Thursday, December 9

It's been an exciting week. My sister, Angela, and her boyfriend, Ragnar, have come from Iceland. It's so much fun to have visitors. It's interesting to see what other people think of Cairo. It's also a good measure of how far we've come. We can't believe that we are actually able to arrange a lot of things, haggle with people, and get us where we need to go without too much trouble.

The first day we took Angela and Ragnar to the pyramids. We still hadn't been there yet. It was a pretty fun day. As usual, there was nothing organized about it. All of a sudden you're at the pyramids and you buy a ticket from a little shack with a window. So, Egypt! We wandered around the pyramids just taking it in. It's amazing, yet, at the same time, you feel like you've seen it all before.

We were getting heckled a lot by the peddlars. They wanted us to buy everything. Before we knew it, Angela and Ragnar had on sheikhs' "turbans" and they were sitting on a camel. It was fun doing the touristy stuff. It must have been a slow day, though, because they were all hounding us to ride horses, camels, and to buy junk. Angela and Ragnar got their first lesson in just saying no, thank you. We decided that Ragnar should just talk in Icelandic for us.

We saw the Sphinx and got some great photos. After that, we went to the Khan El Khalili bazaar to hang out at a coffee shop in the square and to try some sheesha (tobacco). It was neat to see both of them just take in the chaos and hum of the city to which we've become accustomed. It was a pretty tiring day because of all the haggling, crowds and taxis. I assured them that not every day was like this in Egypt, or else we'd never be able to handle it. Being a tourist is much too tiring.

We got a little Egyptian/Lebanese dinner and relaxed for the evening. On Saturday we went to the local mall, and Angela couldn't believe the prices (coming from Iceland which has really high prices.) They were in heaven doing a little shopping. At night, we finally went to a Nile cruise boat. We had dinner on a boat as it cruised the Nile. There was a singer, belly dancer, and a whirling dervish to entertain us. I have to say, the singer was really bad, and the belly dancer was not very good. However, the whirling dervish was pretty good. It was amazing the way he could keep spinning and spinning while performing tricks with his multi-colored "skirts."

The boat was a little too touristy, but fun in it's own way. We were glad to have experienced it. We have to find out where the good belly dancers perform. It would be fun to see a really good show.

Angela and Ragnar spent a day by themselves while we worked, and then headed to Sharm el Sheikh, a beach resort on the Red Sea. They'll be back tomorrow. I can't wait to hear how their trip went, as we have heard again and again how lovely it is there. It's supposed to have some of the best diving in the world.

Today, we went to the pyramids again with our school. Imagine 120 students running through the desert on their own. There was no way to even keep track of them. The pyramids are huge and it was crowded. We ended up going horseback riding through the desert with the students. It was much cheaper because our students negotiated the price. Now, in the whole day here were the events - one student was thrown to the ground by a security guard and almost arrested, one student got in a fight, one student got in a fight because someone said something to his sister, two students were thrown from their horses, two students fell from their horses, we arrived back an hour late, and we couldn't find what we thought were 8 students (it was a miscount). Ahhh....it's good to be home. Joe and I have learned how to take things in stride, though. It's just so opposite of the U.S. where you keep your students in groups, know where they are, etc. The students just take off. The funny thing is, they're always fine.

I told my principal, I'm always asking myself, "Is this normal?" I just watch things happening, cringe on the inside, and assume that it must be normal since no one else is upset. It's really weird adjusting to the different culture sometimes. You have to let go of so many of your assumptions and beliefs. The funny thing is, you realize sometimes that your beliefs weren't necessarily right or they wouldn't work in this context. Sometimes, their way does work just fine. It's hard to always admit that, though.

In all, we had a fun day. We got a great picture of Joe on a horse with the pyramids in the background. It was fun galloping across the desert, and our students are a lot of fun. They were so cute defending me. When we go to the pyramids, sometimes people try to take our pictures. The kids said they might be trying to steal from you. I also think they just haven't seen foreigners. Maybe they're from outside Cairo? Anyway, my students were telling everyone to go away. They handled all the peddlars as well. They are quite protective of us.

The funny thing today was that Joe found out he might be allergic to horses. When we got back from horseback riding his eyes were bright red. He said he had trouble breathing. It was the weirdest thing. I guess he'll have to get back on a horse to find out if it was the horses or the desert sand.

Okay, I've written a novel here. We'll post lots of pictures from our two pyramid trips that we've taken in less than a week!