Abby's Travel Blog

India, Nepal, and Thailand

2009-01-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting around to updating this blog.
With everything that has happened in the last year, I'm really behind!
In January 2008, we took a three week trip to India and Nepal.
We stopped in Thailand on the home.
It was an whirlwind trip as you can imagine.
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Kolkata (formally spelled Calcutta.)
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Ghandi's bed, New Delhi
______

You know it - the Taj Mahal. It was crowded and I got
sick on the broken down train on the way back to the city.
Definitely not the highlight of India.
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Bodhgaya, India
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My friend Sung Ae, who helped me so much in Korea.
She's standing in front of the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya.
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This was the view from our porch in Varanasi, India.
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Varanasi, India
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We flew over the border to Nepal.
I love the fourth item listed.
I guess I can't go through the green channel at customs in Nepal.
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Boudhanath, Nepal was so beautiful and welcoming
that I can't wait to go back.
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The stupa at Boudhanath, Nepal.
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Thailand
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Updates.

2007-10-15T05:40:00.001-07:00

As you can see, we've been really busy traveling around the area. This weekend we just hung out at home. We finally got some furniture, no more sitting on the living room floor! So now things really feel settled, and the apartment feels like home.

My classes are going pretty well. The highest grade of middle schoolers are the toughest. They'll be done in a couple of months, so they've got senioritis big time. Who can blame them?

Oh yeah, and the big news is that an Indian restaurant is opening in town! We've been counting the days, and finally were able to eat there tonight. It's so nice to have an alternative to rice and kimchi!

That's it for now. Enjoy!

Field Trip

2007-10-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

These shots are from a field trip I took with some of my students at Hallim Middle School. We went to Hwawang Mountain.

The trail was beautiful, and the view from the top was spectacular. It was rough for a lot of students. To go from sitting at a desk most of your waking hours, to hiking nearly three miles up, with no switchbacks, somehow just doesn't seem fair! You can imagine their outbursts when their teacher wizzed past on a rented motor bike!

At the top, the students spread out across this old fortress wall. The wall is thought to have been used off and on, as needed, since the Gaya period (about 1300 years ago.)

No, this isn't sushi. This is Kimbap. It's a very popular, quick meal - all of the students had this for lunch - every single one. It's pretty much the equivelant of a sandwich - seaweed and rice, wrapped around any number of fillings...

The teachers had an enormous amount of food in their bags. We had our picnic together, and supplemented it all with some food from the little food stand set up at the top of the mountain!

The mountain is known for its grasses. They are burned once every three years to promote new growth.

2007-10-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

This year's Blog Action Day has an Environmental theme. So here are some ways I thought of to be more environmentally friendly in your everyday life:

Take the extra few minutes to dine-in instead of taking your fast food to go. It really doesn't take that long to eat, and you'll be saving all sorts of paper, and packing materials.

Use reusable shopping bags, or reuse your old bags before recycling. Okay, this is a huge thing with me. (Prompting my sister to say to me once, "What, you're anti-bag now?") Think about it. You buy something. It goes into a plastic bag, just for the three minutes it takes you to walk to your car, and then the two minutes it takes you to unload it from your car. And how often do you get a bag for one or two items, that could just as easily be carried?

Eat fresh foods as much as possible. There is far less processing and packaging involved with them, which results in less waste all around. (And you'll have more energy too :-)

Take a few minutes to find out the recycling rules for the program in your neighborhood. Maybe you could be recycling more everyday.

Take a few minutes to find out the recycling rules for the program at your job. Maybe you could be recycling more everyday.

Carry a reusable coffee mug or thermos for use at coffee shops everywhere.

Carry a reusable water bottle.

Pusan International Film Festival

2007-10-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

PIFF is the largest film festival in Asia. Movies were featured from all around the world. With a dizzying number of films, it was a little overwhelming to try to plan for the event. In the end, I just woke up that morning, went to the festival plaza, and saw what was playing that day, at that location. We ended up seeing a Japanese anime called, "Vexille." It wasn't the absolute best movie I've ever seen, but it was just fun to see a movie on the big screen and be able to understand it - thanks to English subtitles!

Jinju Lantern Festival

2007-10-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

This was quite the event with dozens of lanterns (some from other countries) scattered up and down the river.

Gyeongju

2007-10-14T05:29:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Gyeongju, the capital during the Shilla dynasty. This city is known as "the museum without walls" due to all of the artifacts and ruins scattered across it. We had a really nice time, though it did get rainy on us!

Our first stop... the entrance to the enormous temple complex called Bulguksa.

A peek inside the largest temple on the grounds.

Water like this is frequently available (for drinking) in mountain areas.

From Bulguksa, we hiked about two miles up the mountain. We reached Seokuram Grotto - a restoration of the original grotto located here. The grotto contains a large stone buddha statue. It was a little disappointing to find that we couldn't enter the grotto, or take photos. So we had a look through the glass viewing area, and then headed back down the mountain.

The grotto is in that little hill just behind the building on the left. It was really misty
toward the top of the mountain, as you can see in the photo.

A woman in her raincoat take a photo near an enormous
funeral mound in the middle of Gyeonju. We got to go inside one.
Think pyramid, with dirt and grass over the top...

More ruins (I think.)

Lotus stems.

This building was built as part of the World Culture Expo Center. It was hard to get a decent photo, but the shape of a pagoda is cut right out of the middle of it.
It looked like you could take an elevator up to and observation deck near the top.

Amusing...

2007-10-13T04:14:00.000-07:00

This guy just wouldn't stand still for my photo!
Top: DUMP HIM Bottom: www.dumphim.com

This was the first time I had seen ginseng in such massive quantities,
and being sold out of the back of a pick-up.

My co-teacher (who was driving) couldn't even see that there
was a light here, until I pointed it out.

Breakfast set.

Notice the last flavor.

Yes, this arcade game is full of candy.

Pizza often comes with some kind of sauce all over the top.

The holiday (Chuseok - "Korean Thanksgiving") special at Baskin Robbins.

Plastic spaghetti.

Plastic food on display.

The machine on the left is a popcorn dispenser?

Roughly $18.00 for one of these containers of Quaker Oats.

Mmm... yummy chocolate cheese. I'm not even kidding you. - If you look
at the enlarged picture, you may see that this says "Choco Cheese"
in English above the Korean (which says the same thing.)

Market

2007-09-09T02:44:00.001-07:00

There's a traditional market just down the street from our apartment. There was one in our old town, but it only came every five days. Vendors are at this market every day, and it 's really busy in the evening... The market's the best place to find fresh, cheap produce.

These are all different kinds of snacks. Most of them are fishcakes
(thin patties made from ground up fish.) People can buy them and stand there and eat,
using the sauces in the bowls.

Grains and garlic. (Onions too!)

The bottom row are squid - very popular here.

Crab and other sea critters...

These are usually translated as rice cakes. They're made out of glutinous rice,
and are a traditional dessert. They're not very sweet,
and kind of remind me of a dense, extra chewy noodle.

Most Korean meals are served with a variety of pan-chan (pronounced pon-chon loosely side dishes in English.) The pan-chan are mostly vegetables, and sometimes seafood that have been seasoned/marinated. They're delicious eaten alone or with rice. This vendor sells a huge variety of them, I can't imagine who makes them all!
The same vendor sells kimchi, and it's so popular, it's made in even bigger portions.

Dried roots and mushrooms. The things that look like sticks wrapped in red ribbon
(up and to the of the red bowl) are cinnamon.

A women mixes a huge dish of ddeok po ki. Ddeok po ki is made with rice cakes (shaped like long and thick noodles) and a sweet chili sauce. There's also usually green onions, fish cakes and a hard boiled egg mixed in. It's really popular with school children.

These women are enjoying some ddeok po ki at a street stand in the market.

Park

2007-09-09T02:26:00.000-07:00

There are a dozen of these little parks throughout the apartment complexes. Some are only a few benches in a green area. This is a larger one with all sorts of exercise equipment.

This is a skate park I found in the opposite direction.
The kids seemed more interested in skating around the ramps then on them.

Return of the English Teacher

2007-09-09T02:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Korea. I'm teaching English at two middle schools in Gimhae (in the southeastern part of the country.) I survived my first week. I had to get used to going to work again (poor me!) All of my co-teachers are really nice. I work at Jangyu Middle School and Hallim Middle School. They're both considered "rural" schools because they're out of the main Gimhae area. The Jangyu area is pretty built up though. It's very fast growing. Hallim is in a less populated area, surrounded by mountains.

On my third day a camera man from Gimhae News came to record one of my classes. It was a little stressful since it was only my third day! My co-teacher (Korean English teacher in the classroom with me) and I taught the class together, so that was helpful. I felt so sorry for the students, they really didn't want to make any mistakes in front of the camera, and it was my first time meeting them!. I've heard that it will be available on their website next week. I'll post the link when I get it. The news clip with my class in it is suppose to be on the local channel 18 times next week!

I'm adjusting to being back here. I'm getting used to certain aspects of the culture again such as things not getting done when I'm told they'll be done, and the hectic level of activity. There are a lot more foreigners here than in our last town, so we've seen them quite a bit. Okay, on to the photos...

2007-09-08T04:04:00.001-07:00

We went to find Hallim Middle school, and saw all of this squash
growing on top of a collection of motorcycles and old tires.

Down the street from our apartment.

I went to a restaurant up in one of the mountains surrounding Gimhae.

A small part of a larger temple on Imho Mountain. Imho Mountain
is within walking distance of our apartment.

Peppers drying near the temple.

Figurines placed along the cliff next to the temple.

View from the temple.

View of Gimhae from the temple.

View in the direction of our apartment.

HanGuk Apartments

2007-09-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

The kitchen (bigger than our last kitchen, or maybe it just has smaller appliances...)

Bedroom

View from the doorway. The bedroom is on the right,
and the living room on the left.

Doorway and bathroom.

The view from the back window.

The view out our front door.
(Getting the idea of what our building looks like?)

The view to the right out our front door.

Chicago Land

2007-07-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

Downtown

(That's me in the middle!)

In case you've forgotten my beautiful face...

The Kane County Fair

Yes, this really was one of the attractions. It was even advertised in the paper!

Driving home...

2007-07-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

looked like this:

Arizona

2007-07-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time in Arizona. It was a little hotter, but beautiful landscapes, and I got to see a dear friend who I haven't seen for 9 years!

The Painted Desert at Petrified Forest National Park.

Petrified National Park again.

Bell Rock in Sedona.

I can't believe where plants can grow. This Juniper tree is old too!

The scenery near the river in Sedona is very different
from the red rock of the surrounding area.

I think this might be the most fitting photo of Damon...
A passerby said the image reminded her of the second coming!

Sunset in Sedona.

Cathedral Rock, Sedona.

The top of the trail at Cathedral Rock.

The hike was nice and the views were breathtaking!

A hoop dancer performs near the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park.

Damon climbs over the railing.

View of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
The park was so crowded near the visitor center that we couldn't even get a parking spot.
We explored other lookout areas, which had little to no people.
We went on a relatively short hike down the side of the canyon.
It was 100 times more peaceful down the trail.

This is a sunset at Navajo National Park in AZ.

View of the canyon at Navajo National Park.

New Mexico

2007-07-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

Man, I love this state! I took a lot of pictures here!

If you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend trying a little Frybread.
It's a flat bread, commonly made by Native Americans and served with honey.

This gorgeous butte is in Chaco Canyon, NM.
The canyon is a bit remote, making it one of the gems of our trip.
We camped there over night, and had a fantastic time touring the ruins and sites in the area.

These ruins are from the largest Ancestral Puebloan structures in the country. Chaco Canyon was a center of the culture from 850AD to 1250AD. I was so thrilled reading about
the archeological finds there, Damon commented that maybe I should have been an archeologist!

The largest kiva in the canyon at sunset.

We hiked from the canyon floor to the mesa top using this natural "staircase."
It's amazing how the canyon walls look inaccessible, but when you go to just the right place,
a gradual incline like this leads easily to the top! I loved walking up this "staircase" that has
been used by people for thousands of years!

Anscestral Puebloan people carved bowls like this into the mesa top.
They may have been used for offerings.

We saw several ravens. Exciting to us, ordinary to people from the region.

Walking along the mesa top.

Fossilized sea shells.

Shrine behind the Sancturio de Chimayo.

Sancturio de Chimayo

Nice mesa top campsite.

A little shop with a lot of stuff.

I can see why Georgia O'Keefe painted the NM sky so frequently.

We stopped at this little cafe in Pietown.

But, they were gone fishing...

This is the post office in Pietown! We found a second place to have breakfast,
but they were only serving pie. Pie for breakfast? Don't have to twist my arm!

Another gorgeous NM landscape, and a favorite photo.

Last stop in Colorado.

2007-06-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Mesa Verde National Park was our last stop in Colorado. This is a site inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years. They built these cliff dwellings during the last 200 years or so that they lived in the area. No one knows why they moved to the cliffs, or why they abandoned them.

Part of the huge Mesa.

To get to the first cliff dwelling, we had to:

Climb this huge ladder.

Then shimmy through this small passage.

These are doors. The top door would have been reached by ladder.

The houses were built right into the cliffs.

This is a kiva, a ceremonial chamber. It would have had logs across the top forming a roof.
People got inside by climbing down a ladder in the middle of the roof.

This is an original wall painting.

At one point we squeezed through this passage.

At another we crawled through this hole.

To leave, we had to climb this ladder...

Then amble up this path!

This was another cliff dwelling site at Mesa Verde.

Colorado

2007-06-29T10:59:00.001-07:00

We made our way across Colorado.

On the west side of the Rockies, we ended up on a detour - this one lane dirt road.
It was gorgeous, but took us two hours to go 50 miles!

We wound through open ranges, and this group of horses walked right up to the car!

This herd of skiddish mule deer crossed our path several times.

We stopped for this amazing view of the mountains.
The photo doesn't do it justice.

We spent some time near a little mountain town called Ridgeway.
We passed this herd of bulls many times.

The Man.

The Riverwalk in Ridgeway.

View from Box Canyon Falls.

Box Canyon Falls.

Looks like a movie set. This is an old mining town called Silverton.
There's really just the one main street, but you have to take an extremely
scary mountain pass highway to get to it. Many of the buildings still have the actual store fronts.

Silverton City Hall. Built in 1908.

The Midwest

2007-06-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Damon and I had the great opportunity to take a roadtrip to the South West. This first batch of photos are mostly from Nebraska where we were followed by a storm most of our second day of driving. I took over 300 pictures of this trip, so I'll let them do the talking!

Packed to go. Mom and Dad are seeing us off.

The entire state of Nebraska looks like this.

Sunset near Lincoln, Memorial Day weekend.

Storm clouds rolling in.

The sign on the right says "Business District."

The storm was catching up to us, the sun was setting, and we saw a double rainbow.
(The second one is very faint, to the right of the darker one...)

My middle school students waiting for class to start...

2006-12-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

In case you forgot what I look like...

2006-12-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

I just realized...

2006-12-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't post any photos from our trip to Jeju-do with my parents! We had a fabulous time bumming around Korea with my parents for 10 days. We went down to one of the Southern most islands. Here are some photos...

Christmas in Seoul

2006-12-02T22:45:00.000-08:00

I went to Seoul with Alice, one of my students. She studied in the US, and speaks English very naturally. She's helped me a lot translating things!

Little students

2006-12-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

These kids are usually my first afternoon class of the day. They're little, and they crack me up the whole hour! They love to sing and do silly dances to the songs (they're the only class who does!)

Halloween Party

2006-12-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

We had a Halloween Party at the school. Kid's know what Halloween is, but they don't really celebrate it here. I was using the digital camera, so everything's kind of blurry!

My boss' daughter and friend helping me in the haunted house.

My co-worker's son in a handmade mask.

Most of the kids showed up early, and without their parents! We sat them down to watch scary movies until we were ready.

2006-07-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been dating for two years now, and it seems like its only been a week, yet it also seems like we've always been together... While we're talking about time, I've been gone from the US for about a year now. Time just truly flies...

Mallipo (Ma-Lee-poe) Beach

2006-07-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

It had been raining non-stop around here but by last weekend, we decided to go out anyway. We had a three-day weekend, so we went to this beach in this little town on the west coast. It was really nice because once we arrived, the rain stopped, and we enjoyed some time on the beach. It drizzled a little and we went in and got some dinner, when we came out, it had stopped. The sun had already set, and Korean people gathered on what was left of the beach (the tide had come in) to shoot off fire crackers sold in the convenient shops. It was so fun! Oh yeah, I was looking at this star fish when a man, who was walking by, just picked it up and threw it like a frisbee onto the rocks. I was so surprised I was shocked! I think he thought I would laugh, and when he realized I wasn't going to, he just kept on walking. So thoughtless. I went and found it and it's edges were a little bent. I put it back in the ocean... The next day we killed time while it was raining in a little arcade. My peace loving boyfriend played mortal combat type testosterone games, while I played Tetris (and got the 11th highest score!) It was really funny to me to watch him play these violent fighting games, it just doesn't compute with everything I know about him! We had a great time in the little town, and returned to bustle of Seoul for an underwhelming evening and arrived home the next day.

Yong Mune Mountain

2006-07-23T02:46:00.000-07:00

I went hiking with my co-workers a couple of weekends ago. It ended up just being me and five Korean women. I don't think I've ever laughed so much while my body was in so much pain! The whole thing started off an a hilarious note because we were deciding what time to leave. Jinhee suggested we leave at 6:00 am, to which I exclaimed, "Six AM! Are you crazy! You've been working every day for the last two weeks! This is your first Saturday off, and you want to leave at six AM!" [final exams had just finished] To which everyone was just falling over laughing! We left at 8am. The trail was unbelievably beautiful, and I had several funny encounters with other Korean hikers, as it appeared I was the only foreigner on the mountain that day. Know one knew, but we unfortunately picked the very hard trail. Part-way up I was remembering explaining the nuance between "hiking" and "climbing the mountain" to my adult students. I explained that "hiking" was the term native speakers use. However, on this hike, I started to think, "maybe Korean people really do "climb a mountain!" when they go out!" The trail was so hard, there were ropes secured along it in places to pull yourself up! (And we did this for three hours up and two hours down!) My friends explained that none of them had climbed a trail that was this hard before! They just didn't realize this trail was the hard trail! I knew I was going to be sore, so I went to the bathhouse the next day!
From top to bottom:
My lovely boss, Lee Jong Suk (JJ), taking a breather.
Fantastic sites from a ridge trail we hiked/climbed.
My co-workers after climbing the rocks using a rope!
My friend Pok Jin Hee (Jinhee), who never ceases to amaze me with her serenity.
And rock sculptures built by hikers as part of a prayer/offering custom. The tradition comes from the idea that the rocks have spirit, as does everything.

Some shots from Yeoju

2006-07-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

The first photo shows the burial mound of King Sejong. It is a peaceful park, and Koreans highly rever this king. He is credited with the invention of the Korean writing system, and he is known for being a very compassionate king. I saw these women using the umbrellas to block out the sun. Koreans use umbrellas in sun, snow and rain!

Some shots from Seoul

2006-07-23T02:27:00.000-07:00

photo's, photo's and more photo's!

2006-07-23T01:34:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Heather. (The women in the background sat down to take a rest after climbing up the long, steep hill.) Heather and I met in Egypt, and both ended up teaching in Korea. She went back to the US but the weekend before she left, she stayed with me. We went to Seoul and couldn't find the proper bus to take us to the site we wanted to go to.

So we walked around this neighborhood, nestled up against a mountain.

I've learned a few things while traveling. One is that everwhere I've been children play in the streets and have a lot more freedome to run around than in the US (for better or worse...) And the other is that badminton is very popular in Asia. Who knew?

Unfortunately we also saw this...sigh.

View of a Seoul neighborhood.

After walking back down the hill, we saw this. It especially struck me as funny because the couch is an old victorian looking thing with gold trim! Time and time again, Korean culture appears to be much more about utility than asthetic!

Well, we never found the bus station, but we did see these fantastic fish posters in the window of a restaurant, so it was all worth it!

Site-seeing in Seoul

2006-05-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is the main palace building/throne room. My shots of the inside didn't really turn out, but it's set like it was hundreds of years ago.

These totems were on display in the palace grounds.

This is a pagoda on a little island in one of the ponds on the palace grounds.

A view of the nearby mountains from the palace grounds.

This shot is from an older/smaller palace.

This gigantic bell is located at the smaller palace.

This is an old water clock invented by a Korean leader. It used to keep official time for the king.

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom while we were out. They were all over the palace grounds.

Eastern English Academy

2006-05-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's the name of the school I teach at. It's a private after-school tutorial school. We don't really have an equivilent for it in the states. Basically kids all over Asia go to public school from about 8/9am-2/3/4pm depending on their ages. Then they go from there to a "Hogwan" (the Korean word for this type of school. At the Hogwan they study math, english, social studies, Korean grammer, and science. Some older kids stay at the hogwans until 9 or 10 at night studying/hanging out with their friends. I wish the kids didn't have so much pressure to study and do so well academically, but they do have a lot of fun with their friends at the Hogwans. I bet the parts they'll remember most in the future will be hanging out with their friends between classes, and playing outside while they wait for the bus!

This is the entrance into the building.

The window sporting the franchise's logo.

The main room (lobby.) Students hang out here, and work on homework or whatever. There's also a TV used for crowd control between classes or while the littler kids are waiting for their next class or the bus.

Damon's classroom.

These students have a really high level of English. They understand almost everything I say. They're so young that there's only three of them in their age group at this level! They were hilarious, I broke out the camera and they started to "moe-dell" as they say with their accents.

Don't be decieved by this child.

She is completely nuts! You can see it in her wild eyes. Everyday she makes us laugh!

Gardening in the rain

2006-05-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Our apartment looks out over our neighbor's yard. They have chickens, a dog, and a large garden. (People plant food anywhere there's a plot of land.) This man was out planting seeds for hours one morning in the rain. This garden is growing like mad now! The plants look amazing, and I swear I'll look at it, and then a few hours later, look again and the plants are bigger!

Our apartment

2006-05-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

The long and narrow porch that's used for so much...

Kind of obvious, the bedroom. We have yet to find curtains, so for now it's a blanket. The sun comes blaring in at 5:00am. Damon loves it, I have the opposite opinion of it. There are also the chickens, rooster, and contruction to cheer my morning wake-up!

This is our little kitchen. We don't have an oven - they aren't typical here. The main room of the apartment is basically one long room - the living room is at one end (see the picture of me talking on the phone on the couch), and the kitchen is at the other.

We have a little bedroom that I use for my desk and stuff. Damon likes to run into "my room" and jump up and down and say, "I'm in your room! I'm in your room!" I LOVE having my own little office/room. Everything is exactly where I left it...

More photos from around Yeoju

2006-05-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

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A recycling truck! People just go around collecting various recyclable goods from designated collection spots. We just put all of our recycling in a bag on the street corner! The people who collect it sort through it!

This is main street in Yeoju. If you look at the top near the pole on the right, you'll see the sun faintly. It was extremely dusty that day due to sands that blow in every spring from Mongolia and northern China. (Those regions are sandy and rocky.)

This is a view of the town from the pavilion park.

A view in the other direction (towards the river) from pavilion park.

I frequently walk up to this park. It's very beautiful and peaceful (and close!)

Me, Me, Me!

2006-05-14T02:53:00.000-07:00

Thought you might miss my gorgeous face, so here I am!

Top photo: I have no idea what I was doing when Damon snapped this shot (we were trying to set up the timer to take a shot of the two of us), but I'm at Jogyesa, the main buddhist temple in Seoul. The temple grounds were decorated with lanterns for the Buddha's birthday.

Next: I was repotting an orchid at the little work bench Damon constructed on our back porch (the porch is apx. 3ft wide, and 25ft long!)

Next: Here I'm lounging on the couch talking with my dear youngest sister in France!

Next: I'm correcting workbooks in one of my favorite classes. This is a high level elementary school class, and the kids are awesome. That peace sign that the boy in the baseball cap is making is a popular greeting around Asia (very popular in Taiwan.) It's kind of like a wave is for us Americans, though people are most likely bow slightly when greeting each other.

Bottom photo: I'm sitting and enjoying my favorite view in Yeoju. I often walk up to this park, which looks over the city.

I can read Korean!

2006-04-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I can sound out Korean! It's actually a relatively simple language to learn in that there are only 26 characters (compared to over 3,000 Chinese characters!)

Abby = 애 비
Forster = 푸 스 터

(pronounced poe - suh - tah there is no r or f sound in Korean, and the s has to have another vowel sound before the next consonant is pronounced... people have also asked me where my middle name comes from, as "Lee" is a common family name. Actually "ee" is a common family name, but the L is added for western pronunciation. One of my boss's daughters name is Min-gee. And her family name is Ee. In Korea her name is Ee Min-gee. But switch the family name and surname and it would still sound too weird to Westerners to say her name is Min-gee Ee, so when she was in the US her name was Min-gee Lee. The things I never knew!)

A Few Photos from Korea

2006-04-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

This is a traditional Korean style house behind the old apartment we lived in. (When we first came to Korea we lived with two other teachers for 2 months. Now we have our own apartment.)

All of Korea is famous for it's ceramics. (I had a ceramics teacher who studied here.) But Yeoju, the town we live in, seems to produce a lot of ceramics (the city icon is two ceramic pots!) Containers like these are very common in people's yards or balcony's. They hold various sauces, and rice. I think they also hold kimchi, but I'm not sure.

This the is the river that runs through the town. See why it reminds me of St. Charles?

This is another neighboring house.

I promise to take more!

Taiwan Photos

2006-03-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

Here are a whole bunch of pictures from Taiwan! I finally got them off the old computer... I miss it there - the mild weather, the lush green plantlife, and the tropical fruit!

This is a street vender at the Dihua Market. This market was open at night during the Chinese New Year festivities. Venders sell traditional herbs, teas and foods.

This is the tiny City God Temple along the Dihua Market Street. This temple is known for being the busiest. People come here to pray to the City God for protection and good luck.

The Dihua Market street has some of the oldest preserved architecture in Taipei. I felt like I was in a Kung Fu movie when I was walking down this street! It's narrow, so it's hard to get a good photo of the buildings...

This is another streetmarket near the first place we lived in Taipei.

We ventured out of the city to a nearby national park. We had to walk through this tunnel to get to the information center.

We saw this sign which says "Owl Crossing." Guess they walk across the road?

This is another image from the national park.

And another!

Sticker pictures are very popular in Asia, and I noticed this very busy shop near one of the street markets.

Will this man resist the urge to join everyone else?

Doesn't look like it!

Scooters are the most common form of transportation in Taipei. It was common to see families like this one. I would often see my students climbing onto scooters with their parents after class.

Damon discovered this antiques market. We had a great time looking at everything.

Apparently this is a rare Tibetan statue, somehow it made its way all the way to Taipei.

We often saw clothing and housewares printed with english that didn't make any sense! Apparently english sells!

I was surprised to see this unfortunate selection of a stereotypical "Indian" image, printed all over this chain of restaurants stuff. And the kids learned "I" is for Indian in class... And we think it's bad in the states...

Lanterns were everywhere for the new year, but this block was particularly done up!

This symbol of Buddhism was very helpful for us. Being a vegetarian is nothing out of the ordinary in Taipei. Many Buddhists choose to be vegetarians. We ate at this completely vegetarian restaurant several times.

One of the alleys downtown.

This gate is in the middle of one of Taipei's many parks.

This area is called Ximending. It is an extremely busy area in downtown Taipei. It reminded me of scenes of Shibuya, Tokyo in "Lost in Translation." Now having been to Shibuya, I can say, it truly is very similar!

Images like this on doors or gates are very common in Taipei. They are meant to guard against, and scare away, bad spirits.

These women were enjoying a little chat at the Botanical Gardens. They were just too cute!

Here they are again!

Meanwhile, these kids were racing around the circular stairs!

This is a purple water lily that was just starting to open at the Botanical Gardens.

More lily pads.

There are many temples we enjoyed exploring all over Taipei.

These people were praying at the table of offerings (mostly food) left for ancestors and dieties.

The old computer broke...

2006-01-30T03:18:00.000-08:00

So I haven't been able to put the rest of the new pictures up... The moniter went out on the computer, and I'm not about to crop those photos again! In the meantime, I wanted to post some images of the interesting food here. I cook a lot at home, because it's easier then figuring out if things are vegetarian or not. There are also a lot of Buddhist restaurants which only serve vegetarian food. Vegetarians are common here. The food here is a lot more "foreign" to me then the food in Egypt was. There are many fruits and vegetables I have never seen before.

These look like little green apples, but they're actually dates, and they are delicious! They are very different from the variety of dates I ate in Egypt!

These are wax apples. They are a light, apple-like fruit that is grown here in Taiwan, and extremely popular.

I discovered these at a donut stand in our old neighborhood in Taiwan. They are made with potatoes (I think!) and often cooked in an egg. I found the dough at the grocery store, and make them at home now.

These radish roots are also very popular here. They are less potent then the red radishes we eat in the states.

We would often get something very similar to this at a stand in our old neighborhood. This image is of cold noodles and sesame sauce. It's served at other places, though I think the original stand we had it at put peanut in the sauce...

Thailand

2006-01-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

We were in Thailand for a brief three days. We needed to get our visas to come to Taiwan there, because there wasn't a Taiwanese consulate in Egypt. So we enjoyed the warm weather (Egypt had cooled off by the time we left it!), and lots of delicious Thai food! We had a lot of fun in Bangkok. The second night we were there was a holiday. People were celebrating a deity (I don't remember which.) As was the tradition, we saw people floating offerings of food, candles, and flowers down the river. They also flocked to the temples to pray, make offerings and burn incense. We decided to go to one of the temples. It was a very interesting experience. It was very, very crowded! And started to rain on our way out! Religion permeated everything in Thailand. There were shrines outside of businesses as well as houses. There were also Buddhist monks all around. There are many cultural behaviors that are important to adhere to in Thailand (I think I completely insulted the man sitting next to me on our flight there by putting my feet up on the seat between us - he had a dissatisfied look on his face most of the time, and eventually changed his seat!) When I realized he wasn't coming back to his seat, I started to get the feeling I had done something really unappealing to him! I didn't know until we got to our hotel, and they had a guide in the lobby, that feet are considered very "low" in Thai culture. It is best to keep them on the ground at all times (even crossing your legs could accidently insult someone.) There are all sorts of things about eating food too. Food is not suppose to touch your lips on it's way into your mouth, and rice is never to be left on your plate! And lastly, if you walk near or sit next to a monk, you are suppose to keep your head lower then his as a sign of respect. (VERY challenging for us because I found myself to be similar size to most Thai men, and much larger then the women. Damon towered over everyone!) It's my understanding that these Thai traditions are not quite as prevalent since the influx of Chinese citizens occurred, but they are still, obviously very important. On our last day in Thailand, we took a river boat out to another temple called, "Wat Pho." It is famous for housing an enormous "Reclining Buddha" statue. There are many different types of Buddhism practiced in this part of the world. The Buddhism practiced in Thailand seemed to have a lot of fold traditions surrounding it. The Reclining Buddha image has significance because it is the position in which Buddha spoke his last words. The statue was very impressive. I also really enjoyed seeing the houses and buildings lining the waterfront.

Waterfront buildings.

Wat Pho temple grounds.

Worshippers praying at a small shrine near the large Reclining Buddha statue.

Another riverfront view!

One of the many boats ferrying people and tourists along the river.

It was a bit shocking to see such new cars after being in Egypt! Especially the taxis! Notice the tuk tuk (near the bottom, left of center), an inexpensive way to get around!

Street markets were everywhere, and I loved the colors and shapes of the umbrellas!

Elephants are good luck in Thailand, and their images were everywhere!

Damon and I had to shake our heads at this one. Here's MacDonalds, and Ronald has apparently picked up the the peaceful, spiritual greeting of Thailand. (He comes in peace, while dishing out those heart attacks...)

This is how to write MacDonalds in Thai!

Our stay in Thailand was our first introduction to the most popular mode of transportation around Asia - the scooter! Notice how they all zoom in front of the other traffic! They seem a bit precarious, but they are SO much fun to ride!

This is my favorite photo from Thailand. Look closely and you'll see a women napping at the table. Street restaurants like this one were very common in Thailand.

Last Day in Egypt

2006-01-23T21:35:00.000-08:00

We left Egypt at night, so during the day we decided to go out and see some of the things we hadn't seen yet. It ended up being one of my favorite sight-seeing excursions in Cairo (and a bitter-sweet ending to my stay there!) We first attempted to go to the Museum of Islamic Art. After a fairly long taxi ride there, we discovered that it was being renovated, and was closed. So we decided to go to "Islamic Cairo" which is a funny name (since most of Cairo is "Islamic!") but refers to the oldest part of Cairo, where the city originated from. It turns out, that area is just behind the biggest outdoor market in Cairo, Khan al Kalili. I had been very close to it on numerous occasions! Not knowing that at the time, I tried to tell the cab driver the name of a mosque I knew was in the oldest part of the city. After a hilarious and very typical experience involving a very different part of the city, the wrong mosque, and a group of about 5 Egyptian men attempting to help us out! We finally just asked them to take us to Khan al Kalili, and we were roaming oldest street in Cairo in no time! We had a map, so we went looking for some of the oldest mosques in the city. We came across the one photographed below, and a man approached us and asked us if we wanted to see inside. We got a private tour (after negotiating baksheesh of course!) and got to walk around in this magnificent, old mosque. Our guide took us to the roof, and we got a great view of the city as well. After leaving the mosque, we wondered around the old streets. I really enjoyed just walking around. We passed many old mosques and buildings, but I found myself more captivated by the old, tiny little shops. They are hard to describe, and I was out of film, but think of a movie that takes place during Medival times, and that is was it was like in this area! There was even a blacksmith working away in his tiny little shope! The area is known for being quite poor, and many people were living very traditionally. It was like taking a time machine back hundreds of years! I was very sad to leave Egypt, and I find myself still missing it! I would love to go back some day!

The street near the Museum of Islamic Art.

Inside the mosque were dozens of ancient laterns. It was fascinating to think what it had been like when that was the only light source in the building!

Detail on the outside of the mosque.

Damon took this one of me outside of Khan al Kalili. Minutes after this, we hopped in a cab, went to pick up our bags, and headed to the airport!

Happy Holidays from Taiwan!

2006-01-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Well, as usual, I haven't posted anything for a long time! As most of you know, after being hired to teach English in Taipei, we left Egypt and headed east. We stopped in Bangkok, Thailand for 3 days. We had to get our visa's to go to Taipei there, because there isn't a Taiwanese Consulate or Embassy in Cairo. Taiwan has been interesting, but more on that to come. First, pictures and thoughts from Thailand and a few remaining from Egypt!

More photos

2005-11-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

You can see more (most of which Damon took, a few that I took) at:
www.nmazca.com/cairo/

www.nmazca.com/sinai/

Ras Abu Golum and Birr Ogda

2005-11-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

We spent an amazing long weekend at Ras Abu Golum and Birr Ogda near Dahab on the Sinai Penninsula. It struck me how simply the people live in Ras Abu Golum. Returning to Cairo, it seemed odd that people are concerned about so many pop culture things. Being surrounded by people who live on the beach, and have little more then basic cookware, and blankets and cushions, it seems so obvious that that's all we need!

Our first stop was Dahab, on the east side of the Sinai Penninsula. We stayed one night at our friend's house, which is right on the beach. We caught this sunrise in the morning. The mountains in the photo are across the sea, in Saudi Arabia.

Later that day, we rode in a taxi as far as we could go, and then hiked along this trail north towards Ras Abu Galum.

We stopped for tea at the only structure along the way. This restaurant is typical of restaurants/sheesha cafes all over the Sinai Penninsula.

After hiking for roughly and hour and a half, we arrived at Ras Abu Galum. Ras Abu Galum is a small hut village built right on the beach. The people who live here are referred to as Bedouin people because they are ethnically the indiginous people of the area, and have continued to live in more traditional ways, while in other parts of Eygpt, people live in more and more western ways. (Bedouin people live all over Egypt in more remote areas like the Sinai Penninsula and the deserts.) People live in huts with no electricity (though it seemed someone was running a generator for an hour or two after dark) and no running water. (All of their water appeared to be either bottled water brought in on the rough car road in from the Nuweiba in the north, or piped down from the wells at Birr Ogda.)

Stone houses like the one in the forground of this photo are uncommon in Ras Abu Golum, though we saw several abandoned ones on the hike in. Most huts are built with wood pieces, or straw and dried plants. This area is becomming more heavily touristed as tour groups from Nuwieba bring jeep loads of tourists in for an hour or two of snorkeling and eating a Bedouin meal. Tourism like this has been slowly driving changes in the Bedoin's way of life. Not to mention the mass destruction to the reefs which come right up to the shoreline. It's sad and disappointing to think that Ras Abu Galum may some day become another tourist resort. It is my favorite place I've ever visited.

The family who hosted us brought us all of our meals in our hut. They continually brought us tea as well. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the beach. It was windy, and cooler this time of year, but we managed to swim for a little while.

While we were laying on the beach, we saw the sunset behind the Sinai Mountains. After dark we laid outside and saw more stars then I've ever seen in my life! (I find myself saying that over and over in Egypt!)

The next morning we hired a guide and two camels and set off for Birr Ogda. Throughout a very "biblicalesque" hike, we walked and took turns riding up into the mountains. We stopped for tea along the way. In this photo you can see Jemna (sp?), our guide, cooking tea over an open fire he made of sticks he collected at the stop.

We reached Birr Ogda in the early afternoon. If you look closely you can see lots of buildings amongst the trees in this photo. Birr Ogda is an old settlement which is no longer regularly inhabited. People come up on occasion to camp out, or to work on the pump and piping that runs from the wells all the way down to Ras Abu Galum.

This is my favorite building in Birr Ogda.

The door is still standing on this one!

This building was built up against a cliff - the builder only using stones for three walls, and the cliff for the fourth wall. We found lots of incrediable sand and stone structures in this area.

Piles of colorful sand - again the photo doesn't do it justice.

We used this building to break the wind, and set up camp in the "yard."

Rusting metal trash like this is seen all over the dessert.

After one night sleeping outside, we headed back to Ras Abu Galum, where we rested in a hut.

And then ate again! We hiked back towards Dahab in the afternoon, and our weekend in the quiet was over!

Ramadan Kareem

2005-11-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

The whole month of Ramadan came and went, and I didn't post a thing! Ramadan is the holy month in the Muslim religion. I don't know a lot about it, but in short, people fast from sun-up until sun-set. This means that we only ate and drank in public at places that catered to foreigners. Businesses were often open for different hours, always closing before the evening prayer so everyone could get home to iftar - the meal in which they break their fast. The businesses then reopened two hours later, and people stayed out all night long. I've been used to the quiet evening streets, and waiting for the evening call to prayer. It's an odd adjustment now to eat in public anytime.

I've been waiting to post lots of photos, but many things keep getting in the way. Damon and I rented and apartment for the month of October. We had a blessedly sweet landlord who insisted that we come visit him next time we're in Egypt. The apartment had problem after problem - electricity, washing machine, body lice in the mattress... But we managed! It was really funny now that I think about it. Good thing we've had so much free time to deal with things. Some friends here just moved into a new flat, and needed a temporary roommate for their third room - so we've moved once again! We're still in Maadi, in an even more westernized part of the neighborhood.

I find myself nostalgic for the regular street vendors that would frequent our old neighborhood daily. We could sit and observe the regular activity from our porch. There was a man who would come through the neighborhood on a bicycle powered cart calling out something in Arabic. People would bring odds-and-ends to him, and he would give them money for it and add it to his collection in his cart. There was also a vegetable seller who would bring his truck around almost every day. At about midnight, there was a man who would walk through the streets singing and drumming all through Ramadan. We found out that neighborhood parents would pay him to sing the names of their children. He would sing their names to remind them to have their last meal before sleeping during Ramadan.

This is what the bedroom looked like by the time we were done vacuuming, laundering, wiping things with scalding water, and spraying pesticides (at the request of our land-lord).

Damon spent a lot of time with the laundry machine as it conintuously broke as we laundered every piece of fabric we owned! Note the piles of clothes on the floor!

This is a shot from the porch of kids playing in the street outside our apartment.

This is an old shot of the glow of green lights from the mosque next door to our hostel room.

Some shots from my third visit to the Giza Pyramids

2005-10-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, I actually took this photo of the eclipse! It's not very good, but hey, I took a photo of an eclipse!

And here he is, telescope and all! We had to talk to about 4 different guards/security people as they thought the telescope was a video camera.

The Desert

2005-09-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Walking through a dried up river bed. There were still shells around!

Amazing multi-colored sand dunes - the photo doesn't do it justice.

Exploring the dessert.

Driving the jeep down a dune - it wasn't as scary as I thought!

Standing in an ancient temple we came upon in the dessert.

These photos are from a day of off-roading in the desert. It was, needless to say, a very bumpy ride, but worth it. It was beautiful! The guys we went with were preparing for the Egypt 2005 Rally in which a bunch of guys get into fancy jeeps with a bunch of fancy equipment and follow different cooridnates and directions to race off-road through the desert for four days...

Photos...

2005-09-15T02:50:00.000-07:00

View of Mt.St. Helens and Mt. Rainier from the plane out of Seattle!

Living in Maadi

2005-09-15T02:28:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I've been invited to stay at a friend of a friend's flat in a nice neighborhood in Cairo. It's 25 minutes from downtown, and It is a world of difference from the downtown/hostel life! I'm so greatful to be invited to stay here. There are lots of foreigners in this neighborhood because the American School is just down the street. I was walking around and I happened upon a big group of people playing baseball in the evening! I could hear the familiar sound of bats hitting balls, and it took me a minute to remember that I was still in Cairo! One of the guys told me the American School has leagues that play every night! How funny is that? I'm getting to see what it is like to live as an expat here in Cairo. There are many conveniences about living here - the biggest being that you can get everything delivered straight to your door. Literally. People will come, pick up your dry cleaning, take it to the cleaners and bring it back... with no extra charge (just a tip to the delivery person!) Have a hankering for rice pudding at 11pm? Just call up a resaurant that serves it, and they will bring it to your door! I think a person could live here for years and never have to leave their flat! Well I found a roll of film I shot when I first left Seattle... still missing a roll I shot in Alexandria... I keep losing things in my luggage!

Questions...

2005-09-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

So a few questions have come up...
Did you get to the Valley of the Kings? No, I have not gone down to the Valley of the Kings... I might depending on how much longer I'm in Egypt.

You mention foreign women attracting unwanted attention. Could you elaborate on that? What sort of attention from who? Well let me just give you a little background first. As foreigners, people stare at us no matter how we dress or what gender we are. One of my classmates pointed out that we are kind of like celebraties without the money! Everyone wants to talk to us... Some seem to want to practice their English, others want to get us into their or their friends shops, and at times it seems like it's a little bit prestigious to be walking around with foreigners. Being a woman can attract additional attention. Many things appear to play into this. In my experience, women here are not nearly as likely to approach a foreigner, so most people who talk to us are men or children. In Egypt, the concept of "dating" someone isn't very common. If you like someone, you marry them, and that's it. (I've heard that to say "I like you" and "I love you" in Arabic, you use the same words. There isn't really a difference...) Another friend of mine mentioned that all lot of Egyptian people's exposure to western people comes from the movies, so they have a very skewed concept of what western romance is actually like. Or what western women actually want for themselves (which often isn't romance at all, but you wouldn't know that from the movies!) Of course, I don't know what people are thinking... I'm not them! Many people just leave us alone, or give a friendly hello. Others though will persistently ask us to a cafe. We also are often told we are very beautiful, and whoever is talking to us will make us very happy! We also get all sorts of cheesy bad pick-up lines, like you would get at a bad bar in the States. Men also make a hissing noise, which is not malicious, but is similar to a "hey" or whistle in the states. (They do it to get each other's attention all of the time. One women hissed to get my attention and indicate that I had dropped something.) In short, on certain days this really gets to me. It reminds me of the ways that women are subtly oppressed all over the world including the US. But I've always felt safer here then in the states. I can walk around at 3am by myself, and no one will lay a finger on me. And if someone did, the next person I met (and there are always people out) would help me out... Not to mention that in Cairo, there is a cop on every corner.

Have you figured out the dress code yet? Who does the enforcing of the dress code?
Well, the dress code in Alexandria is a bit different then Cairo. People who live here wear a huge variety of Egyptian and western clothing. Egyptian women are not required to cover-up or wear a headscarf, but some choose to do so. My understanding is this choice comes from a combination of family/religious tradition and fashion. (I've heard that the berka, and hijab are actually quite fashionable here.) Overall though, it is rare to see a women expose her knees or shoulders. It is common for women to cover to their ankles and to their wrists. There are different expectations for westerners. In Alexandria it was best to wear short sleeves and pants that covered the knees. Less then that and women would approach you and speak in Arabic... It seems that they want to make it known that they have their traditions and don't approve. (This never happened to me, but I dressed conservatively on purpose.) In Cairo there are a lot more foreigners, so I've seen all sorts of shorts and tank-tops. It just seems like the normal attention is multiplied when foreigners were such things, so I haven't tried it. As one of my classmates explained (she's lived in Yemen) to them, it's like seeing someone partly naked...

What kind of food is the standard Egyptian fare?How many meals per day? When is their big meal?Do they shop for food daily or weekly or ... ?Are cold drinks commonly available? Or are drinks normally served tepid?
Well, of course there's Egyptian restaurant food, and what Egyptians eat at home... My understanding is people eat a lot of fish and rice at home. I don't know what else. Common food in restaurants includes: lamb, taamia (falafel), fouul (beans), lentils, koshery (a lentil, noodle, rice, tomato dish), pizza, feteer (pizza like, but the toppings are inside instead of on top), rice pudding, cookies, bread, croissants, hard-boiled eggs, salad (tomatoes and cucumbers...), tahini, baba ganoush and lots of flatbread/pita! The biggest meal seems to be dinner (which can be anytime during the night!) There are also fruit stands and juice shops everywhere. People just drop in for fresh mango, lemon, or strawberry juice (among others). I'm not sure how many meals per day or how often people shop. Drinks are sometimes served cold, sometimes room-temperature.

You mention getting used to being stared at: Is the staring that of curiosity or of nosiness?
I'm not sure I'd describe it as either. People just seem to be interested. I experienced this in Italy as well. It's not considered rude to stare there like it is in the States.

A few more pictures...

2005-09-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

Mohommed Ali Mosque in Cairo.

View of Cairo from the Citadel.

A large market in Alexandria at night.

Giza

2005-09-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here I am, standing on the base of the largest pyramid at Giza!

A couple of my friends rode in this cart around the desert surrounding the pyramids.

Most of these photos are from my second trip to the Pyramids of Giza. On my second trip, I rode a camel around to the back side of the pyramids. The side that faces the Sahara Desert. It was a beautiful view, and less crowded which was really nice!

What now?

2005-09-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally have gotten some of my stuff posted here! I'm sure more stories will come to mind as I have more free time. But these are the basics of what I've been up to. I know my friends and family will ask, "Where are the pictures?", so don't worry - they will be posted. Posting them has proven a challenge, as my photos are on disk, and most computers here do not have CD drives (just floppy)... As most of you know, I've had a great time in Egypt. My course in Alexandria finished last week. (Yes, I passed!) After travelling down to the Sinai Penninsula this weekend, I'm back in Cairo sorting things out. My boyfriend and I have decided to apply for jobs in Asia instead of Morocco. There are more opportunities, and better paying jobs there. We are still planning to travel to Africa, and I would love to spend 6 monthes or something just traveling all over the continent. Anyway, I'll let you all know where I end up! I miss you all!

Traveling

2005-09-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

While I've been here, I've gotten to sight see quite a bit. I've been to Cairo several times, and am currently staying here. I, of course, went to the Pyramids. I got to go in one of them. I almost turned back because you had to crawl in the first part! It was a little too tight for comfort for me. I'm glad I stuck it out though - there's nothing like standing in the middle of one of the Great Pyramids! Actually, there wasn't a lot to see inside... We could only access one chamber in the one we went in, and it had been looted long ago... The Egyptian Museum was interesting as well. There are so many treasures there, important artifacts, etc. But, in it's typical Egyptian way, the museum appeared disorganized to us westerners... Oh well. I got to see the treasures from King Tut's tomb (that man was loved! He was basically buried in gold, inside of gold, inside of gold, with a gold mask on, in a gold room, which was next to another gold room full of all of his gold belongings for his afterlife!) I also got to see the mummies of Ramses and Ramses II among other royalty. They were so creepy! You can still see hair and nails on some of them! Other sites worth seeing in Cairo include many mosques (especially the old ones - and by old, I mean 1,000 years or more!), the Citadel, the City of the Dead, and the huge market Khan el Khalili.

As part of my tuition for my course, I got to go to Sharm El Sheikh at the Red Sea. The devastation to business since the bombing there is very apparently. The resort town was basically empty. Ironically, this is probably the safest time to travel there. We went through about half a dozen passport checks on the way there. Egyptians cannot go to Sharm or other Red Sea resorts without their ID card showing they live or work there. (Though there must be some travel permission, but I don't know how they get that.) Restrictions for other people of Middle Eastern decent are also very high. Unfortunately, there is a lot of racial profiling that seems to occur at these check points. As a westerner, my bag is barely searched, and my passport just gets a glance... My friends and I really enjoyed our time staying at a five star Marriott, and eating lots and lots of the free buffet breakfast! And of course, laying on the almost abandon beach, getting tan, going dancing at night... A few of us even made a mad dash up Mount Sinai on the last night we were there. (It's best to hike at night, since it's so hot during the day. We started our hike around three am! Saw the sunrise, and headed back down. Then we had to take a cab, bus and a minibus back to our hotel (about three hours away.) We arrived back exactly one minute before check out! (And then we found out we had an extra hour since our bus was late!) Anyway, I'm still sore from that hike and it's three days later!

Learnin' English

2005-09-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

The certificate course was very good. I loved my classmates, so that made it a very enjoyable experience! There were about 10 other people in the course from Jamaica, Australia, Germany, the US and the UK. It was an intensive course, so the first two weeks were all grammer and related classes. It was a lot to learn in a short amount of time, and my grammer is horrible! Luckily, most students and schools want teachers to teach conversational English anyway... The teachers were all very good. I feel like a lot of information went into my head, and hopefully some of it stuck! We taught a variety of adult and child classes for the last two weeks. The kids were so cute, and well-behaved. They were really excited to learn English. One boy, whom I worked with one-on-one, was particularly cute. Hewas turning 13, but he looked much younger (10 or so) and he was the most eager student. He wouldn't sit on the floor because he would get his pants dirty! He literally wanted to be Harry Potter. EVERYTHING was about Harry Potter! One time he told me, "Next week, I learn German, French, Italien and Chinese." If only I could learn four languages in one week!

Swimmin' in my Clothes!

2005-09-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

So one weekend, my friends and I decided to head to the beach.There are beaches everywhere, but one particular beach was recommended to us. Beaches in Egypt are very different then beaches in the States. The beach we went to was very crowded, and everyone put their chairs right along the surf. (The sea is on the other side of all of the umbrella's and tables in the photo!) So you have to kind of walk through all of the chairs/umbrellas/tables to get to the water. Some of my group tried to sneak onto one of the hotel beaches, but they blew their whistles at them right away. So aside from having to go in the water fully clothed, (and observing that the men could wear the tiniest of swimsuits and still be appropriate!) and sitting further back on the beach, it became very obvious quickly that we were a main interest on the beach. People kept coming over to talk with us. Hussein, our driver, sat with us most of the time, so less people came over to us. One guy came over to us and handed his baby over and started taking pictures of us with his baby! He had us pass the baby all around! I swam a bit on my own, but once I was with the others, (some of whom were wearing tank tops - gasp!), there were people all around us talking to us. I eventually just got out of the water.

I'm still fascinated by the clothing norms here, especially for women. I don't think I know enough about the traditions to write a whole lot about it. From what I've heard though, some women wear hijabs (headscarves) because it's traditional to do so in their families. Others though, wear them because they've become fashionable again. (I guess they went out for a while.) There are all different styles of dress around, combining traditional middle eastern fashion with western fashion. Foreign women who where clothing that reveal knees, or shoulders will attract a lot of unwanted attention. This has also taken me a while to adjust too. (Especially because dress for men is not at all restricted...)

Culture Shock

2005-09-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

My first few days in Egypt were overwhelming to say the least. It certainly took me some time to adjust to an entirely new culture and environment. The biggest adjustment was that my classmates and I quickly learned that we were without a doubt, a minority in Alexandria. Not as many tourists make it to Alexandria as Cairo, so Alexandrians were not used to seeing foreigners. It was bizarre to walk around with a group of people and not see another foreigner for the entire day. I learned that Alexandria is just a place that Egyptians go to for vacations, but not a lot of foreigners visit. We were also living in the neighborhoods with the locals, so we weren't staying in areas the tourists would go anyway.

Being in Egypt like this has been a good experience for me though, because I've never been in a situation of being completely in the minority. Everyone here stares very openly. I don't think it is considered rude, they are just fascinated at the site of us! Within a week,I adjusted to the stares, and don't even notice them anymore. Everywhere we go, people want to talk to us too. Mostly men, as women seem to be less out-spoken. People are extremely friendly, and mostly genuinely want to help and/or practice their English. It does get exhausting after a while because you can't walk more then a couple of minutes without someone approaching you.

My first few days in Alex (as the locals call it!) I walked around in a state of bewilderment. There is nothing like being surrounded by an environment that is completely foreign. It took me some time to adjust to seeing and hearing Arabic all around me. I also didn't have a clue where to go for simple things (like food!) or even what those things were! It was also a huge adjustment to get used to the level of poverty here. I'd say more people are poor, then middle class or wealthy here. Of course, people are very interested in all of the things that we are interested in the United States (music, movies, hanging out with friends, shopping.) But the standard of living for many people is fairly low. It certainly has given me a lot more perspective on how people live all over the world. After the first few days of getting oriented though, the shock has worn off, and I feel very comfotable here.

The Accomodations

2005-09-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

From day one, many of my classmates were displeased with the school provided accomodations. I shared a three bedroom apartment with two of my classmates. The apartment was tiny, hot (no AC), and in need of a new coat of paint. There were ants and roaches, but they mostly came out at night! Could have been worse I guess! Most of the other students stayed in the same building, so we had a lot of fun, always back and forth to each other's apartments. We seemed to take up most of the apartments on the 7th floor. I had my own room, which was nice. The mattresses on my bed were extremely soft and thin, so I moved another mattress from and extra bed, and proceeded to sleep in the sunken hole in the middle of the three mattresses for a few weeks. Everyone who walked into my room couldn't help but laugh! This was an improvement over my hips hitting the boards underneath the two soft mattresses. I eventually got firmer mattresses from one of the other apartments, and it was all good! One afternoon, I wsa sitting in my room and I heard a loud bang from the other room. At first I thought one of my roommates had dropped something, but I went out for a look, and our ceiling fan was on the floor. Thank God none of us were in that room at the time! We told the guys who took care of the building that our fan had broken. When we came back to the apartment, the fan had been put back up, but looked a bit off kilter. It wasn't even centered on the fixture that hung down from the ceiling! And, not surprisingly, it didn't turn on when we flipped the switch either... probably for the better!

Live Video Games

2005-09-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

Two of my classmates pretending to push the car out of the way of our van!

Riding in any vehicle feels like a video game! There are absolutely no rules. The lines on the road (when there are lines) mean nothing. There are about 3 stop lights in this entire city, and stopping when they are red is apparently optional. As is driving the right way down one-way streets. The scariest thing is that humans, horses and donkeys pulling carts, cars, mini-buses (vans) and trams all share the same spaces. There are sidewalks, but they are fair game for businesses and usually blocked by chairs, tables, and vendor's carts. One afternoon, my classmates and I set out for Monteza, a popular beach. We hired the school's driver to take us. When he parked the car at the entrance to the beach, we noticed that the cars had been parked in (one row in front of another row...) and no keys had been collected. When we returned to the car, sure enough, another car was sitting in front of it. "How are we going to get the van out?" we asked. The attendents indicated that they were going to push the other car (apparently they don't use parking breaks here, and all cars are manual transmissions) out of the way... We, of course, got a huge kick out of this and two attendance proceeded to push the other car out of our way, and then roll it into our spot when we were out!

The Beginning

2005-09-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

After some sudden changes of events, I found myself on a plane not to that dear city of Roma, Italia, but instead to Alexandria Egypt via Frankfurt, Germany. I was in Frankfurt for a LONG 10 hours or so. I took the 20 minute metro ride from the enormous airport into the city. After relishing the feeling of being back in Europe, getting some pizza, and checking some email, it started raining and the floor started to move in waves. So jet-lagged and exhausted I returned to the airport, where I slept off and on. I woke with a start at least five times and panically (is that a word?) thinking, "is it time to go now?"

I started to get really nervous as I boarded the flight (to Alexandria) and realized I was one of three "westerners" on the plane. Being in the minority is certainly something I've had little experience with. Everyone was really friendly, and after helping an older man who was struggling to put his suitcase up, and another man next to find his glasses which rolled under the seat, I felt a lot more comfortable. As we were landing I was looking down at the city and the idea that I was in Africa really started to hit me! And then I started thinking, "what the hell did I do!"

The Alexandria airport is really really small. It took a while to get through passport control, and once I did, I realized that I didn't see the driver who was suppose to pick me up anywhere! I was really nervous already, and then started to stress about what I would do if the driver never showed up! I didn't even bring a guidebook with me to give me hotel names! There were guys trying to "help" everyone with their bags. I waved the first one off, but was too tired to argue with the second guy who didn't really give me a chance to argue anyway. He grabbed my bags and was three steps ahead of me the whole time. I kept saying, "wait, there's suppose to be someone here to pick me up!" As we walked outside, I saw a man with a "TEFL International" sign and was VERY greatful! Hussein was really nice, and led me to his car (they guy with my bags was still three steps ahead, and had to be called back to go the right way to the car!) At that point I hopped into Hussein's old Volkeswagon van, and we headed on our way. (After the guy complained about the tip I give him, which I've since found out was quite high.)

The ride was hilarious because the van kept dying as he went around turns, and Hussein would just restart it as we were driftng along... The headlights kept going out on the van too, but apparently you don't really need to have them on while driving through the city in the middle of the night! It was also my first introduction to Middle Eastern traffic.
We drove along the Cornish (sea wall), which was beautiful, and arrived at the apartment building I have been staying in.