Pictures with captions woo

Some of these you've already seen. i just added to the same album. enjoy!
(sorry to those who get emails, you got this twice)

SwimAmerica Summer in Egypt 09

loving life today in Wadi Degla

hi people i love! i havent written in a while. let me share a list of recent on-goings, comprised of the things i can think of off the top of my head on this beautiful sabbath morning:

1. I finally got an internet connection here in the cafe after trying on multiple days, and there's AC here! (it turns out that AC is something i DONT have in my room, nor in the entire apartment recently since our electricity was cut 2 days ago. its like sleeping in an oven, or not sleeping at all really). Anyway, i'm pretty sure God blessed the cafe with wireless just for me today, as i told mom in an email a few minutes ago. I think without it i would've burst out crying from all the things going wrong lately. ha, but i'm feeling fantastic now! only the middle east can make me go to such extremes like this.

2. The US won in the Egypt vs. USA soccer game a few days ago. 3 - 0. HAHA! i was surprised by my own patriotism. The game started when i was finishing up my last swim lesson. i went home to change and on my way back to the club to watch it, i stopped to check the score with the doorman of my old apartment. he had it on a small black and white screen. he told me "wahid safr amrika!!" 1-0 america! The next day, whenever a fellow coach brought it up, I did a little jig and sang my little song "talata - sifr, talata- sifr" (three - zero)while i showed the score on my fingers. I had to be careful though, they'd get pretty testy. And yes dad, we beat spain too! that was amazing.

3. Madalina, my Romanian olympic swimmer roommate went back to romania, but there's another Romanian named Lakra, who has taken her place and she's great. we all lived together for a couple weeks until mada left. mada was fun, but she had her drama and she was pregnant so uh, she couldnt exactly stay. we went out dancing with the coaches for her going away party, and we all had a blast. Even Will, our boss, came. he's the white guy. anway, i'm happy for her to leave this place, i dont think she was happy. So the female coach count is currently 2. me and lakra. i think we're the only female coaches in the whole club as far as i can tell. i'm used to being in the spotlight now, even though its really tiring. (ps- "spotlight" not always a fun thing)

4. Last night i went midnight horseback riding with 5 of my fellow coaches. it was amazing. we went out in the desert near the pyramids. I told shehab, the one who arranged everything, that i like going fast. usually when i've gone horse riding, its with a tourist group in MT, UT, Africa, Jordan, or whatever. Little did i know that the guys are avid riders. when they gave me the fastest horse i almost killed myself, and i had to switch horses. still, i went off into the desert night on my galloping horse with the pyramids as my backdrop, completely thrilled and pumping adrenaline. I've never ridden that fast in my life and shehab promises to teach me how to do it more like a pro next time. after riding we went and got malaki, a rice pudding dessert with cake layers and fruit on top. i love egypt. really. i almost want to stay. things like no electricity are what make me want to go.

5. A few nights ago i fought through traffic with three coach friends to see the end of a music festival held at the citadel. We got there in time to see an Algerian band play for a while. it was a lot of fun, and afterward we pulled over somewhere to chug down 4 mugs of sugarcane juice, which i decided was totally my style and i was happy that the guys chugged as fast as i did. Honestly, i still feel like i eat/drink more than anyone i know, so it was a happy moment to share with them in my own secret way.

6. Elections in Iran - wow. Was there a recount, or is it in progress? Sometimes the Middle East makes me literally want to blow things up because of obvious laziness, pride, or other self-inhibiting things that hold whole nations back. that must be why a lot of things ARE blown up here, because i'm not the only one that feels this way. A few days ago i was watching Al Jazeera news about Palestinian properties being sold by the Israeli government and i turned the tv off after about 10 minutes of pointless fighting between an Israeli rep and a Palestinian refugee rep. The Israeli couldn't stop himself from yelling. he even brought up old offenses against Jews to prove his case. wow. It's not just him though, it comes from both sides. STUPID

7.I'm getting along pretty well with my Arabic, and i'm even learning a little french since a lot of people here speak it. i LOVE languages.

8. I feel like i fit into this world of athletes at the sports club because i've never been surrounded by so many people that like so many of the same things that i do. I'm surrounded by people who are amazing at what they do though. Mada really was on the Romanian olympic team. A lot of the swim coaches still swim competitively in college or after college. Half of them are champion athletes in other sports like Judo, boxing, hammer-throwing, etc. Here's a fun fact: my Arabic speaking TA at BYU, Rana, is on the BYU tennis team. she actually trained here at Wadi Degla Sports Club, where i work! Interesting fact: All Egyptians like to mention their accomplishments (like the sports champions i've mentioned), AND everyone always tells you their exact age or how old they WILL be on their next birthday. ie: "i'm 22 and 6 months, so i'm almost 23" or "my child is 4 and 8 months, he'll be 5 in november."

9. MY IPOD nano was stolen out of my bag last week. i was mostly upset that my precious skullcandy earphones are now gone. oh well. oh well. OH WELL. speaking of music and such, i must put a plug in for certain podcasts. i love podcasts. You should check out LDS podcasts to download talks and conference sessions (whether you're mormon or not, but most of you are), they're great. Also, check out
"Stuff You Should Know" podcasts.
I absolutely love them. They're random but very informative from explaining OCD or the bailout, to cannibalism and who owns the oceans. They have saved me in some of my late sleepless nights. The casual talk and banter of the hosts, Josh and Chuck, is hilarious.

Ok, i've written too much already. This has satisfied my journalish writing tendencies and maybe my next post will be more interesting and less about....me. Pictures soon....

June has started, here's a list

List time. Things that have been going on:

1. Obama spoke yesterday! It was a big event here, and the city made a lot of preparations for Obama's arrival and safety. Here's a video that shows one portion of the speech. Although I love certain things that he said, I also acknowledge the fact that the speech is possibly full of empty promises:

2. My boss, Will, has a cousin who arrived to work as his personal slave for 2 months, just to have the experience of being in Cairo and working on his Arabic. His name is Micah, 24 yrs old, and I'm happy to have him around in case I need a down-to-earth American to talk to.

3. Gretchan Belnap, a girl I went to Jordan with last summer, just arrived in Cairo a couple days ago for a 2 month study program. She's stayed with me for a couple days and we'll get to keep hanging out (when i have free time at least) until she finds a place to live. It's a small world dude, I love making connections.

4. My june work schedule is set. I work 10-1 morning swim classes every day, and 4-9pm swim classes rotating back and forth between the two wadi degla sports clubs. i got very sunburned the last couple days, even though I haven't done anything differently (except heap on MORE sunscreen). weird. the sun in magically sinister here and i have to be careful.

5. I was informed yesterday that Madalina and I will be moving into a new apartment tomorrow. I dont know why, but at least the new place will be bigger with AC in my bedroom - YES! It's still close to work too, so "bravoo."

6. Hani and i aren't on speaking terms anymore. It's not a long story at all. i just told him to stop joking around and smacking my face, and he hasn't called me since. Of course he did it gently in jest, but is that EVER ok? don't think so honey. Needless to say, our plans to party were scrapped. Too bad, i was hoping to get a jersey from the Egyptian national soccer team (you know, the one he plays for?).

7. I have Fridays off now so today was my first day to go to both church meetings, not just the beginning of sacrament like I was doing before.

Hani, the professional futbol player

Salam.
Working in the Wadi Degla sports clubs has been great so far. I have my certain anxieties but I like everyone I work with and I don't have a shortage of friends. I live in a pretty safe area and the club is filled with mostly decent people. Everyone at work is great, but about a week ago I was walking to work and I ignored and walked by a guy who was standing outside his car, asking me to come talk to him (in English). I waved him off and about 3 minutes later he came down the street and drove right into my path and got out to introduce himself. freakyyyyy. I stepped away from his car thinking he might throw me in, but we ended up talking about the club because he's a member and comes to do training at the pool. Here they call exercise or practice "training." So I ended the conversation with "ok i'll see you there then. bye!" The great part was that he was befuddled by the fact that I didn't know who he was. He told me he is a famous soccer player here in Egypt. "You dont know me? i'm famous!" is what he said. haha, this guy was for REAL. and yes, he IS a professional but there's nothing else going on in that head of his. He gained just a tad of my trust as the days went on and we conversed every now and then. So 2 nights ago we went bowling and I beat "the hani" with a score of 133 (Carl, why didnt i bowl that when i was trash-talking back in utah??). He conjured up all sorts of excuses for his loss then picked a shabby flower off a bush for me on our way to his car. He then showed me a long video compilation of all his famed futbol moments, which he put together himself. Here's a picture of our "serious faces" although I think that's how he always takes pictures.


Eventually, we took our group (we were with one of his teammates) to watch an Arabic movie called "Ibrahim elAbyad" or "White Ibrahim." Sadly, I understood almost nothing and Hani & co. couldn't speak english well enough to explain anything. Later I found out the storyline later, and it turns out that the movie is based on a true story about a guy who was really called White Ibrahim and lived in a certain neighborhood of cairo (i forget the name). Anyway, his parents were murdered when he was a boy and spent the rest of his life full of revenge against pretty much anyone living/breathing. He was never found without a knife and no one could ever catch him or stop his violence. His name comes from the name for knife in Arabic. Knife is "sakina" but it's also known as the "white weapon." The actor who played him is the main actor in pretty much every other egyptian film. Ahmed ElSaka. He's got a bit of a belly but everyone LOVES him regardless.

Last night I went to a Khatuba, or engagement party, for michael, the guy who works in the cashier office two doors down from the swim office. I dressed as nicely as possible and it turned out that i overdressed because the party was held on the roof of a building in the same neighborhood that Ibrahim elAbyad lived in. It was the first time i'd put on my little heels, and then I arrived and could barely walk on the crumbled cement, pieces of wood, trash, and dirt. I was so close to just wearing flip-flopts dangit. The party was a happy event and everyone was having a good time though. I was with my fellow office employees Ayman + ahmed. We congratulated the couple then left to go eat Kufta and rice with liver. I really like the liver rice, but the kufta is basically beef sausage, and that's too much meat for me. We also had tameya, which is like hummus but less solid/more oily. We then sat outside in the nice breezy weather while they smoked 3argila, or hooka. Those smells bring me right back home to saudi. i told them about hani and they do indeed know who he is. Too bad I'd rather not hang out with Hani ever again. blech.

I suppose I'll conclude here. my closing note: no more egotistical professional futbol players. yay bowling and liver. I'll put up the kufta dinner pictures later, as if you were interested.

Oh, sorry, speaking of food, here are pictures from
1. a traditional dinner of Egyptian muzzas (appetizers or tapas). I had sugarcane juice that night too. Its ok.

2. The one thing we dont have on our MdD's menu. It was pretty good.

3. My first piece of seafood pizza at pizza hut (see the shrimp? There was other chewy stuff on there too that I can only assume was...i dunno).

Now I have to stop my friends from taking me to places like McD's and pizzahut, despite their exotic menus :)

FIGHT!

Hello dearies. I just sucked down a mirinda orange soda and i want another. I usually don't buy myself soda but today is a special day. Today I worked at the SwimAmerica office and stood outside in the sun from 4pm to 8pm trying to control the masses. Every other day I'm coaching in the water, but not today. Hasty, angry, or just otherwise LOUD parents were scrambling to register their kids for the slowly disappearing spots for June swim lessons. I kept the door closed and admitted people slowly by their number on my ever-growing waiting list. I never lost my cool or anything but once I'd cut off half the waiting list and was just trying to answer all the last minute questions a little after we were supposed to be closed (so it was around 8:20pm), one of the angry dads stormed past me and anyone else in the pathway between me and Ayman, the one doing most of the computer registrations at the desk. Ayman saw him coming and flew at him too, and their fight was somehow thrown outside where half the coaches and men who were standing around had to hold them off each other. They still got some good hits in, and banging around on the glass walls that I thought would crumble. The damage was done by the time we got Ayman back in the office and the parent OUT of the office. That took a couple tries. The last try knocked the door's lock right off it and my office key is now bent and unusable. I sat there for a while listening to all the "lets calm down and take control of the situation" riffraff (more like, "ba'uluk ey, if he comes in here again he dies!"), then I walked out in search of a restroom with toilet paper. Finally found one here at the cafe, and now here I am.
hehehehehe.... i can laugh now because it's utterly ridiculous. Actually, amid all the grim faces right after the fight i was immediately trying not to betray my secret amusement.

roach count is up to 5.

creepy boss of boss is no longer creepy and no longer a problem.

The gym equipment here doesn't function well enough to let me work up a sweat, so i just work up a temper and leave.

Right now I'm reading "From Beirut to Jerusalem" and it's jam packed with intense information and stories. Some time soon I'll write about what I've learned about Beirut. It has a story unlike any other city I know. I also started reading Freakonomics too, and I love the author's style. I'll probably end up telling you all about it :) Weee - oh roach count 6 now. feet off the floor. aaaand i continue

So far it's been a little rough teaching swim lessons to kids who may or may not understand me in English. I'm still learning new Arabic words to supplement my teaching. There are some preschool kids that are still taking days to put more than just their mouth in the water. Other kids are getting along grand with their front stroke and so on. I have one class from hell though. They're under the water half the time so I can't get their attention, and they have the attention span of 1.4 seconds. Example:
Ok Ali, hey Ali, ta3la, come here we are starting something new- ALI! Ali? Ali, ok lets start back - ALI! I want to see you glide on - ALI! ALI stop swimming away.... yada yada yada." Luckily, there's only one hell class that I can't seem to control.
I teach two older women at the end of the day and I really enjoy that lesson.

Must wash clothes. washer doesn't function except to get clothes soaked and soapy. and I thought I'd get away with no hand-washing? I was wrong. No cleaners around here mom, I asked. Write me

Pictures

SwimAmerica Summer in Egypt 09

A glimpse of me life. Just click on the album to view the pics.
PS- I started having my posts automatically emailed to family members so they don't comment any more except by email, but all the rest of you - make it look like people read this thing! :) Ok, I swear I'm not just trying to save face. really.

Fun thing that happened today: I walked out of my apartment building with my usual "Salaam" to the Buwaab (doorman), and one of the other building employees told me "please please, one minute please" as he rushed over somewhere to get something. I suspiciously kept moving away as I looked back to see if he was the kind of person I should ignore or heed his plea. He came back to me with a dirty looking bottle of Infusium 23 and said something like "adfep;ifj ingleezee adkldf?" as he pointed to the bottle. Ha, so I explained what the English inscriptions said because he just had NO idea what this bottle of stuff was. I got to explain (in Arabic)that you use it on your hair after shampoo, water, and toweling, to make your hair soft. He seemed very pleased with my answer and I in turn felt like I was helpful in some way for knowing some Arabic. He must have found that bottle somewhere. Anyway, moments like these make me happy. Especially when I thought I forgot ALL Arabic, but its really just stored in my passive memory and i have to transfer it back to active. The End.

roaches, couches, and creeps

May 25, 2009
Monday, my day off! I planned on going to the pyramids and other important sites to visit today with some AUC friends I made, but I was up with Mada (roommate) doing some paperwork for the SwimAmerica office until 1:30 then I didn’t sleep all night due to the invisible mosquitos that ate me alive. THEN this morning I couldn’t leave the vicinity of the bathroom for more than 15 minutes at a time so I opted out of the unnecessary site-seeing.

Two nights ago the cockroaches of Cairo gave me their long-awaited proper welcome. Three separate cockroaches at three separate times welcomed me to the sports club café and to my bathroom. Two survived.

Since I stayed home today, Mada and I cleaned the apartment hardcore and rearranged all the furniture. Honestly, I don’t know how we did it with the 30,000 couches and sofa chairs that we have stuffed into this place. Tonight we’ll go out to eat Lebanese food with our boss of bosses, who is on the board of Egypt’s Swimming Federation. After he gets done with a federation meeting he’ll take us out. He originally invited me out alone, but I said Mada had to come with me because whether he’s my boss or not, I’m not going alone. At the risk of this blog being seen by anyone in Cairo’s Swimming crowd (which I’ve made a point of not allowing since I arrived, in case I need to vent), I must say that this certain boss either doesn’t understand the innuendos coming through in his English, or he is a creepy hair-slicked, top-two buttons-undone kind of “roller” that expects me to be a clueless young American girl. nuff said.

There’s been no faith restored in me about Egyptian professionalism or efficiency since I arrived, and I doubt that will change. In fact, even the Egyptians who speak English really well and have possibly traveled abroad a bit usually turn out to be more alien to you than you expect, no matter how “westernized” you think they are. My personal example of this is with Ayman, the administrative assistant that I work with in the Wadi Degla Sports club. He’s been a good friend to me and I’m glad to have him around to joke with. Yesterday he took me to eat Saudi Kabsa (delish) and then bought chocolate covered donuts at the bakery next door. I was skeptical about the donuts at first because they looked too big and dry to enjoy, and besides that they were sitting out in the sun near some bread that a bird pooped on. Luckily, the donuts were thick, soft, and half soaked in oil. Turned out to be pretty good, and unless I want to gain 50 kilos, I can’t eat them ever again. Anyway, Ayman is still very Egyptian in a lot of ways, even if he seems a step above the rest. He’s a serious gentleman and very accommodating and polite, yet he still does things like try to cheat on his final exams. It really surprised me, seeing the little cheat sheets he’d made. That's just one small example.

Oh, speaking of gaining 50 kilos, I have 2 things I just thought of to mention:
1. I’m trying to get used to the metric system (you think I’d learn by now) and Celsius, and I’m not computing it very well yet.
2. Will, my LDS American boss, let something slip the other night when we had dinner with the Knapps (an LDS couple here that has an amazing 10th floor view of Cairo’s high-rises, pyramids, and citadel). He told me that some of the other swim coaches have been making bets about how much weight I’ll gain here this summer. Ha. Now the pressure is on. Besides the fact that I always eat a lot in general, Mada gained weight here and they think I’ll do the same.
We’ll see, eh?? Speaking of weight issues, I wish I got to spoon out some of that frosting I was given at my going-away shindig at Renaissance. Chad are you saving me one?? Here are pictures from the little party that I promised: All of the language department in one room! Except Mr. Yu had to run. I sure miss you guys. and I miss the frosting too :)



Alrightee, I hope everyone is well. If not today, I will soon post a slideshow of pics or something like that for your viewing pleasure.
Love, “Captain Nicole” <- (this is my coach name. we are all “captains”. Cute eh?)