Aqaba to Al Karak:
After a good nights sleep Andrew and I got an early morning start on our travels at 6:00am since the bus transport leaves early in Jordan. He was headed to Wadi Rum and I was headed further North so we went to the bus station together and planned to meet up in Petra (Wadi Musa). I wandered around the town for a little bit and decided that I was going to fast that day. It was nice taking a break from eating, I feel like it helped me get things in proper perspective.
While I was wandering around I talked to a shop owner that I bought some pens from. He told me that Christians, Jews, and Muslims were the only good religions because they believe God is one. He told me that Israeli's weren't evil people, which was a change of pace because Israeli's aren't so popular in Egypt. After my brief 5-minute conversation with the man I said, "Salaam" and went my way.
I jumped on a mini-bus headed to Al-Karak and while I was on it I ended up joking around with this kid. I gave him some candy I had and ended up sharing it with about a third of the people on the bus. This was also out of the ordinary for me because in Egypt everybody always refuses, in Jordan they accept because they want to be polite. Different meanings of polite in different cultures... REFRESHING!! Something I found really interesting along the way is that there are pictures of Kind Abdullah everywhere and the people legitimately love him. He's quite the celebrity, THE CELEBRITY.
Al Karak:
When I got to Al Karak, I walked around for a long time and finally found the castle with the help of some local boys; really friendly and they weren't looking for anything but to be helpful- refreshing. I wandered through Al Karak castle for two or three hours and I've got to say that it was a pretty darn impressive castle! After that I came outside and got to talking to this guy named Trad. He was giving me good information about transport and a really friendly guy. I asked him about the Dead Sea and he offered to take me there for 20JD after a little while I accepted. It was quite the trip, he took me to his brother's house where I had Turkish coffee and then we stopped to get some snacks, cool guy. I'm sure the fact that I was giving him a great deal was a strong incentive, but still he made it fun.
We got to the Dead Sea and I swam around for a bit. It was a really indescribable feeling to not be able to sink. I tried standing on the water, tucking myself into a complete ball, and any position I could think of, but I wouldn't sink!! I wouldn't get my head wet though because I got some of it in my mouth and the stuff was SICK and stung, too. There were things that looked like ice embankments all along the shore, but in reality they were salt rock, I took a piece for a souvenir.
On the way back, Trad kept joking with me and wanting me to talk like a "black man" because he listens to rap. It was hilarious the way he would try to imitate "ghetto Ebonics". We got back and I ate dinner with him at his restaurant. He made some hummus, lamb kofta, and tea. It was a good dinner. After that I went back to my hotel that Trad had brought the lady down from 18JD (when I went in during the morning) to 10JD (after he talked to her). I think treating him well worked out nicely. He gave me information on all prices and made sure nobody in town ripped me off. Pretty cool guy all in all. I lost my key while I was at the Dead Sea and instead of going and making a new key the guy broke the door lock- really flimsy! I gave him 2JD to fix, I should've given him only one, but I felt bad for inconveniencing him. I slept AMAZINGLY that night!
Takin' It Easy at Karnak
Welcome to my blog
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Jordan: Day 1
There is so much I could write about Jordan, but I will keep things brief so I don't end up blogging for two hours. Jordan was, however, the most adventurous I've been since I've come to this part of the world because I went there without knowing anybody, but I definitely wasn't alone. I met a lot of interesting characters along the way! Here's day 1:
-The Ferry Ride from Nuweiba to Aqaba:
Like most everything in Egypt, the ferry ride was on Egyptian time. It was supposed to be leaving at 3:00 pm, but didn't depart until 6:30pm. A perk was that the Jordanians really cater to their western tourists and so they pulled us out of line to the front to get our visas. It was a nice change of pace since it is just the opposite in Egypt. I did ended up meeting a really cool guy at the ticket booth by the name of Andrew. A great guy from Australia and a seasoned traveler that was also traveling by himself. We sat by each other on the ferry and talked on the ride over. I also met a couple from Australia as well that ran tours all through Africa on this beastly truck. They were quite the interesting couple since they've been doing it for the past 10 years.
Aqaba:
When I got to Aqaba, I was pretty darn tired of traveling and all I wanted to do was eat and then sleep. Andrew and I took a taxi with the tour guide couple to the wrong hotel that we wanted to go to, but the guy drove off before we could get him. Andrew and I wandered around on foot through Aqaba for about an hour trying to find the cheap hotel that his travel guide was talking about. We eventually found it and had quite the hassle getting the guy to back down on the price, he wanted 15 JD each ($40) to stay in a room with two beds and a shower outside the room that didn't even work. We got him down to 8 JD. This one experience completely DECIMATED the travel guides statement that, "the Jordanians are straight forward and rarely haggle." After that we went and got "shawrma" aka chicken in a fried shell that tastes really good, maybe it was because I hadn't eaten anything besides a bag of potato chips in 12 hours, but it was still fantastic!
-The Ferry Ride from Nuweiba to Aqaba:
Like most everything in Egypt, the ferry ride was on Egyptian time. It was supposed to be leaving at 3:00 pm, but didn't depart until 6:30pm. A perk was that the Jordanians really cater to their western tourists and so they pulled us out of line to the front to get our visas. It was a nice change of pace since it is just the opposite in Egypt. I did ended up meeting a really cool guy at the ticket booth by the name of Andrew. A great guy from Australia and a seasoned traveler that was also traveling by himself. We sat by each other on the ferry and talked on the ride over. I also met a couple from Australia as well that ran tours all through Africa on this beastly truck. They were quite the interesting couple since they've been doing it for the past 10 years.
Aqaba:
When I got to Aqaba, I was pretty darn tired of traveling and all I wanted to do was eat and then sleep. Andrew and I took a taxi with the tour guide couple to the wrong hotel that we wanted to go to, but the guy drove off before we could get him. Andrew and I wandered around on foot through Aqaba for about an hour trying to find the cheap hotel that his travel guide was talking about. We eventually found it and had quite the hassle getting the guy to back down on the price, he wanted 15 JD each ($40) to stay in a room with two beds and a shower outside the room that didn't even work. We got him down to 8 JD. This one experience completely DECIMATED the travel guides statement that, "the Jordanians are straight forward and rarely haggle." After that we went and got "shawrma" aka chicken in a fried shell that tastes really good, maybe it was because I hadn't eaten anything besides a bag of potato chips in 12 hours, but it was still fantastic!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Random Experiences II
Once again, so much has gone on and I haven't recorded it so I figure I will write it all in now.
-One Friday Monte and I were cooking our traditional breakfast and everything was going just fine until we actually started to cook. We were cooking the potatoes and they were sticking so hard to the pan that I seriously got a shoulder workout trying to keep them from sticking and burning. Monte and I made up a commercial for the "Man Pan", keeping men fit in the kitchen. We figured we might be able to out do Bowflex with the right marketing. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that we just forgot to heat the pan and the oil before adding the potatoes. We still might give it a shot though :)
-One Thursday night I was on supervision and the guys decided they wanted to play this mega enhanced version of leap frog. Basically, it is where somebody bends over and then you go and jump over them and make sure your legs don't touch them or then you're it. In which case, everybody gets to jump up and do a butt drop on your back. So I decided I'd play with them instead of being a bump on a log. Anyways, it was my first time to go and jump over the guy that was it. I started running, I jumped in the air and just as I was flying over him he stood up and I straight up kicked him in the head. I felt bad at first, but we got so much laughter out of it that it was worth it.
-One of my cats, Bigfoot (an ironic name since she doesn't grow and still looks like a mini-cat), whenever I pet her she gets so excited that she starts rolling around and then she starts drooling! It's pretty gross, but lovable in its own right. Kind of like the little kid that gets spaghetti sauce all over his face and then gets this huge smile.
-I was walking around downtown Cairo and this guy came up to me to talk. He spoke a little bit of English and so we talked for 20 seconds until his English reserve was exhausted. I in turn talked for another 20 seconds and then my Arabic reserve was exhausted and so I decided to say goodbye "ma is salaama". I shook hands with him and before I was about to go he held onto my hand and asked me for a tip. I laughed and said, "Lay?! (why)" and he replied, "Ashen(because) ana(I) speak English you." I then retorted that I wanted a tip because I knew four different ways to say hello in Arabic and he knew only one. He laughed, I laughed, and I walked away. Fun times in Egypt.
-One time I was in the metro and this guy across the tracks was giving me the middle finger. I laughed, made eye contact with him and asked, "Lay?" He smiled, did it again, and walked away. I still don't know what he was doing or if he even knew. Another fun time in Egypt.
-One time Monte, Daniel, and I were in the grocery store and Monte decided that he wanted to punch me. It's kind of a game between us and so I turned around and punched him back. It went back and forth a few times, then Daniel joined in on punching me so I started hitting him, too. When we finished our tussle in the candy aisle I looked up and there was a woman with a veil over her face and there was this humored look in her eyes of, "What is wrong with you!?" Truly refreshing.
-Yesterday, I learned how to make Egyptian bread from Om Fady, the cafe lady. Yes, I'm really proud of it because it was my first bread making experience! Anyways, while I was trying to make a ball out of the sticky dough for a loaf I couldn't really get it to become a ball without sticking to one hand or the other. Turns out I needed to put flour on my hands like she had before touching the dough- WHO KNEW!? She laughed at me and had the girl that was translating tell me, "You aren't supposed to make people not want to eat your bread!" This is just an instance of how many goober-like mistakes I made while cooking with her, but it made it a great time. She is a really sincere, fun-loving, and caring lady. She took the time out of her schedule to teach some kitchen inept guy how to cook.
Finally, I will say that I usually only talk about the tough times on my blog, but there are the awesome times, too and I'm grateful for both. The good times do make this place oh so sweet, though!
-One Friday Monte and I were cooking our traditional breakfast and everything was going just fine until we actually started to cook. We were cooking the potatoes and they were sticking so hard to the pan that I seriously got a shoulder workout trying to keep them from sticking and burning. Monte and I made up a commercial for the "Man Pan", keeping men fit in the kitchen. We figured we might be able to out do Bowflex with the right marketing. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that we just forgot to heat the pan and the oil before adding the potatoes. We still might give it a shot though :)
-One Thursday night I was on supervision and the guys decided they wanted to play this mega enhanced version of leap frog. Basically, it is where somebody bends over and then you go and jump over them and make sure your legs don't touch them or then you're it. In which case, everybody gets to jump up and do a butt drop on your back. So I decided I'd play with them instead of being a bump on a log. Anyways, it was my first time to go and jump over the guy that was it. I started running, I jumped in the air and just as I was flying over him he stood up and I straight up kicked him in the head. I felt bad at first, but we got so much laughter out of it that it was worth it.
-One of my cats, Bigfoot (an ironic name since she doesn't grow and still looks like a mini-cat), whenever I pet her she gets so excited that she starts rolling around and then she starts drooling! It's pretty gross, but lovable in its own right. Kind of like the little kid that gets spaghetti sauce all over his face and then gets this huge smile.
-I was walking around downtown Cairo and this guy came up to me to talk. He spoke a little bit of English and so we talked for 20 seconds until his English reserve was exhausted. I in turn talked for another 20 seconds and then my Arabic reserve was exhausted and so I decided to say goodbye "ma is salaama". I shook hands with him and before I was about to go he held onto my hand and asked me for a tip. I laughed and said, "Lay?! (why)" and he replied, "Ashen(because) ana(I) speak English you." I then retorted that I wanted a tip because I knew four different ways to say hello in Arabic and he knew only one. He laughed, I laughed, and I walked away. Fun times in Egypt.
-One time I was in the metro and this guy across the tracks was giving me the middle finger. I laughed, made eye contact with him and asked, "Lay?" He smiled, did it again, and walked away. I still don't know what he was doing or if he even knew. Another fun time in Egypt.
-One time Monte, Daniel, and I were in the grocery store and Monte decided that he wanted to punch me. It's kind of a game between us and so I turned around and punched him back. It went back and forth a few times, then Daniel joined in on punching me so I started hitting him, too. When we finished our tussle in the candy aisle I looked up and there was a woman with a veil over her face and there was this humored look in her eyes of, "What is wrong with you!?" Truly refreshing.
-Yesterday, I learned how to make Egyptian bread from Om Fady, the cafe lady. Yes, I'm really proud of it because it was my first bread making experience! Anyways, while I was trying to make a ball out of the sticky dough for a loaf I couldn't really get it to become a ball without sticking to one hand or the other. Turns out I needed to put flour on my hands like she had before touching the dough- WHO KNEW!? She laughed at me and had the girl that was translating tell me, "You aren't supposed to make people not want to eat your bread!" This is just an instance of how many goober-like mistakes I made while cooking with her, but it made it a great time. She is a really sincere, fun-loving, and caring lady. She took the time out of her schedule to teach some kitchen inept guy how to cook.
Finally, I will say that I usually only talk about the tough times on my blog, but there are the awesome times, too and I'm grateful for both. The good times do make this place oh so sweet, though!
City Stars
We went to the “City Stars” (the MEGA mall of Egypt, ABSOLUTELY HUGE!) to grab some groceries and goof around this Thursday night since that is basically our “big night off” here. We were tired of staying in Gabel and so we decided to shake things up.
On a random side note, it blows my mind how this monstrosity of a mall and Gabel Asfar (the place where I live) can exist within 30 kilometers from each other. City Stars is this huge mall overflowing with overpriced brand names and teeming with affluent Egyptians, then there is Gabel Asfar. Guys are working their butts off for 15 hours a day driving a minibus to hopefully make 100 LE ($18) and there are donkey carts everywhere. The contrast is… for lack of a better word I will say shocking. I go to City Stars and it is almost like I’m back home, it was REALLY weird going into the mall the first time I was back because I hadn’t left Gabel in about a month.
Anyways, back on track, as we were walking around we heard this really loud hip-hop music and since we had time to kill we decided to go and check it out. It turned up that there was this modeling show going on and they had these two models riding up and down seven floors in the glass elevators. I don’t know what got into me, but it just sprang on me that I want to go and tell them they are beautiful. So I did. The first one was trying to do her, “I’m the Sex Goddess of the World face”, but when I said in the obnoxious manner that I did she actually broke her serious face for a second and giggled. The other one, no such luck. She gave me this cold stare and then just kept doing her rotation of poses. The big, bouncer guy by the elevator started joking around with me and was saying, “If you spent more time in Egypt, then you would see women like this everywhere.” I replied enthusiastically, “Oh ya, I’m suuuuuure!” but anybody who truly knows me would’ve picked up sarcasm everywhere.
It was funny to me as I walked away from the whole modeling gig going on. I had mixed feelings. I will admit that I was slightly proud that I got the courage to go say something random to the model, but more over-powering was my utter repulsion to the whole “glitz and glamour” of it all. It was so fake and just empty! There was such an empty, cold, lifeless look in that girl’s eyes. As I write this, I kind of feel a tinge of guilt for fueling her burning desire to be beautiful. Who cares if she is beautiful!? It would have been better if I’d told her she was more than that. I was probably out of hundreds of guys that was a enabler for her emptiness and, most likely, a regimented ED. Crap, another mistake.
I remember back when I was in 10th grade and I was walking through the mall with Missy, my girlfriend at the time, and this “modeling agent” came up to us and asked us if we were interested in making some money being models. He gave us a card and I ended up going to the thing which just turned up being a thing to teach you “how to be a model or advertiser”. My turn came and they had me animatedly read this thing to test my abilities. I finished reading it and I will never what the guy said to me, “Bud, you definitely need our program if you want to make it in the modeling world. You think you know how to walk? You can’t even crawl. We’ll teach you everything you need to know.” I remember walking out to the car and laughing with my Mom.
The whole “modeling world”, Hollywood, and hip-hop culture became empty to me after that. Ever since then, I’ve never really cared to meet anybody who is famous. I’m sure if I had the chance to take a picture with Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie, I’d do it in an instant, but there is no way I’d ever want to live their life. The condition of our culture is sickening. It is bent on chasing the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but completely neglects the true needs of people. That model didn’t need to ride up and down in an elevator to be beautiful or cut weight to wear her size “2” dress. Maybe, the girl was doing it to get away from poverty, I don’t know, but I do know she was empty. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes if I was given a couple million dollars!
That whole experience last night re-opened my eyes to the following things:
1.I don’t want to be a wealthy person, spending money on more and more crap to keep up.
2.I hate shopping malls and I don’t want to get caught up in materialism. I saw a lot of clothes and thought “That would look good” and it just triggered the mentality of “I want it, I want it…” There’s so much better stuff I can spend my money on.
3.I don’t want to be a fake person and wrap myself up in an identity of exterior confidence based on sex appeal, money, etc. That isn’t what life is all about- forget pretending, I want to live!!
On a random side note, it blows my mind how this monstrosity of a mall and Gabel Asfar (the place where I live) can exist within 30 kilometers from each other. City Stars is this huge mall overflowing with overpriced brand names and teeming with affluent Egyptians, then there is Gabel Asfar. Guys are working their butts off for 15 hours a day driving a minibus to hopefully make 100 LE ($18) and there are donkey carts everywhere. The contrast is… for lack of a better word I will say shocking. I go to City Stars and it is almost like I’m back home, it was REALLY weird going into the mall the first time I was back because I hadn’t left Gabel in about a month.
Anyways, back on track, as we were walking around we heard this really loud hip-hop music and since we had time to kill we decided to go and check it out. It turned up that there was this modeling show going on and they had these two models riding up and down seven floors in the glass elevators. I don’t know what got into me, but it just sprang on me that I want to go and tell them they are beautiful. So I did. The first one was trying to do her, “I’m the Sex Goddess of the World face”, but when I said in the obnoxious manner that I did she actually broke her serious face for a second and giggled. The other one, no such luck. She gave me this cold stare and then just kept doing her rotation of poses. The big, bouncer guy by the elevator started joking around with me and was saying, “If you spent more time in Egypt, then you would see women like this everywhere.” I replied enthusiastically, “Oh ya, I’m suuuuuure!” but anybody who truly knows me would’ve picked up sarcasm everywhere.
It was funny to me as I walked away from the whole modeling gig going on. I had mixed feelings. I will admit that I was slightly proud that I got the courage to go say something random to the model, but more over-powering was my utter repulsion to the whole “glitz and glamour” of it all. It was so fake and just empty! There was such an empty, cold, lifeless look in that girl’s eyes. As I write this, I kind of feel a tinge of guilt for fueling her burning desire to be beautiful. Who cares if she is beautiful!? It would have been better if I’d told her she was more than that. I was probably out of hundreds of guys that was a enabler for her emptiness and, most likely, a regimented ED. Crap, another mistake.
I remember back when I was in 10th grade and I was walking through the mall with Missy, my girlfriend at the time, and this “modeling agent” came up to us and asked us if we were interested in making some money being models. He gave us a card and I ended up going to the thing which just turned up being a thing to teach you “how to be a model or advertiser”. My turn came and they had me animatedly read this thing to test my abilities. I finished reading it and I will never what the guy said to me, “Bud, you definitely need our program if you want to make it in the modeling world. You think you know how to walk? You can’t even crawl. We’ll teach you everything you need to know.” I remember walking out to the car and laughing with my Mom.
The whole “modeling world”, Hollywood, and hip-hop culture became empty to me after that. Ever since then, I’ve never really cared to meet anybody who is famous. I’m sure if I had the chance to take a picture with Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie, I’d do it in an instant, but there is no way I’d ever want to live their life. The condition of our culture is sickening. It is bent on chasing the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but completely neglects the true needs of people. That model didn’t need to ride up and down in an elevator to be beautiful or cut weight to wear her size “2” dress. Maybe, the girl was doing it to get away from poverty, I don’t know, but I do know she was empty. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes if I was given a couple million dollars!
That whole experience last night re-opened my eyes to the following things:
1.I don’t want to be a wealthy person, spending money on more and more crap to keep up.
2.I hate shopping malls and I don’t want to get caught up in materialism. I saw a lot of clothes and thought “That would look good” and it just triggered the mentality of “I want it, I want it…” There’s so much better stuff I can spend my money on.
3.I don’t want to be a fake person and wrap myself up in an identity of exterior confidence based on sex appeal, money, etc. That isn’t what life is all about- forget pretending, I want to live!!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A Short Morning Thought
I woke up this morning from a really weird dream. I'd lost one of my best friends in a strange event and I was left torn apart. I actually cried in my sleep! I can't really write too much on the details, but you get the idea.
I'm sitting here thinking "Gosh, I really wish I could see her and talk to her, but I can't." I'm here in Egypt and I have my amazing email to stay in touch. Until the time comes to see each other once again, I will use this as fuel to remind myself that I'm here and although I'd love to see my friend- I can't. I'm going to make the best of this day and do what I can to make Egypt a better place, God willing that I can be patient enough! The day will come for me to talk with my friend that I'm sure hasn't been obliterated like my dream portrayed.
Time for staff meeting. Let's go day, here I come!!!
I'm sitting here thinking "Gosh, I really wish I could see her and talk to her, but I can't." I'm here in Egypt and I have my amazing email to stay in touch. Until the time comes to see each other once again, I will use this as fuel to remind myself that I'm here and although I'd love to see my friend- I can't. I'm going to make the best of this day and do what I can to make Egypt a better place, God willing that I can be patient enough! The day will come for me to talk with my friend that I'm sure hasn't been obliterated like my dream portrayed.
Time for staff meeting. Let's go day, here I come!!!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Red Sea = Sweet
I'm sitting here in an internet cafe and life is good. I have had the day of my life! I swam in the Red Sea and snorkeled around for nearly three hours and it was amazing. I never thought I would miss swimming this much, but I guess I was wrong. It feels funny to actually try to swim here, because my stroke feels SO weird. I feel good for about the first 15 strokes and then I remember, "Oh ya, I haven't seriously swam in 7 and 1/2 months..." Weird or not, it was still great just to swim around and observe the awesome nature that the Red Sea has to offer, except the Jellyfish! I got stung by one yesterday. I didn't see how big it was, but I'm guessing it was at least the size of a semi truck because it left me seven welts on my arm. Anyways, so needless to say I have animosity/"respect" for jellyfish now. I dodged them all day long today as I was swimming, which was difficult because they were all over the place.
What else happened today?... I did "free diving" for the first time and I'm going to say that I absolutely loved it! There were these two people that were putting on these "monofins" today and I was thinking, "What on earth are those for?" Anyways, I watched them go out from the shoreline as I basked in the warm sunlight and decided that I was going to go see what they were doing. After watching them swim out 1/4 of a mile they stopped and then went underwater. I swam to where they were and was just watching them dive down on the line that was hooked up to an inner tube.
They saw me watching and asked me if I wanted to try. At first I refused, but they insisted and so I tried it. I went down the first time and I don't think that I got very far, but the second time they gave me a depth gauge and I went 21 meters. The trip down is fun, but the ride up is amazing because you should put your head back and let your lungs take you to the top. It's a really, really, really, really, really cool feeling! I want to see if I can rent the equipment for it tomorrow somewhere. I talked to them for a bit and their names were Sven and Gutrude- they were German. They didn't speak very much English and I don't speak any German other than "Donkashun" which I used in a practical manner for the first time today.
The other thing of note that I did today was as I was swimming along, I saw these scuba divers down at the bottom of the Sea and I decided to swim down to them. Just as I was about to go down Monte said, "It'd be really funny if you went down there and gave them the "out of air" sign and then came up." I decided it would be a good experience to go for and so I did it. I swam down about 40-50 feet, tapped on the guy and gave him the "out of air" sign. He handed me his regulator and then I swam to the surface. I never realized how much the air out of the tank fills up your lungs! Since I didn't have any scuba gear on it was really easy to just shoot up to the top. I felt my lungs expanding and so I had to seriously exhale to even it out. Even when I had gotten to the top, my lungs still felt like they had a lot of air in them.
Well, that is the sum of my stories for the day. I'm tired and I can't wait to sleep, but I'm on vacation from a long stretch of school and so life is VERY GOOD!
What else happened today?... I did "free diving" for the first time and I'm going to say that I absolutely loved it! There were these two people that were putting on these "monofins" today and I was thinking, "What on earth are those for?" Anyways, I watched them go out from the shoreline as I basked in the warm sunlight and decided that I was going to go see what they were doing. After watching them swim out 1/4 of a mile they stopped and then went underwater. I swam to where they were and was just watching them dive down on the line that was hooked up to an inner tube.
They saw me watching and asked me if I wanted to try. At first I refused, but they insisted and so I tried it. I went down the first time and I don't think that I got very far, but the second time they gave me a depth gauge and I went 21 meters. The trip down is fun, but the ride up is amazing because you should put your head back and let your lungs take you to the top. It's a really, really, really, really, really cool feeling! I want to see if I can rent the equipment for it tomorrow somewhere. I talked to them for a bit and their names were Sven and Gutrude- they were German. They didn't speak very much English and I don't speak any German other than "Donkashun" which I used in a practical manner for the first time today.
The other thing of note that I did today was as I was swimming along, I saw these scuba divers down at the bottom of the Sea and I decided to swim down to them. Just as I was about to go down Monte said, "It'd be really funny if you went down there and gave them the "out of air" sign and then came up." I decided it would be a good experience to go for and so I did it. I swam down about 40-50 feet, tapped on the guy and gave him the "out of air" sign. He handed me his regulator and then I swam to the surface. I never realized how much the air out of the tank fills up your lungs! Since I didn't have any scuba gear on it was really easy to just shoot up to the top. I felt my lungs expanding and so I had to seriously exhale to even it out. Even when I had gotten to the top, my lungs still felt like they had a lot of air in them.
Well, that is the sum of my stories for the day. I'm tired and I can't wait to sleep, but I'm on vacation from a long stretch of school and so life is VERY GOOD!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Distrust
I realize that for the past two weeks I don't trust:
-God
-A few friends
-Many of my students
-Some of the local staff
-Some of my roommates
-Anyone in Egypt trying to sell me something
-Even my pet cat
-And the list goes on...
It has been a really long time since I've written on this blog. There have been days when I have something that I think "wow! I've got to write about this on my blog" but then I just lose my taste to do anything. In all honesty, I think I've been pretty depressed over the past two weeks. I wasn't too sure why I was so down for the past little while, but I've finally realized it now that my Spring Break is here and life is slowing down. It's funny to me how when life becomes so busy that the most obvious answers become so elusive.
This week has been the 2nd longest week that I've had in Egypt. The 1st longest week was when I first got here. That week was crazy for me because time just stood still. I couldn't sleep at night and was getting about two hours of sleep. I remember just laying in bed thinking to myself, "Am I going to become a sleep insomniac?" Anyways, I'm digressing from the point that I'm trying to make- this week has been long, REALLY long. As of today, I am finally on vacation and now I can just think about last week.
Last week I was distrustful of almost everybody. I know my problem with a frienda has tripped it off and I think that the situation I have with my students makes it pretty easy to get into this state of mind. The teacher-student relationship is an awkward one because unless a student has an immense amount of courage to face his/her mistake they will blame it on the teacher and therefore seek to show the teacher how wrong he was. Many of my students often try to take advantage of me and it is so aggravating. Even the ones that I think to myself, "Ya, I've established a good connection with that one. He won't try to manipulate me." and then he ends up trying to pull a fast one on me.
Up until the past two weeks, I was pretty much over my feelings of betrayal by students, but the problems with my friend just tripped it off. I took so many things way too personally this week- it was ridiculous! If a kid acted up at all, then I hammered him.
I was edgy with other staff members, too. I have a hard time trusting a few of the staff members here because I don't understand them... AT ALL! It's hard to not just let myself assume the worst. Assuming the worst never leads anywhere worthwhile...
I'm glad it's break, I'm going to take the time to process what's going on.
-God
-A few friends
-Many of my students
-Some of the local staff
-Some of my roommates
-Anyone in Egypt trying to sell me something
-Even my pet cat
-And the list goes on...
It has been a really long time since I've written on this blog. There have been days when I have something that I think "wow! I've got to write about this on my blog" but then I just lose my taste to do anything. In all honesty, I think I've been pretty depressed over the past two weeks. I wasn't too sure why I was so down for the past little while, but I've finally realized it now that my Spring Break is here and life is slowing down. It's funny to me how when life becomes so busy that the most obvious answers become so elusive.
This week has been the 2nd longest week that I've had in Egypt. The 1st longest week was when I first got here. That week was crazy for me because time just stood still. I couldn't sleep at night and was getting about two hours of sleep. I remember just laying in bed thinking to myself, "Am I going to become a sleep insomniac?" Anyways, I'm digressing from the point that I'm trying to make- this week has been long, REALLY long. As of today, I am finally on vacation and now I can just think about last week.
Last week I was distrustful of almost everybody. I know my problem with a frienda has tripped it off and I think that the situation I have with my students makes it pretty easy to get into this state of mind. The teacher-student relationship is an awkward one because unless a student has an immense amount of courage to face his/her mistake they will blame it on the teacher and therefore seek to show the teacher how wrong he was. Many of my students often try to take advantage of me and it is so aggravating. Even the ones that I think to myself, "Ya, I've established a good connection with that one. He won't try to manipulate me." and then he ends up trying to pull a fast one on me.
Up until the past two weeks, I was pretty much over my feelings of betrayal by students, but the problems with my friend just tripped it off. I took so many things way too personally this week- it was ridiculous! If a kid acted up at all, then I hammered him.
I was edgy with other staff members, too. I have a hard time trusting a few of the staff members here because I don't understand them... AT ALL! It's hard to not just let myself assume the worst. Assuming the worst never leads anywhere worthwhile...
I'm glad it's break, I'm going to take the time to process what's going on.
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