Tuesday, March 20

It gets a little difficult to blog since life here has become so routine. It seems that we never do anything that exciting anymore! The craziness of Cairo has worn off a bit. Just today we were passing by a minivan with at least eight men hanging off the outside of it on the highway. My only comment was, "I wish I had the camera." I wasn't surprised or shocked like I used to be. I even ride in the front seat of our school van now, which was lovingly called the "death seat" before because you had such an up-close view of the wild Cairo traffic. I fall asleep almost everyday! Only rarely do I really feel nervous up there. I'm very fortunate that another teacher gave up the front seat for me as the pregnant lady of the group. At least there's a seatbelt.

Joe and I went to another doctor's office visit tonight. It's always fun to go and hear the baby's heartbeat. As you can see from my picture, she's really making me stick out! I don't know what maternity doctor visits are like in the States, but Joe gets a kick out of them here. He comes in with me and we both sit down across from the doctor at his desk. Then, after we talk and ask questions for a bit, he calls the nurse in. She takes me behind a privacy screen, so that they can check my blood pressure, measure me and listen to the heartbeat. It's funny to us because it's like Joe can't see my tummy. It's too private. I'm pretty sure that's not a big deal in the U.S. Oh, Egypt. We do like our doctor a lot. He's a very laid back guy, but he seems to be really up on his stuff. He's headed to L.A. again for the second or third time since we got pregnant. I don't know exactly why he goes so much, but he keeps up on the latest practices. I wish I could go the U.S. as much as he does!

Things are going pretty well. School is school, and we are trudging toward the end of our third term. We just have to make it to the end of March. Then, the school talent show will be over. I was crazy enough to volunteer to run it. It hasn't been too bad so far, as Joe and another teacher have been very helpful. We'll really only have April and May left for teaching. In April we have so much vacation, we only teach for 11 days. Okay by me!

The weather is getting a bit nicer. We'll see if any more dust storms pop up. Hopefully not. Other than that, it's Cairo-life as we know it.