Again!

Hey everyone

How are you all? Just thought I'd share some news from Alexandria as usual for whoever might be interested. Things have been pretty routine here lately, although there has been some excitement. I'm typically bogged down with work all throughout the week, but there is some time here and there to relax and collect my thoughts (now for instance). I've been waking up everyday this week before 7:00AM to plan and make copies for my 10:00AM class... I've been the first one (besides the security guards) at the villa everyday, so I get the honor of them unlocking the doors for me. Usually I wake up, drink some tea, have some peanutbutter on pita bread to go along with that while I check my e-mail and read the news, then have a shower and head over to work. Boring?

So. Classes are cruising along and we've managed to work it out so far to plan excursions for each weekend. As I mentioned the first was for everyone to come here, and then last weekend we all went down south (and up north for the Minya team) for some Cairo fun. I'm pretty glad that I'm living in Alex after spending just a couple days there. I think its been ranked as the loudest city on earth, its a bit hotter, and there's something about it all that just makes it exhausting to even be there. But, we managed to find some havens of relaxation throughout the weekend.

Christine and I traveled to the city last Thursday right after teaching and got there late at night. The next day, on no sleep, we followed through on the plans we had made with the rest of the group to the beach on the Red Sea. It was a couple hours drive from Cairo through the desert. Although one pictures Egypt as being mostly wasteland outside of the cities, up and down the Nile its mostly crop fields and small, dusty towns. So before last weekend I actually hadn't gone beyond the boundaries of the Nile's fertile land into the vast stretches of desert. We zoomed down the highway in a small privately rented bus with a few other Americans who have internships at the Arab League and I got to see the strange lifeless mountain/hills made of stone and piles of dust. It looks very much more like a lunar landscape than the uniform planes of rhythmic dunes that are associated with the Sahara. And there was nothing but occasional oil refineries(?) or factories along the highway, a man or two walking along the road by himself or with a donkey, and other vehicles zipping past down the sweltering belt of black pavement for miles and miles until we reached the Red Sea: Ayn Sukhnah.

It was just a random settlement with its largest attraction appearing to be the beach and clear Red Sea water and reef. We parked, and headed to the beach across the road. The one thing about Egyptian beaches is that you are forced to pay to use most of them (although today I went to Gleem beach - about a 20 minute walk from our house down the corniche - for free). So we rented a brittle, poorly constructed cabana for the day made of worn cloth and a small metal frame with a few cushions and a mat on the dirt floor. What was most interesting about the day there was this non-stop party that was going on in the space directly in front of our cabana (maybe 50 feet away). There was a DJ playing some popular Arabic music extremely loud, and it was the men who were dancing and not the women. They had some interesting moves, but it was a little too much for the senses to handle at times. I appreciated the enthusiasm though... I should also note that this wasn't a very western beach like the one at Montazah. Women can't even lie on the ground let alone wear western bathing suits, so god forbid one try to get a tan.

This was all on the 4th of July! We returned home in the early evening and discussed our options for the evening. There was a rumor from what I interpreted to be a dubious source that a 4th of July celebration for Americans was taking place near the edge of the city, hosted by some sort of official group. It was at a "British School" all the way out in Maadi. With no real idea of where you're going and with a severe language barrier with taxi drivers, the prospects seemed outweighed by the risk of getting stranded near the desert with an angry cab driver demanding 100 pounds for getting you lost. But, with an American spirit of adventure (and I forgot to mention a promise of free food, and beer for some, at this party) we abandoned our better judgment and decided to go for, not knowing what to expect.

We arrived at this place after several wrong turns and a fair 25 pounds later, and to my delight the aroma of hamburger and hotdogs welcomed us to this American oasis of festivity in the middle of nowhere-Cairo. At this large and impressive school we flashed our passports and as we entered we were greeted by the largest concentration of English speaking yanks that we had seen in months. It was very nice - free food left and right, raffle tickets upon entry, live music - everything except fireworks. After a few hours we even ended the evening with a nice rendition of God Bless the USA (I'm Proud to be an American) by Lee Greenwood. I think that Steve, our British companion, was only one notch short of "flabbergasted."

The next day (Sunday) was much more relaxed and included some koshary, planning for future weekends, and a walk through Khana Khelali (one of the largest outdoor markets ever...a bit of a tourist trap as well, but quite an experience). I headed back to Alex. that night on the 7:00PM train and after stopping in just a few random pastures for no apparent reason, made it home by 10:30 - record time.

Since then the days have been filled mostly with planning and teaching, as I've said. We went to the movies on impulse on Monday to see the new Incredible Hulk movie with Edward Norton (I recommend it, by the way). Yesterday was the grueling day of 9 hours of teaching, and today I had a successful kiddo class in the morning and then a little excursion down to Gleem beach as I mentioned. This morning I spent 4 hours with my guys, getting them to learn about Shakespeare and then having them turn summaries of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet into 10 minute plays. For the most part they turned out well, all things considered, and I managed to capture some priceless moments of this spectacle on video. The Canon powershot(?) that I got before coming here was a fantastic investment... The sword fights with rolled up posterboards was particularly amusing and I give the morning a "Success!" stamp. Anyone have ideas for themes for next week? So far I've done Shakespeare, music, movies, comics, savants, and ghost stories. Each day comes with a theme, needless to say. The adult classes aren't quite as creative, but we still manage to have some fun. We talk about current events a lot to practice conversational skills - the other day it was global food prices, and the day before it was the election: Obama vs McCain (I typically find them a nice article to read from CNN and Google and just adapt it a little to their skill level). We also played would you rather to practice some new grammar. I think my favorites were: "Would you rather die by poison or stabbing?" "Would you rather marry a woman who is smart but ugly or pretty and dumb?" and "Would you rather be single or married." The reason the last one was funny was because of the response: everyone except one, I think, chose single, and a lot of them are middle-aged and married... Those are the most salient examples.

That's pretty much all I can think of for now. The beach was a nice escape today. I walked over there by myself. I've found a good trick when I get there - everyone is always excited to greet me for reasons that you can imagine and I usually end up having a few conversations before I can make it to the water. Well, now I just ask a few guys to watch my things while I go for a swim so that they don't mysteriously walk off on their own... And in the water I met a few guys who I ended up chatting with. Then they insisted on taking some pictures with me and we hung out on the street off the corniche where their neighborhood is. The unemployment rate in Egypt is quite bad, so I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they didn't have jobs. Anyway, we talked about various things, they brought me an orange soda, and we say in plastic chairs on the side of the road while I was introduced to all the local characters. My new friend Amra told me that he "loves me" and that I'm "beautiful." I explained that unlike in Arabic where the word Aheb means both like and love, in English we typically just say "like." And for men we usually use the word "handsome"... They've got to work on their English and thats probably part of the reason I was of such interest to them. Anyway, I came home a bit later than planned, but it was a fun afternoon and a good chance to practice my fledgling skills in Emmayyah (Egyptian). I also forgot to mention that we found a great bread guy today! Since this weekend we've been jealous of our friends in Cairo who had this great place to get fresh pastries and everything, but today we followed the directions of our co-worker Jane to find this place with all these excellent new snack foods (only a few blocks from home). Excitement. I also tried this new meat pocket thing which may add to my rather short, but scrumptious list of food options.

All for now. Hope all is well! As usual I will not be reading this over before sending...

Jake