On the move again ...

'On the move again.' or so the song goes.  Yet again we are moving house and countries - back to the UK for a while. Packing up a life can be hard work especially when you travel light.  One suitcase, a piece of hand luggage and a computer bag, what do I throw out and what do I keep?  Each time I do this it makes me reassess what is important in my life; what can I squash in and what simply has to go - shoes out, alabaster pyramids in!

Shortly after splash down in the UK we take a speedy train down Cornwall for a two week house sit in St. Mawes.  I am looking forward to the crashing waves and green velvet cliffs of the coastline and having  time to reacclimatise to the British life again including the obligatory seaside soggy fish and chips! How ever I am feeling more than a little sad to leave Cairo our temporary home, just as Egypt is experiencing the birth pangs of democracy.  I was encouraged by my students last night who had voted for the first time ever and are so hopeful for the future.  It has been such an amazing time to be here with 'history in the making'. J

Tickets

I have never been a great collector of tickets, programmes or memorabilia but this could be set to change after keeping the tickets from the famous tourist attractions in Egypt.  The authorities have produced some elaborate designs for their tickets that include holograms, this is to prevent forgeries.
I have found out that my English students are also non-collectors.  During one vocabulary lesson I had to explain the word 'scrapbook', not the easiest word to define.  Why would anyone want to keep scrap, especially old ticket stubs and plane tickets?  The Egyptian tickets helped me to explain that they would be a memento from my time in Cairo.  What's a 'memento'?  It's something you put in a scrapbook!  P

A 'Stranger' Photo ...

It was moving towards the end of a perfect day. We had been to the temples and tombs of ancient Egypt. We were in the city of Luxor. The sun was gently setting behind the mountains. A kind stranger offered to take a photograph. She was from the States and had an expensive Nikon camera with a rather large lens. She looked professional, eminently capable; she was to capture a romantic moment, a celebration of a 30 year romance and marriage. She caught the magic of the feluccas gliding along the shimmering Nile, their sails twisting and turning; zigzagging their familiar path. The timing was a little out - another 2 seconds and it would have been picture perfect. For us however it didn't mar the moment.

We are celebrating our actual anniversary on the 24th at the start of the new term, lots of time for more photos. J.

El Alamein

We are nearing the end of our second six-week term of TESOL teaching and then it will be just one more after Easter before we are once again on the move. The Egyptian climate has been kind to us so far with warm spring weather. We are getting good value for money from our blankets and hot-water bottles.

Before the temperature rises too much we decided to take a trip into the desert to visit El Alamein. We have never visited a war cemetery before; it was a very moving occasion. There are few tourists in Egypt at the moment and we found ourselves alone in a cemetery with thousands of graves. The saddest things were the young ages of the soldiers, that about 5% of the gravestones were engraved to unknown soldiers, and that they were so far from home in a totally alien environment.

Egypt is rich with historic sights and we hope to visit some of the more ancient ones before we leave. P

A quiet day !

In amongst the hustle and bustle, dirt and dust of Cairo we are able to find quiet spaces! One day last week we travelled to our nearest tourist spot - the pyramids of Giza. From our home in Ma'adi this is just a 40 minute cheap taxi ride. On our arrival we had to 'fight off' at least 2o extremely enthusistic 'fake' tour guides who all approached us alone or accompanied by a camel or donkey, once we had got past the first large King pypramid then we were all by ourselves in the still of the desert and amongst these amazing ancient structures. Just for a moment time stood still - and then a coach party arrived and broke our reverie!

In our working lives we have just completed our first unit of teaching- with most of our students passing their English exams. We have both enjoyed getting to know them all and the reward of teaching a valuable, much wanted skill. Now we have a few days break and we are off to the North to Alexandria, the weather forecast is cold, wet and sandy, we look forward to an interesting few days. J

Another Bed

We've started teaching English at the Anglican Training Centre and we are now in the process of moving to a flat which is very near to where we are teaching. We are moving from the Anglican Guest House which is in the centre of Cairo. We hope to stay in our flat for a while because we have once again found ourselves changing beds on a regular basis: since Christmas we've moved from Devon to Yatton and then to a hotel at Heathrow; from the Anglican Guest House to a flat above the Guest House because the guest house was full; and finally to our new flat later today - we just need to buy some bed linen and we will have ourselves a new home. P

Packed

We've finished packing our one suitcase each and we're heading to a windy Heathrow. This time we are not taking so many books with us as we are now the proud owners of a 'kindle'. This e-book can store about 400 books. We have downloaded about 25 books over the Christmas period. Many are free because they are out of copyright, such as
Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle and Victor Hugo.
We have enjoyed our 'home-leave' but we are looking forward to putting into practise what we learnt on our TESOL course, and we are excited about experiencing another new culture in the Middle East - Egypt. P