wonky posts

I do not know why the fonts are so messed up in the post below and if I was an html whizz kid I would fix the problem. Instead I did not show up to the final session of my North Seattle Community College "continuing adult education" html class. Far from a whizz kid am I and even further from an adult.

Al Tarfa Eco Lodge

I have been away from home for a long time now and when you are away from home for so long you start to think about why you strayed from home in the first place and why you stay away. This morning, the start of my off day, as I was eating cookies, drinking coffee and preparing to lounge by the pool I realized why I was still away. The larger reason of why I left is complicated, but one simple reason to travel sticks in my mind: stereotype fulfillment. Crude and rude I know, not politically correct or really a sexy reason to get on a plane.

Not so deep down inside we go to places for stereotypical reasons. We go to Paris to fall in love. We go to South America to get a taste of communist rebels. We go to Africa to see the “real” while living in the comfort of former French and British colonialism. This past weekend I was able three reasons to travel to Egypt right on the head-ancient ruins, desert, and former colonial glitz at quite possible the most luxurious hotels I will ever stay in-Al Tarfa Eco Lodge in the Dakhla Oasis.

My most gracious boss was invited to the one-year anniversary of Al Tarfa, which was built and is owned by his good friend Weal and his lovely wife Mona. With a bit of prodding I convinced Hany that we should go, despite the long travel hours (five hour drive to Cairo, one hour flight to the western desert and then a four hour drive to the resort), and enjoy the weekend.

We got in a taxi, then a plane, then a car and then arrived at the resort nestled in the outskirts of a green palm oasis. Our greeting upon arrival, by staff with warm towels to wipe the travel dust off of our faces, set the tone for the rest of the stay. Which went a little like this: watch the sun set over various desert scenes, eat a three course meal served on fine china and silver, listen to the French soprano and her conductor husband serenade the guests, have a few drinks, chat, fall fast sleep in large white four poster beds, wake up to sun and coffee by the pool, go see some interesting desert site, chill at the spa or pool, eat ,and you can imagine the rest. Wash, rinse, relax, and repeat.

I was very homesick the week or so before this trip. I try, but I do not deal well with sadness. I get sad about one thing and it just cascades from there. Somehow just moving West made me feel better. I was 14 hours closer to home, and the green landscape and momentarily gray skies of the oasis did my heart some good. This post is already long so I will let the pictures show tell you the rest, 1,000 words and all that jazz. Side note, I finally found my camera battery charge which means more photos soon!

Al Tarfa Eco Lodge Photos

The walk up to the pool and main lodge

Restaurant

My bed is on the left

Sunset

Red sky at night, sailor's delight has relevancy in the desert too.

Silver moon behind the clouds

Poolside at all hours

Ancient Roman/Egyptian city

This minaret is 800 years old and constructed with a sand clay formula that is no longer known.

Tiny alley ways, twisted sand filled stairways, and impossibly standing mud structures filled our day excursion to this ancient city near the resort.


Our host Wael and Hany.

Ancient or current graffiti? Glass half full or empty? You decide.

The only really environmental use for car parts.

Dune wandering, sneaky Hany took this photo. I must also give Hany photo credit for all of the above. At this point I still had no camera battery :(

One Month

I have now been at the Castle Zaman for a little over one month, woot woot! As always settling into a work place is tricky. There are new personalities, routines, expectations, egos, and norms to deal with. I tend to think finding a happy medium between the norms of a place and my own personal standards and behavior is the hardest part of any job. I also tend to think places such as this hire you in some way because of your personality so you should not lose it. Maybe they will still like me after month two!

Here is daily routine....
Wake up around 8-9 am, by 9:50 am be outside to double check the cleaning guys have swept and cleaned up properly. Go down to the house and eat some breakfast. An old chef just came back and reinstated the daily tradition of fresh baked pita bread, yummy cheese spread, cucumbers, tomatoes, soft boiled eggs, and olives for breakfast. I love it. By 10:45 or 11 am start opening the bar. When there were three of us Rebecca and I would open the bar while Laura did the accounts. Now Rebecca has left (although she is coming back when Laura takes a vacation to Canada land) and either I do the accounts and Laura opens or the other way around.

This is the bar as you walk into the castle.

The doors open at noon and the first meal can be served as early as 2 pm. Then the day is pretty simple; serve drinks, set tables, show people around, chat with nice tourists, try to understand large groups of Russians who want fresh juice, open and shut the treasure room door, navigate various cultures, try to communicate with front door man in my super limited Arabic, and tell people my personal Egypt story over and over and over. We close as late as midnight or as early as 9:30 pm depending on how many guest we have/when they leave.

The castle. Under the thatched awning is the bar and main outdoor seating area. We have a sauna and a fresh water pool. I am spoiled.

Here some problems I run into...
Apparently I need to dumb down the English on the phone, people aren't getting me. Also no one likes my music or it is to "American," so I listen to stuff they have here. All in all small problems, I can deal.

I have come to conclusion that America still has a lot of work to do abroad to repair our horrible reputation. The whole Obama winning theNobel Peace Prize did not seem to hurt, also did not seem to help. Little ironic I think that he won a "peace prize" when he is the elected leader of the country that just BOMBED THE MOON! How not peaceful is bombing the moon, even if it was in the name of science?

New Environment

Eid is officially over. My first week was really slow and then Eid happened, wham I had to learn how to work behind the bar. Luckily cafes and bars around the world are much the same and customer service is customer service. Tell people to wait with a smile, let them see you working hard, and don't mess up to many drinks then people will be happy. Now Eid is over and that means no more 14 hour plus work days or hordes of young guests downing bottles of tequila in about 10 minutes! Ha, that makes the castle sound like Vegas and we are not Vegas. The guests are calm, incredibly nice, they want to get to know you, and most will come back a few times so you can get to know them too.

I am dealing with a pretty new environment physically and mentally. Environmentally I live in the desert and Saudi Arabia is across the sea. Sometimes I feel like I am overlooking Ballard and global warming has really happened. Nothing is green, the mountains have no snow, and the sun is hot and always shining. I crave grey and rain, I really want to wander around in the spitting Seattle rain and sleep in cold cold nights. Oh well, it will get cold here and I will most likely want the hot sun back. Cool things are happening though. I notice when the sun sets earlier, I can sort of guess the time by the light of day, little geckos make noises in the bathroom and my room, the South wind makes me sneeze because it brings more dust, and I am learning how to sleep through sunrise and pigeons cooing (so annoying) in my window.

Mentally the risk of being lonely and isolated is pretty high. I spend a lot of time at the castle with the same four wonderful people, but who can spend all their time with the same four people? Not me, so a resolution has been forming in my head to leave whenever I can for my sanity's sake. I had half a day off yesterday and headed down to the Good Life (a beach camp two friends run). There I read a little, chilled a little, and ate a good meal. Perfect change. Good resolution.

I cannot find my camera charger, but the pictures of the castle on the website are accurate. They are not glossy versions of the truth, that is where I live. Check them out.

On a conversational note is America falling apart? I have no idea except what I see in the headlines. Why do people give Glenn Beck the time of day, why do I know who he is, can we not get health care down and settled, can someone act like a leader and do something about global climate change now and not in the year 2020? I am pretty removed and I would really like to know if all the "Yes, we can" people still feel like they can or if Obama is doing and not just talking. You hear a lot about his pretty words over here and in the foreign press. Maybe action is happening at home? Let me know.

Visuals of my two new jobs

Quick pics of my new jobs. For more information check out the web sites.

www.tibesti.com


ww.castlezaman.com

Two jobs are better than one

I also have another job, well internship. I am working with Tibesti as a marketing intern. The position is remote, obviously, as I am in Egypt and they are in America.

More information about Tibesti and the position. Tibesti functions similarly to Amazon, it is web site that hosts vendors. But, unlike Amazon Tibesti gives you part of the comission they make on products sold. Members can put up to 100 products on their profiles (for free) and anyone can then shop from your profile. For example, if you want to buy a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans, you go to Tibesti, search for the product, find it on my profile, click buy, and then we both get a comission. You get 25 percent and so do I. If I were to buy a product from my own profile I would get 50 percent commission. Pretty cool, and perfect for things you have to buy really hate to spend money on.

I wish I had this in college, I would have bought all my texts books and school supplies from Tibesti, but also that was in early 2000 and such technology was not around. Thank the heavens we are nearing 2010 and technology is finally getting up to speed.

Full disclosure. I work for Tibesti, but I would not have taken a position like this if I thought it was a scam. I shop online, you all shop online, why not make money? Plus, it is also a great way to create a product lists that other people can shop from. Hint hint, if you are getting married or having a baby you can direct friends to your wish lists and they can buy you presents from there. Hmmm, might be cooler than Macy's. Just might be.

I will be posting awesome items and more information about Tibesti. Check it out, join up, make some purchases, and get money back. Add me as a friend, Faye1985 and if you are on twitter add me there too faye1985. Pretty east screen names huh?

www.tibesti.com

Still in Egypt, just not Cairo

Many or a few of you know I have been looking for job in Cairo since I came back at the beginning of August. Well, after over a month of imposing myself upon friends, hours of internet searches, way to many cover letters, and smiling in interviews I did not want to go to I found a job!

www.castlezaman.com

If you read the url yes I will be working and living in a castle. Yes, it overlooks the Red Sea from the top of a hill. Yes, it was built using revived Roman architecture. Yes, all the materials are recylcled or found in the Siani. Yes, the food is cooked slow and completely gourmet. Yes, it is in the Sinai minutes away from the beauty of the sea and the mountains right behind me.

My official title is bar person, glamorous I know. There are only three other employees who deal with guests so I imagine I will get to put my grubby hands in all kinds of things. I am a little scared because working on a beach is a drastic lifestyle change for me. The Siani is pretty isolated, but when I stayed over for a night to check it out and woke up to the sunrise turning the sea red, when I could see the outline of miles of corals reefs on the coast and when I walked out to sun filled silence I felt a little better about my decision.

I will keep you posted on my thoughts as they form, right now I am still a little shocked I am staying and moving to the beach. In the meantime check out the website.

Back to Cairo

I arrived back to Cairo after five weeks of epic and reviving travels with Ana and a host of other friends.

Briefly here is what I did while I was gone…

I met Sarah BJ in Paris, did a little apartment hunting and exploring with her. Ana met us after two days. Then Ana and I trained down to St Jean De Luz to stay at Ana’s co-workers gorgeous beach side home. Stayed for about a week. Next stop Monaco to catch the presentation of the Tour De France teams and ferry the next day to Calvi, Corsica. Calvi was three nights and days of a sweet music festival and daytime adventures. Followed by three more days of adventure, one ferry ride back to Nice, and a train ride to Turin, Italy.

We spent three amazing days/nights in Italy wandering around, eating food, getting stuff for free, and falling in love with Italy. Then took a train to Lamanon in Provance for a long awaited father daughter reunion and plenty of pool time along side Aunt Anne, cousins Nate and Vicky, cousins Karen and Chuck, Furlow, Jen, and Dad. Finally a train back to Paris where we were hosted by Karen and Chuck. We met up with Ana’s friend Joel, wandered, took an arduous bike ride to Versailles, visited one museum, and waited out one torrential downpour then Ana had to head back to New York and I took the Eurostar to London to meet up with Mikey/Michael.

Michael is known as Mikey in London and a visit to see him, meet his girlfriend, his friends there, and his life was the perfect ending to the trip. While in the UK there was biking around town, an overnight trip to Haslemere, a pretty rad one day music festival, drinks old friend Bob, Emma, and Patrick, rain, and ENGLISH being spoken everywhere!

Now I am back in Cairo and job searching here and abroad. I have pretty mixed emotions about being here. I do want to stay, but having been in other countries for five weeks I got used to being able to easily walk out a door, hop on a bus, and get around. I forgot how difficult and immobile life here feels for me. I feel landlocked somehow. I am also feeling a strong pull to be near friends, family, and weather with rain. So, I am typing away fixing resumes and cover letters, doing numerous searches, and making phone calls. If you know of anything let me know, I am up for a move anywhere!

Pictures will be up once I find a packed away cable.

Goodbye

Tomorrow I fly to Paris where I will meet up with Sarah for a day or so and wait for Ana to get off the plane. Then we are off to the SW of France, maybe a stop in Spain, then to Corsica, maybe Italy, back to France (this time Provence), then up to Paris again, and I am 99 percent sure I am heading over to London for a few days. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO

I don't know if I could be more excited. This trip is meshing together family, friends I have not see for years, food, wine, the ability to wear short dresses and not get called a hooker, and hopefully trash free streets.

I am really trying not to be negative in this post, but I am beyond happy to be done and done with Kenana. I am pretty upset about the way they handled leaving the apartment, my final paycheck, and the end of the year in general. Lucky roommates who left before me and did not have to deal with any of it.

But, happier times are ahead! I return to Cairo in August to look for a new job somewhere in the world.

Leaving

I am done with school. About damn time too.

I leave Cairo on the 22nd. About damn time too.

I need a change.

Obama

If young Egyptians did not like America they might after Obama's recent speech got just about every school shut down for the day. Three day weekend! I stayed home from school and watched the speech in real time at a friend's house.

I won't say to much about the speech, read it, but people here in general were really happy about him and are happier about America now. When your pharmacists interrupts your facewash purchase to let you know you have a pretty great president things could be worse.
I also heard comments during the English news broadcast about how Clinton was dressed far better than Condi. Now we have Clinton was walking around Hussein Mosque nicely veiled and actually looking really intersted. Bravo!

For those of you who have not been to Cairo the shots you might have seen of green traffic free streets and calm city life are so far from reality it makes me laugh. Mubarek put the whole city on lockdown and Obama and Clinton were able to drive from one end of the city and back, seeing ever site you could imagine in about a third of the time it usually takes to get downtown.

The use of Arabic and quotes from the Koran were genius and went a long way to delete the stupidity of the last eight years. As for the rest of it I get the sense the tone and messages were well recieved. I thought it sounded stern, yet understanding. I am sure people wanted to hear more about Israel/Palestine and I hope they will.

In closing never underestimate how much the rest of the world hated and still hates Bush. They do here, but are ready to maybe start American presidents again thanks to Obama.

I want to be here...

with this beer.
This photo is by Adham too. Stella is the official beer of Egypt. Not to crappy and I don't really like beer that much.

102 in May

It was apparently 102 degrees Fahrenheit in Cairo, Egypt. Thank Allah, God, Ganesh, Gaia, and whoever that my classroom's ac was working.

The bus ride home was miserable and I have no ac in my room. I want to be drinking beer, white wine, rose or a gin and tonic by a pool. Instead I have to teach. ugggggggghhhhhhhh

ps. The photo is courtesy of my friend (I met him through Hend) Adham who takes awesome shots. I am going to more of them up soon!

roomies blog

Katie and Paul have a shared blog. Check it out for stories about other places in Egypt and their life here, we do a ton together too.

www.triumphantcity.blogspot.com

May 8th, 2009

May 8, 2009 happens to be a Friday and Fridays in Cairo are the best day. The vast majority of people are off work and spend their mornings sleeping only to wake up and go to services. The streets are quite, you can cross them almost without looking and life always seems calm, a rarity. Like every Friday at one in the afternoon the call to prayer is going off, a sound I resent and find fascinating at the same time. On Fridays the services are broadcast out loud, forcing you to listen to the Muslim version of a Sunday service. As a complete nonbeliever it is hard not to want to shut the windows and block out the babble, but you can’t really. I catch the few words I understand, “why,” “God,” “thanks be to God,” “easy,” and “what is this?” The whole thing is forced upon everyone within earshot, making the service and devotion feel contrived in my mind. But, I am wrong. People here have genuine faith and use religion as a real guide for social and spiritual order.

So, I am sitting on our balcony, trying to block out services with Bob Marley and am struck by a strong desire for the most familiar things. I want my friends here with magazines and coffee, I want the smell of Seattle spring time, I want rain and clouds interspersed with sun, I want the sounds of birds instead of services, I want books instead of bad movies on TV, I want to be able to walk around in a tank top and short skirt, and I want to be able to find mountains peeking out between rows of houses. My wants are especially conflicted as our school year comes to a close, my roommates are all getting ready to leave by the end of the month, and my lack planning for life past July becomes more obvious. Yet, at the exact same time I could not be more happy and excited about still being in this very unfamiliar place and getting to know it more. I am still happy figuring out how to adapt to the lack of short skirts and walking paths, the lack of used bookstores and small boutiques with carefully selected spring fashions on the racks, and best friends and family within a ten minutes drive.

I guess the point of going to another place is to figure out how to bring the essentials of your familiar life to a non-familiar place, how to adjust to the conflicted feelings. Maybe Nescafe on the balcony instead of Americanos in the kitchen, and Bob Marley rivaling prayers instead of KEXP’s Positive Vibrations rivaling NPR next door is my way of bringing my familiars to this totally unfamiliar place.

The coffee is different, the music is not as varied, there are no other women within site, and the screeching of this priest is driving me nuts, but the idea of a Saturday morning is present and that makes me happy. It is good to be happy in such a strange place. It is good to be happy in any place.

Trip to Alexandria with the pros

Katie and Paul's friend Nate came to visit this past month and we all used him as an excuse to visit Alexandria one more time. Katie and Paul are Alex pros, having gone by themselves and with Katie's parents. We did not even need a guide book. The four of us found a pretty nice hotel room, tall ceilings and pink walls, at a very decent price. We also found the Mermaid bar with cheap Stellas. The Mermaid gave us a blackout for a little less than an hour and we got to drink our beers by candle light overlooking the Med Sea while Nate played a guitar that our waiter brought out for no reason. Mainly we walked around and just gazed at the sea and the general craziness of a different Egyptian town. We were there for a weekend and had a wonderful time, yeah Alex.

Big girls need love too, so do Panda Big Girls

If I ever have kids they will never be allowed to go to this amusement part because they will die. Either from the goats everywhere or from the crapptastic rides. Or maybe they will get shot by other kids playing shooting games. I do love Egypt though, do love it.

What Disney princesses are really like

The bay

Alexandria is home to a legitimate wooden ship yard, a very lost art. These small boats are everywhere in the bay and used for fishing, but they also make huge yacht. I did not think people made yacht likes the one below out of wood, figured they were all fiberglass. Who needs modern technology though when you have epic craftsmanship.

Just a small part of the fish market we walked past. Fish basket market really.

The bay again

We of course had to check out the library. These are some shots from the inside, I should have outside shots in an older post from my first trip to Alexandria.



Fabulous books being sold outside of the library. These two were right next to several translations of Mein Kampf, by Hitler. Ironic?

HAHAHAHAHA

Nuweiba

Nuweiba, Kum Kum (pronounced koom koom), and Sinai are all words that should arouse various images of paradise and feelings of contentment in the reader.

In the Sinai there is a small town called Nuweiba, about 10 minutes north of this town is a small beach camp named Kum Kum 3. I think this translates into roughly three pots of tea, something Hebrew in origin I am told. Either way the tea is delicious, the food was fresh, the huts have sea views, the sun was bright and I did not get burned, and I read two books.

The camp at dawn when we arrived

The Boys

Shahira, outside of my hut.

Camel eating trash out of the dumpster in the actual town of Nuweiba.

The main eating/seating area.

The Kum Kum at sunset

Shahira, Nigel, Rames and I arrived early, like 4am early, on Thursday. I stayed until Monday night, getting back to Cairo technically Tuesday morning.

I wish there were lots of stories to tell, but the beauty of the vacation really is the lack of crazy stories. I laid out in the sun, read the fourth Twilight book (awesome!), started reading “In the Name of the Rose,” and the Hemingway novel about bullfights in Spain, chatted with other visitors, ate salad and rice, drank sweet tea, got in the water, got out of the water, showered, slept under a mosquito net (after I got eaten alive the first night), went on a short jaunt to town where Ibought some mad comfy pants which I wore all weekend, said goodbye to other visitors, said hello to new ones, and napped.

Perfect.

Now I am back in Cairo. It really is spring and getting hot. The seniors have senioritis, it a global affliction, and I have six more weeks of class, one week of revision, and then exams. Looking forward to a short trip to Siwai and maybe some weekend beaches. Otherwise I have spent my vacation budget for April, maybe my food budget too. You know, if I can’t afford to eat I will at least look better in a swimsuit, hahaha.

Dear Maya

Dear Maya

Why is it that this year, of all years, you and your family no longer live in Israel? I was hanging out at the beach this past week, Nuweiba, and everyone there was from Tel Aviv. Not only does Hebrew sound a lot like Arabic, but all the Israelis there were mad chill and made Tel Aviv sound like paradise. Maybe there is some truth to these rumors about Israel being the Promised Land? Ha!

So my point is that now I really want to go to Israel and go hang out at an Ashram, grow dreadlocks, learn about various religious mysticisms, and chill. Well, ok, I don’t really want to grow dreads and my desire to seriously get into religion is still pretty much non-existent. That pretty much rules out the Ashram, unless I want to get into yoga. I can see myself getting into yoga, mildly athletic and somewhat spiritual in a non-defined malleable sort of way.

Do you still know anyone who wants to hang out with me in Israel? Does anyone know anyone who would want to hang out with me in Israel?

Love,
Faye

See how close Israel is to Nuweiba, see??? The map is not really to scale, but it is less than two hours from Taba to Nuweiba. See???

Cairo Spring

It is spring in Cairo. The weather alternates between dry sandy wind, cool and sunny, and oppressively hot. The heat does not quite lock you up and throw away the key, it is more oppressive in the way a time out is to a five year old. Time outs are also just hints at summer's future plans for total lock down.

Smells around the city tag along with the weather. Dry sandy days make your skin crawl with dust you will never get off and never stop smelling. The cool days are fresh and make the beige seem green. As it gets hotter the trash smells worse and the city’s stench is only paused when you walk past a fruit stand and over ripe guavas fill the air. I love the way they smell and hate the way they taste.

School had become a larger joke than any of us expected. Chrissie and Paul are basically done teaching their reading program because the entire national school is cramming for exams. They get out an hour early and have nothing to do at school except sub. Katie is almost done teaching the ABCs to the little ones and will also have nothing to do starting in May. Anna is leaving early; most likely around May 1st. Tom and I have classes to teach until about the second week of June, then revision, and exams. For being a pretty valuable resource, native English speakers, the school has squandered us, especially in the national school. Chrissie and Paul have been passed around from classroom to classroom, given no clear guidelines as to what or to whom they are teaching, and then expected to perform at peak. Silly, in the words of my Grandma Ehrich, just silly.

I have had the same job the whole year, but still no training. All of us are fed up and pretty sick of teaching, the school, and dealing with all the unmotivated and uniformed bossing around we get. Oh well. Almost done!

We actually had semi-cloudy weather in Dahab and one day it rained three drops in the morning. That might sound like a bad thing, but it never rains there so I thought it was pretty cool to see some moisture in the air. Our last day in town was perfect and sunny, we even did some non-burning sunbathing.

The Blue Hole is that large dark spot near the shore.

Underwater madness, I love these little orange guys.

Octopus. Pretty rare during the day.

Same octopus, different colors.

Underwater dork shot.

I went down this canyon for my first official deep dive. You just go straight down to 30 meters and poke around a little canyon. On the way back up you swim through everyone's bubbles, which are also popping out of every tiny crack in the nearby sand and rocks. A little bubble field.

More giant clams of a different pattern.

fishy fishy

School of fishy fishy

Scuba buddies on the go

Everyone loves a clown fish, thank Nemo and Disney.