Soaking up every last moment...

Just as predicted, these last weeks are filling with friends and fun......

December thus far has included chaperoning the ninth grade Islamic Cairo field trip to the Ibn Tulun, Hassan and Rafai Mosques as well as the Citadel,

seeing the whirling dervishes live downtown,

exploring the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo,


beaming with pride at the middle school talent show,

and celebrating Egyptian Culture Week at CAC...


The only remaining items on my Egypt bucket list: Islamic Art Museum and Saqqara Pyramids... But you know, I'd still be completely satisfied with my time here even if they don't happen...

Hello UNI Homepage

Pretty cool seeing myself jumping in front of the pyramids on the UNI website this week.. I think now my Egyptian friends are actually starting to grasp how much I truly love my school and my panthers...

I'm feeling a little more of an obligation to give quality updates now that so many more eyes are skimming over this...I'll try even harder to ramble less and add lots of photos (though.. it's already taken me two paragraphs to get this far...)

First, the game last weekend=so fun! I wish my brother had been here with me... El Ahly beat Tunisia (yay!) which produced some unhappy Tunisian fans...Next time I want to sit in the hooligan section (though my friends will never let me, don't worry)

Then Wednesday we had the day off school for the Egyptian National Holiday. I still get a funny feeling about this day, it's not talked about.. the reclaiming of the Sinai... It's a bit of an elephant in the room... (notice the cut out of this flags of the world poster?...)


I spent the day on an MJ tour. MJ is my cooperating teacher's wife, and a very knowledgeable, connected woman in Maadi who frequently takes groups of newcomers and visitors around Cairo. We visited some not-so-touristy-places (right up my alley), including: Garbage City, Mother Theresa House,some tombs in the City of the Dead, an Alabaster Factory,
and ended at Al Azhar Park.



Now after this week of fun, I seriously.. really.. truly.. need to *finish* this Teacher Work Sample. Off to school today and tomorrow to try out some new lesson plan ideas, finish up some sections of my TWS, and support the boys volleyball team as they host a tournament with a school in London.

By the way.. it's a beautiful fall day in Egyptland...

2 Months.

So I have officially been in Egypt for 2 months now. It's incredible to think that it's the same amount of time I spent each summer in Chile.. and how I am far from ready to leave this place yet. I'm sitting here thinking, these next few 2.75 months (it's not a full 3, ask my dad), are going to FLY by. So far, I've done an incredible job of seeing the sights and keeping busy BUSY BUSY outside of school. I've met some really wonderful people, and seen enough to satisfy me for a long time... but.. that's not saying I'm throwing in the sightseeing and culture absorbing towel in by any means :)

Highlights this week:

TGIT (thank goodness it's Thursday) School wide social after classes ended last Thursday. The Elementary, Middle School, and High School principals live in the top three floors of an appartment building and the faculty migrated from flat to flat enjoying yummy food and drink and a chance to relax off the long week.

Met some AUC (American University of Cairo) and hung out with them in Zamalek

Went to the Cairo Tower on Sunday night, wonderful view of the whole city. (Though I experienced the staggering price difference between residents, 20LE and nonresidents 70LE...ohwell).

Dinner at the Mockrish's house on Wed night for Jessie's birthday (even though she's in PA)



Spent Thursday this week with Esraa (an art student in Zamalek) at the Museum of Modern Art (cooool!) and walking all over the area eating good food and visiting smaller art galleries.

Went to the Citadel with Danielle on Friday for the afternoon.



Currently trying to refocus my mind into Miss Martens Mode.

oh. and. as if that wasn't a great enough week, I'm going to my FIRST EGYPTIAN FOOTBALL GAME TOMORROW NIGHT!!! *can't wait*

Ok. Lesson Plan/Teacher Work Sample Time. and. ready. set... hm. a cup of tea sounds nice first. (oh dear).

Donya Dai'a

...small world...

A conversation with my dear friend Jordan tonight reminded me of how increasingly difficult it is to keep up with two worlds. To keep up with everything happening in Iowa: next to impossible (thank God for facebook for the little I do pick up)... To share with you everything I'm experiencing here in Cairo: really truly impossible. I'll do my best to keep posting highlights...

Ramadan is over, we had an extended holiday weekend in which 90% of Maadi went traveling to beach resorts on the north coast or red sea.. It ended up being a Plan Z weekend for Amy.. Plans kept changing, nothing actually went as planned (nothing that happened was planned, but I think that's a parallel to life too).. I was really feeling frustrated and a tad bit depressed on Thursday going into the weekend thinking I'd be alone.. all of my friends were traveling away (and had left while I was teaching already) or were with their families. Not only was I going to miss them, but I was missing my family back in the states quite a bit as well and it seemed to rub it in further that I couldn't see them because they were with family which I was without as well... I will admit I was a tad bit grumpy. I didn't want to do the touristy thing and go hit up the Steppe Pyramid and Egyptian Museum as I had thought I might (plan d), I remembered how much I hate feeling like and living like a tourist(doing things for the sake of saying I did them). So I decided I'd spend the weekend doing normal daily life things, and cross my fingers that it involved some local friends.

Turned out to be the best weekend yet. Topped Giza pyramids easily. I spent the Eid night Thursday watching fireworks, drinking shay (tea), and eating some kind of hummus soup on the side of the road on a bridge overlooking the Nile with my friends Hani and Hamad. (slept the entire next day). Went for a 5 hour walk of all of Maadi (I swear I almost reached Luxor). Traveling the back streets all over Cairo- I saw so many people and homes and goats... I heard "welcome to Egypt!" about 3 million times, and was begged to photograph each and every mob of children I encountered. To top off an increasingly enjoyable long weekend, I found my family. My Cairene family. Donya dai'a...they are wonderful people (I will devote an entire blog entry to in the near future)...friends of friends, related to the owners of the Kimo market right around the corner from my flat, art teachers, art students, and connected in any and every bizarre way to other people I've met here in Maadi. They speak enough english to communicate, quite well.. but encourage my desire to learn arabic to where after 3 hours sharing time together in an outdoor cafe saturday night, I believe they have taken it on as their personal mission to help me learn arabic before I leave.

Oh. And I have a standing invite to their home
...on the Nile
...every Friday.
Now this. this feels like home.