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.

2 weeks till we come back to the States

I can't believe it is only two weeks till we go back to Chicago and Florida for the winter break. Time has really gone by fast. This week we were able to go to a lot of really fun things. Sunday, we went to Gemmayzeh for a street fest, which reminded me of Chicago street fests. We had a great time, and I bought an amazing wicker wine carafe, with the glass bottle inside obviously. The man made it right there on the spot. There were a lot of great crafts and food and drinks. That night we went to a church for an orchestra and choir that performed a rendition of Handel's Messiah. It was a packed house and it was really impressive.
Monday night we went to another concert at the American University in which a few teachers and students performed in. It was wonderful, and they sang songs from around the world, and in different languages. At the end they had everyone there join in and sing a few carols.
Wednesday we had another coach from Egypt come in to stay with us for a few days, due to another tournament Ryan organized. I made the coaches some homemade chili, since it is getting cold (er) here (65 degrees at night...hehe). Ryan had the tournament Thursday and Friday during the day.  Of course, this is the weekend the rains finally came, it has really rained here yet. So, it was a wet few days, but they all survived and we took second place again in boys and girls JV soccer. Friday night, I attended our school play, a hilarious production of Dr. Horrible's Sing a Long blog. The students were so good, and I was really impressed at their musical talent and the acting.
Saturday I walked downtown to the farmer's market. It was really great. The people are so incredibly generous there, with handing out samples of their fresh goods all the time. I bought some hot peppers in a jar, which I didn't realize they were so hot until Ryan ate one yesterday. I also bought some homemade eggplant dishes, pomegranate dressing, teas and more. After I walked home, stopped to pick up a cookie sheet for our cookie exchange this weekend. However, I didn't think about the fact that our oven is smaller, so the regular sheet doesn't fit...oh well. I also picked up some beautiful fresh poinsettias, a red and a white. The man selling them is the same man who sold us pumpkins earlier in the year from the top of his car. He is a really great man and has an awesome store that has all sorts of weird items in it. It was the kind of day that made me realize that I really live here in Beirut. It was really an incredible feeling.
Sunday we went for a walk to the public beach. We hadn't gone there yet, so we decided to check it out. I now know where I will be when it gets nicer out again soon. It is a decent beach with sand and rocks, and of course yesterday it wasn't really crowded. The walk isn't that far either.
We have two full weeks of school left-our first full weeks in a long time. I should say that the Friday before break is only a half day as well-so not really two full weeks.

Thanksgiving

This week went by fast again. We had four days of school this week, with Friday off for Thanksgiving. Ryan was extremely busy running two volleyball tournaments and two soccer tournaments. Tuesday and Wednesday he had the volleyball tournaments, with our varsity girls and boys getting second place, jv boys getting first place and our jv girls getting second place. So, I guess it was four volleyball tournaments now that I think about it. Then Thursday night he had two teams come in from Egypt. One team was hosted by our players, and we hosted their coach, a guy from the US who has been working in Egypt for four years. Thursday night we went to Gretchen and Mikes for some Thanksgiving football, Detroit vs Packers, which was fun watching it live, just like we would have been at home, but only at 8 o'clock at night. I tried rooting for a tie in this game, but it didn't work. Friday we went to our middle school principal's house for a huge feast with about 50 of us expat teachers. It was a wonderful evening where we got to spend time with a lot of people we don't always get to see. Saturday I went  to a German Christmas fest at a building near by that we call the German building. A few teachers live in this apartment building, and then behind it is a German church. Kind of random. The fest was great.  A lot of homemade crafts, Christmas decorations, sausages, cheesecake, Gluvine, and of course beer. All day Friday and Saturday Ryan was at school running the soccer tournaments in which our girls and boys varsity soccer teams came in second place. Saturday night we took Josh, the coach staying with us, out to dinner. Today the teams leave, and then we are going to go to Gemmayzeh because they are shutting the streets down to cars, and there will be a lot of great booths up for homemade crafts. Then hopefully tonight we will be going to see the Beirut Chants opening night, with a choir singing Handel's Messiah. There will be a number of shows the next few weeks, as well as the philharmonic orchestra playing shows too. There are a lot of great cultural events here to take part in, so I hope to be doing more of that.
Here are some pictures of the holiday decorations around town, and thanksgiving.

Mike carving the turkey

My table at Thanksgiving

German building crafts

German Santa Claus and angel

German Christmas fest

Streets of Hamra

My favorite poinsettia salesman

Stores selling decorations

Grocery store selling xmas stuff