Has it Been That Long??

Wow!  I cannot believe that I have not written on this blog in such a long time.  This school year has been very busy and so much has been happening, I just have been running out of time to write!  Well, here's hoping that this is the start of regular Friday blogging again.

I have to admit that I imagined this year in Egypt to be going differently than it has.  Having taught Grade 7 last year, and, having taught 2 out of the 3 classes I am teaching this year, I expected to have less planning to do.  In a way, it is true that I have less actual planning to do.  But, since I decided to take over as the Director of the Model UN program at the school, that is where things have been keeping me on my toes.

Directing such an amazing enrichment program at the school has been overwhelming, fun, interesting and educational.  I have learned a lot about what is happening in the world today through the research I have had the chance to do to help the students out.  I was blessed with the opportunity to take 4 students to Jordan for 5 days for a conference and, while we were there, got to explore the amazing beauty of Petra.  The only thing that would have made that experience better would have been to have hubby and the kiddos with me.  Those 5 days were challenging because they were long days and I missed my family.  It was the first time I had been away from them.  But, we all made it through and now Princess pretends to go on trips.  Whenever she pretends to go on trips, her destination is always to Jordan.  It is cute.  The program has nearly tripled in size since the beginning of the year and I am looking forward to taking students to 3 more local conferences in 2013.

We had a holiday in October for 5 days as the Egyptian people celebrated EID.  Last year, I wrote a lengthy post about the reason for the celebration.  This year, we rented a car for the holiday instead of going away and ventured around on our own.  We got terribly lost on our way to the Step Pyramid in Sakkara one day and drove down this small road through a small village suburb of Cairo.  The celebration of Eid does not pass without the slaughter of some kind of animal and this street we drove on was slaughter central.  Every couple of feet there was a man killing a cow, lamb or goat.  We even saw a car in front of us with a goat in the trunk...unsure if it was dead or alive.  People were everywhere trying to get the best animal and watch the slaughter.  There were a lot of flies and it looked really unsanitary, but, it was fascinating nonetheless.  Sorry, no pictures, the camera was in the trunk and we were not about to stop and get out in the midst of all the...excitement.

Of course, the most current and relevant part of our life is that Egypt continues to be politically unstable and people are protesting more regularly this year than last.  I have had very interesting conversations with students about the current events and protests.  They have different perspectives on the situation.  But, just as I stated last year on the blog, we have not felt unsafe where we are.  The protests continue far away from our home and we are regularly monitoring the news on television.  We had one day where the school closed for precautionary reasons, but, other than that, life has continued as normal.  It is certainly interesting living in the midst of such turmoil, even though we are not experiencing it directly.

The kids are definitely demonstrating changes though.  We receive daily comments about how well Dimples is speaking Arabic and Princess is doing well in her classes at school.  Her Arabic teacher commented on how well she is doing considering she has no one at home to practice with.  It will be interesting to see how well they do learn Arabic while we are here, and then, how long it will stay with them once we leave.  It truly is a difficult language and I hope it benefits them in their future.  They are both growing very quickly and it seems like they are bigger every morning.  Princess has made some really good friends at school and it is fun to watch her interact with them on a daily basis.  One of her friends had a bike which Princess quickly figured out how to ride.  This led to the purchase of 2 bikes...one for Princess and one for Dimples.  They both love to ride around on our large balcony outside.

Last year, we decided not to decorate a tree for Christmas because we spent our holiday in Spain and Portugal.  Since we had no snow in Cairo in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it never really felt like Christmas for us.  Even when we were in Spain.  So, this year, we decided to buy a tree and decorate it with red and gold, just as we would if we were in Canada.  With the twinkling lights on the tree, it feels like the Christmas season this year.  The kids had a fantastic time decorating the tree too.  It is the first light to go on in the morning when they wake up.

We are looking forward to our Christmas holiday.  We are blessed to receive 3 weeks off from school in December and are really anticipating our journey to Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic.  For those of you that know us well, the Czech Republic has a special place in our hearts and we will be returning there for the first time since 2005.  We look forward to reconnecting with some friends that we miss, but, I am not sure if I am looking forward to the snow and some colder weather.  I will definitely be writing about our winter escapades though.  I am really curious as to how the kids will do with the weather change!

Climbing some old rocks at Petra, Jordan.

Princess showing off her new bike.

A quick picture on our day trip to Zamalek

A family picture from Cairo Tower.

Merry Christmas from the Bishops!

Dimples quite enjoyed the garland.

Princess pretending to be Rudolph.

Well, how is that for a quick summary of a couple months?  So much has happened it really is difficult to condense it.  If time permits, I will write more regularly in the coming weeks.  Thanks for following us!