Egypt

Two weekends ago we were fortunate enough to take a trip for Mike's birthday to go to the pyramids. We took off with a group on Saturday morning, with Ryan meeting us later since he had a soccer tournament. We stayed at the Marriott Casino hotel, on part of the island in Cairo, right next to the Nile river. We took a cruise on a Faluka on the Nile the first night, that we had to negotiate to get since there were no cruises leaving when we were there. We negotiated a nice price, and when the cruise was almost over, another boat brought us some snacks to enjoy.

The next day we all went to the pyramids. It was different than I imagined, and breathtaking. The pyramids are right near the city, so people have houses right there that they can always look out their window and be staring at the Great Pyramid. The Sphinx was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be, even though Ryan warned me about this fact. We climbed into all three pyramids, which was a little scary since it is a tight space, and pretty steep. Ryan had to be basically on his hands and knees going through. We did take some more pictures on camel rides. I felt bad since tourism is down in Egypt, clearly the people aren't making as much as they usually did selling to people. They were desperate to sell us something.

That night we enjoyed a great feast right on the Nile with our group of friends from all over the world. We left Egypt right as Putin was flying in, so that was probably good timing.

This last week we had our fundraising dinner for our Bali trip at Cru, a restaurant in Hamra. Gretchen and I wanted to contribute since the girls are doing so much to raise the $10,000 we need. We managed to raise over $600 at the dinner, which was really nice. Cru is an incredible restaurant and wine bar, and the owner, Karen, is from Indiana and is a wonderful person.

Ryan was gone from Wednesday to late Saturday in Cyprus running a soccer tournament for boys and girls, JV and Varsity. It was a huge undertaking, but overall went smoothly. The Varsity girls won first place, JV boys and girls  took fourth and JV girls also received the sportsmanship award. Ryan put the tournament together since last year no teams wanted to travel here, so he hosted it in Cyprus.

Sunday we had a nice brunch at Jesse's apartment in Monot. She has a great place, that she has decorated incredibly since she is a very talented artist. I should have taken pictures!

I leave Thursday this week to go to an IB conference in Dubai. There are some new changes to the History curriculum, so Else and I are heading to there to learn all about the changes.

Track has started, so we have practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last week was a little rough with the big storm that came through. There was some pretty big damage. It is funny, last year it only rained 2 times all year, and this year we have had some impressive storms. Ryan and I saw a lot of the damage yesterday when we were out on our run. The track team looks to be pretty good this year, a lot of solid athletes. We will travel to Dubai for our international meet in March.

Living Abroad

This week had me reflecting a lot about living overseas. There are so many things I have learned from living in a different country with a different culture than what I have grown up with in Chicago. However, there are so many ways in which things are similar too. The people here are much more hands on, hugging and kissing people when meeting more frequently, walking with arms around each other, sitting with arms around friends and more. It is really nice to see such outward signs of friendship and love. I am still constantly amazed at the generosity as well of the people in this country too. Today ordering a Saj at the place by school I only had a 100,000 ($75) and Feras, the owner, didn't have change since it was early in the morning. He was prepared to say just pay me next time no problem. I can't even imagine this happening in Chicago.

There was a moment this weekend where Ryan and I were a little homesick as well. This comes and goes of course, but with the Superbowl on Sunday we reminisced about all the Superbowl parties from before. We always went to Ryan's friend Jake and Kelly's house and all of us got together with great snacks and some watched the game, others the commercials and most importantly half time show. I sent them a text yesterday to find out about what snacks they were serving. However, when hearing about the blizzard going through Chicago, and the trouble my friends were having getting to their Superbowl parties, while sitting in a t-shirt and jeans here, I quickly got over my homesickness. I do not miss that snow and cold!

We had a great weekend, starting on Thursday at Jai for dinner with Nick, Margaret, Gretchen and Mike. Jai is the Asian take out place with only a round table in the kitchen so you are the only ones who are there eating while the food is being prepared next to you. The food was delicious and sitting at a big round table like that makes it seem like a big family meal, and these people have so quickly become my family over here. Friday Ryan and Mike had basketball games and Saturday there were two Football (Soccer) games that we attended. Our Varsity is ready for the championship game of the League Ryan started this year next week after demolishing the big rival IC, the school we face and share the road with. Saturday night we did a progressive dinner in a building where some teachers live, where we started at the ground floor, and worked our way up eating appetizers, dinner, and dessert on the different levels. It was a great time with lots of different food and people all over.

We are heading to the Pyramids this weekend! I am so excited. A group of us are flying out Saturday morning and coming back Monday. We don't have school on Monday, so it is a great way to spend the long weekend. The flight is only an hour long so it is nice and easy to get there. We have been talking to a lot of people here who have lived there before, so we have the inside scoop on where to go. Right after Ryan heads to Cyprus for the big conference football tournament, with jv and varsity boys and girls playing. We are going to be busy the next few weekends, we realized that the two of us won't both be in Beirut, without guests on a weekend until after Spring break, and then only for 2 weekends before week without walls. So crazy and fun!