Saturday, November 6

It's been a calm week. Joe and I spent some time hanging out with Carly, because she is heading home to the U.S. next week. Today, Joe and I went to the Khan El Khalili to buy a gift. It's always nice that we live here so we can just run down to the bazaar when we need to.

Egypt, of course, is still full of its idiosyncracies. This morning we woke up to smog, but last night I really appreciated being here when a band came down the street. All of a sudden we heard music and then a make-shift band came by playing for tips. That's when I really feel like I don't live in the U.S. anymore. The Ramadan lights were hanging across the street, one man carried a lantern, and they played the trumpet and tambourine and sang. It was very oriental/Middle Eastern feeling.

We went out and had some coffee. There really isn't much entertainment here. Or at least, we don't feel like there is. We realized that a great deal of the entertainment in the U.S. is really just drinking. Here people go out with friends and family to coffee shops or restaurants and they just sit for hours and enjoy talking to each other. When Joe and I were at our neighbors for iftar, we realized how much they appreciate their families. It's not uncommon to spend a great deal of time with family also.

Things at school have been a little chaotic because both of our single, female teachers have announced that they are going home. I believe there will be a new English teacher hired, but we will have to do a lot of rearranging. Joe and I continue to be flexible. We see no reason to get bent out of shape about anything. We're living and working in a foreign country just as we wanted to do. We might as well enjoy it and not let work get on our nerves.

We are so excited because we finally decided what we are going to do for the end of Ramadan holiday. We have five days off school, and we have to leave the country in order to start processing our work permits. (Long story there.) So, we are taking off a couple of extra days and we are going to Prague. We are looking forward to it. It will be nice to go somewhere with a different environment. Who knows. It might even snow. Joe's thrilled, of course. If you know Joe than you know how much he likes to visit the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. We're looking forward to Czech food and quite frankly, Czech beer. The Eygptian stuff just isn't the same. Hopefully, it will be a very relaxing vacation. We are on a hunt for a decent kennel for Leia. We'll see what we can find. After our vacation, we should have some really great pictures to post.