Here are some photos from my latest adventure...
Fagnoon
Monday, April 4, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Adventure Weekend!
We had a long weekend and didn’t have anything planned. Lisa and I decided to call our friend Ahmed who we play hockey with. We always have fun at hockey and once he mentioned that there is a waterfall in Egypt that he would take us to. We told him we had a long weekend and wanted to do something fun. He said if we had a long weekend that he had 3 things for us to do…. Day One: The Waterfalls. Day Two: Alexandria. Day Three: Fishing for our lunch in Ain Sokhna.
Day One: The Waterfall
We met at Costa Coffee, our regular coffee shop. Ahmed has a car and picked us up from there with his friend Ayman. We drove out to Wadi Rayan. The drive was awesome. We listened to good music and got to know our friends a bit better outside of hockey. It took about 1.5 hours after leaving Cairo. I absolutely love road trips and we don’t get a chance to take them very often because most of my friends don’t have cars in Egypt. It was so nice to not have to worry about a taxi driver or even with all the little things along the way with language barriers and not knowing where we were going. Lisa and I got to totally relax and enjoy the ride! We turned into the town and fields of crops were all around us. It was so interesting. The irrigation system was so old school. Ditches were dug and pumps were used to push water from one ditch to the next. Giant bony cows with long horns were in the fields with people working them. Often people rode by on donkeys. The people were sitting on top of the plants the just picked which were on top of the donkey’s back. It was so neat. Many children alone were doing this job, some adults. All of a sudden the fields ended and the area opened up into a giant lake. The water was calm and beautiful. I always think that Egypt is like a beach without water… I found the water. There were men in wooden fishing boats and a few people along the side.
We met at Costa Coffee, our regular coffee shop. Ahmed has a car and picked us up from there with his friend Ayman. We drove out to Wadi Rayan. The drive was awesome. We listened to good music and got to know our friends a bit better outside of hockey. It took about 1.5 hours after leaving Cairo. I absolutely love road trips and we don’t get a chance to take them very often because most of my friends don’t have cars in Egypt. It was so nice to not have to worry about a taxi driver or even with all the little things along the way with language barriers and not knowing where we were going. Lisa and I got to totally relax and enjoy the ride! We turned into the town and fields of crops were all around us. It was so interesting. The irrigation system was so old school. Ditches were dug and pumps were used to push water from one ditch to the next. Giant bony cows with long horns were in the fields with people working them. Often people rode by on donkeys. The people were sitting on top of the plants the just picked which were on top of the donkey’s back. It was so neat. Many children alone were doing this job, some adults. All of a sudden the fields ended and the area opened up into a giant lake. The water was calm and beautiful. I always think that Egypt is like a beach without water… I found the water. There were men in wooden fishing boats and a few people along the side.
We kept driving to the entrance of the park. We received a map and some information after entering (and the entrance fee for Egyptians in 2 LE which is about 50 cents, and 3 dollars for foreigners which is about 15LE). Turns out that Valley of the Whales is also located near the waterfalls which are a site I have been interested in seeing for quite some time. Ahmed told us we could go there too! The first thing we did was stop at some giant sand dunes. We climbed up to the top. The sand was SO soft. Looking out over the dunes I thought to myself that THIS is what I pictured the desert to look like. It was beautiful! The desert we normally pass (on the side of the road is very rocky and often covered in garbage). We spent some time playing in the sand, jumping off the top edge down into lower areas. Our feet sank down deep into the cooler sand below. It was so awesome!
Next we drove to the waterfall area. There were more people around here. Lisa and I attracted quite the crowd. Everywhere we walk people are ‘sneakily’ taking out photos. It bothers Lisa a little bit, but not me so much. Ahmed said that people there rarely see foreigners except for on TV. I don’t mind when people stare or take photos because I am the one who is different, and sometimes I want to take photos of things they do too!
The water was so clean. After seeing Nile in Cairo, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But people here were playing in the falls. We continued onto a beach where locals were swimming in groups. Women swimming in the water still covered and men wearing whatever they like. Ahmed hired a man to take us for a ride in his row boat. We each had a turn rowing the boat. It was so quiet and peaceful. The man who took us spoke little English. He seemed to really like his job. He took us to the other side of the falls. Ahmed and I decided to go in the waterfall. It was sort of scary. Water is so much more powerful then it seems like it would be. We almost lost Ahmed’s sunglasses as they came off his head. Luckily he found them! After that we walked along the beach… too bad the beachfront had a lot of garbage on it… It was funny – when we started walking it was just us. When we turned around after about 5 minutes there was about 15 people following a short distance behind. They wanted to take photos with us.
After the falls we headed to Valley of the Whales. It said it was 44 kms away. It took a long time to get there because they were all on sand road. I was very excited for this part. Lisa, Ahmed and Ayman were pretty indifferent. There was absolutely no one around when we got there. We weren’t sure if we were in the right place at all. Finally we found the buildings and got some information. Valley of the Whales is an outdoor museum showing rock formations caused by erosion and 40 million year old Whale Fossils. We decided to take the short tour. The first set of bones was interesting – half a jaw bone that was about a foot and half and some of the vertebrae bones. The rest of the bones were a little bit disappointing. There was one giant set but it was totally covered in sand. After being out all day, my friends were poking fun at me for making them go to see the site. “Really? We had to drive all the way to see this? You really find this so great?” It was a fun day. The sand formations were the highlight of the site. Giant mountains piles of sand that look so strong, but when you touch them the sand falls away as if you were brushing sand off your skin. Just beautiful!
After that it was time to go home. We were all exhausted after a great day. Turns out that it wasn’t over yet. Earlier in the day Lisa and I had expressed interest in attending an Egyptian wedding. On the way home Ahmed received a phone call from a friend whom we play hockey with, his brother had a wedding that night and we were invited. Of course we said yes! We had another great drive home, took about an hour to get all dressed up for the wedding then Ahmed picked us up again and off we went!
The wedding was definitely and experience. There were three weddings at the same ‘club’. A club here is an area that is fenced off from other areas. Inside the club there were 2 separate areas. The wedding we attended was a double, with two sisters getting married to each their own groom. Almost all of the other women there except the brides wore hijabs, so Lisa and had a lot of attention. We tried not to let it make us feel uncomfortable. There wasn’t really a ceremony at all. The brides and grooms came in and had their first dances. Men here steal the show when it comes to dancing, one groom in particular. His hips could move better then mine ever will. The guys we were with tried to get us dancing several times, but Lisa and I felt intimidated because a crowd circles the dance floor watching. We avoided dancing all night until the guy we play hockey with told his brother and the bride to come and get us. So when the bride and groom asked us to come and dance with them we had to say yes. They dance in circles and there seems to be some set moves, which of course Lisa and I do not know. We were laughing the whole tie and pretty embarrassed although I think it was fine. We eventually got out of it by telling the bride how beautiful she was and joined the outer circle of men clapping. The place was beautiful with many sparkly lights and sparkling women. It was fun!
Day Two:
We met Ahmed and Ayman at Costa again in the morning. We also met up with some guys, most of whom we had met at the wedding the night before. The drive to Alexandria is about 2.5 hours. Again the drive was a highlight. We listened to music, learned new dances and learned more Arabic. Once in Alex we met up with a tour guide who the guys were all friends with. We had heard his wife was Canadian so we were very surprised when we met her that her head was covered. Lisa and I would never convert and cover our hair, we couldn’t believe it.
Anyway, the tour guide gave us some ideas of places to go… he was heading back to Cairo for the day. The first stop was a park. It was right on the coast and it was beautiful. It was so nice to put our feet in the water and explore the rocks. In the winter the water is so strong that it breaks the rocks. After the park we went to a citadel. It was really neat. After the citadel we had pizza on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We were exhausted after that and decided to go to a café. Lisa and I had a great time getting to know all the new people. And even better is learning so much Arabic from them. They laugh at us when we try to speak the words, but we laugh at them when they mess up the English too, it’s all fun!
Again the ride home was a highlight. We were all very tired, for the first hour we were falling asleep, but after that we woke up. We had to stop at a market on the way home and we ended up having a parking lot dance party showing off all the new dances we know. Egyptian boys love dancing.
I woke up for Day Three feeling exhausted. I had to drag myself out of bed. I knew it was going to be one of those weekends where I needed a weekend to recover. So it worked out ok when Ahmed called saying his grandfather was ill and had to cancel… so we will fish for our lunch in Ain Sokhna another time!
Adventure Weekend Photos
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
So much to write about...
Well I am back at school. It is my Friday tomorrow (thank goodness!). We are going on a field trip to see Hansel and Gretel. A pretty scary fairy tale if you ask me, and after the whole Terry Fox fiasco (After watching a video about the life and death and story of Terry Fox: "Is Terry Fox real?" "Yeah, he was a real person, younger then me!" "And Terry Fox is from Canada?" "Yep." "Well, I am NEVER going to Canada!")...
Since it the beginning of a new term, I am trying really hard to be strict with my kids in order to set them of for a productive, successful rest of the year. It requires SO much more effort then just letting certain things slide. I had a great beginning of the day. I love sitting with my kids and answering their questions about whatever pops into their head. SO this morning I explained what a play is by doing a quick reenactment of Little Red Riding Hood with another teacher. Another favourite thing of mine to do is to be really silly in front of the kids. They just htink it is hilarious. Sometimes I will sing (latest, singing Billy Ray Cyrus's Achy Breaky Heart" when I realized that that song came out when I was in grade 2 and they love Miley Cyrus). Sometimes pretend to do ballet moves (many of my girls practise ballet), and I really can't do the steps at all. By the end of the day I was really tired. As with most classrooms my kids are super chatty. and so often they just don't listen until i use my "mean teacher" voice. Tomorrow my goal is to recognize the good and focus on this instead of the opposite!
PS I changed my settings so everyone can leave comments.
Since it the beginning of a new term, I am trying really hard to be strict with my kids in order to set them of for a productive, successful rest of the year. It requires SO much more effort then just letting certain things slide. I had a great beginning of the day. I love sitting with my kids and answering their questions about whatever pops into their head. SO this morning I explained what a play is by doing a quick reenactment of Little Red Riding Hood with another teacher. Another favourite thing of mine to do is to be really silly in front of the kids. They just htink it is hilarious. Sometimes I will sing (latest, singing Billy Ray Cyrus's Achy Breaky Heart" when I realized that that song came out when I was in grade 2 and they love Miley Cyrus). Sometimes pretend to do ballet moves (many of my girls practise ballet), and I really can't do the steps at all. By the end of the day I was really tired. As with most classrooms my kids are super chatty. and so often they just don't listen until i use my "mean teacher" voice. Tomorrow my goal is to recognize the good and focus on this instead of the opposite!
PS I changed my settings so everyone can leave comments.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Planning a Trip
I finally got together with my Christmas travel buddy last night to work out the details of our trip. It took much longer then I expected it to and we are still not finished!
It turns out that my friend who was supposed to be in Germany over Christmas will not be there after all. Her boyfriend was playing professional hockey out there and was injured so they will be back in Winnipeg by Christmas. I’m disappointed because it would have been really cool to spend Christmas with someone from home (and one of my oldest friends!), and also because she will no longer be able to visit me in the future. And of course it sucks for them that they have to cut their adventure short!
It turns out that my friend who was supposed to be in Germany over Christmas will not be there after all. Her boyfriend was playing professional hockey out there and was injured so they will be back in Winnipeg by Christmas. I’m disappointed because it would have been really cool to spend Christmas with someone from home (and one of my oldest friends!), and also because she will no longer be able to visit me in the future. And of course it sucks for them that they have to cut their adventure short!
Well everything happens for a reason. This means we have much more time in Spain and Italy which we will definitely put to good use!
Kim and I went to The ACE Club to plan our trip. Kim has an internet stick which usually works and I was going to use the ACE’s Wi-Fi. Well of course nothing is as easy as that. The internet was in and out all night, but the ACE is a nice place to sit and chat. There is no pressure to buy any food or drinks (but we usually do) because it is a private club where we paid for a membership. We also have gotten to know much of the staff so they make us feel welcome.
After four hours of planning this is what we have come up with:
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| | | | | 23 Leave Cairo at 945am Arrive in Madrid at 2:00 pm | 24 | 25 Leave Madrid at 11:00 pm Bus to Barcelona |
| 26 Arrive in Barcelona from bus at 7am Shop until we drop!! | 27 | 28 | 29 Leave Barcelona at 9:48am Arrive in Venice at 11:15am | 30 | 31 | 1 Leave Venice at 920am (yuck!) Arrive in Florence at 12:15pm |
| 2 | 3 Go to Rome (Haven’t figured out which flight or anything yet…) | 4 Sight seeing | 5 Shopping | 6 Leave Rome at 1:45pm Arrive back in Cairo at 6pm | | |
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
a note about hockey for those who might be interested...
Here is what happened:
Lisa and I went skating, but we were really disapointed because both of us could hardly skate due to how shitty the skates were. We took them off and the guy "sharpened" them right in front of us, put them back o n and tried again. I had one skate that had sort of an edge and lisa still had none. There were hockey sticks behigd the counter and we were so excited and asked if we could use them and he said no eventually he told us it would cost an extra 35 piunds (7 bucks) to rent them. As if. He did tell us about a hockey "league" where guys come on friday and play a game. He told us we were invited to come. Lisa and i were skeptical because of how bad the skates were and he didn't have a lot of information but we decided we would check it out sometime anyway.
So while the idea of skating was awesome the actual skating was less awesome. But even with our bad skating we impressed three girls who came to watch. I invited them to come skate with us so they did. Back to the horrible skates... before sharpening the skate blades are completely rusted over. But the guy refused to sharpen the skates for these Egyptian girls. So even if they had the skills (or we taught them the skills) to skate they couldn't because of the horrible skates. It made Lisa and I sooo mad. The girls seemed to really like it anyway. we were trying to explain that it was extra hard to skate becasue of the skates but we aren't sure if they got it or not. One of them spoke English pretty well the other 2 didn't speak a lot. But we went bolwling and then for dinner with them. It sure is nice to meet people other then people we work with. It is even nicer to get out and do somethign different.
After dinner lisa and I were going to a movie. As we were buying our tickets we hear someone calling our name we look over and he says "hey are you guys the ones who want to play hockey?"
We went over and talked to him and he seemed like a really nice "normal" guy. he told us that he had different skates that we can use and he would sharpen them for us. He said that they have a coach fro the states (now i wonder what exactly this means). He said that he lived in the UK for a while and played there.
After talking to him Lisa and i are really excited to play. We exchanged information and he texted us to tell us there will be a game this wednesday. Lisa and i are deciding if we will go or not. We would have to go straight off the bus... the other thing is it costs 35 pounds each time. but for now I think it is worth it...
Lisa and I went skating, but we were really disapointed because both of us could hardly skate due to how shitty the skates were. We took them off and the guy "sharpened" them right in front of us, put them back o n and tried again. I had one skate that had sort of an edge and lisa still had none. There were hockey sticks behigd the counter and we were so excited and asked if we could use them and he said no eventually he told us it would cost an extra 35 piunds (7 bucks) to rent them. As if. He did tell us about a hockey "league" where guys come on friday and play a game. He told us we were invited to come. Lisa and i were skeptical because of how bad the skates were and he didn't have a lot of information but we decided we would check it out sometime anyway.
So while the idea of skating was awesome the actual skating was less awesome. But even with our bad skating we impressed three girls who came to watch. I invited them to come skate with us so they did. Back to the horrible skates... before sharpening the skate blades are completely rusted over. But the guy refused to sharpen the skates for these Egyptian girls. So even if they had the skills (or we taught them the skills) to skate they couldn't because of the horrible skates. It made Lisa and I sooo mad. The girls seemed to really like it anyway. we were trying to explain that it was extra hard to skate becasue of the skates but we aren't sure if they got it or not. One of them spoke English pretty well the other 2 didn't speak a lot. But we went bolwling and then for dinner with them. It sure is nice to meet people other then people we work with. It is even nicer to get out and do somethign different.
After dinner lisa and I were going to a movie. As we were buying our tickets we hear someone calling our name we look over and he says "hey are you guys the ones who want to play hockey?"
We went over and talked to him and he seemed like a really nice "normal" guy. he told us that he had different skates that we can use and he would sharpen them for us. He said that they have a coach fro the states (now i wonder what exactly this means). He said that he lived in the UK for a while and played there.
After talking to him Lisa and i are really excited to play. We exchanged information and he texted us to tell us there will be a game this wednesday. Lisa and i are deciding if we will go or not. We would have to go straight off the bus... the other thing is it costs 35 pounds each time. but for now I think it is worth it...
Saturday, November 27, 2010
What? Christmas is less than a month away?
Hello!
It's so strange to think that there is piles of snow on the ground in Winnipeg! I thought I would really notice and appreciate that there is no snow in December (and while I do appreciate it) it just sort of seems normal. Like a really long summer. Yesterday it was 25 degrees for most of the day which is great! It really doesn't feel like Christmas is less then a month away! In Winnipeg we know Christmas is coming as soon as Halloween is finished, but here there are very few christmas references around. When I went to Cyprus there was a christmas display in the airport and that reminded me just how close christmas is! I have to say it is kind of nice not feeling stressed out by all the shoppers and traffic that comes with this time of year in Winnipeg!
I did go to a craft sale the other day put on by the expats. I will miss seeing craft shows in winnipeg with my mum so it was nice to go to one here with a couple of girls. They had someneat stuff, it wasn't too much like a craft sale in Winnipeg though, less homemade stuff it seemed like, but a lot of beautiful items made by people in need and if purchased the money goes right back to them which is great!
Today and next sunday we have off due to elections. It is quite a big election in Egypt this year. I don't know too much about it but we were given the day off and told to stay in Maadi, "just in case". I wish there was a local english newscast becasue i feel really out of the loop as to what is going on sometimes!
I am about to leave for my weekly grade two meeting... a meeting where we end up mostly gossiping about the weekend and planning for the week for about ten minutes at the end. But it's great. I really like my teaching partners!
It's so strange to think that there is piles of snow on the ground in Winnipeg! I thought I would really notice and appreciate that there is no snow in December (and while I do appreciate it) it just sort of seems normal. Like a really long summer. Yesterday it was 25 degrees for most of the day which is great! It really doesn't feel like Christmas is less then a month away! In Winnipeg we know Christmas is coming as soon as Halloween is finished, but here there are very few christmas references around. When I went to Cyprus there was a christmas display in the airport and that reminded me just how close christmas is! I have to say it is kind of nice not feeling stressed out by all the shoppers and traffic that comes with this time of year in Winnipeg!
I did go to a craft sale the other day put on by the expats. I will miss seeing craft shows in winnipeg with my mum so it was nice to go to one here with a couple of girls. They had someneat stuff, it wasn't too much like a craft sale in Winnipeg though, less homemade stuff it seemed like, but a lot of beautiful items made by people in need and if purchased the money goes right back to them which is great!
Today and next sunday we have off due to elections. It is quite a big election in Egypt this year. I don't know too much about it but we were given the day off and told to stay in Maadi, "just in case". I wish there was a local english newscast becasue i feel really out of the loop as to what is going on sometimes!
I am about to leave for my weekly grade two meeting... a meeting where we end up mostly gossiping about the weekend and planning for the week for about ten minutes at the end. But it's great. I really like my teaching partners!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)