Saturday, December 25

Christmas in Cairo. How do I describe it? Okay, it was just like any other weekend, but Joe and I kind of made it that way. We had offers to go to Christmas mass and Christmas dinner with other expats, but we decided to be a little Scrooge-ish. Sometimes it's easier to ignore the holiday than to sit around wishing you were at home. We did get in a little cookie baking the other night, though, and we listened to our fair share of Christmas music. I even found a can of imported pumpkin, so I got to make a pumpkin pie. I've had it all to myself, of course, but I didn't get to have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, so I'm satisfied now. We even got to talk to our parents and some family. (Joe's nephews sang us "Jingle Bells" on the phone!)

Some of our students were very sweet and got us presents, even though they aren't Christian themselves. The students are sensitive to our holidays, and they know we get a little homesick.

We spent the day relaxing, reading, watching movies, and taking naps. Joe just went off to attempt a haircut again. He's gotten a buzz cut three times in a row, mainly because of language difficulties. I told him this time to just point to the top of his head and say, "Here, long" in Arabic. We'll see what happens. Believe it or not, I haven't cut my hair in all of these five months. I'm so chicken. One of my students offered to take me to the salon. I may just have to take her up on it.

It's almost weird to think of how long we have been here and how far we have come. Five months flew by. I can't believe we are at mid-term already. I think the rest of the year is going to zoom by.

We've been hearing how cold it is in Iowa. So sorry. Here I am complaining about our 50 degree weather. We had a guy come today to fix our heater. He's supposed to come back tomorrow, so we figure we won't see him again. There was supposed to be a guy coming to repair our black and white PlayStation/TV hookup. We're still waiting for him, even though he was supposed to be here last Saturday at 1 pm. Egypt time. He's really not late by Egyptian standards!

If nothing else, this culture has taught us to stop rushing around so much. Time becomes irrelevant. Maybe that explains why my students don't understand the concept of tardiness and why it's a bad thing. I keep trying to teach it to them. Shall I just give up and adjust to their culture? Nah, it's more fun my way.