I've been in Egypt one month today!!

Much has happened since I arrived and it's only one month!

Without a doubt the driving of the Taxis is the wildest scenario. They criss-cross in front of each other and come a hair away from hitting....yet I've seen only one accident. They have hardly any street lights at all and so they push across the intersection and the person who is the most aggressive gets thru first!!

I have a Taxi driver that I use most of the time named Khaled. He charges a bit more however takes you directly to your destination and best of all he speaks English, whereas most Taxi drivers don't speak English and don't have very good idea of where one is going. Khaled is going to bring his 5 year old son here tonight. He arranged for a fellow to bring me a satellite Dish and converter for the TV. There is a photo of Khaled and his son Mohamed (who wants to be called Kevin) on Flickr.

Playing "chicken" is what the pedestrians do...dodging in and out of the traffic. You frequently see soldiers with guns but they don't look too prepared for action. Mosques with beautiful architecture are seen on every other corner and starting at 5:00 a.m. I hear the chanting. Tomorrow starts Ramadan, so there are colorful lanterns and what look like Christmas lights hanging everywhere. The children at school made lanterns and decorated them and put glitter on...so they loved that.

It's good we have a doctor at the school as she recommends medicine and there are pharmacies on many corners. The medicine is cheap and you don't need a prescription. In fact, I can get the identical cholesterol pills here without a prescription. When I had the 'Pharaoh's revenge' and a cough she helped me know what to get.

Most of the staff went to a lovely resort this weekend; however I had said that I would stay close to home the first month and get settled and do school work, which is just what I did...and I feel very good about that.

Thursday night I went to a party at the Canadian Embassy. I felt patriotic when I saw the Canadian Flag. Toronto is the best place on earth! I am registered with the Embassy, so if anything happens that I need to get out, I trust they will see me safely home to Canada.

They had great food at the Embassy. (I had pork-which is hard to get here, tomatoes, fried onions, and fries.) There must have been 150 to 200 people there. Not all are teachers but many are. The refugees from Sudan were there selling items. I bought a beautiful tablecloth for Kevin & Winston with Zebras on it. When I come home at the end of June I will bring gifts that will be meant for Christmas 2007/birthdays/and souvenirs!

I have had many repairs since I have been here but at least everything is getting repaired!! My dishwasher (which most people don't have) was taken out for repairs and now it is back; the air conditioner was repaired and they are bringing new curtains for the dining room.

All we need to do is "put in a work order"... famous word for anything you want at the school. They must read my name a lot for work orders!!! Or maybe others don't know the procedure.

Today, after a good nights sleep, I had a wonderful Egyptian massage...tons of oil...and then a manicure and pedicure which cost 145LE which is $25.00. Back home it would be around $150.00

I have completed some school work and made many phone calls back home. It costs me a 1LE per minute or 15 minutes for $2.50. My last bill for 137 minutes cost 137LE which is $22.80 approx !!!!

Went to the shopping Center with my teacher friend, Pat, and am now getting ready to call it a night. The clocks were set 1 hour back tonight. "Fall Back".

That's all for now.....