure out what to fill my time with until I go to the Red Sea...

Day 90 - My First Houseboat Experience....

Well my first day as a kind of homeless person has been pretty good. I slept quite well last night except for the occasional attempt of fatty the cat trying to sleep with me. I slept through some night time excitement. Natalie woke up to the cat running around and then heard a squeal...definitely not a cat but a rat of all things...it got away...ewww! I am glad I was sleeping.

We went to a cafe in hopes to use free internet but it was not working so we just ate some food. We have no key to the houseboat so we had to fill our time until around 8pm to get back. I met up with some friends. It has been a day of wandering around. I am now in Doki at a friends apartment stealing internet from the restaurant next door, just chilling...

Day 89 - The Move

I am officially not a resident at 20 Sharia Nubar. We moved out this afternoon. It is kind of sad because I will not be living with the same people, same area or same building. But on the other hand our building manager is not a very nice person so it is good to get out of the building and away from the issues brought up by him. My luggage is still in the same building with a friend because I do not want to have to lug it around everywhere I go. So yes, we made it out alive with everything except for our damage deposit...possibly...oh how we love our building manager.

Now I am sitting on the deck of a friend's boat house, crashing here for the night. Woohoo for boat houses. Being on the Nile is so nice. The weather is nice and cool. And the fact that I am on a boat house on the Nile is pretty stellar if you ask me. The constant music entertainment of the felluca's passing by...much nicer than the sound of traffic. I could live on a houseboat...

I do not know what I will be doing tomorrow or on Sunday during the day. In the evening I am heading to Luxor for a few days with Naa anorkor. I am so excited.

Day 88 - Ripped Off

Well yesterday was a normal day so nothing to report.

Today I packed. Went to the Khan el Khalili and bought spices and tea. Quite exciting. We probably got ripped off but that is the trend here. It would be a strange day when there was no being taken advantage of.

Day 87 - 2nd Last Day

Well today is my 2nd last day here in the apartment. We got evicted a month ago so now is the time to get out of this building. Cairo adventure continues.

I did not do anything worth talking about today. I did start packing though....

Day 83-86 - Alexandria

Due to the absence of posts I am sure you know that I made it to Alexandria...

We couldn't get a seat on the train so we had to settle for a micro-bus which was just fine. The trip was around 2 1/2 hours. I slept basically the whole way there so it went by pretty fast.
There was a family across from us so I had some fun attempts at trying to communicate with the little girls. The one girl Hagar was a little sweetheart. So cute. Sunday consisted of catching up on sleep and walking around the area.
Monday was the big day for sightseeing. We started out with the Stanley Bridge, then to the Library of Alexandria, then the Citadel (not as exciting as the Citadel here in Cairo but it was still cool). Then we wandered around the fish market. Fish as so gross...then to this women's market called Zenna market. There were paths like maybe 3 feet wide with stores on either side selling women's merchandise, like hair stuff, clothes etc. Then we went to the Moursi Abou Abess Mosque. There were separate male and female entrances. The women's side was quite a bit smaller than the men's so there was not much to see or take pictures of. We had some good fish for supper that I think may or may not have given me a rash, I don't know. It is gone now so I am not too worried about it. Later on we went swimming in the mediterranean. It wasn't too bad. The tide was coming in so the water was kind of dirty but I got my swim in the sea and some sand so I was happy except I forgot my Burt's Bee's lip stuff was in my pocket and I lost it to the sea...sadness. It was a long, full day.
Tuesday we got some breakfast and had coffee then found a micro-bus to Cairo. I slept half of the way back.

It was a good trip, not my favorite out of all the places I have seen but I am definitely happy I got to see Alexandria. It is a nice clean place compared to Cairo....much like everywhere else :)

Day 83 - Happy Birthday to Me!

Well my birthday so far has consisted of staying up very late, getting pizza hut and cake from the bakery at 4 in the morning with friends. Only in Cairo can you go to a bakery at 4 am and get cake. It was awesome and the cake was delicious. A great way to start out my birthday.

Thanx for all of the birthday wishes!!

Right now I am in the process of working out how to get to Alexandria....enshaallah it works out.

Day 81-82 - I missed posting yesterday....

I missed my first day of blogging yesterday :( I guess having fun trumped the importance of my blog last night.

Thursday was the last hurra at St. Andrew's. There was a prom held for the older students in the evening. It turned out to be an awesome time, with lots of fun and dancing. The students had a great time. This was the first time anything like this had ever been held at StARS and it was a major success. The girls were all dressed up and looking beautiful and the guys suits on and looked so sharp. It was a good way to end the term.

Today I went to Coptic Cairo with Diana and some of her students. It was interesting. Coptic Cairo is where there are like 5 churches all in the same area. It was interesting. I saw the Hanging Church which is quite famous. It was a hot but good morning. Afterwards we went for some lunch. We had Egyptian food, which was good. This evening I went on a fellucca ride with teachers and volunteers at St. Andrew's. It was a lot of fun. I love being out on the water. One of the teachers brought his family and oh my goodness his kids were absolutely adorable. There was food, song, dance and good conversation. It was also a great way to spend one last day with the teachers.

It is so strange to think that I am finished at St. Andrew's....

Day 80 - Celebrations

Today was the closing ceremonies at St. Andrew's. It was a fun, long day. We painted all the grade one's faces for their performances. It was so cute. The girls danced to Doctor Jones by Aqua and the whole class danced to a Sudanese song. It was awesome. All of the classes did something, mostly dances and the older kids rapped. They were good. Every student got a certificate. There was lots of people, and families there. It was great to meet some of the parents of my students. It was a day full of running after kids, talking with students, parents, teachers, song and dance. It was a great day to end the school year.

I am sad that I will most likely not see any of my students again. I do have my older students emails so I can still have contact with them which is nice. It is going to be so strange not to go to the center everyday now. I can hardly believe that it have almost been 3 months already. Time goes by so fast, especially when you are having a good time. For figuring out my practicum 2 months before I had to leave it worked out perfectly. Cairo was where I was meant to be...

Day 79 - 80 - Back in the groove of things....sort of....

Monday Evening- After we got back I unpacked, did laundry and uploaded the 700 pictures I took in Jordan to my camera. We planned to meet the people we met on the bus back to Cairo at a local bar to talk and hang out before they all left Cairo. It was fun to see them again. There was a girl from Austria, a mother and son from Slovakia, an American and then us. It was cool to chat with them and make more friends. I was so tired by the end of the night though...

Tuesday (Today) - The 3rd last day of my time with my students at St. Andrew's. We went to a center that has a playground and arts and crafts. 4 grades came so it was crazy and overwhelming but the students had a great time, which is all that mattered. I was exhausted once we got back to the center but I got a 2nd wind when I came home so still have not napped. Malesh. I am sad me time with the students is coming to an end so quickly. It will be hard to adjust to not seeing them again. Thursday will be a sad day but I know I will enjoy every minute of my time at the center till then...

Day 75 - 79 - Jordan in 4 Days

THURSDAY - We left on the bus (we being me, Naa anorkor, Akil and Collin) at 10pm and got to Taba, which is still in Egypt around 5:30 am. From here we walked across the Egyptian border, we had to go through the Israeli border (so now I have a stamp from Israel so hopefully that does not hinder my future travels). We waited here for about 45 minutes because Collin had a stamp from Morocco so they had to question him and such but he got through thankfully. So now we were in Eilat, Israel. We had to get a taxi to the Jordan border, which we definitely over paid for but we had no other way to get there. We walked through the Jordan border and got a taxi to take us to Aqaba. We got to Aqaba around 10 am so the whole border crossing process took us about 5 hours.

Aqaba is a nice city. Jordan is much cleaner than Cairo. We ate some lunch once we got settled. Some cops helped us get a cheap taxi and told us where to go eat. Akil has dreads so the people were absolutely fascinated with him. Asking for pictures or to touch his hair and staring hardcore. Not only were there 4 foreigners among the locals but 2 of african people with different hair. The food was great at the place the police recommended for us. Their pita bread is better than the Egyptian bread. We looked for a good deal on a hotel room at 8 different hotels. Collin and I walked from place to place pretending we were brother and sister so they would have no problems letting us all stay in the same room. We finally found a good deal at a place called Amira, with a 3 bed room for 25 denar. Collin slept on the floor with blankets. It worked out wonderfully. Once we got settled in our room we headed to the beach which was a bit disappointing. Women have to wear all clothes in. Like women were wearing their full head scarves and everything and the water was not very clean. So we ended up napping in chairs on the beach for a while in the shade. We left the beach and came and napped in our hotel room till 5:30. Then we headed out to Wadi Rum-a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southwest Jordan. We went there to watch the sunset and my goodness it was gorgeous. Definitely a good choice on our part to go out there. It was beautiful. We got back to Aqaba around 9. I was feeling quite sick so I had to go and lay down. I think I did not eat enough, drink enough and got too much sun. So I missed an evening there but malesh. We had to be up at 6:30 and gone to catch the bus at 7 to Petra.

FRIDAY - We all slept through the alarms so it was a rush to get to the station but Jordanians are like Egyptians and never leave on time so that worked good for us. The trip took about 3 hours. A hot and uncomfortable ride but we made it there.

We searched for a hotel in Wadi Musa. It took going to 4 hotels to find the best deal. 4 beds for 24 denars. Pretty good deal. We got to Petra, which was a 5 minute taxi ride, around 1pm. We bought a 2 day pass because we knew we would not see all of Petra in just on half day. We walked through Petra taking many pictures and climbing things till we got to the monastery around 5:30 or so. We were so tired once we got to the top but it was worth it. The monastery was huge and beautiful. So this was where our adventure started....we chatted with the Bedouin who were up there. They have a shop there. They invited us to eat with them and have tea. We watched one of the Bedouin free climb up the Monastery. It was crazy how fast he got up there. We went up to the look out point and watched the sunset. This is where the talk of staying up on the mountain came about. I was actually not feeling well again but there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to stay up on a mountain in Petra with local Bedouin people. So all 4 of us chilled up at the top of this peak, chatting with the Bedouin's, I slept off and on. They made food, which I didn't really eat. Earlier in the eveing they gave me some sage tea, which apparently makes you throw up, which I discovered about 2 hours later. So besides being sick it was incredible. The sky was the best thing ever. Almost better than my memories of the South African sky. We could see millions of stars, the milky way. I was shown the star the Bedouin use to direction at night. It was called Sarle or something like that. I wish I could remember the name exactly. But it was incredible. They called where we stayed the million star hotel. The Bedouin people are great and live a very interesting life. I would love to live with them for a month or something like that to experience that. So incredible. I bought a necklace down at their shop, it is beautiful.
SATURDAY - We woke up for sunrise but we half slept through it and it was too bright to watch anyways. We started down the mountain around 8:30 or so. We went quite fast because we really wanted to get back to the hotel before check out to shower. At the Treasury there was this one Bedouin man and I was so intrigued by him. I could have sat and stared at him for hours. I would have loved to take pictures of him. I did get one picture with him :) We got back to the hotel with 45 minutes to spare so we could shower and get ready to catch the bus to Amman.

Amman is the capital and 2 hours away from Petra. It was another hot trip in a bus but worth it. We got there and haggled with taxi drivers till be got the best deal. We went downtown to see a roman theater which was closed when we got there. From there we went out to the Dead Sea. ABSOLUTELY incredible. We were in water maybe knee deep and we floated. We drove past Jesus' baptismal site but did not go there. But ya the Dead Sea was incredible. So beautiful. What I thought was a rock in the water was actually salt! Crazy. We tasted it and it felt like burning on the tongue it was so salty. But yes. The Dead Sea absolutely amazing.

We caught a bus from Amman to Aqaba. A 6 hour trip. I slept most of the way off and on. The buses are so uncomfortable.

MONDAY - We arrived in Aqaba around 4 am. We went back to the hotel we stayed in the night before and asked if we could sleep in the lobby until 6. The man just let us in and went back to sleeping. We left around 6:30 to catch a cab to the border. We had no problems crossing any of the borders which was great. We were in Egypt by 9, where we bargained with a mini-bus driver to give us a better price than the big bus price. We got a deal and took that instead. We met some cool people from Slovakia, Austria and the States. We made plans to go out this evening with them. It should be good times. We left Taba, the Egyptian border at 11:00 and got to Cairo around 5 or 6. It was a hot drive but expected. So ya that was my weekend in a few words...I am sure I missed something and of course there are many stories I could tell but that is just too much to type :) A lot jammed in to 4-5 days.

Jordan was more expensive than expected but definitely still worth the trip, for sure!

Day 75 - Off to Jordan

Today was the last day of classes at St. Andrew's. Sad. But it was a great day so that made up for it.

Yet another adventure is in my future. I am leaving with 3 other friends to go to Jordan for the weekend. It is going to be a quick and probably tiring trip but I am so excited. You will read all about it when I get back.

Now I must pack or I will not be ready to go...

Day 74 - Photos From Sinai

Day 74 - Coming to an end...

I found out that this was the last week of classes for the students at St. Andrew's. It was a bit of a shock to learn this. I was not expecting the term to be done yet. So next week there are some trips for the students and celebrations and prom. It should be a great week. I am sad that the term will be over after next week because I will not see the students anymore. This is a sad, sad thought. I am just happy I still have time with them even if it is less than what I thought I had...

I made my last trip to the Mogamma today to pick up my passport. Brand new stickers saying I can be in the country till December and that I am allowed to re-enter Egypt when I come back from Jordan this weekend. Ya that's right, I am going to Jordan for the weekend. It is going to be an adventure and a half, for sure. I am excited.

Day 73 - El Mogamma

I now have a valid visa but still do not have my passport. I have to go back to the Mogamma to get it. The place closed before they could process my re-entry visa. I need a re-entry visa because I am planning on going to Jordan this weekend. Now I have to go back again tomorrow to get all the information needed. Hopefully it will be the last time I have to go there. It is a zoo of people.

I also went a picture walk this evening. I got off at one of the metro stops and just walked around taking pictures. It was fun. I hope I got some good ones.

Naa anorkor and I got asked today if we were married and how long had we been married. It was stupid. I just said why are you asking us this, there is no point. The guy left after that. So ridiculous.