Trip to Giza

I have uploaded a very poorly made video from our trip to Giza. The quality is bad and it ends very abruptly, but it's short!

Enjoy!

Our Apartment in Cairo, Egypt

We've been in our apartment just shy of 30 days now. I guess it's about time to post a video of our apartment.

We arrived in Cairo late on a Thursday night, and the very next day we set off apartment hunting. Our school gives us a housing stipend, but we had to find our own place to live. We were put in groups of about three couples. We had a realtor and a returning teacher (or two) with us and we were off, looking at apartments in an area of town called Maadi (pronounced: ma-dee). We looked at several apartments and found one we liked on the very first day. All of the places we looked at were fully furnished, and ours was no exception. The only thing we needed to buy to be able to stay our first night was bedding, towels, and toilet paper!

Let me know if you have any questions! Enjoy the tour!

Egyptian Money

The title says it all. Watch the video to find out more!  ;)

Call to Prayer in Cairo Egypt

Besides going to school, there is one other constant in our lives here in Egypt - the Call to Prayer. I'm not going to write much about it because I honestly don't know much about it. I do know that it is a call, letting people know that they need to pray. It happens five times per day. The times are always changing due to the Islamic calendar. Other than that, I don't know much about it. I would, however, like to learn more.

Anyway, our apartment is right across the street from a mosque. It's call the Thakanat El Maadi Mosque. Like I said, the Call to Prayer happens five times per day. Right now, those times are basically 4 am, 5:30 am, 3:30 pm, 6:15 pm, and 7:40 pm. That's right, we can hear the Call to Prayer at 4 am!! Sometimes we wake up, sometimes we don't. It's becoming just an everyday thing for us; sometimes we notice it more than others. I honestly don't mind it all that much. Though when it wakes me up at 4 am, I kind of get annoyed.

It is super easy to look up what the Call of Prayer means. Basically, it is saying that God is good. We need to pray. It really is kind of beautiful.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a video of the Call to Prayer that takes place across from our apartment. I didn't record the whole thing, but it only lasts a couple of minutes.

Pyramids, The Sphinx, and Camels! Oh My!

As part of our orientation schedule, the new teachers had an option to go to the Pyramids of Giza. Of course we went! The school provided two buses and about 30 of us went. A returning teacher and his wife were extremely knowledgeable in all things relating to the pyramids, and they were our tour guides. There's really nothing I can say to describe how awesome the trip was. I will just leave pictures for you with a few descriptions.

The whole group

I don't even remember what was so funny!

Zach's camel's name was 007 and mine was Michael Jackson.

We Made it to Egypt

Our trip started in Louisville where we flew to Chicago. While in the Chicago airport, we met so many of our soon-to-be co-workers. We are all going to be working at American International School of Egypt - AISE

Group picture in the airport

It was so great to be able to meet some of the people we would be working with before we even got to Egypt.

We arrived in Cairo on a Thursday night and hit the ground running the very next day to go apartment hunting. The school put us in groups of about 3-4 and sent us with a returning teacher and a realtor. Everyone in our group found an apartment that first day. (Pictures of apartment to come.)

The rest of the weekend was spent bonding, going to meetings, setting up our apartments, and shopping at the mall!

After our shopping trip

This past week, we were able to see our classrooms (pictures to come) and start getting things ready....and going to meetings.

I'm really excited to meet all of the returning teachers this coming week!

A Moving Nightmare In My Own Country

Just because we are living in the States does not mean that moving was any easier. When you are in a country where you don't speak the language, you expect things to take longer and be a little more difficult. However, this past month has been the biggest pain in the butt than any time we've moved in the past, including Korea and China. Mind you, we are renting.

Since we moved in on July 22, we've had the following problems:
1. Washer flooded
2. New washer not installed properly
3. Upper heating coil went out on our water heater (took one week to repair)
4. Zach's credit card number was stolen and someone racked up $600+ at The Home Depot
5. Found out the mail carrier wasn't delivering mail to our building since we moved in because of wasps that aren't there
6. Found out the post office "returned to sender" every single piece of mail we had coming to us (including Zach's new credit card)
7. The realtor's office can't do anything without the owner's approval and the owner wants to fly in from New Jersey to take care of the problem themselves instead of delegating
8. After contacting the water company, we found out that our deposit never went through so we haven't been charged for water/sewer since we've moved in
9. A drainage pipe in the kitchen leaked during a heavy storm
10. Didn't get Zach's first pay check because the post office is holding our mail

It's been a complete nightmare. The post office is sick and tired of me calling and the realtor's office doesn't seem too sympathetic about the mail situation. At this point, the problems we had in Korea seem minuscule compared to what we are experiencing right now.

I post this, not for sympathy, but to show that there are problems everywhere in the world. It's not just difficult to move to a new country - sometimes it's easier.