My first days back....

Well, I've been back in Iowa for roughly two days now. I went to Iowa City for Saturday and part of today before returning to DM to hang out with my Mom and Dad for a little Christmas Eve dinner.

To be honest, I had high hopes of returning to Iowa City. I was really excited and I think I built it up so high in my mind that it was truly a little disappointing. I don't want to offend anyone that I visited, because I did have a great time talking with my friends, it's just that I've been thinking about how fantastic Iowa City is for a few months now and then....well....it didn't live up to the hype.
It's kind of like when people keep telling you how great a movie is...and they keep hyping it and hyping it and hyping it. Finally you decide to see it and then, while you think it's good, you didn't think it was awesome. Does this make sense?

To be honest, this has put a question mark in my future plans. Again, I don't want to offend anyone, but now I question whether or not I should return. I mean, I do know people there and it is fun, but it would also seem to be a step back in time and not a step forward toward moving on with my life. While it is a comfortable place for me, I remember often being bored and looking for something to do....and my friends were usually busy and then I would rent movies and watch them by myself. Stimulating.

So now I look toward the rest of my break. I have a wedding coming up on Saturday and I'm meeting up with friends throughout the week, while spending time with my buddies. Good times are in store!

The front of the Egyptian Museum. 

My bags are packed....

In less than 31 hours I'll be sitting at the airport here in Cairo, waiting to board a plane that will take me to Amsterdam, Minneapolis and ultimately Des Moines. While I'm very excited to be heading home (even though it's only for a couple of days), I thought that this would be a great time for a reflection.

Over the past 4 months, I've been threatened with a lightbulb (also one of the funniest things to happen), nearly hit by many, many cars, yelled at by parents, laughed at by parents, told that I'm no fun and told that I'm a fun teacher. While this range of emotions have fallen upon me, I can't help but still wonder...Why am I here?

I'm one of those people that believe that everything happens for a reason, so as I sit in front of my laptop, I can't help but ponder this question. It has truly been on my mind a lot over the last couple of days, weeks and months.

Is there a lesson that I'm supposed to learn?

Is there someone that I'm suppose to help?

Is someone supposed to push me?

To be totally honest, I'm not sure. I know that this experience has taught me a lot already....

...for starters, I miss Iowa. Only a year ago, I would have refused to believe that this statement would come out of my mouth, it's true. I miss hanging out with my friends, my family and my munchkins at BASP. I miss being able to go out into the woods and take a walk around. I miss being able to call one of my friends at anytime (even though they may ignore it and call me a few days later).

This experience has also taken me completely out of my comfort zone. Never before have I been stared at so much. It's hilarious to step onto the Metro (Subway) and to have everyone turn and look at you....and keep looking at you!
I remember when I went to the zoo and everyone stared. It was awesome. I even had kids yelling out..."Hello! Hello!" It was great. Just imagine seeing a Hispanic person in Iowa City and all of a sudden all the kids yell out, "Hola! Hola!" I've never seen anything like it.

The saddest part of this reflection is that as soon as I get used to being home again, I'll have to come back. I think this is going to be the hardest part of all.

My trip to the museum.....

Lately I've tried to do a lot of tourist type things before I head back to the States for a few days. While no, I still haven't touched the Pyramids, I did take a visit to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, aka The Egyptian Museum.

To be honest, the museum is pretty big and filled with a ton of stuff, so much that it's overwhelming. There isn't any real description of the items or any info about the item. For example, we saw a fan and the little card next to it said, "This is a Palm Fan".

Really?

Other than helping out the visitor by describing most of the artifacts, the museum also doesn't allow cameras inside, something about the flash harming the artifacts. So I don't have any pictures for you from inside. Sorry.

There is also a Mummy Room that you can go into, but it costs extra and with the Christmas shopping I'm trying to fit in, I didn't have enough Pounds to pull it off. No worries, maybe next time.

ahh Will Smith, you're charm has helped many take that scary first step. 

My Hitch Theory....

Seeing as how I have a lot of time on my hands, I've started to really put some thought into a few of the many theories that I have come up with over the years. For example, one of the latest (discussed while watching a commercial for a Dubai hospital) was whether or not the Arabic world has the same stereotype for nurses that Americans do (in TV ads they have to be attractive, always).

Then after seeing a young man in a wheel chair, we wondered....do they trash talk in wheel chair basketball leagues? And if they do, is it offensive to tell someone that they have no j? (as in no jump shot--I mean, this is a logical question since it is trash talk but the opponent can't physically jump...do they do this??)

Well, during an email with my friend Jennifer (who occasionally leaves a comment) I was explaining my Hitch Theory. Now for those of you that aren't familiar with Hitch, it is a movie from 2005 staring Will Smith in which he helps guys date the women that they have always wanted to. He assists them in taking that first step and helping the women see that even though this dude isn't the most attractive guy, he still has a ton to offer and is perfect for her. Enter, the Hitch Theory.

The Hitch Theory says that if you get two people in the same room that are even remotely interested in each other (in a dating way), they will at least kiss by the end of the movie. It's a guarantee. I honestly don't think that God created anyone on the planet that can withstand sitting in a room with someone they find attractive and not do this. It's impossible. The charm of Will Smith and the message of the movie are just too much of a combination for anyone to say no to.

So the next time you want to go out with someone that you're interested in, but you just don't quite know how to break the ice...just invite them over, put Hitch in the DVD player, and the rest will all fall into place.

My Christmas Shopping....

We all know that Christmas shopping is difficult. Battling lines, trying to find everything on your list, attempting to find a parking spot within the same time zone as the mall, etc....

Now while I don't have the problems of finding a parking place, I have a few added problems that I get to throw onto this list: Attempting to break the language barrier, attempting to not get cheated on the price (if you remember, the fact that I'm not from here automatically adds to my price) and attempting to find something my friends and family will actually like. I know, piece of cake right?

Well, I have almost succeeded in finishing my list, with a little help of course. I have a friend that is helping me out by picking up some things at the Khan for me and I managed to get a few items at the mall yesterday. Now all I really have left is a trip to the AUC bookstore, a stop at Diwan and possibly one more trip to the mall, and all is finished.

Oh, and I have one week to finish. Good times.

My ballerina movements......

As many of you have heard or read from me, I miss rain. Precipitation of any kind is generally a rarity here in Egypt. That said, we have been blessed the past two nights with what can only be described as actual rain. Not sprinkles. Not mist. RAIN. The real deal.

Now oddly enough, this presents a HUGE problem. Here in Egypt, we don't have a drainage system like in the States, so where does all that rain go? Exactly right where it fell, or it drains down to the nearest low-lying place, where it just congregates, until it becomes the size of a mini-pond. It was in this terrain that I walked from the metro stop in Dokki, to meet my cell group last night. It was only a 20 minute walk, but it was insane.

Imagine if you will, myself, walking along in a grey sweater, being dripped on from every possible direction. Water falling from my bald head, flowing down the front of my face. I'm hopping around like a ballerina, going from one foot to the other on these long leaps, attempting to avoid most of the water and then balance myself on the curb that is a few feet away. Add to this, dodging cars, buses, motorcycles and scooters and you have an interesting little scene.

It's kind of funny to watch people drive in the rain. We don't get it that often, so it literally stops traffic. Any vehicle slows down to a turtle pace to cross the puddles, mostly because all of our tires are bald and we don't drive on rain that much. It's kind of like when there is an ice storm that one time every year in the South and everyone gets in an accident because they never deal with it. Awesome.

My Baklava.....

Greetings to all the wonderful readers out there, where ever you may be. As December has come upon us, I decided to try my hand at a little cooking. I've been trying to cook a little more since I've been over here and the good news is that I'm not starving to death (Pizza Hut is only a phone call away). I've been able to make quesadillas (with tortillas from scratch), cavatelli (aka baked pasta), biscuits from scratch, chips, and the occasional fried potatoes.
Well this week I tried to make baklava, a wonderful little dessert. All it takes is a lot of butter, 14 sheets of fillo (a paper thin pastry), some walnuts, sugar and cinnamon and a little bit of syrup. After almost burning the walnuts in the oven and nearly screwing up the first layers of fillo, I filled the center with a walnut, sugar & cinnamon mix. Then added the next layers of fillo. At this point, everything wasn't looking too bad.
Sadly then came the syrup, which I had made from scratch as well (sugar, water and some lemon juice-fresh of course). However, I let the syrup sit too long and it solidified. Then I re-heated it too much and it was a little burnt, but we continued to roll with the punches.
When the baklava came out of the oven, I'll admit, I thought I was a hero. It looked awesome. Then I poured the partially burnt syrup on it and took a bite. It wasn't as good as it looked. While it was still edible, the burnt walnut mixed with a burnt syrup taste, isn't exactly what my tastebuds were looking for. However, after putting the leftovers in the fridge for a night, I found it tasted better!!

Hopefully soon, I'll try it again.

The spread at our Thanksgiving meal. 

My double Turkey Days....

This year was one of the first times I spent Thanksgiving away from home. At first I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to eat turkey and taters, however, I was pleasantly surprised with what I got.

On Wednesday I was headed to meet a Bible study group that I had just be invited to. It was going to be my first meeting with the group, so I was a little excited. When I arrived, I was asked, "Do you know what we're doing tonight?"

"umm....no, not really," was my reply.

"You mean, Michael didn't tell you?"

"Nope. I've been left in the dark."

At this point I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure if we were going to be singing hymns, sharing life stories or if I had to do some sort of initiation ritual, which had me a little nervous.

"We're having Thanksgiving dinner tonight!"

I was so happy that I almost jumped with joy. Not one, but TWO Thanksgiving dinners were headed my way. How can one man be so blessed?

Dinner number 2 was also great and it reminded me of the old Schurman Family reunions that we did on Thanksgiving. Everyone brought a dish (Alex made roasted a duck....a duck!!) and everyone was able to eat till their hearts were content. Around 20 people ended up coming and we had two turkeys and a duck for the main meats. It was fantastic. Good food, good people and the night ended with me in a food coma. Awesome.

My students' thrill

As I sent my students out for break today, I noticed that the sky was full of clouds, which doesn't happen too often. They looked a little darker than normal, but I figured, "Hey, it's Egypt. It never rains here," so I sent them on their merry way.

During the break I was standing near the window and I noticed a familiar smell, a scent I had almost forgotten. I took another wiff of it and then it hit me....moisture. Now I was never one of those folks that believed that you could smell rain, it just sounded silly to me, but today, I became a believer.

I walked outside 10 minutes later to pick up my kids for 5th period and suddenly all the students started yelling, screaming and jumping up and down.

"Mr. Bill! Mr. Bill! IT'S RAINING! IT'S RAINING!!"

You would have thought it was raining chocolate or $100 bills. It wasn't even a sprinkle to be honest, but they absolutely loved it.

To be honest, it's the little things that allow you to make it through the day.

My First Conference Day.....

So it has come and gone, my first conference day as a teacher. Praise God that it is finally over, but to be honest, it was not as bad as I was expecting.

I had to go in yesterday (Saturday) to have my first conference day. I was a little nervous, having to sit in my room for at least two hours and having parents come in every five minutes to chat with me about their child. It went by in a flash!

I didn't get my first parents until 10:10 and I didn't have a break until they finally kicked the last parents out of my room at 12:40. At one point parents had been waiting for an hour, just to be able to chat for five minutes. It was insane!

To be honest, I have roughly 60 students that I teach between 2nd and 3rd grade. Now, if you only have 2 hours of available conference space and every parent shows up, it's not possible to see everyone. So we rushed through as many as possible. The best part was that out of all my parents, I only had one that was a little upset. That's it! Praise the Lord that it's over!! The next one isn't until Jan, so that's even better.

My Movie Observation.....

I have recently seen two movies over here, neither of which I would consider a family flick. I saw World Trade Center a week ago and last night I went to The Departed. I'm sure many of you can imagine the fun filled scenes in WTC, but some of you may not be familiar with The Departed.

The Departed has a pretty good cast, although some of them struggle to keep their Bostonian accent throughout the movie. It deals with a couple of cops, one undercover and the other a detective, but both working for a mob leader (Jack Nicholson).

The movie was pretty good to be honest. I liked some of the characters. It had some interesting twists and ultimately I didn't see the ending coming. It really surprised me. However, the film had enough profanity that would possibly make a sailor blush and their was some graphic death scenes and killings. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with this as an adult. You can watch whatever you want, however I begin to question a parent when they bring a 2 year old child into the theater to watch a movie like this (or WTC).

REALLY?? You want your child to see this? I know that you might want a night out, but you're going to bring them to this movie? In the first few minutes alone two people are shot, execution style and you're letting your child see this? I can't imagine how your child is going to sleep at night. Honestly, lots of kids have enough trouble sleeping anyways, with nightmares, so this is only going to add to your problems.

I saw young children at both of these movies and I couldn't believe it. Unfortunately, this is not just an Egyptian thing, because it reminds me of when I saw some youngsters at King Kong in the States. I was shocked at that one too, especially when I saw the gorilla rip the dinosaurs jaws apart, then slam it into it's head.

My FEV....

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything until my dad sent me an email telling me that my blog had gone stagnant. I got to thinking about it and realized that it had been a while since I posted ANYTHING at all. Sorry about that.

So, to make up for my laziness, I'll try to give you a couple of blogs in the next couple of days. Hopefully that will appease both of my readers.

I haven't even told you about my first Egyptian vacation!! During Eid, we went to a little resort village called Nuweiba, it's on the east side of the Sinai Peninsula. I had a good time, basically sitting on a beach and looking at the Red Sea for 3 days. The view was amazing, especially with the mountains and Saudi Arabia looking back at you from the other side of the Sea.

We had found this nice little Chinese place near the resort, so we ate their on the second day. The food was pretty good (much better than the fried fish I had the night before, which literally was a whole fish that had been thrown in a deep fryer--awesome). I remember that night I was talking to Alex about the next day and I said that I thought we had found a good horse here (i.e. the restaurant) and that we should "ride this horse till it bucks us". So we went back the next day for another round of tasty Chinese food.

The third day the food tasted good. I was pretty happy with my choice, some sort of chicken because the restaurant was out of shrimp. Little did I know, that in around 14 hours, the horse would buck me.

I awoke very early the next morning, not exactly feeling 100%. I beat the sun up and during my frequent trips to the bathroom, I managed to watch the sun rise over the mountains, which would have been a lot cooler if I was feeling better. My body did not like the chicken and decided to purge it from the system any way possible. This made for a very long morning, which culminated with me vomiting in the bathroom. Awesome.

I was still feeling ill the rest of the day. This made the 6 hour bus ride home absolutely miserable. The funny part about the bus ride was that they tried to show the movie Saw, a horror flick, on a bus full of families....good decision. If you've never seen it and are curious, just watch the first 20 minutes and you'll have a good idea why they shut that off.

Luckily I made it back without any more incidents, only wishing that God would either let me fall asleep or kill me on the spot. Neither of which happened.

My Joy....

Okay, brief post, it's raining, right now. It's around 6:30 am, there's a rainbow in the sky outside our porch and it's sprinkling. It's the first rain I've seen since August. Amazing.

I know that some of you have been begging me for another picture of myself....so here you go and with the Pyramids in the background! (see Dustin, I told you I'd see them eventually) 

My distraction......

Okay, so this week we are on a break fro Eid and I've had a lot of time on my hands. We leave for Nuweiba in the morning, so in the meantime, I've been utilizing a wonderful little website to help pass the time. If you are a huge fan of the original Nintendo (or Sega, Gameboy and some others), I highly recommend that you visit this site:

http://www.everyvideogame.com/

This is the website for Everyvideogame.com It literally has hundreds of original games that you can play online for free. I've been addicted to Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Super Tecmo Bowl lately. So if you get bored at work, need help procrastinating or are just looking to finally defeat that game that gave you fits as a child (Damn you Ghosts' n Goblins!!) check it out, you may just get addicted....again.

My Day as a Tourist.....

For those of you that check often, you'll remember that often I'm treated as a tourist. Partially due to the color of my skin and partially due to my inability to speak Arabic. Well on Saturday Alex, Kain and myself rented a taxi for a couple of hours and were taken on a little tour of parts of Cairo. It was my first real "Tourist Day" here.

We started off by heading to a 600 years old and it even had the original key to the door! We got to go in and walk around for a little while before the noon prayer. It was pretty impressive inside. The archways were huge and impressive. We even went into a tomb, which was pretty sweet.

We also walked up to the top of the building and got to look around on the roof. The view from the tower was pretty neat. I'll be honest though, I'm not a fan of heights, so I didn't stay up there too long. There was a great view of Islamic Cairo though.

After that we taxied over to Coptic Cairo (all the different religious parts of the city in one day!!) to see a couple of churches. The driver dropped us off in an Islamic neighborhood and told us how to get there while he fixed the car (??). After a five minute walk, we got to see the Hanging Church and the Church of St. George. Both were pretty cool, but I loved the Hanging Church. It had some amazing Mosaics, and a beautiful courtyard. I'll have to go back there sometime.

The next stop on our whirlwind tour was an oil shop near the Pyramids. Just seeing the Pyramids was an amazing sight. They're huge!!! It's hard to imagine that people, PEOPLE, had to drag/pull/tug and any thing else you can think of to get them into place. I'll definitely get there again and next time I'll be able to get some closer pictures.

After visiting the oil shop, we headed back to Heliopolis. The end of the trip turned into our driver trying to convince us that Islam was the way to go. While this was very frustrating, I expected it, especially since it is the end of Ramadan and all. No need to worry though, I still love Jesus.

A mosaic from the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo. 

My Hook up.....

I know that some of you will read the title to this post and be thinking bad thoughts.....but get your collective heads out of the gutter, this is not that kind of hook up.

Last week I took it upon myself to get the satellite set up. We had the TV, now we just needed something on it. So I called Showtime cable on Thursday night, in an attempt to get it set up as soon as possible. I had a man answer the phone and after a few minutes of making sure the prices were right, I told him that I would go for it. Then he asked when I wanted it installed and this is what followed:

ME: When can I get it set up?
CG (Cable Guy): Whenever you want.

ME: Really? How about tomorrow?
CG: Um....tomorrow? But tomorrow's Friday.

ME: Yeah, I realize that.
CG: But that's the weekend.....ummm

ME: So, you don't do Fridays?
CG: That's the weekend...

ME: Okay, so I assume that means Saturday is out of the question too huh?
CG: Saturday is also the weekend.

ME: Thanks for that. Okay, no Friday or Saturday.
CG: Yes, but we can come whenever you like.

ME: Oh, okay. How late do your guys work?
CG: Ummm.....what do you mean?

ME: I mean how late can they come out? It's only 7 pm. Can they do it tonight?
CG: Ummm...but it's dark outside and it's Ramadan.

ME: Okay, so now we have the restrictions. No weekends and they have to be done before dark?CG: Well, actually, they have to be done by 3 pm, because it's Ramadan.

ME: WHAT??? But it doesn't get dark until 5!!??

After this we finally agreed on Sunday at 1 pm. They showed up to my apartment around noon and stayed until I was got home around 2 pm. Then, instead of charging it to my credit card, I had to pay cash to get it set up (which was LE 700). It was incredible.

However, now we have satellite. I can't tell you how much my attitude improved when I was able to watch a college football game and a NFL game on Sunday (even though it was Houston vs. Dallas). We even get Seinfeld and The Simpsons. Best Part--I watched Fraggle Rock for the first time in a decade on Monday. It was fantastic!!!

My Second week....

It has been a while since I last posted, so I put up two new experiences for you to check out and even a couple of pictures.

The second week of school has come and gone and it's going a little smoother. The students are beginning to understand my expectations of them and how to behave in the classroom, especially when I'm there. The only real issue is that we continue to have to bounce from room to room to see our classes. This wouldn't be that big of an issue, but when the teacher that is supposed to replace you shows up late (sometimes up to 20 minutes late) it puts you in a bit of a bad mood. Especially since time is limited anyways due to the Ramadan schedule.

I'm also trying to add a new link on here for those of you that want to check it out (probably only Jenna, but the rest of you can too). It is from a group of teachers here that are in a writing club and they have just started a blog to display some of their works. Check it out, leave a comment and enjoy the show.

Mosque with the moon in the background. 

Alex and I at the cafe. 

My first Indy Experience....

On Wednesday night I got to have my first Indiana Jones type experience. Alex and I went with Gheda and Hollis to the Khan al-Khalili market in Islamic Cairo. It being Ramadan and going at night, we were sure to see some cool things.

The market was crowded and filled with little shops/stalls in tight alleys. It felt as though we were in a maze at first, twisting and turning this way and that, all the while looking at t-shirts, bronzed statues, stone pharoahs and sphinxes. We eventually ended up at a cafe located in side the market.

The cafe was packed and smokey. Everyone was out and smoking a little sheesha (water pipe) with their coffee, water and whatever else they decided to have. It was a great little joint. At one point Alex made the comment that it was like going to a baseball game, because as you sat there, peddlers came around with bracelets, peanuts, flowers and hena tattoos, trying to sell them to you. We even had a bread guy come along. We sat there for an hour, drinking Coke and watching the people pass by. It was a lot of fun.

We then left and wandered around the market for a little while longer. After which we went back and caught a cab back to Heliopolis. It was interesting seeing all the shops and listening to their owners trying to sell you things. You would always here, "oh, please come look here." or "Would you like a bracelet?" One man even said, "Hey Indiana". That was the best. I chuckled for a while at that one.
At one point a man tried talking to me and he followed me for a while asking where I was from. I constantly just said "No" to him until finally he asked me if I would like any hash. The final no was a little more forceful and he decided to head back to his stall.

One funny point came when we first entered the market. Some random little kid saw Alex and came up to him and started holding his hands. It was awesome! He just stood there and followed us, holding his hands. Then the kid switched and started holding Hollis' hand. After giving him a pound, he went away. Good times.

My Twilight Zone Experience.....

Last weekend Alex and I decided to try and visit the American University in Cairo (AUC) bookstore, which is located downtown, right near the Nile. The trip started off well. We got a ride from Nader, one of our coworkers husbands. A nice man who is taking classes there. This bookstore is suppose to have one of the best collections of English books in the city. So we were pretty excited about the adventure, not to mention getting new books.
He dropped us off and gave us a direction to head in. We thought all was going well and tried to get into the AUC. We were told by a man that we had to go outside and around the corner. No worries we thought, that sounds easy enough. We followed his directions and ended up a block to far to the east. We decided to start heading back to the major square that was nearby and we would start over....then it happened.
"Hello my friend! Where are you from?" shouted a voice to our left. An older gentleman was sitting in a chair along the road. After briefly chatting with him, he invited to his store (everyone has one) and then he offered us drinks. Having read a little in the Lonely Planet guide, we had an idea where this was going....
The man chatted with us briefly. A little talk about family and where we were from. His family apparently has a farm outside of town where they grow crops. These crops are then turned into oils...which oddly enough he just happened to sell in his store. My roommate is a fan of the oils, so he ended up buying a few from the gentleman. We didn't feel bad because he was nice and it looked as if he could have used the money. So we were alright with this. We then told him where we were headed and he got us back on the right path. Turns out we were to go back where we came....off we went.

We had only walked half a block and we were talking about the recent turn of events when all of a sudden....

"Hello! Where are you from? What are you looking for?" Another person along the street has kindly stopped to help us out. This one was a little different though...."Oh, yes the bookstore. It's straight ahead and then turn right. Wait, I can show you another one too, come..." He proceeded to talk us another block in the wrong direction. He constantly said, "No baksheesh (tip). I no want. This is for friendship. Friendship important."
The next coincidence came when his store just happened to be on the way to the other bookshop. We went in and chatted. He showed us a picture of the boxer Mohammed Ali, who had once visited the store. Then, seconds later, he was asking us if we liked oils and he began to get them out. Then he asked if we liked papyrus and his son brought out a huge stack of these things. He could tell I was not please because he kept asking me, "What's wrong? Why you no smile? This is about friendship not money...but if you like, We give you good price....you a lucky man!"
It was very difficult to bite my tongue and not lash out at this man. Once he heard the English, he saw us as $$ and went for the kill. Alex did end up buying some oil, but we managed to escape shortly after.

Eventually we stopped in a Costa Coffee shop near the AUC. I asked of the workers there where the bookshop was and he finally pointed us in the right direction. We found it 5 minutes later. The bookshop was everything we thought it would be with a great collection of Political, fiction and classic works, as well as anything you could ever want on Egyptian History.

It was a crazy, crazy day. 2 oil shops, hours in a 4 block area and eventually, we found our target.

My Deja Vu.....

So I've officially been a teacher for around four days now (really? that's it???) and I'm already starting to see some tendencies from my students. For example, the kid that didn't do his homework the first couple of days and had to stay in from break....yeah, that's going to happen a lot. The over-achiever that keeps doing everything you ask, perfectly....he'll keep doing it (thank God someone does). It's truly amazing to see the patterns already start to form in my classes. It's like I could almost fill in the gradebook for the rest of the year right now. Shoot, let's just forget the next 10 months, I'll give them a grade now!

While that's not exactly ethically acceptable and yes, one or two students may be able to turn it around, it's really true. I'm starting to see the patterns. Which brings me to what I'm trying to create....

....patterns. Routines. I'm trying to get these basic things in my students' heads now so that they aren't a constant battle for the entire year. For example, my students have a tendency to just blurt out. That has to change. They also have a tendency to call me "Meester, Meester". I have to remind them that I do have a name and if they want me to answer, they should use it. Otherwise I'll refer to them as, "Kid in the corner with glasses" or worse (if it was acceptable-use your imagination).

Truth be told, week one is in the books, since all we have to do on Thursday is spelling tests and reflections in journals. That's not bad. Plus, it's pay day and I have the last three periods empty. GOOD TIMES!!!!

My First Few Days......

Well, it's finally come and gone. We've actually started school! I didn't really think this day would come. To be honest, I thought that maybe, just maybe we would be able to delay school for the entire year. What a great year that would be!! Just planning, planning, planning....break....and then more planning. Good times.

The first day was chaos, to be honest. We were going on two different schedules at one point, the kids were excited and it was a mess. I won't even get into it, but when you only have around 30 minutes to teach, it's a little tricky to fit it all in.

Days two and three have gone much better. The students are starting to get settled in (and the teachers too). They are starting to really get a feel for my rules and expectations, which is good because the sooner this happens, the sooner we really start working. I've told them many times that my goal is to prepare them for next year, not only in the content they are learning, but in behavioral expectations too. I've heard too many stories of older students that don't listen, do pay attention and constantly do the wrong things. We'll see if I can get one or two grades to change that. But who knows, maybe they'll forget it all over the summer!

If you look really closely, you can see our new school....at least the exterior of it. 

My breaking point....

The last week has been crazy over here. We start school on Sunday and we're starting to get everything ready to go...posters, calenders, copies, supplies....the only drawback is that we have yet to actually see our classrooms. I've been creating posters for the last few days and I was expecting to hang them up today, so that I could go on the camping trip that I've had planned for a couple of weeks. Well, today has come and gone and still, we have not been in the school. So now, instead of camping, I get to be picked up by a bus Saturday morning (normally a day off) and go to the school to get my room set up.

While normally I wouldn't write a post like this, I'm a little upset right now. I feel as though I'm being punished because someone else is running behind. I know that I should be professional and take it in stride (which I am) but it's starting to wear on me. The posters are ready. Copies, ready. Now we just have to get into the building....not ready.

On the bright side, this allows me to further prepare for the first week of school and maybe even week 2. I'm ready for Week 1, but now I can create a couple more things for the classroom (Pen Pal signs and some other stuff). I just wish I was camping....

The suburb of Maadi, from the felucca. 

A felucca on the Nile. 

My Birthday abroad.....

So last Sunday was my first birthday that I have spent outside of the United States. It was a memorable one.

After a hard day of not doing much at school, I walked to Korba (45 min) to meet up with Kelly and Erica, two of the other teachers over here. We then took a cab to meet Reham, who had set up a felucca ride on the Nile for my bday. Awesome.

After taking a cab ride to Maadi and the banks of the Nile, we got on a felucca and were about to set off, when Kain (another teacher) called. He, Hollis and Gheda (yes, two other teachers) were there and they came to join in the festivities. So the seven of us set off on a ride that lasted a little over an hour.

It was so relaxing on the river!!! There was a gentle breeze that felt great and it was dark, so we could actually see some stars (a first in my time here). We ate a little bit of chocolate cake on the boat, drank some coke and shared some stories. To be honest, it is going down as one of my favorite birthdays thus far.

God Bless

My Address (kind of).....

Some of you have requested an address from me. The drawback is that if you attempt to send something to my home address, there is a very good chance that I won't get it. Mail has a tendency to disappear on its way to Egypt or once it gets here. Also, mail is very slow and any packages will be opened by Customs. So nothing illegal please (Dustin-Brad, this means you).

So due to this, I'm going to have my school address as my mailing address. I hope this works out and things make it.

Hopefully this will work!

Bill Flinn
Nefertari American International School-3rd Grade
Km. 22 Ismailia Road
Cairo, Egypt

My Answers II

Okay, so I got the RIP to Steve off my chest and now I can answer some of the questions that have come in (wow, I almost feel like a famous author or something).

For those of you that don't know, I'm here in Cairo teaching 3rd graders at Nefertari American International School. I teach English and Social Studies and I'll have around 30 students in my two classes. As awesome as this sounds, the drawback is that our start date has been pushed back (again), this time to the 24th of September. While this may be good, the drawback is that we now have to stay until the 28th of June AND our starting date is also the start of our Ramadan schedule. That means we will only have school from 8:30 to 1:30 AND the kids won't be able to focus because most of them will be fasting....for a month. Good Times.

As for my water situation, I've been drinking mostly bottled water. This is to avoid being on the receiving end of the Pharaoh's curse (which two of the new teachers already picked up). The only time I don't drink from a bottle is when we do ice cubes, but we boil that water for around 20 minutes before we put it in the trays.

I also had a question about what I eat over here. Mostly, it's a lot of fast food and pizza (am I in college again?). We have Otlob, which is a website that allows you to order from a ton of restaurants and they will call and place the order for you. It's amazing. Even Chili's in on the list.
Tonight however, I broke from the mold a little. I made flour tortillas tonight (yes, from scratch) and I plan on cooking up some mean quesadillas tomorrow for lunch. Tortillas are hard to come by over here. You can rarely find them in Royal House or Metro (to local grocery stores). It's an experiment, so we'll see how it works out.

That's all for now. Thanks soooo much for all the comments, questions, prayers and love that I've received over the last few weeks. It means a lot.

God Bless.

One of the pictures of Steve from his zoo in Beerwah.  

A picture of the flowers outside Australia Zoo, in Beerwah.  

My Sad Day.....

I got home from school on Monday morning and I read the sad news...the Croc Hunter, Steve Irwin....dead. I was shocked really, I thought that of all the things that man did, how could he die from an animal attack? He's wrestled crocs, been chased by Komodo dragons and he's been bitten by numerous animals. Needless to say, I was a little upset.

For those of you that don't know, I loved the Croc Hunter. He had one of my favorite shows to ever be on TV. I remember the first episode I ever watched, he was holding a goana (a lizard) and he was bit in the hand. The goana had a hold of his hand and after a minute or two you could see blood dripping down from the mouth of the lizard. Needless to say, I thought this was awesome and I was hooked.
I've watched nearly all the episodes of his show, I had some of the tapes, I saw his feature length Docu-movie and secretly the only reason I wanted to go to Brisbane to student teach was so I could go to his zoo (which was the first thing I did).

After seeing the pictures of the flowers, cards, and visitors to his zoo, all mourning the loss of a great conservationist. This may sound cheesy, but the shot of a little boy, holding a teddy bear, looking at the flowers nearly made me cry. I'm sad to know that he's gone.

Some of you may think this is cheesy, but I really liked Steve Irwin. I loved his show and his message of conservation and protecting wildlife. I'll always remember Steve. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

God Bless

My working weekend....

I've had a ton of people ask me, "Hey, since you don't work until the 17th, are you going to do any traveling before then?"

While this is a fantastic question and if I wasn't a teacher it would be ideal, believe it or not, I am actually working right now. If only my job consisted of showing up on the first day and just going from there! No, unfortunately they expect us to "plan" things and keep the children occupied for the ENTIRE day. How ridiculous is that? Can't I just hand half of them wiffle ball bats and tell them to go nuts?

This being said, I took advantage of the weekend to do a little bit of planning. As it looks right now, I have the spelling lists planned out until December. I also have my plans for Social Studies done until almost the same time. I still have a ton of time left in the day, so I should get a few more things done, but alas, it may go down hill from here. I'm starting to feel an unproductive streak coming on.

Finally, a view looking at the other end of the street. No, not all of Cairo has this many trees.  

Here is my sweet bedroom.  

Here is our living room in the apartment. 

My Answers....

Okay, okay, so I've been getting some questions on the blog and I figured maybe, just maybe I would answer one or two of them.

First off, the pollution here is not just smog, but there is honestly trash on the streets. Don't get me wrong, they do have people that come around and collect trash from our building (as well as other buildings) but there is still trash on the streets.
Also, the water is a little gross. Drink it and you'll get sick (just ask two of the new teachers here). They say that you will get used to it after a few weeks, but I couldn't deal with the Pharaoh's Curse for that long.
As for a Feminist movement, that's where things get interesting. To be sure, there are plenty of strong women in the country. However, women are seen as objects here, more so than in the States (in my opinion at least). I've been on the Metro and watched as men stared at the women I'm traveling with. I'm not talking about 5 seconds or anything even near that short, but for a long, long period of time. I've also heard stories of men saying outrageous things to women and even touching them in inappropriate places.
However, this being said, if anyone was to mess with a woman here, and she yelled or did something about it, the men within the vicinity would assist her and he would get what was coming to him. Interesting contradiction huh?

As for more photos.....soon.

God Bless

My Contact info...

Some of you have been asking for contact info: To be honest, mail isn't great here in Egypt. I've been told the mailing things to the school is reliable, so once I get that address, I'll post it. As for phone numbers:

Home: (20) 02-635-8886 We have a rotary phone with no machine, so no messages. Sorry. If this doesn't work, take out one of the zeros.

Cell: (20) 10-712-0303 Again, no voicemail here either. So if you catch me, yeah!!

Hope to hear a voice soon.
God Bless

This is the view from our balcony looking at the Military Academy. You can see the satellite dishes on top of the buildings in the background. 

My first few days.....

Well, it's official, I've been here for two weeks now. Don't worry, I'm actually having a good time over here, although there have been a few slip-ups and lots of laughs.

This week has been interesting, to say the least. I have decided to join a softball team this semester. The team plays/practices in Maadi, a suburb about 35 minutes away (in a cab at least). We practiced yesterday and truth-be-told, I suck. For those of you that don't know, I've never played baseball or softball, especially organized baseball/softball. In fact, I really don't like baseball, but this is giving me a way to get out of the apartment and a way to meet people.

Today, we took a trip to Maadi to eat lunch. About eight of us went from the school and we had a blast. We ate at a place called Luciles (or something like that). It is an American restaurant there. Maadi is a suburb with a lot of foreigners and ex-pats. It's a very nice place, but it's a complete contradiction to the Egypt that I live in.

School is going well. Currently I'm the only 3rd grade teacher, which would worry me a lot more if we started on Sunday. They have to hire someone to teach Math/Science. This also meant that I was volunteered to be on the Discipline Committee. Good times.

Arabic is coming along slowly. My roommate Alex and I are working on a word of the day. Today is was behb or door. Other words have been beda (eggs) and gamoosa (water buffalo). We don't pick the most useful words, but they're fun to know.

I'll post a picture or two tonight. I hope all is well where ever you are.
God Bless

My Mistake, pt. II

Okay, okay, so I blew it again. My information department (thanks Dustin) looked it up and the average Egyptian makes around $3,900 per year, not the $1,200 I had read in my travel book (blasted Lonely Planet liars).

My Thanks.....

First off, a big thanks to everyone who has left a comment over the past few weeks. It makes me think people are actually reading this thing, instead of me just typing this for my parents. So Thank you so much for saying hello or leaving a note.

I suppose I haven't really introduced you to Cairo yet. The city is huge, dirty and very busy. There are some where between 16.5 and 20 million people in and around this city. So far, everything looks the same, although I'm beginning to be able to tell where I am sometimes. Life here is rough and many people are poor, some extremely poor. I believe I read that the average Egyptian makes $1,200 a year. I've seen rich ex-pats living in Maahdi, a suburb S of the city, which looks completely different to what I see daily. I've also seen people, even children, sleeping on a piece of cardboard in the street. It's a little different.

I'm living in a 2 bedroom apartment with a guy named Alex in Heliopolis, a suburb NE of the city center. It's located near the airport. It's a nice suburb, but don't get the idea of suburbia like in the States. There are tons of apartment buildings, shops, stores, fruit stands and cats. Lots of cats. Everywhere. We also live next to the Military Academy, which is interesting.

I take a taxi everywhere I go. I often meet up with some people in Korba, an area of town that is 10 minutes away by cab. The ride is cheap, around 5 LE (which means Egyptian Pounds), this is equivalent to less than a $1. Good deal. Because of the cheaper standard of living, things here are very cheap, once you figure in the exchange rate. I can buy a huge bottle of water often for 2 LE or maybe a little more.

As for my job (yes, I do work too), I don't actually have any students until the 17th of September. We are moving into a new building, which is still being built, so the start of school has been delayed. Good times!!

I hope all is well. More will come soon and I'll try to get some photos up as well.

My Delay

I do apologize for the recent delay in communication from my end. I am still waiting for the DSL to get hooked up in my flat. I am currently hanging out at Erica and Kelly's flat, abusing their internet and TV.

Things here are going well. I have food now and a towel, both which are positives. I'm currently waiting on my flatmate, Alex, to arrive before I start going crazy getting things for the apartment. He gets here tomorrow and we start gearing up for school on Sunday. It should be fun.

Well, I'm going to run. I'm sorry for how short the last two posts have been. I promise to tell you about Egypt when I get my DSL connected.

Until then,

Bill

My Arrival

Good News!! I have arrived in Cairo. It was a long couple of flights with a lot of anxiety, but I am alive and well in Cairo. I will post more once I have DSL hooked up in my flat. Until then, I just wanted you to know that I am safe.

God Bless,
Bill

My Departure....

Well, the time has come for me to head to Africa. I've been hanging out in DM for the last two weeks and I think I'm about to lose my mind. I'm ready to get to Cairo, get adjusted and begin preparing to teach.

I've finally said just about all my good-byes as well. Tonight we had a BBQ at a park in Des Moines, to welcome Dustin back from Kenya and to see me off to Egypt. It was a ton of fun as we sat around, ate some good food (thanks to Grill Master Mike) and then, to top it all off, we played a fantastic game of 4 vs 4 Kickball. It was the Brothers Farley taking on the Old Guys. If you haven't played Kickball as an adult, I suggest that you do it because it's a ton of fun. Ultimately the Old Guys were too much, defeat the younger (and more in-shape) Farleys 28-9 (if not worse, we lost count to be honest).

Tomorrow, I head for Chicago, where I will spend the night. Then on Monday, I fly off to Egypt, arriving there on Tuesday afternoon.

This will be my last chance to post before I leave, so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has helped me (and put up with me) along the way and I'll post again once I get to Cairo.

God Bless,
Bill

The Gang ready to find some Snipe. 

My Summer Job.....

Okay, so some of you have been hearing about how much fun my summer job was. Besides working with some great people (Aaron, Melissa, Nancy, Megan, Nick-where ever he is, and yes even you Kathy) I was able to work with some great kids for the past 8 weeks. Sure, I got in trouble a few times, but we had more fun for it!

I worked at the UI Wildlife Camps this summer, in Hawk Camp, probably the greatest camp ever (so much better than those smelly otters and that weak eagle camp). I taught kids archery and I would go on a hike in the mornings where we'd search for mushrooms, insects, bones, wildlife and pretty much anything else to keep the kids occupied for 2 hours.

The last week of camp was great. We grilled out 3 out of 5 days and then on the last day we had some sweet sub sandwiches. Why didn't we start this earlier??

So the big event came of the 2nd to last day of camp. That night Aaron, Melissa and I took some other counselors Snipe Hunting (which, if you've never been, we'll arrange it for when I come back). The night ended with me being sprayed by a skunk which is just as gross as it sounds. In the end though, it was a great night and we all went down in Hawk Camp lore for it.

And if Nick ever reads this....where are you man???? (for those that don't know...Nick went cycling from Kenya to South Africa and we haven't heard from him since mid-July. Most likely due to a lack of Internet access...hopefully....hopefully not lions or hyenas or something like that....yeah.

So that is a brief view of my summer. Probably one of the best summers I can remember and it was a blast. It also allowed me to appreciate the landscape of Iowa before I head for the desert.

My last week....

Okay, okay, so it's been a while since I posted anything. I'm still a bit upset about the whole Italy thing, but oh well. I just realized this weekend how little time I had left not only in Iowa City, but in Iowa as well.

For those of you that don't know me as well, I'm terrible at good-byes. I don't like to see other people cry, because then in turn I will probably start as well. I said adios to some friends last night and I almost got misty eyed. I still have one week left in Iowa City too!

It's a strange feeling, leaving a place that has been your home for the past 8 years. I've truly come to love Iowa City and see it as my home. I've made some friends that mean a lot to me, who I will really miss hanging out with at Friday night concerts, South of 80 gigs, Trivial Pursuit, Whiteys, Pancheros, UI Football/basketball games, Lemme, Disney reunions and Parkview, just to name a few.

This next week is going to be busy, trying to fit everything/one in. I will probably be heading back to Des Moines around the 1st of August, where I'll hang out with some friends and Agnes (my mom) for the last two weeks. Is it really that far away?

God Bless,
Bill

My healing....

Well, by the time anyone actually reads this, the World Cup will be over. As I'm typing it, France and Italy are taking the penalty kicks to decide the champion of the world. It is hard to talk about this game and not mention what Zidane did. The last game of his career and he's jawing with another player. The Italian must have hit a nerve, because Zidane head-butted him right in the chest. Granted, the Italian dropped as though he had just been shot, but such a move is uncalled for and the red card was deserved. It's sad that one of the best players in our generation has his international career end like that, but it's his own fault.

To be honest, France deserved to win the game. They were the more attacking side for most of the game and it's sad that it has to come down to PKs. Someone will be a hero and someone will be a goat.

I'm curious now as to what I'm going to do with my weekends. All I've been doing is watching soccer for the last month. I may actually have to leave my apartment!!!

Sangol has to hit this PK for France to stay alive......got it. Now it comes down to one PK......Grosso, for the World Cup and hero status in Italy.....Got it. Italy wins. Now we have to hear about how good Italy is for four years....that sucks.

Well, it was a good PK shootout. In the PKs, the advantage is always with the shooter. He should know where he's going to put it and he should make it. Sadly, it came down to one French player missing and everyone else made it. Too bad.

God Bless,
Bill

My Queensland!!!!

Breaking news....for all of you that were curious, Queensland defeated New South Wales today to win the State of Origin series!!!

My 4th

Wow, I couldn't believe how long it's been since I've written on this thing, but alas, for all of you (I mean both of you) that missed my rants...I have returned.

Yesterday was the 4th of July, a day all Americans look forward to because not only do we get a day off work, we also get to watch fireworks, grill out and enjoy the company of our friends while celebrating our independence.

I enjoyed most of those yesterday, except for the part about fireworks. I was called a Communist and harassed many times because, to be honest, I'm not really a big fan of fireworks. Yes, they're loud. Yes, they're bright. But that's about it. Truth be told, if I don't get to watch someone light it and if there isn't a high percentage of someone losing a digit (I'm talking a 50-75% chance) then I'm not interested. Not to mention how does this make me Communist?

After enjoying a great BBQ with some friends, I went out to Lake McBride with my friend Rachel and we went on a little hike to the spillway. We took off our shoes and wandered around the streams. It was pretty sweet until we found the leeches on my feet. I had like a dozen and she had zero. What's that all about???

Next we went to the Raptor Center, which is also at the Park. That was fun.

After that, why not finish the night with a little viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean?? I would have to say that Jack Sparrow is one of my all-time favorite movie characters. Savvy.

Great day/night and I didn't even watch fireworks. How good is that?

Bill

One of my favorite pictures from Oz. 

My discovery...

Great news!! I've finally figured out how to edit the links on the side bar of this silly blog. Now instead of linking you to Google News and Edit Me pages, you can link to the blogs of two of my friends and of course a link to US soccer. Another fun link for you is to the school that I will be teaching at in Egypt. Check them out!!!

By the way, now that the US has crashed out of the World Cup, my support has fallen to the Aussies, who face a tough Italy on Tuesday. If they play well, they have a shot!!

Dempsey celebrates his goal agains Ghana. One of the few bright spots for the US Team. 

My Frustration

I have waited for a while for my latest update in an attempt to calm down from the events of this past week. However, that didn't seem to work.

To be honest, I'm ashamed, angered and embarrassed by the US performance in the latest World Cup. All the chips fell in the right place, the stars seemed to align for the US to make it to the second round. Italy was leading the Czechs 1-0, we were tied with Ghana 1-1. It all looked good, but then the questionable PK and the subsequent goal seemed to take the life out of us. As a former player (a really really long time ago), you know the ref will screw up and you can't use that as an excuse. The fact is that most of the Americans never showed up. Period.

Now most of you that know me know that I love US soccer. However the team that went to Germany showed merely a fraction of the talent that they have. Donovan was nonexistent against the Czechs and Ghana. He only had 1 shot. ONE SHOT for the entire tournament. He had been one of our leading goal scorers going into the WC.
Beasley was basically scared. He is normally a very attacking, no fear type of player. I don't know if his dog just died or what, but he acted like he didn't want to be there.

Two of our best players. Non existent. Imagine how good a basketball team would be if your shooting guard and your small forward decided to pass the entire game and not shoot. They just wanted to hang out on the perimeter and take up space. That makes it a little tough to win.

After all the negatives, there were some positives. Clint Dempsey played well. He was looking to show what he had and he attacked well. His goal (the only of the US) and his celebration afterward showed he at least wanted to be there and compete. Hopefully he'll be picked up by a European Club and he'll be a building block for the future.

Oguchi Onyewu also played pretty well. He's a huge defender (think of a Ray Lewis type of linebacker, only playing soccer). He gets picked on by refs because of his size, but he played well and will continue to for the national team for a while.

That's it. I'm ashamed of our team and our "stars". Hopefully we can find some players that want to represent our country in the next four years and in 2010 in South Africa, we can take the step we should have taken this year.

My Fever....

I have a fever, World Cup fever. I love the weekends because it allows me to watch 3 games each day. 6 hours of soccer a day and 12 hours for the entire weekend. Does it get any better?

To be honest, many Americans don't know the World Cup is going on, let alone what needs to happen for the US to advance. This was the mindset that I had going into the US-Italy game yesterday. I arrived at Quinton's, a local bar at around 9:45 am to finish watching the Portugal-Iran game. I was the only one there.

Then at around 11 the lunch crowd started to show up, so there were some people there to watch Ghana shock the Czech Republic and give the US some hope. It looked as though the stars were beginning to align for a US miracle.

When it was almost game time, the bar started to fill up. I was a little confused at first. Really? All these people are here to watch the game? huh? I thought we didn't like soccer.--these were my thoughts as the game began.

Had I known what was to come, I would have better prepared myself. The following two hours were an emotional rollercoaster and I saw probably the greatest soccer game that I have ever seen. EVER.

The US started well, they were attacking, they were physical and they showed no fear. They actually made it look like the Don't Tread on Me ad campaign seem serious. Then Italy scored. Suddenly my delight turned into frustration. Then the own goal came minutes later. Joy once again returned and the bar erupted in jubilation. Then the red card to Rossi of Italy!! To see McBride coming off the pitch with blood pouring from his face had to be inspirational to his teammates. Then to see him come back on, minutes later with 3 stitches pushed them more. At this point I was feeling pretty good about a win. 1-1 tie, we have 1 more player and we are dominating the game. How can we not get three points?

Then anger. Pablo's red card, probably a little harsh. Now we're even, but I'm still feeling good going into half-time. Then disbelief as Eddie Pope is given the red card (a poor decision by the ref) for a second offence. I was in shock. 3 red cards in one game??? Now I just hoped we would hold on. But that is when the amazing thing happened. The US crowd was making noise and the boys responded. The US still had chances, even though they were down a man. Then around the 75 minute, Beasley scores. The bar goes insane. No team has ever scored with only 9 men in the World Cup. NO ONE. And sadly that fact held true as the goal was disallowed due to McBride being offsides and in the path of the ball. Which, after seeing the replay, he was. No question. I can't argue with that.

The US held on for a draw and restored our reputation. Had they played like that against the Czechs, I think we would be through at this point, or at least only needing a draw. Now we need an Italy win and a US win. That's the easy way.

I have decided that I am rooting for another team in this tournament. Dustin has England (since he lived there for a while, I understand) and I have decided to root for the Aussies. They are playing Brazil right now and while my head (and fantasy league team) say Brazil will win, my heart is rooting for Australia.

My Weekend of Bliss......

....began early Saturday morning. Since the World Cup began, I had watched zero of the matches, but I more than made up for it this weekend. I watched a poor performance by England as they barely beat Paraguay. Then I met up with my Mom and a friend of hers to watch the Trinidad & Tobago vs. Sweden game. It was awesome!!! Best game of the Cup so far, and it ended in a 0-0 tie!! I couldn't believe T&T held on. Finally the soccer day ended with Argentina beating Ivory Coast 2-1.

Today was more of the same. I woke up early to see Netherlands beat Serbia & Montenegro, which is funny because Montenegro declared independence from Serbia, so now what do we call them? Also does this mean the Montenegrin on the team have to leave? (although there are only two of them).
I then watched the other two games of the day (Mexico beat Iran and Portugal edged Angola).

Where is this leading to you may ask??? Well, the tournament for me and my Aussie friends really begins tomorrow. Australia opens the day playing Japan and then, the big one, The US plays Czech Republic. I'm so excited!!!! Sadly, I can't watch it due to Wildlife Camp, so I have a friend that is going to text message me the score. So if there is a scream of joy in Iowa City around noon tomorrow, that's me. (If it's a scream of anger....good chance that's me too).

My favorite time of year....

....Is just beginning. Yes, once every four years an amazing event happens on Earth. No, it's not a comet, the opening of some silly flower or the Cubs having a winning season. It is the greatest sporting event on Earth. Yes, you've guessed it. The World Cup.

It's hard for me to contain my excitement for the World Cup. For those of you that don't know (meaning many Americans that don't know me well), the World Cup begins tomorrow in Germany with Germany playing Costa Rica. I know this isn't a very exciting opening game, but I'm actually thrilled by it because I think Costa Rica may have a chance. The Americans don't actually play until Monday (when I'll be working, Maybe I should quit for a day?).

The best part is that there will be soccer games on every day for almost a month. EVERY DAY!!! Here in the States the games are on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. Yes, ABC is actually showing a soccer game that doesn't include the US National Team. How exciting is that!! I'm pumped to tune in on Saturday morning and watch England get beaten by Paraguay. That would be a great start to my summer (but if England won, that would be okay too).

The difference between here and Australia is amazing. In Australia I saw signs of the World Cup everywhere that I went. Jerseys in stores, ads in papers, commentary on TV, it was amazing. Here however is a little different. Most Owens couldn't care less about the games and I can't find a USA jersey to save my life, though oddly enough I could get one in Brisbane.....weird.

The other fun thing is that I started working today. I had my first day at the UI Wildlife Camps and I went out with 10 kids and another leader on an insect hike. Yes, we went searching for bugs and other animals. The highlight came when we caught a snake in the grass, although it was only a garder snake, probably the least scary snake of all. Good times.

By the way, the US will advance out of their group and I think if they can play their best, they could win it. Of course, it would require a tremendous amount of luck too!!!

My battle.....

It was an interesting flight to Chicago from Brisbane. First I had to fly from Brisbane to LA. This flight is between 13.5 and 14 hours. I had a rather large gentleman sitting next to me who decided that it would be fun if we were touching for most of the flight. I wasn't weirded out by this too much at first, but then I briefly broke my entertainment system and it played Brokeback Mountain. That's when the touching started to bother me.
It wasn't just the awkward arm to arm contact that was bothering me. Eventually he fell asleep and sure enough, began to snore. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much on the plane, maybe 40 minutes at most. Fortunately, once Brokeback was over, my entertainment system was working again, so I was able to play games and watch most of Syriana before we landed. It was a real battle for most of the flight because we kept fighting for control of the arm rest, which he won because I kept getting up to move around. I think he stole my pillow one of those times too.

When we landed in LA, it was 7 am on Wednesday. The best part about that was when I left Brisbane, it was 11 am on Wednesday. Don't think about that too much because it really starts to hurt the brain.

The flight from LA to Chicago was much better. I purchased some Tylenol PM at LAX and I was asleep before we took off. I slept for most of that flight. Then it was a 5.5 hour drive from Chicago to Altoona before I could go to bed for the night. I finally got to sleep around 11:45 pm.

But the fun continued the next morning. I woke up at 6:30, got ready and drove to Cedar Rapids to see my kids at Prairie View on their last day, which was pretty cool. I also visited my Lemme kids and hung out with Mike and his wife Lianne that night. They asked to see all my pictures, which I think they were regretting two hours later.

That night was awesome because I returned to my old apartment and filled up the air mattress and laid down. I woke up 20 minutes later and found myself sleeping on the floor because the mattress was leaking air. Still, it was a great night's sleep.

My Last Post......

....well, in Australia anyways. I'm sitting at the airport, remembering what I felt like when I stepped off the plane two and a half months ago. I was hot and in awe of the tropical feel as I waited for a bus to take me to my hotel.

This time around it's a little different. I took the train to the airport this morning. Then my bag was too heavy!! So I had to switch some things around and make my carry on a little cumbersome, but other than that all is well and everything is heading back to the States.

I just wanted to thank Julia, Jude, Stuart and John for helping me out while I was here. Thanks for hanging out with me, taking me to some memorable places and for putting up with me in the classroom! I truly appreciate it.

I board my flight in about an hour. The flight to LA is a monster. I fly for roughly around 14 hours and I land 4 hours before I left!! Then I'll trudge my way through customs and around 10 am I board my flight to Chicago where Mom is waiting. After that, it's a short 5 hour drive back to Altoona!!

Good times just keep on comin'.....

My long day

Today I finished up my wonderful little jaunt in Sydney and flew back to Brisbane. On the last day I thought it would be a wonderful idea to go to Bondi Beach (pronounced Bond-eye). After taking the train to Bondi Junction I walked about 1 km to the beach. As I suspected, it was a giant beach. There was strike one for the day.
I decided that I would head back to another rail stop on the way back to the center of the city. I thought I say a little harbor that looked similar to the one in Finding Nemo, so I walked the 1 km back to the station. Once I got on the train, I looked at my handy map and guide book and saw that I was near Fox Studios Australia, the place where The Matrix trilogy, among other films, were made. I decided after looking up the description that it might be fun. So I walked another 1.5 km to the studios.
Strike two came when I arrived to find that it was nothing more than some restaurants, crappy shops and a giant grass oval. That was a bit of a bummer and a waste of time. After this I figured I would try my chance at the harbor, so I walked another 1.5 km there. I couldn't take a train because I was in-between the two closest stations and neither one would get me any closer.
Once I got there, I looked at the harbor and said, "yep, that could be it." I took a picture and proceeded to King's Cross. Oddly enough, King's Cross (much like Fortitude Valley in Brisbane) is the adult entertainment sector of the city. How is it that I always manage to find these places???
After walking back to the station I looked at the map and realized that I was almost back to the city. So I decided to walk the rest of the way. I figured I'd probably never do it again, so what the heck. This is where strike three comes into play. The pain I felt that night was something that I've avoided for most of my trip. Any man will know what it feels like if you've walked way too far in a single day and they may even describe that raw feeling you get. Ouch.

I figured today would be better, since I was heading back to Brisbane. I got to the airport and all was going well. Then the entire high school showed up and they were on my flight to Brisbane. Good times.

They weren't that bad until the landing. I've never heard someone scream for no apparent reason on a landing, but low and behold, a couple of girls did. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

So now I'm back in the Sunshine State, sitting at a computer in a shady arcade and whynging, which if you ask Jude, is what I do best!! ; )

My Perfect Ending....

....came today. I'm currently hanging out in Sydney until Monday when I fly back to Brisbane. I flew here yesterday, checked into the hotel (which can only be described as a converted office building) and I immediately started to explore. I went to the Sydney Aquarium yesterday, which was pretty cool. I saw a platypus (awesome!) and then I explored the town a little bit. Oddly enough there was a show called Defend Your Turf, which is apparently sponsored by MTV and Nokia. It's a 5 vs 5 soccer tournament for local teams in which the winner gets $10,000. Then they get to play "The Boys from Brazil", which is a team of about 9 Brazilian that are pretty good. I checked that out for most of the night until I couldn't feel my fingers anymore due to the cold. Then I wandered back to the Office.
Today began with a cool tour of the Sydney Opera House. That was pretty sweet. Then I went to Taronga Zoo, which is a short Ferry ride away. I went on a Gold tour, which was like a behind the scenes tour. Then it happened.....and if you all know me, you know that I'm a dork and I love zoos. I got to pet an echidna!!!! I also got to pet a red and grey kangaroo and a possum. It was AWESOME!!!
After the zoo I wandered around a bit and went to a movie (even though I swore I wouldn't due to the prices down here). So it was a good day.

Oh, for those of you still wondering....Origin was pretty sweet. We (Queensland) were down by 10 with about 20 minutes left. Then we came back and tied the game with only 4 minutes to go. Then sadly, some punk from NSW scored a drop kick goal (which is worth 1 point) and we lost!!! Blasted NSW.

Other than that, all is well in Sydney. The showers are pretty gross, but other than that the office is good.

My Preparations....

.....with State of Origin coming up, I decided to rent a DVD of the greatest Origin moments of the last 25 years. I watched it last night in an attempt to figure out what the big deal was about these upcoming rugby matches. I knew there was some hatred, so I was thinking along the lines of Iowa vs. Iowa State or something like Michigan vs Ohio State football, something where the two teams really don't like each other. To be honest I think I underestimated the whole thing.....

But first, for all of you Origin virgins like myself, State of Origin is a best of three rugby test matches between the best players from the state of Queensland (the Maroons) against the state of New South Wales (the Blues). You play for the team where you first played rugby at a competitive level. It all sounds pretty simple right? Well, there is some history here....

Previously most of the best players from Queensland would play in the rugby league in Sydney, then when Origin time came up, they would play for NSW against Queensland. The problem was that most of the best came from Queensland, so they were playing against their home state.
This all changed in 1980 when State of Origin began. The tag line that goes with the Origin series is State vs. State, Mate vs. Mate. Mate vs Mate meaning that guys who play in the rugby league together would play against each other.

Now you have the historical background, but there is one element missing....hate. These two teams literally dislike each other to the point of hatred. There have been tons of all-out brawls during the past Origin games and I saw clips of guys playing with blood all over their faces. I personally would never play rugby, some say I'm not fast enough or big enough or strong enough, but I prefer to think that I'm just to pretty....but that's me.
The closest comparison I can make to this is if in the NFL Pro Bowl, the two teams where divided by where you were born, North or South. Then the two teams played for Real. None of this, no hard hitting, or take it easy type of hits. NFL Playoff intensity and hitting, but with All-Stars. That would come close to the type of game that starts on Wednesday night. Oh yeah, and then they would play two more times in the next two weeks. Then it would come close.

My Deja Vu.....

....so this weekend has started out similar to one of my first weekends in Oz. I went with John down to Beenleigh to watch his son play a soccer game and then we went out to Springbrook National Park again to check out some things we missed (the car broke down last time!)

Life in Oz is still good. I only have 3 days left in the classroom, and then on Thursday I head for Sydney!!! I'm so pumped. I can't wait to see where Finding Nemo was filmed!! I may ask some locals if I can't find the place....

Sorry this is short, but time is running out. State of Origin is coming up this week, so the entire East coast of the country is in a tizzy. It's pretty sweet. I'll explain next time...

My last week.....

I have become some sort of science man in my time at Morningside. I've done more science experiments with the students than I had done in my previous 25 years of life, which comes to around 4 or 5 (?).

This fun filled trend continues today when we look at the difference between the freezing points of freshwater and saltwater. After doing the experiment with the students I have to then explain to the students why this is.

Now many of you know that I am not a man of science. If it wasn't for Andy Luse and Matt Buthel I would have failed physics and I spent most of my junior year in Chemistry playing with a salamander. Now I have to explain to my students why something happens.....thank God for the Internet.

Hope all is going well, I have to go and paint some Aboriginal art with Year 1 before the experiment this afternoon.

Good times....

My first lesson....

I went up the coast with Jude and Stuart this weekend. I think the place was called Marcoola, either that or Macoola, I forgot, but I have it written down at home.
Stuart's parents have a little house up there near the beach. It was awesome! Stuart gave me a surf lesson on Saturday and to be honest, I suck. I couldn't even stand up! Every time I tried I would lose my balance or the board would slide out from under me. It was fun though.
That night we watched Crackerjack and The Castle, two classic Aussie comedies. They were both pretty funny. I wish we had Lawn Bowling in the States or at least in Iowa. It would be a blast!
Sunday we went back out to the beach. This time it was with the boogey board. I had a little more success. I was able to catch 1 or 2 waves, but other than that, I still suck. It was a lot of fun though.

My Curse....

I have been labeled as a curse to the Brisbane Lions, the local AFL franchise. I have been to two of their games and sadly they lost both of them. Jude has brought this to my attention and informed me that I will not be allowed to attend anymore games while I'm here! I'm a little sad about this, but I will move on. I will have to find a new team to cheer for, maybe the Magpies, because they have a sweet nick-name. There is also a team called the Crows, so I'll choose one of those two.

Other than that, the weekend was fun. I didn't really do anything on Saturday other than see The New World, the latest Colin Farrell movie that was more of a love story than I was expecting. I'm also curious about it's historical accuracy, but with a love story, any accuracy goes out the window!

I hope all is well back in the States. The munchkins are about to come in, so I must run.

Till next time, I'm still.....

.......Livin' the dream,

Bill

My Mistakes....

Okay, so Jude (one of my cooperating teachers) and her boyfriend Stuart have hacked onto the blog and informed me of some corrections that I need to make.

1. The song played on ANZAC day is The Last Post, not the Last Patrol as I had called it.

2. Stuart's name is spelled Stuart, not Stewart as I had also tried.

There, now that I have tossed those on here, I'm sure there will be many more corrections in the future, as my accent seems to be causing many difficulties. Just 5 minutes ago, I was arguing the correct pronunciation of the word zebra. I say ZEE-bruh. The kids say Zeh-bruh. We argued for a couple of minutes and when one of the students tried to draw it on the chalk board, it looked like some sort of chubby dinosaur with stripes. It was awesome!
Good times at Morningside.....

Bill

My Big Night......

Last night (Friday) was huge!!! I went to the Australia vs New Zealand Rugby match in Brisbane. It was awesome. To hear all the Aussies singing their national anthem at the beginning was a great sight. Then I was able to see the Kiwis do the Haka, a dance/intimidation ritual that is meant to scare their opponents, basically telling them they will be eaten. Sweet.

The game was great with Australia winning 50-12. It was awesome! It seemed like the Kiwis were only out to hurt people, not really win the game. One guy on their team kept giving out cheap shots after a tackle. I know that if it was the NBA or NHL or even MLB and you go for a cheap shot, normally a big guy on your team sends a message to the other player.....especially in NHL. But this didn't happen. I was waiting for someone to drill him or something, but no luck.

The game really changed when this guy nicknamed Shrek came in for Australia. He looks similar to Shrek and he wasn't afraid to hit someone, or run the ball right at them.

It was a great night and probably the last sporting event I'll get to see. That's okay though. I'm still trying to arrange Sydney, so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I'm still just....

Living the dream,

Bill

It's been a while.....

I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post and I STILL haven't been able to get many pictures up for everyone. I'm sorry, I'm a slacker!

If it helps, I've been extremely busy. I've been teaching for most of the days this week and I had a visitor last weekend. Lauren Trolley, a student teacher from Iowa who is in Canberra, Australia, came up last weekend to enjoy some of the sunshine. We had a good time and we went to Noosa Heads, a national park 2 hours north of here. We also went to a Brisbane Broncos Rugby match. That was awesome!! They were even playing the Canberra Raiders, which added to the fun.
The best part of her visit was being able to spend time with another student and American who is going through the same thing. We laughed about some of the phrases we've heard and some of the things we've had to explain. Sometimes it's great to be able to use a phrase and not have to explain what it means.

This weekend should be exciting too. I'm going to see the Australia vs. New Zealand test match on Friday night with Stewart (one of my cooperating teacher's boyfriends). He's pretty cool, so that should be fun. I also need to go back down to Surfer's Paradise and see if I can get a shot glass for my uncle at the Hard Rock Cafe.

I'm also trying to plan a short trip to Sydney after I'm done in the classroom here (which is in less than 3 weeks). I found cheap airfare and a cheap hotel, I just have to check it out again and book it. Cheap is the key word, because I'm short on funds!!

I hope all is well back in IA!! I miss you all and I can't wait to see you soon!

God Bless,

Bill

ANZAC Day

I awoke very early this morning to take part in an Aussie tradition. Every year on this day they celebrate ANZAC Day to remember all the soldiers that have died in past wars. ANZAC stands for Australia-New Zealand Army Corp, just so you know, but back to the story.

I awoke at 2:50 am so that I could be on the 3:44 am train, in order to make the 4:20 am mass at the ANZAC temple in ANZAC square, which is in downtown Brisbane. It was a wonderful ceremony. The governor of Queensland gave a short speech and she placed flowers in the Memorial, along with a member of each branch of the service. Then a bugler (a person who plays the bugle) played "The Last Patrol" which is similar to our Taps. After that, people went up to see the temple/memorial and then the festivities were put on hold until 10 am when the parade began.

The parade consisted of former soldiers, their family members or family members marching in honor of departed loved ones. It was a good parade, although almost every division had a group of people that marched, so it went on for a while. I finally left at 11:30, with no end in sight.

It was a great experience and I enjoyed seeing how the Aussies remember those that have fallen in battle. It was moving and I had never seen so many Australia flags before!

One funny part was that some of the old military Jeeps that they drove had the steering wheel on the left side of the car (not the right, which they normally do). Then on some of those vehicles, you could see "USA" stenciled on the side of the vehicle. I smiled.

I hope all is well, Egypt is back on track and looking like a go, so that should be sweet!!

I miss you all, be good and take care,
Bill

The Gabba

On Saturday night I attended a real Aussie past time. I went with my cooperating teacher Jude and her boyfriend Stuart to see the Brisbane Lions take on Richmond in Aussie Rules Football at The Gabba. The Gabba is a local stadium that they play cricket, soccer and Aussie Rules. The sport is amazing and the guys who play it are incredible athletes.

Other than being one of the most brutal sports you could have, these guys can run over 15 miles in a single game (which lasts roughly two hours). I was impressed and amazed.

Other than fighting the temptation to get a one-time-use gift, I managed to purchase a decent t-shirt and an Aussie Rules football so I can show everyone at home and maybe take it to Egypt. We'll see.

On Friday I taught for the entire day, as my teacher was sick. It was awesome. I had 3 students pretend they were sick and when I sent a fourth student to the office, he sprinted out the door and ran around outside for the next 30 minutes until school was out. Good times.

Well, time is almost up and I'm getting up early tomorrow, ANZAC Day. I'll explain it more later.

I hope everyone is well, and as you know, I'm still....

livin' the dream,
Bill

Quarantine, Prep and sunshine....

Well, I'm back to the grind in the beautiful little city. According to the TV, it's been 13 days since the last time it rained here. Yes, it's been sunny and warm the entire time. I think I even got burnt again, but we'll see.

A funny little story for everyone to enjoy. Australia is very particular about what they let into the country. My mom sent my soccer shoes to me as well as some yummy trail mix. I was really excited when I picked up the box at the Greenslopes post office (about a 30 min walk). On the side of the box in BIG letters said: "QUARANTINE", then in little letters at the bottom it said "passed". I decided to walk around and make it so that everyone could see the quarantine part of the box, just for fun. Back to the point though, the Government has decided that my shoes were too dirty, so they've taken them and have put them in quarantine. AFTER I respond to their letter, it will take 2 weeks to decontaminated them and then they will send them back to me. However, my trail mix, arrived safely.

Other fun news, I was fortunate enough to help decorate a puppet theatre with some Year 1 students yesterday. We painted and painted and painted, while trying not to paint our neighbor. It was fun, but draining. I don't think I could work with 1st Graders.

On Tuesday I went to a meeting about Prep. Prep is basically kindergarten. They have just decided that prep would be a good thing to do in schools, so as of next year, Queensland will begin doing prep. Great Idea.

Other than that, I'm still alive. I've been pretty tired lately. I'm trying to watch the Champions League games here, but they start at 4:30 am!!! It makes for a long day. I'm cheering for Barcelona, only because I hate Arsenal.

I hope all is well for everyone else, be good and God Bless!

Bill

Speechless.....

I arrived in Brisbane safely Friday afternoon after my 1.5 hour flight from Proserpine. I had a blast the last couple of days, although I did get a bit of a sun burn at Whitehaven Beach on Wednesday. Thursday I went out to Hardy Reef, a place 2 hours from the coast and snorkeled a little bit. It was a blast and a great experience.

None of this though can be compared to the shock I had when I went online Friday night in Streets Corner. I saw that Iowa City had been hit by a few tornados. I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw some of the pictures this afternoon. I'm completely speechless at the damage. I saw the devastated apartments on Iowa Ave and realized how close that was to where I lived. I saw the Sorority House that was on the corner of Washington and Governor and realized that was about a block from my apartment. I wonder if there was any damage at my old place? I wonder what I would have done?

I'll keep this one short. Thoughts and prayers go out to my friends in Iowa City. I know your safe and hopefully all is well.

God Bless,

Bill

Where's the Beach?

I'm sitting the dining area of the Airlie Beach YHA, a youth Hostel, in Airlie Beach, Australia. My trip here was interesting, as was this first day. I boarded a plan from Brisbane and flew 1.75 hours north to Proserpine (pronounced Pross-a-pin I believe) airport. There was no real airport, just a Morten building with two ticket counters and a sitting area outside to wait for your plane. They pulled our luggage up to the building and let us go nuts getting it off the cart outside.
After a 35 minute car ride with 7 strangers, I was dropped off at the YHA, in a city that is maybe a little bigger than Milo. The main drag is pretty small, but it has a lot of businesses waiting to part you from your money. My key didn't work in the door, so I wondered around while the locksmith came to remove the super-glue from the lock (ha ha).
Today I went on a "Croc Safari" down the Proserpine River. We went on a tractor ride through the flood plains to try and see some wildlife before heading down the river. It was no surprise (to me at least) when we arrived back at the camp an hour later having only seen some Ibis (a bird that is every where), some other birds and a couple of toads. I managed to see the back of a kangaroo briefly as it hopped out of site, but that was it. For a while I felt like Ian Malcolm, the character from Jurassic Park. I almost raised my hand midway through the "safari" and asked, "Now, will there be any actual animals, on the wildlife safari? Any animals? Hello?" This little joke entertained me for the next 2 hours (seriously-I laughed to myself for a while).
After lunch, we jumped on a little boat and went up and down the river looking for crocs. We did see about 5 or 6 and a baby croc, so that was cool. The river we were flows into the ocean, so the guide said that the water also contained sharks, sting rays and jellyfish. Why is everything in this country dangerous??
After my contact fell out half way through the boat ride, I held it in my hand until we returned to Airlie Beach about 2 hours later. It was fun though and the Jurassic Park joke got me through the day. Tomorrow I'm off to see some islands and the reef!
Be good, have fun and God Bless,
Bill