Blonde Nightmare

07:54 am: Almost the Holidays :)
Well, it's almost holiday season here in Egypt. I'm excited, and depressed at the same time. I don't want to say too much, but some things I had planned for over the holidays aren't going to happen, and it's hard having your hopes up, and then dealing with disappointment.

On the flip side, I have three wonderful friends coming to visit, and I know we'll have a fantastic trip. I can't wait to show them Egypt, and for my best friend, parts of Egypt he hasn't seen before, since he's been here twice already.

I need a few days to process through some things, and I'm sure I'll be fine after that :) Getting all the decorations up around the house might help put some more holiday joy into me as well. I'll try to do that ASAP. :)

Love you guys

12:29 pm: This just happened here where I live yesterday - not good. D:
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/crime-a-accidents/policeman-shoots-microbus-driver-in-maadi-triggering-angry-protest.html

12:27 pm: I'm famous in Kilgore Texas lol! :P
http://www.kilgorenewsherald.com/news/2011-02-23/Front_Page/A_RISING_TIDE.html

The Kilgore article cracked me up. I showed it to a few of my classes and they died laughing. It's so fatalistic. I can't believe they wrote it so seriously, but that's where I grew up - po-dunk USA, and their whole "local girl survives Egyptian Revolution armed only with a rolling pin" slant nearly made me pee myself I was laughing so hard. The chef's knife was kept out as arsenal - the rolling pin and, consequently, the photo itself, were TOTALLY a joke. Awesome. It made the entire front page of the paper. My mother bought 25 copies, and I'm totally having one framed LOL! :D

07:29 pm: Not getting any younger...
Well, I hit 30 this past February, and I've started thinking lately about a lot of things. I'm not sure if hitting 30 prompted me to evaluate my life, or if perhaps other recent things.. who knows, the point is it's got me thinking about where I want to be in my life 5 and 10 years from now.

My most important immediate goal is my solo trip around the world. This is something I've dreamed of and wished for for as long as I can remember. I went into teaching thinking I'd be happy with having the summers off and traveling then, and only after awhile did I realize that one summer or even 5 in a row isn't going to be enough. I want an extended year+ long trip. One year, two, three, however long I can make the finances stretch out, I want to make my way around the globe in a nomadic fashion, drifting wherever life happens to take me. I want this so bad I can feel it in my bones... this deep longing.. to explore, to connect with people from all walks of life, and to share my life with them.

I've started saving, and I've done pretty well so far, especially for my first year abroad, when much of my money has been spent taking trips within and around Egypt, coming home twice to visit friends and family, decorating the apartment, etc. I've settled into a groove finally, and I'm able to put back around 50% of my salary each month. How many more years until I can take my trip? Who knows. Maybe 2, maybe 3, maybe more... the more I have saved, the longer I'm able to travel, so there's an allure to working longer, so I can be on the road longer.

I remember when I saved $400 a month over 6 months to go to Peru for an entire month one summer. I was the budget queen! I planned everything out to the penny, and even had a bit left over to spare on souveniers! Who knew they'd be so cheap?!? I had to get some for my friends and family :) I did a great job on finding nice, cheap hostels, and getting around the country in an affordable way. I'm really proud of myself for that trip. I hope I can do the same on my extended trip, although I do want to plan less and let life take me as it will more... the problem is that I absolutely LOVE planning trips! I like to get all the guidebooks on places (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Let's Go) and spend hours pouring over which transportation is the best and cheapest, which hostels give me the most bang for my buck, what the major sites in each country I want to make sure to get to are, what's the most efficient route around that country to see all those sites... it's just part of the fun of traveling for me... I can't help it! I wonder if I can compromise and perhaps plan the route, and things to do for the most part, but not necessarily how long I'll be in each place. I'd like to, especially when I get into the South Pacific, settle into a place for awhile, rent a bungalow on the beach, and just relax, enjoying the sun and surf.


The other major thing I've been thinking about lately, which is more of a long-term goal, I suppose, is what I'm looking for in a long-term partner. I'm 30, and I have yet to be married. I don't have any "marriage" clock ticking in my brain, but I do want to find the right person and settle down... even though "settling" down may be the wrong word, since I want to travel so much :P

What are the traits I'm looking for in a long-term partner? That list has changed, grown, shrank, and morphed a lot in my life.. especially from when I was in high school, to college, to early 20s, to now.

I want my partner, above all else, to love me unconditionally. No matter how bad I (or him) fuck things up, I want him there by my side, telling me everything will be OK, and that he loves me, and we'll work it out. Someone that will listen to me, and comfort me, and expect the same of me. The three things I think are NOT OK and are deal-breakers in any relationship are addiction, abuse, and adultery. Those are the three deal-breakers for me. But beyond that, my partner should be my equal, by my side, and willing to fight with everything he has to hold onto what we have. Someone that loves me equally as fierce as I love him.

I want him to be intelligent (yes, within that definition I'm going to toss in non-believer), someone I can carry on a great conversation with, and someone that challenges me to be a better person... but at the same time, someone that is challenged by me to be the same. A partner that lifts me up, instead of tearing me down, and appreciates me for doing the same for him. Something I really appreciate is when I'm with someone that bests me - someone just as competitive as me, and someone who outwits me - that's a big turn-on. Someone that no matter how hard I tease, gives it right back to me 10-fold, and can one-up me most times - of course in a loving way... I respect someone like that, and I can have fun and laugh with someone like that.

Someone I can laugh with is essential - someone with a similar sense of humor. Someone that sees the same ironies of life as me, and can laugh at me and at themselves equally. You can't take life too seriously - when you do something stupid, you just have to laugh sometimes. When the day is ridiculously shitty, and everything seems to be going wrong, sometimes you just have to think, "man, this will make a GREAT journal entry" and laugh it off.

As for looks, it doesn't really matter. I've dated men from all over the world - short, tall, thin, round, bald, hairy, light, dark, I could care less. The most important things... the things that make a relationship last, and LOVE... are in the paragraphs above.

am I being naive and an idealist to want these things? Will I ever find them? I guess if I don't It'll just be me and the two cats, because I refuse to settle until I do.

12:02 pm: Social Experiment
So every day at lunch I eat in the teacher's lounge upstairs. An Egyptian woman named Mona and her son cook for us, and for 20LE (less than $5) you can purchase a hot lunch. Usually they have fried fish, chicken, meatloaf, turkey, shwerma, and lots of other things, plus rice, potatoes, veggies, and bread. They serve the meal at all of the schools - elementary, and middle too. Lately I've been paying with a 50 pound note, and buying water as well, so they owe me 37LE in change... except they never have change, so they have to run to one of the other schools to get chance. So the other day my coworker and friend Tony commented that he wonders how many days it will take for them to realize maybe they should just show up with change instead of having to run and get it every time... so I decided this would be a great experiment, and for the past 7 days I've been buying my lunch with a 50LE note... and for the past 7 days they have run off to grab change. I'm really curious how long this can go on... it's giving my sadistic side quite a giggle.


Also tomorrow is my 30th birthday :D :D Today is my last day in my 20s - I'm excited :D I'm having a big party at my place with a chef that is catering for everyone. It will be awesome :D

06:40 pm: Funny classroom story
Well, today was fun. I'm teaching Integrated Math 2, and right now we're studying statistics, correlation, causation, etc. and so yesterday I was reading BBC news and there was a study that suggested that kids who are watched by their grandparents tend to have a higher risk for obesity. So I thought this would be a great warm up question for the students... like I'd post the article, and ask them to identify a possible lurking variable and draw a directed graph. So this morning I turned on the projector and went to the BBC news website, and clicked the "health" section, but instead of that article being the main one, today's article was (with a giant photo) "MEN NEED BETTER FITTING CONDOMS" and it was a study on how men are buying condoms that aren't fitting properly, which leads to both a decrease in pleasure during sex, as well as an increase in transmission of diseases and pregnancy... and my kids are like, "uhhh..." and I'm like, "THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT YOU TO READ" lol.. it was a funny moment :P

11:27 am: Back at work after Mythmas break
Well, I had a fantastic winter break. We had 3 weeks off from school, and I went back to Texas. I spent 1.5 weeks with my family, and another week in Austin with friends. I had dinner with Cheryl, one of my best friends I grew up with in church, and spent New Year's even with my best friend Benton and some of his friends in Austin. I also got to meet his boyfriend Gregg, which was great - super nice guy! :D

It's interesting, because after living in Europe I very much disliked America. I was ready to settle down somewhere in the UK or Europe and be content. I definitely did not want to settle anywhere in the US. However, after living in the middle east, I've come to really appreciate America. I appreciate mainly the infrastructure, and the freedom of expression. People drive in the lanes and actually use their headlights at night, I can eat pork freely (nom nom ribs, bacon, and pepperoni), and I can speak my mind about being an atheist, talk openly about sex anytime I want, and show my shoulders and knees without being considered a whore. It's nice. :)

We started school Jan 10, and I'm still jet-lagged. I've been waking up hungry in the middle of the night, and exausted in the morning no matter how many hours of sleep I get. Hopefully this week will pass quickly and next week will be better.

01:00 pm: Apparently kind of...
In response to my last post, I asked a few Egyptian teachers here this morning about whether or not this "marrying your cousin" thing is common.

The majority response I got was that it was common in the old days and is still fairly common throughout the middle east within the lower classes. The main reason was to keep the land within the family. I asked about concern over genetic problems, and mostly the response was, "well, most of the kids seems to be fine."

ok!

08:07 am: Is this normal?!?
So this morning, my driver was taking me to work, as usual. He recently got married last week. I asked him how he liked being a married man, and he said he was very happy. I then asked him how he met his wife, and he said she's his cousin. I tried to clarify by saying, "You met her through your cousin?" and he said, "Her father is my mother's brother."

ok!

Is this normal for Egypt or the middle east?

11:10 am: Ready for break!
Well, the last two weeks of school are here, and I'm ready for Christmas break. I'm so happy that I'll be able to see my family and friends over break, although I am NOT looking forward to the huge travel home. Cairo to London to Chicago to Dallas and then on the way back Dallas to Paris to Cairo with a HUGE layover in Paris.. that's not going to be good for my kitty :( I hate traumatizing him more than I have to, and any extra time in his carrier more than necessary isn't good, but I also do need a lot of time in Paris because I'll have to pick him up from American and recheck him with British.


ehhh anyway, not looking forward to all that.

I've started reading a really good book series called the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. My friends told me to read it like 15 years ago and I never got around to it haha, but finally I started the first book and was hooked from chapter 4 or so. Each book is around 900 pages, but I finished the first one in about a week, and I'm about 1/4 done with the second. I bought the rest of the series and shipped them to my parent's house so I can pick them up over break. Plus I'll need something to do while I'm in East Texas haha :P The biggest news I've gotten from calling home lately has been "It's snowing! If it gets to 27 tonight it might stick!" and "There was a bobcat run over on the road the other day! We stopped to take a picture, and see if we could help, but it was dead"


sigh...


A new major patch came out in WoW with Icecrown Citadel out now, and a few other major instances. I'm anxious to get at it, but I wasn't able to yesterday because by the time servers were up US side, I was asleep here haha. Tonight I have Arabic lessons, but I should be home in time to get a bit of play time in :) I'm interested in trying the new cross-realm PUG system, and getting the new perky pug pet - cute :D

01:56 pm: Thanksgiving in Egypt
Today was awesome! I went with two of my coworkers, Rose and Shannon, and we went to the Khan (big market in downtown Cairo) to go Christmas present shopping. They both took me to their favourite shops, which were small tiny tucked away places I never would have found on my own. Rose showed me this beautiful silversmith and I bought several beautiful pieces. Then Shannon took us to Nashat's glass shop, where they do beautiful hand crafted glass ornaments. They're sooo pretty, and very affordable. Apparently Neiman Marcus sells the same ones for like $50. I bought quite a few. Last, Rose took us to this really amazing store that does book binding. They had journals, agenda books, all bound with Italian leather, papyrus, and even Egyptian fish scales! Very cool! I can't wait to give out my Christmas presents this year! :D

One thing I did notice is that I'm totally like a guy when I shop. I'm in a store, looking around, buying my stuff, and done in 10 minutes tops. I hate taking forever to shop, even with clothes. I can make one pass through a store, and I know if there's anything there I want or not, and if so, I'm in and out of the dressing room in 5 minutes, and done. So while we were shopping today, I was done in 5 minutes, and then I spent the next 2 hours at each store waiting on Rose and Shannon haha. I didn't mind at all, we had a great time, but I definitely noticed we're different kinds of shoppers haha. :D

After a full day of shopping, we had dinner at Fuego. Filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes for my thanksgiving dinner :P Not a problem!

on Friday I stayed home. Friday was Eid al-Adha, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha) the "Festival of Sacrifice" so every family slaughters an animal and gives the meat to the poor. The blood was definitely running in the streets.. so I stayed indoors haha :P We had a 4 day weekend, so for the rest of the time I stayed inside and became a vegetable. I played WoW, ordered in, watched my TV shows online, and slept. It was awesome :P

Saturday I went with Tara and her husband Berry to the Maadi Grand Mall. There's a dress shop there and we're trying to find something to wear for the upcoming Winter Ball. It's put on by the Board of Directors of our school, and it is a very formal event at the Four Seasons next Friday (Dec 11). I have 3 formal dresses, none of which fit - they're too big, and everyone I have spoken to says they cannot do the alterations in time because they're swamped due to this being formal season... so I'm thinking I'll have to invest in another dress... sigh. I don't want to spend money, but it is an investment, and having a new dress is always fun :D .. if I can find one that is....

So we went to the mall, but everything was closed for the holiday. No black Friday here folks! We went again on Sunday.. closed. Monday too... closed. ARGH! Finally we're going back today and "store-owners willing" it will be open. (That's a little Egypt joke.. everyone says insha-Allah here (god-willing), but really it's up to the store owners so HAR HAR)

sigh..

I'm bored. Our school was closed down this week because of the H1N1 scare. Apparently lots of people went to the Haj or whatever, so the government is afraid they'll all come back sick, so every school in Egypt has had to close. That means we're holding classes online again, which means I'm bored. This time around it's much less work though. I posted the students' work for the week, and it's all due THursday, so I've just been sitting around, monitoring the discussion boards to make sure they're on the right track, and checking email.. nothing much else to do. I brought a book today lol. I have no idea why I even have to be here, as I could do all of this from home, but I suppose it's in the interest of equity, because HL and IB classes are still going on, so certain teachers are actually still holding classes... meh..

OK, well hopefully next time you hear from me I'll have a formal dress for the ball! :P

03:00 pm: Updates :D
Oh man, it's been WAY too long since I've updated my journal - SORRY! I know lots of you are following this from home and I apologize! I do have some fun stories to tell though :P I guess I should start with the one that originally kept me from posting anything here - my "awesome" trip to El Gouna and the nice parasite / amoeba I picked up while there.

So for the October break (Armed Forces holiday) I went to El Gouna. Basically El Gouna is this planned resort destination. This guy Samih Sawiris (I teach his niece) planned out this huge resort destination on the Red Sea. Anyways, it's huge now, and people go there for vacations, so I thought I'd try it out. I booked a room at the Sheraton there, which is a 5 star resort. One day into my trip, I came down with something, and got really really sick. I spent the rest of the 4 days in my hotel room, trying to fend off the hotel service staff that kept trying to clean my room, refill the mini-bar, etc. even though I had the DO NOT DISTURB sign clearly on my door. They would then CALL me to make SURE I didn't want anything. I was just like, "Please just leave me ALONE" I was so sick. I just laid there all day. Ugh. So then when my stay was over, I hobbled myself to the airport, and went to see my doctor when I got back to Cairo. He gave me Cipro. I took the entire dose, but was still very sick and weak. I didn't eat or drink anything for 5 days, so I lost about 10 pounds, and I was severely dehydrated and weak. I missed 2 days of school, then we had the weekend, and then I missed another 2 the next week. The nurses had some rehydrant sent to my apartment, along with some bananas to start me eating again. They also suggested I go see the doctor again since I wasn't getting any better. So I had my driver take me back to the doctor.

This time, my doctor was out of the country, so I had to see a different doctor. He was young, and handsome, but at the time I just felt like crap so I didn't pay much attention. He told me I probably have a parasite or an amoeba, so he gave me this different medicine called Protozoa or something that supposedly kills all the extra bugs, except that it's comprised of four giant horse pills I have to swallow 3 days in a row after breakfast - ick. We exchanged business cards, and I left to go home and be sick.

I finally started feeling better, and eventually got back to work. It was a pretty awful experience in general though. I think a lot of it might have been psychological too, since this was the first real time I've been sick sick since my surgery, when I nearly died. I think maybe my body and/or mind was very scared. In addition, I didn't have anyone here to take care of me, so it was just me and Bella (who isn't much help haha). It made me miss home a lot. I missed my mom making me soup and mashed potatoes, putting a wet rag on my forehead, and tucking me in haha. After I got well, I decided I wanted to go home for Christmas break :P

So anyways, surprisingly enough, this young doctor contacted me socially, and asked me out on a date. I had no idea what to think at first because I didn't know him at all, so I was at the same time scared, but also curious. He turned out to be a very nice guy. We went on several dates, and he was a perfect gentleman. It posed some interesting problems though.

First, I thought I could never really date an Egyptian man... or more specifically I thought an Egyptian man would never seriously date me, because 1. I'm an atheist, and 2. I don't want children, both of which are very conflicting with the culture here. So from the first date I was very up front with this guy about my opinions on religion and family. I basically said, "Look, I completely understand if I'm not what you're looking for - we're very different, so if you decide you don't want to continue dating me - nothing personal." Well, apparently he did, so we went on a few other dates - nothing serious, but I had a very nice time with him. He's really sweet, but again, we're VERY different. He is a practicing Muslim, and he's very naive when it comes to women and relationships in general.. even being 32 and a doctor, which I didn't expect. His view was that, "Oh, well if we like each other enough, nothing matters -we can get through anything." and my response was, "ok that's not reality."

For me, in reality, you have to have some fundamental things alike for a relationship to work. For me, one of those fundamentals is my non-belief with regards to religion. I need to be in a relationship with someone that I can talk to about this. Would I care if he fasted and didn't drink? Of course not, but that's not the problem - the problem is I couldn't TALK about my non-belief without offending him and his beliefs.

The other problem is just a general lack of experience with women and relationships. I need to be with someone who knows what they're doing, and has been in a serious relationship (or several) before, and understands the intricate details of relationships. This guy I was with didn't even know that if you're going to kiss me, you should tilt your head so our noses don't smash together... seriously? I don't want to be a teacher in that aspect of my life. I felt like I was dating a 14 year old kid at times. ... and I won't even talk about our debate on abortion.

But I don't think it was HIM individually, I think it's a cultural thing altogether. Society here doesn't view dating before marriage as appropriate, and sex is for procreation only, etc. Ridiculous, honestly. They don't have any kind of open, honest discussion about sex, and people here in general just do not talk about anything like that... it's strange to me. I've always been an open book, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know about me. I guess part of that comes from having lived with my friends from Spain for so long - they were very open and frank about everything, and I think they really liberated me with regards to many opinions and views on things. I miss them a lot. I miss living in a society where people can be free and open about topics like sex and religion.

But I'm also happy here - I have a social network here, I'm able to talk about things with my coworkers and friends, and I'm meeting new people, which is nice. I don't want to live here forever, but I'm not planning on it, and I'm grateful for the time I do have here in this country and culture.

Last weekend the math department went to Tony's (one of the math teachers) house in Ain Sokhna. He has a beautiful place right on the beach. We laid in the sun and ate this delicious BBQ. It was so refreshing and relaxing, and was a well-needed break from Cairo.

This weekend we have a 4 day break for Eid and Thanksgiving. They call this weekend the Eid where the blood runs in the streets, because it is tradition here that families slaughter an animal and give the meat to the poor. I'm staying in Cairo. I'm coming home for Christmas break, so I'm trying to save as much money as I can until then. I need to stock up on a lot of stuff, and it's going to cost me about $350 in vet bills, and another $400 in airfare to bring my second cat Luci back home with me. Plus I want to spend a few days visiting friends in Austin / San Antonio, so I'll need to save for a hotel, gas, food, etc. Ugh, America is so expensive! >.<

Anyway, so that's as much of an update as I can give right now haha. Nothing much interesting going on. I'm not seeing anyone, and I'm starting to play WoW more (oh noes the addiction!!). I'm looking forward to this break because I've been getting end of the semester burn out. I'm ready for the Christmas break, I'm ready to go home and see my friends and family, and I'm ready to sleep in late, and lay out in the sun soaking up the vitamin D.

Hope you all have a great Turkey break :D

10:48 am: Happy Birthday Annie Besant :D
On this date in 1847, Annie Besant (nee Wood) was born in London. The sheltered girl married the unpleasant Rev. Frank Besant (rhymes with "pleasant") at 20. Besant, she later quipped in an early autobiography, had "very high ideas of a husband's authority and a wife's submission." Besant met liberal former minister Moncure Conway, and after a course of reading, gave up Christianity at age 25 and soon after separated from her husband.

In 1874, Annie met Charles Bradlaugh, Britain's most prominent freethought leader and an attorney for the poor, who offered her a position on the weekly National Reformer. They embarked on a platonic professional partnership of writing, speaking and reform. Besant became a celebrity among reformers, with George Bernard Shaw praising her as "the greatest orator in England, and possibly in Europe." Annie persuaded Charles to reprint The Fruits of Philosophy, a book about birth control, to challenge the Obscene Publications Act.

They were arrested, tried and narrowly avoided jail. When Annie shrewdly rewrote the outdated booklet, her version became a bestseller that hastened the birth control movement worldwide. But her involvement lost her custody of her 8-year-old daughter. Annie became a student at London university when it agreed to admit women in 1878, receiving the only honors award in botany in 1881 in Prof. Thomas Huxley's class.

She was the first woman on the London School Board, and an advocate for working class women and woman suffrage. Her enthusiasms for other causes and other men gradually strained her friendship with Bradlaugh. The rudest shock to Bradlaugh, his daughter Hypatia, and admirers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton came in 1889, when Besant officially converted to theosophy. Although retaining affection for the freethought movement, she became a successor to the mystic founder of theosophy, Mme. Blavatsky, moving to India.

A fanatical bent which her mother had detected (her mother's prophetic dying words: "it has been darling Annie's only fault; she has always been too religious") took Besant on a journey to occultism. Even in India, however, Besant was a true reformer, never quite losing her practical bent. An early supporter of Indian Home Rule, she was later praised by freethinker Jawaharlal Nehru as the "Mother of India." D. 1933.


“ . . . I rejoice that I played my part in that educating of England which has made impossible for evermore the crude superstitions of the past, and the repetition of the cruelties and injustices under which preceding heretics suffered.”

-- Annie Besant, Autobiography (1910)

08:41 am: Action Alert: New Health Care Bills Promote and Subsidize Faith-healing!‏
I received this via email from the FFRF this morning. I hope that all of you will write in and take action to stop this.

Dear FFRF Members:

We received the following timely request for help from Rita Swan, director of Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD), based in Iowa, about unconstitutional action which Congress is poised to take to require medical insurers to reimburse for "religious or spiritual health care." This is in capitulation to the Christian Science lobby and is hidden in amendments in two Senate bills (read the language of these amendments below). According to Rita, the IRS allows Christian Science prayer to be deducted as a medical expense! Can you help stop these unconstitutional and dangerous amendments? Read Rita's message and our brief Talking Points below, and then please:

Contact:

1) Senate Finance Committee
Chair: Senator Max Baucus
511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2651
Fax: (202) 224-9412
E-mail form: http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue

Senate Committee On Finance
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510-6200
Phone: (202) 224-4515
Link to committee members: http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/committee.htm

2) Your Senator
Find/Contact Your Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

3) Make this the subject of a short letter to your local editor

Rita's message:

The Senate Finance Committee is currently debating Senator Baucus' America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. The Kerry-Hatch amendment C-14 titled "Religious Non-discrimination in Health Care" to the Baucus bill prohibits insurers from denying "benefits for religious or spiritual health care" if the "religious or spiritual health care" is "an expense eligible for deduction as a medical care expense as determined by Internal Revenue Service Rulings interpreting section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as of January 1, 2009."

Senate Bill 1679, known as the Affordable Health Choices Act, which has already passed the U.S. Senate HELP Committee, includes Section 3103 (a)(1)(D). It requires insurers to reimburse for "religious or spiritual health care" that is "an expense eligible for deduction as a medical care expense as determined by Internal Revenue Service Rulings interpreting section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as of January 1, 2009."

For several decades the Internal Revenue Service has allowed bills sent by Christian Science practitioners for their prayers to be a tax-deductible medical care expense. This is bizarre, but certainly does not prove that Christian Science prayer heals disease. To our knowledge Christian Science prayer is the only prayer that the IRS allows to be deducted as a medical expense.

Christian Science church founder Mary Baker Eddy told the spiritual healers to "make their charges for treatment equal to those of reputable physicians in their respective localities" (First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 237). These treatments consist only of prayer. In 1989, Christian Science healer Mario Tosto charged parents $446 for two days of prayer-treatment for an 11-year-old Minnesota boy with diabetes. The boy, of course, died.

The measures in the U.S. Senate health care bills have the government not only allowing payments to unlicensed providers, but requiring them. Moreover, the government is requiring insurers to pay bills sent by one church's faith healers. And finally, these measures will bolster the Christian Science church's argument that its prayer "treatments" are and should be a legal substitute for medical care of sick children. All of these aspects are very bad.

We would be very grateful for FFRF's publicity of these provisions in the U.S. Senate health care bills and whatever you can do to mount opposition to them.—Rita Swan/CHILD Inc.

Talking Points

To Senate Finance Committee (feel free to copy and paste):

Kill the unwise and unconstitutional Kerry-Hatch amendment C-14 to Senator Baucus' America's Healthy Future Act of 2009, with its misnomer title, "Religious Nondiscrimination in Health Care." Congress should not condone prayer as a substitute for medical evaluation and treatment, much less subsidize it for one religious sect! The children of Christian Scientists, who could have been saved by medicine, have died because their parents relied on Christian Scientist "faith healers." These irresponsible religious sects teach that it is a sin to take an ill or dying child to a medical doctor. It is a "sin" not to get medical care in such circumstances. Congress must not encourage medical maltreatment of dependent children. Nor should legislation be passed to benefit one religious sect. Keep religious dogma out of government!

To Your Senator

Please work and vote against any amendments to Senate legislation that would require insurers to reimburse for so-called "religious or spiritual health care" (prayer as a substitute for medical evaluation and treatment). Please oppose Section 3103(a)(1)(D) of Senate Bill 1679, which has passed out of committee and is up for debate. S. 1679 requires insurers to reimburse for so-called "religious or spiritual health care." The Kerry-Hatch amendment C-14 to Senator Baucus' America's Healthy Future Act of 2009 (now in the Senate Finance Committee), with its misleading title, "Religious Nondiscrimination in Health Care," is also unwise and unconstitutional. Congress should not condone prayer as a substitute for medical evaluation and treatment, much less require its subsidy for one religious sect! The children of Christian Scientists, who could have been saved by medicine, have died because their parents relied on Christian Scientist "faith healers." These irresponsible religious sects teach that it is a sin to take an ill or dying child to a medical doctor. It is a "sin" not to get medical care in such circumstances. Congress must not encourage medical maltreatment of dependent children. Nor should legislation be passed to benefit one religious sect. Keep religious dogma out of government!

Amendment Text

America's Healthy Future Act of 2009, Senate Finance Committee, Title I, Subtitle B, Kerry/Hatch Amendment C-14, "Religious Non-Discrimination in Health Care," September 22, 2009

“Description of Amendment: There shall be a requirement that there be non-discrimination in health care in a manner that, with respect to an individual who is eligible for medical or surgical care under a qualified health plan offered through a State Exchange, prohibits the Administrator of the State Exchange, or a qualified health plan offered through a State Exchange, from denying such individual benefits for religious or spiritual health care, except that such religious or spiritual health care shall be an expense eligible for deduction as a medical care expense as determined by Internal Revenue Service Rulings interpreting section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as of January 1, 2009.”

Affordable Health Choices Act, S. 1679, Sec. 3103(a)(1)(D), September 17, 2009

“The essential benefits provided for in subparagraph (A) shall include a requirement that there be non-discrimination in health care in a manner that, with respect to an individual who is eligible for medical or surgical care under a qualified health plan offered through a Gateway, prohibits the Administrator of the Gateway, or a qualified health plan offered through the Gateway, from denying such individual benefits for religious or spiritual health care, except that such religious or spiritual health care shall be an expense eligible for deduction as a medical care expense as determined by Internal Revenue Service Rulings interpreting section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as of January 1, 2009.”

(For more info or to send blind copies of your letters, contact Bonnie Gutsch at bgutsch@ffrf.org)

09:26 pm: Article by Christopher Hitchens re: Egypt's slaughtering of pigs
http://www.slate.com/id/2229830/?from=rss

is the original link, and I am re-posting here:

First They Came for the Pigs - The terrible consequences of Egypt's swine slaughter.

By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Sept. 28, 2009, at 11:05 AM ET

According to all recent reports, the ancient city of Cairo now presents to the world the image of a growing pile of festering trash. Nothing new, you say. The streets have never been exactly uncluttered, and the levels of noise and traffic and pollution are an object of wonderment.

When I first visited the place, I was amazed to find people living with great dignity and aplomb in what were called "the cities of the dead"—among the graves and stones of Cairo's massive cemeteries. I was also struck by the number and variety of animals living cheek by jowl, as it were, amid the buses and taxis, with the human population. Looking down from the high window of Shepheard's Hotel, I saw that some enterprising person in a neighboring low-rise had managed to get a small flock of goats onto his roof. Other flocks and herds could be met with on the thoroughfares. And a great deal of excellent work was being unobtrusively done by that most useful of animals, the pig. As mass consumers of organic waste, pigs are hard to beat. They would chomp their way through great heaps of it, very often under the unspoken supervision of Cairo's quite large Christian minority.

I have to use the past tense about these noble beasts because, in the spring of this very year, they were all slaughtered on the orders of the Egyptian government.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/world/middleeast/25oink.html?_r=1

And it is this crazy action that has shifted the Cairo trash scene from the awful to the near-calamitous. It was alleged by the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, on the basis of no evidence whatever, that the swine themselves were the carriers of the so-called "swine flu." (Several friends and relatives of mine have already caught and recovered from this mild infection; everybody knows that actual encounters with pigs have absolutely nothing to do with it.) As a consequence of the pig massacre, the streets of Cairo have become almost unlivable, and the Christian garbage collectors, locally called the zabaleen, have been robbed of their livelihood. "They killed the pigs, let them clean the city," as one former garbage collector and pig man, Moussa Rateb, was quoted as saying of the Egyptian authorities.

I read all the way to the end of Michael Slackman's well-written and vividly illustrated report in the New York Times with that vague need one sometimes feels to hear the sound of another shoe dropping.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20cairo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=michael%20slackman%20cairo%20pigs&st=cse


When was he proposing to mention that there was something sectarian—possibly even something religious—in the decision to simultaneously butcher the pigs and downgrade the Christians?


This wouldn't be the only instance of clerical hysteria generated by the outbreak. Iranian television recently broadcast an item suggesting that the swine-flu virus had been deliberately incubated by the usual shady cosmopolitan "circles" and that the vaccine against it had been monopolized by a company in which Donald Rumsfeld held many shares.

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qrp63L1R4Y

Back in May, just as Egypt's anti-porcine hysteria was gathering pace, there was a proposal from Sheik Ahmad Ali Othman, a senior advisory figure at the Ministry of Religious Endowments, that all pigs be killed because they were the descendants of those unbelieving Jews who were turned into swine in the Quran.

source: http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD235909

(In case you don't follow this very toxic debate between contending schools of militant Islam, there are those who maintain that Jews are the spawn of the pigs and monkeys into which Allah turned the heretics, and those who take the more moderate view that the heretics turned into pigs and monkeys were further cursed by being made barren and sterile. The latter view leads to the slightly more lenient and broad-minded conclusion that, bad as today's Jews are, they at least cannot be in a direct line of descent from the original condemned beasts. These fine distinctions are worth knowing.)

At a more demotic level, it is said that pigs are unclean because they even eat their own excrement. They are not the only creatures that will resort to this, but it is certainly their omnivorousness that makes them such an amazing trash patrol. Not to notice this about pigs is to miss the point of them. We might also observe that they have skin and organs that can be transplanted onto and into humans, that they have high intelligence and an impressive body weight to brain weight ratio, some family values, and other interesting traits. (It's no coincidence that, in all societies that do not inculcate prejudice against them, baby pigs are regarded in a cousinly light by the folklore of human children.) A city or society without pigs is barely imaginable: A world without pigs would be a world in which humans had destroyed some close kin and some very serviceable fellow creatures. Yet two of the great monotheisms are committed to irrational hatred and even fear of the pig. (Christianity is rather better on the point, if you omit the ghastly tale of the Gadarene swine infected with demons by Jesus himself.

source: http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2005/05/gadarene-swine.html

A canon of the Church of England, who had served as a missionary in New Guinea, where sheep were unknown, told me that the metaphor of the woolly flock and the shepherd had been replaced among the indigenous by Anglican preachers who appealed to the Lord to keep and safeguard his precious porkers.)

But no faith is immune to stupidity on this point. Centuries ago in Europe, cats were considered—especially the black ones among them—as the "familiars" of witches and put to death with revolting cruelty by Christians who were petrified of the evil one and his female envoys. The destruction of the feline led to the triumph of the rat, and to the flea that it bore on its back, and to the near collapse of European civilization. Now, the eradication of the porcine leads to the advance of the garbage mountain, in which it would be surprising if the rat and its vermin did not again find a few claw holds. Leave it to people of faith. Leave it to them if you dare …

02:39 pm: School Closed, Casinos, and Customs, OH MY!
Ahhh I'm overdue for an update to my journal - sorry :)

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the Egyptian ministry closed our school down until October 7. That doesn't mean we're not having classes though. We've moved to an online format, so now we're using this program called Blackboard, and at first although I thought this would make my life awesome, it has ended up being 100 times more work for me. Basically I've had to set up online courses for each class I teach, post announcements, assignments, and create discussion threads on forums where students can go to talk about the classwork, and have online conversations, and of course I am getting emailed homework from all of my kids, in addition to a million questions, etc. Now, I have to monitor these online discussion threads (maybe 10 per class * 5 classes), make sure the conversations are going in the right manner, make sure the kids are on the right track, and correct any misconceptions I see. This takes FOREVER. I also have to track and monitor who is participating in these discussions, and who isn't, so I can give them grades, and then I have to open every email attachment, and look at the homework. It's exhausting. Bring the kids back into the classrooms already argh!

The ministry shut down all the schools - basically because of the swine flu scare. Of course it's ridiculous. You know, there are 0 cases and no evidence for any threat, and yet here we are, closed until Oct 7. At least after this week we have a vacation Oct 1-6, where I'll be heading to El Gouna, this beach town on the red sea for more sun, scuba, snorkeling, and fun :)


This past weekend was fun. My friend Tara, her husband Berry, and I went to the Sheraton downtown to their casino. We wanted to see what the casinos here were like and try our hand at blackjack. Well, we were in for quite a few surprises. First of all, I had heard that the casinos downtown did not allow any Egyptians in. This seemed super prejudiced to me, and sure enough, when we went to enter the casino, there was a big sign that said "NON-EGYPTIAN ENTRANCE ONLY" and we had to show our passports before they let us in. BTW, there was no other entrance, that was it. So Tara was freaking out because she's like, "Wtf this is like a throwback to the days of slavery" Well, come to find out, after talking to my friend Carolyn, that the reason is that it is illegal for Egyptians to gamble. You know, the country here is an Islamic country, and apparently Carolyn says it is against their beliefs to gamble, and since here there is no separation of church and state, and if the religious council makes a ruling, the state must abide by it.. so apparently they have made it a law that Egyptians cannot gamble. It's strange because all other Arabs are welcomed. We were at the blackjack table alongside people from Kuwait, Morocco, Syria, Lebanon, and Libya. .. but no Egyptians. D:

Also, gambling here is no fun! In Shreveport, or Vegas or anywhere else, the table is happy, and talking to each other, and congratulating each other, and cheering whenever we all win, bantering with the dealer, etc. Here, it's dead. Silence. Everyone just is very serious, and I'm all like WHY SO SRS?!? So at least we do get free drinks, so Tara and I are having jack and coke and living it up, and we're losing.. no fun, but at least we're trying to liven things up. I start practicing my arabic and talking to people at the table and asking them where they're from. So as I mentioned earlier, the guy to my right looked American, but when I asked him in Arabic where he's from he whispered to me Kuwait. When I asked why he's whispering, he said because he doesn't want people to know, because maybe they'll start asking him questions ( I guess because Kuwaitis are assumed to be rich) I don't know. So then the guy to the left of the guy from Morocco looks Arabic as well, so I'm asking him in Arabic where's he's from, and he stares at me.. so I ask him again, and then in perfect American English he says, "um I have no idea what you're saying.. I'm from LA" LOLOL. I was like OH HI rofl. oops haha

So some interesting things about gambling here besides it being NO FUN =/ is that you can bet on other people's hands, like in Europe. So these rich people are putting like $150 a hand betting on my hands. Why in the world would you do that without knowing if the person knows what they're doing or not? I get to make all the decisions, and he has no say. I could make the worst plays in the world, and he has to just suck it up and watch his money go away. It didn't make sense.. if they had watched Tara and me for awhile, it would be understandable, but without knowing if I'm a good player or not they just started immediately betting on our hands. /shrug whatever.

So also what's interesting is that here they have a move called surrender, where if you don't like the way your hand looks to stack up against the dealer, before anyone plays you can surrender half your money and basically drop out of the round. Totally awful strategy by the way, you should never do it, but people were. The other thing is the dealer doesn't draw his second card until the entire table has played, unlike where I've played they have their second card face down the entire time, here they wait until the entire table has played before they draw their second card. I'm not sure how that changes anything, but I don't like it. Well, we both ended up losing, but we had budgeted for it, so it was the cost of an evening of entertainment.

OK, so the last thing I wanted to talk about was customs and shipping things to Egypt. OK, well so I had ordered things for Benton to bring over with him, but a few things didn't get there in time - 2 books and some hair products. Well, so he shipped them to me via UPS, for $80, and I paid him back for that. OK, so this shit arrives here today, and I get a call from the school that says there's a package for me here and they want 1500 pounds for me to claim it.. THAT'S LIKE ALMOST $300 WTF WTF WTF. Apparently that is why you don't ship shit here.. because the customs cost is ridiculous.. so I was like, "Um.. I don't have $300 to pay you right now.. can you hold onto it?" so they're going to hold it at the UPS facility and I guess once I get my PFD check I'll pick it up but for crying out loud the products in the box are only worth like $150, and the shipping from the US was already $80, and now $300 to claim it? That's like $400 I've paid to get stuff that's worth $150. A;LSDFJA;SLDFKJAS;LDFKJASD

I always thought that you didn't ship things here because it wasn't guaranteed to GET here.. but apparently it's because of this.. D:

GAH

SIGH

but my haaaaiiirrrrr caarreeee produccttsssss >.< >.< >.< neeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!!!


ok so

lesson learned

HARD lesson learned

DO NOT SHIP SHIT TO EGYPT

That's why Carolyn is like saying it's TOTALLY worth it to just pay the extra baggage fee and bring an extra suitcase rather than having anything shipped here

siiiighhhhhhhhh

01:49 pm: Great Debate at Harvard between Dan Barker and Dinesh D'Souza

10:55 pm: Pics update
Editing previous entries to add pics, FYI, and the few I couldn't really find a place for I'm putting here:

Dive Center:



Beautiful pics of the Red Sea:












Pictures of part of the resort from the beach:

10:58 am: Heading back to Cairo
On my way back to Cairo today. Went snorkeling this morning and laid out for a few minutes in the sun - trying to soak up as much as I can before I head back :)

Quick side story:

Last night after dinner at the resort here in Dahab I got into a conversation with a man who ran a jewelry store here. He kept trying to sell me these jeweled crosses, and finally I was like, "I'm not a Christian." and he was like shocked, and he's like, "What religion are you?" I said, "I'm atheist" He goes, "Atheist?" so I explained that I choose not to believe in a god. He was actually very nice about it, and we had a great conversation. He's a coptic christian, and he was explaining to me why he believed, and I was explaining to him why I didn't - it was a nice conversation, and I'm happy that there are people in the world that you can have normal conversations with, without them getting upset, defensive, and offended. I believe he was very sincere in his beliefs and convictions.

The thing is, if he grew up in ancient Greece, he would be just as sincere about Zeus. If he grew up in India, he would feel the same way about Vishnu, if he lived during the viking times, he would be convinced that Wotan is god. If he were native american, it would be the animal and nature gods. Most of humanity is atheist about most every god they have invented.. some of us, like myself, just choose to take it one god further.

Well, towards the end of our conversation, he told me that he knows Jesus exists because he's had these experiences and "dreams" where he's out of his body and had an out of body experience, and spoken to the saints, etc. I told him I think he's hallucinating, or just simply dreaming. I kept reiterating that in order for me to believe I would need absolute scientific evidence that could not be disputed. So I told him that if he talks to the saints, and obviously they have all of the knowledge of earth and heaven within their grasp, that if he wanted to give me a sign, so that I would believe (he was intent on "saving me" but very nice about it), that next time he spoke to the saints out of his body, I asked him to tell them to provide me with a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, and if they can do that, and he can bring it back to me, I will absolutely 100% convert and believe in god and jesus. Of course he had no idea what Fermat's last theorem is, but it's easy enough to write down on a piece of paper, and really he shouldn't have to know. THey are infinitely wise, so they'll know - just take the equation to them, and get a response. We ended up praying together, asking god for a sign to prove to me he's real. I'll let you know if I receive it :P

... nothing back from the saints so far :P

12:45 am: Sunday in Dahab
Today was awesome :D I woke up and went to the dive center at 9:30. I took a scuba skills refresher course.

This is me and my instructor John:



I haven't dived (dove?) since Belize in 2004, so it's been 5 years. I did my skills review with this really nice guy John, and then I went on the noon boat out to the Golden Blocks. Here are a few pics from the Golden Blocks - it was absolutely gorgeous! :D I'll add more when I get home of me, and the hotel :)

Golden Blocks dive site:


Beautiful Coral:


Lion Fish:


Foster's Hawkfish:


Parrot Fish:





Scorpion fish: (really hard to spot him as he's camouflaged:


Crocodile Fish:


Cornet Fish:


Devil Scorpion Fish:



These are just some of the awesome things we saw during our dive. There was a total of 6 of us on the dive, and the dive master was my buddy. Absolutely no problems except my mask kept fogging up now and then, but one of our skills teaches us not only how to clear your mask completely, but if needed, I can completely remove it underwater, put it back on, and clear it again. Glad I did the skills update for sure, because although I remembered most everything, there was a few things I needed refreshing on. Also, I'm SSI certified, and the dive centers here are PADI - mostly the same, but a few minor differences.

I think I'll come back here and get my advanced certification. It's a 2 day course with 5 dives involved. It's around $250. Once I get my advanced certification I'll be able to dive to some other really cool places, and also to Thistlegorm. It's a very famous wreck in this area:

Thistlegorm:




After diving I came back to the room, had lunch, and laid outside on the back terrace getting some sun and relaxing. Then I went to dinner tonight, and now I'm packing as much as I can for tomorrow.

I haven't gotten enough sun yet (read: I'm not sunburned yet), so tomorrow morning I'm going to try and go out early and go snorkeling. I'm leaving at noon, so I figure if I can get out there by 8:00, that will give me 2 hours in the sun, which should be enough to get me sufficiently tan / burned to my liking :P Then I'll come back here at 10, get ready, and head off at 12. My flight leaves at 2:30, I should arrive back in Cairo at 3:30, and then it'll be rest time until school tomorrow (well... kind of.. teacher school I guess, not kids hehe)

We have another break right around the corner too for October 2-6. I'm not sure where I'll go for this break.. maybe back here, but maybe just to Cairo for a night at the Sheraton Casino.. or maybe if I can afford it, back here for my advanced certification.. who knows :P THere's plenty of other places in Egypt I haven't seen yet that I want to - El Ghouna, Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan, Alexandria, Abu Simbel... lots of places, but I really REALLY want to be on the beach diving and snorkeling haha. I think it's because when I was in Alaska I just couldn't go lay on the beach ever. I remember wanting SO bad to just be able to go somewhere where I can lay on the beach, soak up the sun, read a book, and do nothing. .. but there weren't any beaches like that in Alaska! :*( It was just me.. in the cold, dark, winter :( haha

SO now I think I'm making up for lost time. BEACH BEACH BEACH BEACH! Warm me sun, burn me up! Make me red, make me brown, tan me up and tan me down. I'm such a poet lol :)

As for my back flare up, it's getting better. It usually only lasts 2-3 weeks, and I can tell it's on the mend. My scuba guides were really helpful today. I explained to them the problem, and they carried all my gear for me, and helped me put it on once I was in the water, rather than me having to carry it all on my back.

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned it already or not, but I've had issues getting strong enough medicine to help. First I was given a cortizone shot and told to take tylenol and rest. That did nothing, so then I was given Tamarol or something a tad bit stronger. It also did nothing. I took two - nothing still. So finally my doctor ordered some strong stuff (probably hydrocodone, percocet, darvocet, etc (i.e. the stuff that WORKS) from Tel Aviv. He's having some shipped in, and will give me plenty to last, and then I think he's bringing more back when he goes there in a few weeks.

I should be good for now with the meds Carolyn gave me left over from her back surgery (same stuff - the strong ones), as this flare up is pretty much over, but for any future ones, I'll finally be set and have a stash on me for when I need it. That makes me feel good. I should have brought like a year's supply with me from the states, but that would probably be near impossible, since the pain killers are a narcotic, and they're highly controlled because they can be very addictive.

I don't think Egypt has them.. but then sometimes I think they must have them.. like.. what if someone goes in for some type of major surgery and comes out with wounds and staples and all kinds of crap that is obviously painful. What the heck do they give them? I mean.... morphine when they're in the hospital, but when they go home there's got to be something. /shrug Plus I feel like I only get like half of the effect of the drugs anyways, because my body doesn't absorb the entire medicine due to my surgery.

I remember in Alaska when my back first flared up I was in so much pain, I was taking SO many hydrocodone and soma (muscle relaxers) just to keep my pain level down to like a 4-5 so I could function on a day to day basis. It kept spiking to 6-8, I'd take stuff, and then it'd go back down but only for a few hours. They'd say I was supposed to take 1 every 4-6 hours, but sometimes I was taking 3 in that time, along with the Soma, but it was all just to control the pain so I could work - I didn't feel loopy or anything on the meds.

I started to get worried though because I was taking so many. I was scared I might get addicted. I kept a record of like the date / pain level before / drugs I took / and pain level after / and the hourly time. I showed it to my Dr. and my counselor, and they both said I was fine. My counselor was also an addiction specialist in the past, and she said as long as you're taking the medicine to control the pain, and for what it's used for, there's no risk of addiction. It's when y ou start taking it just to feel loopy or get the weird effects that you're in trouble. That made me feel a lot better.

I'm scheduled for my MRI this coming Saturday. My doctors in the states diagnosed me as having degenerative disc disease, but when I went to see the back specialist here (when my normal doctor was out on an emergency), he said he didn't believe it, and that I'm far too young to have that. (he also prescribed me NSAIDS which I explicitly told him I'm allergic to - I'm VERY lucky I read the manual that came with the medicine before I took it or I would have been extremely ill).

OK, well I think I'm rambling :P I should get to bed since I want to get up early and get some snorkeling in before I leave. Also, I want to check flight / travel information for our Oct 6 break :P

Bye! :D

09:39 pm: Vacation in Dahab
For Eid break I headed to Dahab yesterday, and I've been loving it here so far. It's much more relaxed than Sharm El-Sheikh. Way less tourists, and in fact, the resort I'm staying at - the Meridien, feels very private, and I absolutely love not having crowds. I'm staying here:

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1937

As an SPG preferred guest, I was upgraded to a suite upon arrival. It's amazing. The terrace isn't as nice as the one in Sharm, but the room itself is ridiculously awesome. I have a huge sitting / living room, a half bath, a full bath with giant jacuzzi tub, and sauna, a beautiful view of the ocean, and outside behind my room, I have a private terrace with lounge chairs, and my own jacuzzi! There's also a private garden, with an outdoor shower. It's so beautiful!

(update: now that I'm home here are some pics of the room:)

This is the entrance to the suite - there's more patio furniture on the left you can't see and a second entrance door


This is the living / sitting area:


Continuing through the living area is this hallway, with vanity mirror on the right with some essentials (fruits, coffee, etc), and to the left is one of the half baths.



The master bedroom (there's a desk and work station behind the bed you can't see), and you also can't see the front window that opens to an ocean view:




The master bath (2 pics - one of the huge jacuzzi tub, and the other of the sink area - there's also a shower behind that door.






Then there's the terrace outside with my own private hot tub (jacuzzi), and lounge chairs. I managed to set the camera up on a timer and get a few shots of me one night in the jacuzzi haha.












Things are also much cheaper here than Sharm - not a lot cheaper, but the food at the hotel is way more reasonable, and about what I'd pay for a medium priced meal in Cairo.

Last night I checked in and just went to sleep. Today I spent lounging around the pools, and on my terrace. They have beautiful pools here - one is a salt water lagoon, and several others are fresh water. They have these cute cubby areas that are shaded and like little pods you can relax in, a sauna, jacuzzi outside, spa service, dive center, and lots of other things.

One of the lagoon pools:




Tonight I had a few drinks for happy hour out on the hotel terrace overlooking the sea, and then I went for a buffet dinner at their main Sea Breeze restaurant. I probably won't do that again since of course I only eat a tiny amount, so it seems more efficient to order something a la carte.

Tomorrow I've signed up for a refresher course in scuba. I haven't dived since Belize, which was 2004. After the refresher course, which is basically a skills review, and also a simple open water dive, I may sign up for another dive on Sunday, depending on how I feel. I might also catch a snorkeling trip tomorrow afternoon if I get done in time. Some of the best dive sites in the world are here. Hopefully I can get an advanced certification eventually because there is a dive here called Thistlegorn. Thistlegorm is one of the world’s most famous wreck dives. The wreck rests at 35m and rises up to 18m below the surface, perfectly positioned for divers to explore. Day trips are 3 dives – 2 on the wreck plus a 3rd at Ras Mohammed on the way back. An amazing day!

I won't be able to do all that this trip, but I'll keep wracking up my dives, and once I get to advanced level I'd love to take that trip.

Will also depend on how burned I am after my refresher course tomorrow haha. 3 hours at Sharm last weekend and I was a lobster. It's turned brown now (although I am peeling), but I may not be able to do anything else if I get fried again tomorrow hehe.

I'm also thinking about doing a massage while I'm here. I think it'll help my back a lot. I'm looking at the Sweedish massage they have, and maybe going for 1-2 hours. It's really not that expensive, and this whole trip for me is about doing nothing, being pampered, reading, soaking up the sun, and sleeping.. lots of sleeping! :P

So far, excellent trip! Just need to find an adapter so I can have internet while I'm here... only 30 min left on batteries eeek! Gotta go! :D

06:40 pm: sigh @ mob mentalities, H1N1, and the ministry
Lots of things to talk about. First, a bitch session.

My two biggest frustrations here so far are: 1. not being able to communicate.

Most places I've traveled to before or lived at overseas, people speak English. I lived in London, and I spent a long time in Spain and South America, but I also speak fluent Spanish so it was never a problem. Here though, the majority of the people don't have an understanding of even BASIC English.... and I mean like toddler level English. Of course as I'm the foreigner, it's my responsibility to make the effort to communicate, so I've enrolled in a language school here to learn Arabic. I pick up languages fairly easily, so I'm hoping by the time I leave here in 3-4 years I'll be fluent.

The second frustrating thing is that there is a culture of inefficiency. People tell you they'll return your call, and they never do. People tell you they'll email you and don't, people tell you they'll get back to you tomorrow, and it never happens, and when you keep asking, they keep saying "tomorrow, tomorrow" and shit never gets done. As a mathematician, and logical, efficient thinker, this is driving me absolutely insane. I'll give you an example:

When I was trying to sign up for my language class, I went to one location near my house, and sat through the informational session, explaining prices, details, etc. I decided to go with the option of private 1 on 1 lessons. I was asked for my preferred times to study, and days, etc, which I gave, and then I was told that he would call the teacher, check with her about availability, and get back with me. I wanted to start the class ASAP, (which was the following week), and he assured me within the week he'd call me back.

Of course, I never heard back from him, the time that we had set for me to pay, and begin the class came and went. I called many times, no one answered on many days, so finally I called one of their larger branches, and explained the situation. The guy apologized, and told me he would call the other location, as well as email them, and make sure that I heard back that evening.

Of course I didn't hear back from anyone again. So 3 days pass, and still nothing. The course is $800 for the first level of Arabic, which is ridiculously expensive, and more than most Egyptian's monthly salaries. You'd think they'd want my money.

So again, I call the larger branch, and this time I say, as nicely as I can, "Look, this is 3 times now I've been told I'd be called back, and no one has returned my call. I have $800 I would REALLY like to give you, and in exchange for that, I'd REALLY like to learn Arabic. Don't you want my money? Please take my money. Please teach me."

He apologized profusely, and swore he'd have the guy at the other branch call me THAT night, no exceptions.

So at 10:30pm, when I'm asleep, the guy calls.He apologizes profusely again, and says he lost my number ( I saw him enter it into his cell phone). So I ask when can I come pay and start my classes. He AGAIN has to ask me what dates and times I prefer, and tells me he has to check with the teacher. I thought he had already done this... what in the world.. I'm so angry at this point. So I tell him fine, do it, and then he calls be back... kid you not.. at 12:45am in the morning.. of course I'm asleep again, but now finally I have a time scheduled for Thursday evening to take this class

So I go to the school Thursday night, my materials for the course haven't arrived yet (whatever, no big deal), and I have my first class. It's awesome, my teacher was very nice, and we arranged for my sessions to be Sunday, Tues, and Thurs nights at 8.

So I'm all excited about my second class, and Saturday night I get a call saying my teacher has canceled my Sunday lesson, and has to reschedule. I'm told (I'm sure you can guess by now) that he'll call me back tomorrow (Sunday) and let me know when the class has been rescheduled for.

OF COURSE on Sunday I don't get a call back... or Monday.. Tuesday.. Wednesday... etc. etc.

Saturday rolls around and I call him. This time I try my best to explain that where I come from it's considered extremely rude to say you're going to do one thing, and then not do it. It's the same as lying, basically, and it makes me unable to trust you. He says he hasn't had a chance to speak with the teacher yet, so that's why he didn't call. I try to explain that if that's the case, he still should call me, and say something like, "Hi! I know I said I'd call and let you know when your class was rescheduled, but I haven't been able to get ahold of the teacher. As soon as I do I'll give you a call." I also told him, if that's too much, he could tell ME to call HIM back in 2-3 days and keep checking, which I would be happy to do, but leaving me hanging isn't working.

He apologized, and said he'd call me back in 30 minutes with a new time for my 2nd class. 5 hours later, he called me back (I don't care if it was late, at least I got a call back), and we rescheduled for Monday at 8.

... Monday rolls around, and YEP, you guessed it.. about 5:30 I get a call saying the teacher cancelled again.

Now I had to sign a paper when I first signed up with this school that said basically if I cancel 3 times without 24 hours notice then my fees are terminated, blah blah, all that stuff... and so at this point I'm asking the reverse question. This is twice I've been canceled on, about 7 times I haven't been called back when promised, so I'm like look.. if this happens again, I'm going to expect some of my money back, because this is ridiculous. We signed a contract and an agreement, etc. etc.

What makes it even MORE frustrating is when I'm trying to explain how it comes off to me as rude and almost like lying, they're cutting me off in the middle of my sentence with apologies and won't let me finish.. I just want to be like, "STOP TALKING! OK, now listen to me!!! Ok, now I'm done.. NOW you can apologize".. it's like.. if they're talking over me with apologies, they're CLEARLY not listening to what I have to say, and they're not HEARING my complaint. It drives me absolutely insane. It's just a culture difference, and I've got to come to terms with it. Several of my friends have told me this is why Egypt has lost a lot of big oil contracts and other potentially lucrative business... because they just don't respect deadlines, and things like phoning people back.


So this is typical of how things operate here. I know that I sound like an elitist Western bitch, but it is one of my absolute biggest pet peeves when someone doesn't follow through. I let it slide all the time when it happens now and then, but when it's like this? I just can't handle it.

I know that as I'm adapting to this new culture, I'm going to have to let that anal side of me go and relax a bit or I'm going to die from stress, but it's going to be VERY hard for me.. heh..

SIGH.. so that's my story.

I'm SUPPOSED to have my second class tonight.. WE'LL SEE....



OK, onto the second topic, H1N1 and this ridiculous mob mentality

We just had an emergency staff meeting today announcing our school will remain closed after Eid break because of H1N1. That's until at least October 7th. It's really ridiculous. The ministry controls all the schools here, and they've had all the other schools shut down since summer - most students here haven't even started coming to school yet because of this scare. Our school, however, doesn't have to comply with that, since we're an international school, so we've had classes since Aug 16th. Well, the ministry keeps putting pressure on us saying we need to close because of the H1N1 scare, and of course it's ridiculous. In fact, the local media has been reporting that we've been shut down for awhile now, which is a complete fabrication. We have 0 cases, and there is absolutely NO scientific evidence to show there's ANY risk whatsoever, but you know once something like this mob mentality "scare" gets into people's heads... they're mainly afraid of large groups of people gathering together. Anyway, so our meeting today was our superintendent telling us that we're going to remain closed until at least Oct 7th, according to the government's request. We don't want to step on any toes.. they do control whether or not we have our work visas accepted, etc, so we don't want to appear defiant, and we're going to close as an act of good faith. It's my understanding that students will continue to go onto Blackboard, which is an online type classroom, and teachers will be at work after the break updating lessons, and the students will be working from home.

Here is the official message from our school's website:

Dear Faculty, Students and Parents,

We have recently received notification from the Governor of Helwan requiring that we (along with all schools under his jurisdiction) close our doors to students beginning with the close of school on Thursday, September 17, through October 3, 2009. Because we do fall under the jurisdiction of the Governate, CAC will comply with this request. We wish to reiterate that from a CAC perspective there is no increased level of risk of contagion, and our current website information and protocols remain accurate from a medical and health perspective.

CAC campus will be closed, except to Faculty and Staff for planning purposes. Teachers are expected to return to work after the Eid break on September 22 to provide offsite instruction during this forced closure. Students in the Middle and High School are expected to be on-line using Blackboard starting Tuesday, September 22, and we are making every attempt to insure no loss of instructional time. Elementary School Teachers will also begin planning packets of work by grade level, and distribution of this information will be forthcoming.

At this time, we are working on definitive plans for the impact of this decision on the October break, as well as Community, Parent, and Student access during this closure. We will inform you further regarding these issues by the end of school on Thursday, September 17.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you to stay connected via e-mail and the CAC website for all communications regarding this matter.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and understanding.

Sincerely,
Rob Mockrish, Ph.D.
Superintendent


... so closed! The reason I said Oct 7th is because we have a break from Oct 3 - 7th for Armed Forces holidays which is when Egypt like.. won some minor battle against Israel? I'm not sure, but it was a big deal to them because as one of my coworkers put it, "They didn't get absolutely decimated" heh :P

01:02 am: Weekend at Sharm
Benton and Naz have most of the good pictures, so once they get them to me I'll post them, but here are a few I took the morning after we arrived. The weather was so amazing, we all slept out on the terrace under the stars :)

Our wrap around terrace (it kept going way past this too - this is only a small part of it)



I woke up to watch the sunrise over the red sea the next morning, and took these pictures:










I'll post more when I get them.

This weekend I just booked my tickets and hotel to Dahab, for another relaxing beach getaway :D I'm so excited!!! Hopefully my back will be well enough to do a scuba trip this time :D

01:59 am: Benton's visit
My best friend came to visit me from New York. Benton and I have been friends since high school, and I was so happy to see him! :D The week has been good and bad news though heh. My back has been hurting me - flared up again from lifting something too heavy I suppose, so Monday night before I picked Benton up from the airport I went to see Dr. Ghaly. He said I have an acute sprain. He gave me a cortizone shot in my butt, and told me to take extra strength tylenol and get bed rest for 48 hours. Well, I can't exactly stay in bed for 2 days. I have to work, and I already took THursday off as a personal day to travel to Sharm with Benton, so missing 3 days in a row isn't an option.

I stayed home Tuesday though, and didn't feel any better. It's frustrating because I think doctors here want to start you with the weakest things out there, and hope it works, so you end up hurting really bad and having to keep going back saying "more please" until it's strong enough, whereas my doctor in Alaska always just gave me Soma and Hydrocodone (pain killer and muscle relaxer) so I would just take them until the flare up went away. So I was stuck in bed not able to do anything, and still in pain =/ sigh.

So Tuesday Benton went with my guide Sherine. She took him shopping for my apartment to all of these cute stores - he took pictures! There was a Bedouin store, a Moroccon store, and stores that imported things from India, and just gorgeous places with little accent pieces everywhere - I was very happy with what he came back with. He also got me a carpet for my living room from Assouty carpets which are pretty famous around here. That's all I can afford for now haha. I'll have to keep getting like 1 big item (like a carpet), or several small ones as I go along. I at least got his approval on the things I liked, so now I can acquire them little by little :P

One thing I want to do in my living area is a U shaped (without the curve though, like a square U) table arrangement like Rose has in her house. She had the tables custom made. They're lower to the ground, and she covers them with bedouin rugs, or table runners, and pillows all around, so it makes a really nice extra seating area for people on the floor, or even on the tables themselves. Sometimes she'll move them to her rooftop terrace, and we'll all sit out looking over Cairo having drinks with candles lighting up the terrace. It's just beautiful. Life here is really good, and I'm very happy :)

Anyway, so Monday afternoon Benton's friend from work Naz came in, and once they both arrived back at my apartment, I crawled out of bed and took them to dinner at Fuego. It was great, as always :) I had a bite of Naz's filet this time, and Rose was right - best filet I've tasted in Cairo. Perfectly cooked. I had a ton of sushi (enough to take home a basket full), Benton had the rack of lamb, and NAz had the filet, and our dinner was still less than $90 lol. Crazy.

After Fuego we came back to the apartment, and I crashed. I had to get up for work the next morning, and they had a big day too.

Wednesday while I was working, my guide Sherine took Benton and Naz to the pyramids and the sphinx , and then afterwards to the citadel and the Mohammed Ali mosque, as well as the mosque Obama visited while he was here (I forget the name). They had a good time, but said it was hot and a long day - definitely understand that one heh. The shot from the doctor did nothing for me. He said I was supposed to feel better in 5-6 hours after taking it. That was Monday night, and even after a day of laying on my back, and taking 4 extra strength tylenol at a time to try and combat the pain, I didn't notice any improvement. I was at work until around 6:00. Grades were due for progress reports, and although my grades were in, my comments were not. We had to comment on the progress of any students who were new to CAC, and also on any students who had a 72 or below average, and my comments are paragraphs lol :P Then I had to get my sub plans in for Thursday, since I had already signed up for a personal day. When I got home, we went to eat at Fusion on the Nile. Rose and Wayne joined us, and after dinner we took a felucca out for an hour, sailing up the Nile. The wind was strong, and we zipped along really fast - was lots of fun. :)

After the felucca we headed home, and again, I went to lay down as my back was still hurting, and Benton and Naz went to bed as well. Luckily I was able to get some pain medicine from my friend Carolyn. She had back surgery awhile back and is a walking pharmacy lol. I was complaining they didn't give me anything to help with the pain so she brought these like.. MAYONNAISE jar size bottles of percocet, darvocet, hydrocodone, and oxycodone, lol! I took a few hydrocodone and percocet, and the alico insurance dr. rep guy on campus gave me a perscription for these really weak muscle relaxers. I had to take two to feel any effect, but with one of Carolyn's pills it actually helped and I was able to not be in pain.

Thursday morning my guide picked up Benton and Naz, and took them to the Khan. The Khan is a huge market in Cairo - one of the oldest in the world, and everything in the world is there. I didn't think my back could handle standing up and walking around all morning, so I stayed home again while they went. I also had an appointment with Dr. Ghaly at 3:15. It was about 2:30 when they got back home, and I was just about to leave for my appointment, when I got a call telling me Dr. Ghaly had an emergency and couldn't make it, so I rescheduled for 5:15. Then, right before 5:15, they called again and canceled ... =/ So I basically said I'd see anyone there as long as the doctor spoke fluent English, because I was hurting and I needed something done. So I went to see this other doctor, who was very nice. He did the same basic tests on me, and came to the same basic conclusion, except he said I'm very young to have degenerative disc disease. I told him yes, but I also used to be very heavy, so I was carrying around a lot of extra weight which strained by back. He gave me a perscription for strong pain meds, and muscle relaxers, and also an anti-inflammatory injection he said I could take if it gets unbearably painful. I haven't taken any of them yet as I still have a few of Carolyn's pills, but he said they're much stronger than the weak stuff the insurance guy gave me so I should be ok... I hope! :(

Last night we had a late flight out to Sharm El-Sheikh, which is a big resort city on the Red Sea. We're staying at the Sheraton here and it is absolutely breathtaking! I'm definitely coming back here for Eid haha. Our room was upgraded to a corner suite, and it is HUGE haha. It's easily as big as my apartment, we have 2 bathrooms, and this wrap around terrace that is as big as another apartment. We all slept out on the terrace last night under the stars. We had 3 beds out there for sunbathing, so we just brought out the pillows and blankets. It was really beautiful, and nice to see the stars again. This morning I took some pictures of the sunrise coming over the Red Sea. Right now we're getting ready for breakfast, and then I'm going to look into booking a snorkeling trip. I wanted to SCUBA, but I think the weight will be way too much on my back right now, so I'm going to go with just a snorkeling trip today.

One funny thing - when we got in yesterday we were looking at all the spa treatments, and they were SOOO cheap! We were basically going to spend the entire trip in the spa, because it was like.. 2 hour Thai massage for 120 pounds (which is like $25), and all these other treatments that were SO cheap. Then Benton had to buy a card to get internet access, and they charged him in dollars, so he was like, "Are you sure the spa treatments aren't in dollars?" and we looked, and they weren't, but they were in EUROS! >.< SO SADDDDD lol. Like literally my heart sank, and it was like it dropped to my feet, someone kicked it, it rolled down the stairs into a moat where a crocodile ate it and then pooped it out. That's how sad I was. My $25 2 hour massage just turned into like a $200 2 hour massage, which I can't afford. :*( sniffle

lol but funny story :P haha. Ok I'm going to get ready for breakfast. I will post pictures when I get back home - this place really is GORGEOUS :D

01:43 pm: Feluccas and Fun!
Ahhh I've had a great week :) Bussssy, but great :D I'll upload pictures once I get home.

Last weekend on Friday night I went with Sammy (my friend that drives the cab) to Chili's for dinner and then I had him take me to a store where I could buy nice Linens and things. There is a place here called Malak Linens and they have some real down pillows, and nice things, so I bought some bed sheets and sets for when Benton and his friend come visit.

Then Saturday I went on a Felucca down the Nile! It was so much fun! So the felucca stands are right on the Corniche. A group of about 8 of us met at the CAC gate and then took cabs to the stand. We paid 40 pounds for a 1 hour boat trip (THAT IS $7, and NOT per person.. like TOTAL for everyone!). The boats are huge and can easily fit 15 people or more. There is a huge table in the middle, so everyone brought snack foods, and we just sat back, and let the captain sail the ship, while we snacked on fruit, beer, cheese, quiche, and whatever else people brought. It was great! The feluccas are these old sail boats.. the Egyptians have been using them for centuries, and it was so much fun to watch the captain navigate.

Felucca pics:



This week on Sept 1, we had a big event at CAC. It's the annual CAC Iftar celebration. The students and faculty celebrate Iftar with the janitors and workers at the college. We brought food, and served them, and before Iftar there were soccer matches and tug of war games between the janitors and the staff and students. It was a great time. They had the call to prayer that was sung by one of my students, and then I was able to watch the prayers, which was fascinating. Then everyone sat down and had a huge feast. We had so much food it was crazy. I didn't get home until 8:30, and was up late grading papers, but it was a fun time, and well worth it.

Iftar pics:











Also, in the math department, we have what we call "Math Tea" which is during first break. So at school the first class is from 8-9:30, then there is a 20 minute break. During this break, the math teachers, and teachers from the area come to the big math office, and everyone socializes, sits down on the couches, and has coffee, tea, and snacks. It's a nice start to the morning, and if it's ever anyone's birthday, they have to wear the birthday crown.. which is awful. It's like.. giant candles growing out of your head. I may call in sick to work on my birthday so I don't have to wear this thing haha.. kidding of course :P I took pictures of Rose and Theresa, so I'll post all these pics when I get home :)

Math tea:






Last night I went to Rose's house and we had drinks and sat around chatting for awhile. We went to dinner at Fuego (NOM NOM NOM).

This weekend is going to be nice to relax.

OH OH, TONIGHT I have my FIRST official Arabic lessons at Berlitz. I am so excited. The program is so expensive (like $800 a level which will be a bit longer than a month), so it's like I'm paying rent for awhile, but whatever.. if it can make me fluent, I'm fine with it! Sammy will take me and pick me up, which is great because at least he's fluent in English and Arabic, so I don't have to worry about some random driver dropping me off at the wrong darn place. I hate that so much lol!

Oh, and this morning I almost didn't make it to class lol. Sammy called me and said his brother Osama was really sick, and couldn't drive me. I said no problem - I'd catch a cab on the corner. Well, I almost couldn't find one, and then when I did, the guy drove me to the wrong place! I was like wtf this isn't CAC! And in Arabic I was like "American School American school!" and it's like 7:50, which means I'm teaching in 10 minutes OMG OMG I panicked, and finally he found the back gate and dropped me there, but WTF lol omg it was close!

Friday we're having a felucca ride for all the newbies, which are the people that are new this year to CAC. We're trying to time it to be out on the water at sunset.

Saturday there's a building party for all of the teachers in my building, so we can get to know each other, which will be fun too :)

On top of that, I have papers to grade, and quizzes to grade, and some things I have to get for my apartment before Benton and his friend arrive, and I'd like to get a few more pillows, and yeah.. :)

Overall it should be a great weekend! I'm excited! I'll post pics to this when I get home, and update later, but I absolutely LOVE it here. Cairo is awesome, this school is awesome, my students are awesome, my coworkers are SUPER awesome... really.. it doesn't get any better :D