Today was our big school outing to Ain Sokhna (literally "warm eye"). We got a late start, took the long way, and got lost, so we arrived a bit late. The other teachers had already been at the beach for a couple of hours. It was very nice, though, to get out of the city. The teacher that invited us has a villa in a little "community." A short walk and you're at the beach.
I think the beaches in Egypt may have ruined me forever. They are perfect. The sand was white and pure. It was very shallow today, so we walked for 5-10 minutes to reach a depth where we could stand and be covered by water. The water was perfect, like a warm bath. You could see your feet below you as you stood. It was sunny and beautiful. The Red Sea is super salty, so you can float along without too much trouble. The only problem is when you get the salt water in your mouth, eyes, or nose.
Our administration, including our head boss, joined us today, so that was nice to have them along. They don't always join us on social outings. A lot of the Egyptian teachers don't join us either. The funny thing is that at most social gatherings we end up forming two circles anyway. The English speakers/foreigners hang together and the Egyptians stick together. We like doing things in different ways too. For example, the foreigners went straight to the beach, but the Egyptians were not as interested in swimming. They preferred to sit in the air conditioned house, socializing.
We did get our Egyptian director to play a game of Catch Phrase with us today. (We finally got to put that wedding gift to use! We knew the other Americans would appreciate a game as we sat around waiting to eat today.) She did pretty well considering how many of the words are American centered.
We ended up staying way later than we were supposed to. We always have to remember that we are on Egyptian time. We were supposed to get back by 5:00. We got back at 9:30, so by Egyptian standards we were right on time. We didn't mind, though. We got to go down to the beach twice, so it was a good day.
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