Saying Goodbye...

Cairo is a bit different from Japan in the turnover rate of friends. I've met some lovely folks here the last few months, only to have them move away soon after really getting to know them. It's kind of sad. Out of my friend base at the end of June, the majority who are still left are primarily teachers I work with that were hired with me (hence, they are still stuck here another year). Out of my remaining friends, several left in June, some I "lost" in July, and other left in August. Still more are leaving before the end of the year.

Now, since for the most part I am utterly awful at keeping in touch with anyone after I moved away (be it people from high school, university, Boston, Atlanta, Kobe), I do need to say, good thing there's Facebook!

The Sand Bowl

The sand bowl is without a doubt one of my favorite places to hash. It's out of the city, has gently rolling hills, and lots of great places to run and walk. The Sand Bowl is so named because you drive down into what is basically a bowl of sand--high hills all around you. Plus, how can you not love this:
Hashers sliding down the walls of the sand bowl.

For my friends from hashes in other parts of the world, here is what I'm used to seeing on the hash:
See, no obstacles to go over/under! No tree branches! No raspberry prickers!

The on-on was a BBQ at the hash. These are always loads of fun, as everyone throws meat on the grill, sits around a fire all night, and does crazy stuff (like throwing lamp oil on a burning fire--I did NOT do that!). I brought some marinated steaks and zucchini, both of which grilled up very nicely. One woman had a guitar and sang. I ended up sleeping out in the desert under the stars with a Boy Scout of a hasher, who had an extra sleeping bag and mat in his car. I enjoyed sleeping out, but don't think my dog did...he was damp and covered in sand this morning. Yes, there was actually dew on the sleeping bags! Surprising for the desert.
See that white car? I slept in that location.

All in all, a lovely way to spend a weekend before school starts tomorrow!

One Great Thing About Cairo...

...is watching the sun set on the Nile while you are relaxing on a felucca.

Anyone care to join me?

Rats...

Well, it's likely the scratching noises I heard emanating from behind the wall of my filing cabinet over the weekend were likely caused by rats. My lovely teaching colleague, Sandra, came to school today to find a rat hanging out in one of her bins of books. She had a typical response and jumped up on a table, only to watch as the rat climbed up a pole towards her air conditioning unit. I'm amazed I didn't hear screams...that's what I would have been doing if I saw one in my classroom. Screaming, and running out of the room. Then, probably, refusing to return until there was a carcass, preferably on a stake. One would think that with all the stray cats that live on our campus, rats would not be a problem. Guess again!

Other than that, I am doing my usual start-of-year procrastination. I look around my classroom at what needs to be done, then check internet, make travel plans for literacy coach training in October, answer some emails, walk to the health office for the mandatory HIV test, go get another coffee from Peter in the library, walk to the pool to check the summer hours, look around the classroom some more, check last spring's orders to see what should be coming in, and then finally get a burst of inspiration and make a list of what my aide can do to help tomorrow. Oh, and I did move a bit of furniture around and thought a little more about how I'd like to arrange the room. I am going to be very sad when we move into our new building next year. My current classroom is HUGE; cathedral ceilings, high windows with lots of bright light, lots of open space (it had been a resource center and two offices before being converted for my class), and plenty of room for little bodies to move around. Tomorrow I'm going on a tour of the new building and can see just how much smaller my classroom will be...sniff, sniff!

Other than school, Cairo is hot. I'm currently finding ways to avoid cooking. I'm keeping busy outside of work with Howie, the hash (plug for HASH BALL ON OCTOBER 15, planned by yours truly), exercise, and watching movies and TV shows on my computer. It's amazing how quickly I fall back into my Cairo life and routine.

Back to School Humor

Today, I went into my classroom with the sole purpose of staying for two hours, unpacking one of the closets, and getting my desk in order for the start of the new year. An attainable goal. Was I ever wrong...

First, when I unlocked the closet, one of the doors was stuck. I'm pulling like mad, thinking, "Gee, this door worked last year, it was actually broken on one of the hinges." I'm pulling, not budging. The door wasn't painted, so it wasn't sealed. Then, I notice a small piece of metal inside the door, at the lowest shelf. SOMEONE bolted the door shut...on the inside. Now, this cupboard had all my electronics in it, along with the basic junk that was on top of my desk that I didn't feel like dealing with at the end of the year and just crammed into the closet to deal with now. So, of course, the things I need to take out and put away are all behind the locked part. I commence pulling out tubs of books and science materials, free my computer, and figure I deserve a break.

Off I go to the teacher's lounge (Did I mention that my a/c unit is blowing only hot air, despite being set at 16C?) and proceed to play on the computer for an hour. Of course five minutes was school related (checking school email account), but the rest was looking at my usual sites. Then, I figured I should get something done, and went back in and got my desk in order and dug out the things I could easily reach from the cabinet. By now, I have a sore throat from the dust, in addition to black hands from all the dirt. At least I didn't find any rats or rats' nests in the cabinets (I feared this happening, we had rats in our rooms last year), only a few strange bugs (not insects, since they had far too many legs).

Feeling motivated, I decided to attack the other closet, since it didn't appear to have been bolted shut. Now, the other closet had all of my math materials in it...which I had my first graders put away. I vaguely recalled that the bins were precariously balanced, lids were not on tightly, and some things were shoved in at odd angles. Truly, did you expect much better for six and seven-year-olds? So, I closed my eyes and cautiously opened the doors, expecting an avalanche...and all was well inside! Mind you, things were going to fall if I was not careful with extracting the bins, but I did not have anything land on my head and knock me unconscious...and there was no rat's nest behind the bins on the floor (though there was a large crack/hole in the wall that I think might be the entry to one).

Of course, I have loads more to do to get my classroom prepared (since I did not put things away well), but by then my two hour limit had passed, and I figured it was best to go to lunch and not return to school. After all, I still have two more days this week to go in for two hours and get nothing significant done.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

I remember when I was young, and I first learned about what actually is involved in giving birth...and I wanted nothing to do with being ripped open to allow another living, breathing creature to populate the Earth. No sirree, adoption would work well for me, if I ever got around to having kids.

Until I hit my 30's.

The biological clock started working a few years ago. Suddenly, I found babies to be amazing. I looked into adoption, but found the costs to be very high. I understand the need for some costs, but $20,000? Also, my work at the time would only give two weeks maternity leave for adoption, which I found biased, since a pregnant woman got 12 weeks. It can take 12 weeks to get a baby in some adoption scenarios.

So, I started to rethink the whole human body as incubator situation, and realized that I probably could handle getting myself knocked up and popping out a little person. Hey, and it would be covered by insurance! And then, my siblings started knocking up their girlfriends and continuing the Jeziorski name.

Finally, last January, my sister, who used to swear she never wanted kids, popped one out! And wants more! And after spending ten days with my niece full-time and my nephew part-time, I realize that kids are just amazing little people. I still want one of my own, but I'm getting old and it just isn't happening anytime soon!

I never thought that I'd be the one kid in my family to be childless and single at my age. What is wrong with me? Answers are more than welcome!

Oh, and to all cute boys out there: no worries, I am safe in bed and am not looking at you only for baby-making futures. I'm not that desperate!