Saturday, September 18

Joe and I are finallly starting to settle into our new place, the pace of school, and the pace of life here in Cairo. It feels as if we are constantly running errands, and we have no time to just sit when we get home from school. We always find ourselves going out for one thing or another. It's probably because there aren't many centralized shopping markets here. No Target or Walmart where you can do one-stop shopping. Instead, we make separate trips for various items. For example, we can't get single vegetables and fruits at the nearby market, so we have to make a trip to a vegetable and fruit stand. We are always walking, so we can't buy that much at a time. It's not like HEB or HyVee where I can load up on groceries for a month. There aren't as many frozen, quick items to buy either, so we are always feeling as if there's nothing to eat! In reality, there's nothing quick to throw into the microwave. At least it means we have to cook and eat non-processed foods.

When we went to the hash a couple of weeks ago, we met some teachers from another American school here in Egypt, so last night we all got together for a Mexican food potluck. It was nice to get together with a larger group of people. The food wasn't half bad, considering we had to make do with the pitas instead of tortillas, yogurt instead of sour cream, etc. It sounds like the teachers at the other school have the same exact problems we have. No resources, lousy administration, unruly kids, etc. Joe says, that no matter where we go, the teacher's are just a variation of each other. We all seem to be the same, with slight personality differences.

For those of you who like sports, we found out that we could watch American football and sports here, but we would have to have more extensive satelite. Neither Joe or I really care to get it, though. Joe was wanting to watch it the other day. He said it would make him feel more like he was at home. Oh well, if he's desperate, he can call up the teachers from the other school who have it. So far, we only have BBC World and a station called Channel 2. It's a hodge-podge of American programming. It seems they like to play the same shows over and over again that we wouldn't watch in the States. Occasionaly, though, I can catch Oprah or a decent movie.

I'm going to post a few pictures of our new apartment. Notice the glamorous decor and stylish mix-match furniture. It is so much comfortable than our last place, though.