Mid-November

November has cemented my thoughts that I don’t like teaching. I do like my kids, they are pretty cute and when they shut their mouths and try to work hard they are almost perfect. That rarely happens though. The truth is the kids would be easy to handle if I had any clue what I was doing. Since I received zero training and I have almost no idea of what I am doing, I blunder along daily and figure out as I go how to explain things like 3 digit addition and subtraction, conjunctions, proper nouns and ecosystems. I still feel like I yell all the time and because (believe it or not) I do not like to yell all the time I am making an effort to talk in a very soft but stern librarian voice. Let you know how that one goes.

One recent addition to life is being an usher. A friend of a friend finds people to work at fancy events, showing people to their seats and passing stuff out etc at a pretty decent wage for a night's work. Chrissie and I did one wedding, which was the gaudiest display of wealth I have ever seen in my life. Their wedding planner was probably thinking “What are the most expensive things you can put in one room?” To which the answer was orchids, lilies, candles, sushi (no one ate), open bar, 20 piece band, concert pianist, well-known DJ, outdoor and indoor venue, heating lamps, full table settings for the sit-down dinner that was not served, laser type lights on the walls, a venue in a private community, fur on everyone, tiki torches, camera men, video camera men, and my favorite the video crane. All this and it was only an engagement party. Apparently there were lots of famous people there, but because I have no Egyptian celebrity facial recognition I am sure they walked right past me and I am smiled at them like I smiled at the rest of the chumps.

Really my favorite three things about the event were…
1) The enormous amounts of blue eye-shadow the makeup artist put on me. Yes, that’s right we got our makeup done and all we did was stand there and smile by a door.

2) My poodle like early 90s prom up-do. I made the lady tuck a few strands in here and there and not let all the curls hang to the right side of my head. Centered is usually better with these things.

3) The four Asian nannies who must have been forced to wear matching Chinese embroidered dresses. You know these classic Chinese dresses, I think they are called Mandarin dresses and they have the buttons on the shoulders with no sleeves. Who would do that to their nanny? The bride-to-be must have wanted them to match the sushi and orchids.

Pictures of the event from across the pool/pond/lake in the compound.

Looking good Faye, yeah right! This picture is for you Amber :)

Joining the gym has not happened yet. I did however manage to go once alone and promptly loose my iPod. I am trying not to think about this past event because it makes me want to cry for hours about all the music that can no longer flood my ears. If you happen to have an extra one kicking around send it my way!

On the self-improvement front I have started trading Arabic for English lessons. After two lessons I can sort of pronounce 10 out of the 28 letters and know a few more words. I cannot recognize the letters or even come close to reading squiggly, don’t get your hopes up for me to read you the Koran at bed time when I get back. I thought I would be able to stomach not having a clue what people were saying around me, but curiosity is forcing me to learn something. Damn. Another top priority is learning how to cook Egyptian foods and desserts, so much honey yummy! I bought a cookbook and will be stumbling through the kitchen for the rest of my time here.

Speaking of food my favorite holiday is only days away! Yeah for Thanksgiving! In Cairo we are working on Thursday and it is parent’s day at that. Pray for me, I think the parents are going to eat me alive. Then on Friday we have “Fun Day II” at school. Hopefully there will be some fun unlike Fun Day I. All the teachers are being forced to attend and I am not happy. This means turkey day feasting is put off till Saturday. Oh well. We are hoping to host a big group even though we only have three forks on the kitchen. More news following the event.

On a side note everyone in the whole wide non-American world is beyond happy that America voted for Obama. Well-done America!!! We got congratulated when we came to school and it comes up at least once in all group settings. I am happy that I will be able to come back home if I choose. I would rather have self-enforced exile than McCain enforced exile.

In general I am happy here. Sometimes extremely exhausted with the pace of life (slow and slow and then super fast) and being in a huge city, but good people seem to be filling in the cracks with sunshine. On that cheesy note bye!