Khan el khalili

We made it back to Cairo on a 2 hour train ride. Let me tell you... those train rides are totally GHETTO. We even rode 2nd class. Aline says there wasn't much difference betweeen first and second class. It was super gross. The seats had brown markings as well as the walls and there was just a disatisfying smell everywhere. Uber gross.

When we got to Cairo we met up with Aline's friend Mohammed who had a car. It was great that he had a car and he spoke really good english so I felt like I could ask him why Cairo traffic was SO BAD. He said he couldn't drive within the lines even if he wanted too. Seriously I think there is no explanation to it. I think it's based solely on intuition. You just feel traffic and you just know what to do. There is no rhyme or reason how you know if you pull in front of a bus it isan't going to hit you. I saw a shirt today at the market that said, "I SURVIVED CAIRO TRAFFIC". I hate to admit it but I kind of wanted to buy it because I feel like surviving the traffic in Cairo has been a great tirumph in my life. heh.

The name of the market we went to was Khan el khalili. There were shops everywhere! Every shop was specialized. They all threw out their english phrases as we walked by. "Hi how are you? Right this way! You want a scarf? Special price for you!" You know all the phrases you would need to know if you ran a shop in a market aim specifically for tourists. My favorite phrase of the evening was, "I dont know what you want but I have exactly what you're looking for!" Another humoring one was, "How can I take your money?" At which point Aline just looked at them and said, "You can't."

We saw a lot of souvenirs and we were pretty lucky to be with Aline's friend Mohammed. If someone was ripping us off he would start talking to them in Arabic and would start shaking his head and tell us in English the prices were too expensive.

He helped us buy a fanoos! It's an egyptian lantern children are famous for using during Ramadaan. Im not sure what the significance is but it's just another symbol of Ramadaan in Egypt. I taught about celebrations similar to Christmas that happen around the world to my 2nd grade class. I had them make paper lanterns that were like, "fanooses", but I never really knew what they looked like. When we came here I decided that I wanted one to show my class but I wasn't sure what it looked like. Mohammed was more than a hand and helped me find a real one for a great price. You'll see a photo of the Fanoos. It's nothing too fancy but I was excited about it! :)

We also found a section of the market for spices. Spices were so cheap. Usually at the store, in the US, for a little thing of yellow curry I think it's 7 dollars or so. We bought 3x as much as you would get in the little spice bottles for $1.50. It was so awesome.

We're going back to Saudi tomorrow. I'm excited to go back.

Traveling...

So for the past week Matt and I have been to the US, Amsterdam, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Matt had to go through a different airport so he got to go through Bahrain. We feel so lucky to have these traveling opportunities!

I mean it raelly just fell into place. I already had a one way ticket to Saudi for December so we thought, "Matt should just come this Christmas!" And then we realized that Egypt is a cheap flight from Saudi so we figured why not. Besides my folks got messed up with their airline tickets and aren't coming back to Saudi until after Christmas. Another good reason we came up with to fly to Egypt. Aline was here for a study abroad in the summer and is pretty familar with the area. Her arabic is a lot better than I thought. It's so impressive to see her get us around. She met some people here during the summer who worked at an English school. When she told them she was coming back with us they asked if she could bring us. They made an announcement that "THE AMERICANS ARE COMING". So everyone was pretty thrilled to see us walk throught he door. We felt like celebrities. lol.

It was fun to share ideas about our culture. We mostly asked them questions about what they do in Egypt and how they percieve things, etc. Egypt is predominantly Muslim. In no way is it as conservative as Saudi Arabia. Women and Men can intermingle in social settings and be seen in public together and can even go on dates. It was a shock for me to see that coming from my Saudi background. They are still relatively conservatives. Women and Men dont kiss before they're married and dont go to each other houses. A date is really being outside and going outside. They are see in the open but nothing behind closed doors. Which isan't too extremem, I think.

I think the coolest thing I learned was that you dont yell out a women's name in the street. So for example if you see your friend Nassima in the street you won't shout out, "NASSIMA." Or in Aline's case, "RHIANNON", you yell out the girl's brother's or father's name. "JAMES!" It's apparently more appropriate. Aline made the mistake of yelling my name like a drunk in the street. When I say like a drunk, I mean, like a drunk. She waved her hands in the air and in a belch like way shouted, "RHIAAAANNNNNOOONNNNNN", over and over again. People stopped and starred. We assumed it was because obviously she looks like a fool. We didn't catch the improper part. lol. Oh Aline. So unique!

We arrived in Egypt 2 days ago. We stayed in Cairo for one and we arrived in Alexandria last night. Cairo is CRAZY!

I feared we would be hit by a car!

There are traffic signals in the street, kind of, and sometimes you find a police man ready to blow his whistle as a signal for cars to stop, but mostly people cross the street wherever and they dont mind if the car passes inches infront of them. SO SCARY.

There are lines that designate lanes in the street but no one observes them. If you think you can fit between two cars you do it. I dont know if that makes any sense to you... but imagine this a street with 3 lanes but somehow you can see 4 or 5 lanes in some places. Cars just squish in. They honk if you're getting too close or flash their lights. I'm suprised I haven't seen any fatal accidents. I'm so scared to ride in a taxi and I am morbidly afraid to cross the street. I'm just grateful we got to Alexandria. The traffic is still crazy but not so bad. So far we haven't had to cross any major street--- Inshallah.

Today I went with Matt to some salt plant his company is working with. They asked Matt if he would bring his wife. I thought the invitation was sweet so I went along.

I had no purpose! I sat there for 8 hours looking at ponds and getting in out of the car to look at differen types of water. It was kind of interesting. I learned about salt concentration and what you should or should not see at a salt plant. Matt filled me in on a few big words they were using and helped me understand the ways of refining salt. I guess one of my major surpises was simply, "salt is really a big deal." I shot a picture whiel everyone was talking because I was so bored. See here is my husband doing his job! :)

It's funny to think that so many engineers and people world wide just hold salt to such a high regard. I never really put too much thought into the Morton Salt girl and her umbrella. I never even questions where that salt came from. Today I saw where salt is harvested and cleaned. Yes, cleaning salt is important.

In other news, before the end of the day was through Matt got SUPER sick. He kept complaining of these sharp stomach pains. We were with some of Aline's egyptian friends who were able to help us out and took us to a pharmacy. Believe me when i say this, the Pharmacy looked pretty legit and Matt was in so much pain he wanted a quick fix and they offered him a shot. I drilled the guy on what it was and one of Aline's friends said the shot was legit and she takes it herself. Matt agreed to it and got a shot. (He's better!) The point of this story is... it cost 1 American dollar for that thing! Can you believe it?! ONE AMERICAN DOLLAR!

Matt was cured but not after we went to the hospital because he didn't feel like it was working and he was in a lot of pain. When I say hospital we americans think of it as a big deal but know this--- Socialized Health care. It was really just a quick trip to the doctor who charged us 12 bucks so he could tell Matt nothing too serious was wrong and he shouldnt eat any fats or fried food for a while. 12 bucks! Anotehr steal of a deal.

Matt is healthy, so dont worry. He's sleeping so he can rise early tomorrow morning to go back to the Salt Plant and lick some mud. Oh gosh.

You should really see Matt in action when he talks to these people. We had like 9 engineers with us. Matt would ask a questions about how their plant was runned and they would all gather around speaking in Arabic and every now and again throwing out english answers. It was cute to see how they really thought his opinion mattered. (I'm not suggesting it didn't. I dont know anything about salt so anything Matt said seemed like gold.)

It was cute to see Matt do his part as he measured water and asked them questions on the types of soils they use and machinery. I'm telling you Matt really appeared to know what he was talking about. I know I already said, but truly, it was so cute.

Thanksgiving

I think I appreciate Thanksgiving more as a Teacher than a student. The things that 2nd graders are thankful is heart warming. Today in church someone mentioned a study done on people who gave thanks. There was a positive co-relation between people who were happier and people who were more grateful. The speaker in church also mentioned something along the lines of thinking of 100 things you are grateful for. I wonder if I could come up with 100 things I was genuinely grateful for. Not just my right eye, my left eye, my right foot, my left foot, etc... but things of real substance. 100 things? I love blogs you get a chance to expose yourself! Anyways I saw this video recently on YouTube. I wanted to share it. I felt inspired by the message of Thanksgiving.

Funny tricks.

Yes, you see Matt trying to pull the pumpkin out of our dryer. You may be asking yourself, "why was there a pumpkin in the dryer?" You are certainly asking the right question. I would ask Matt.

Matt thought it would be funny if he put a pumpkin in the dryer. Later on he asked if I would put the wet clothes in the dryer for him. Upon doing the favor I realized there was an orange object in the dryer! I was certainly confused and Matt tried to play dumb for a while. "What? A pumpkin in the dryer? Why would there be a pumpkin in the dryer?" The funniest part was watching Matt trying to take it out. Ha! That's what you get for trying to put a pumpkin in the wrong place! Oh, Matthew. He certainly keeps things interesting.

Back in the Game!

Unfortunately with wedding plans and starting school I have not been very good about updating this blog. So, after wedding, latino honeymoon, moving, unpacking, starting school, unpacking some more, organizing house, and sorting out wedding gifts.... things are finally beginning to settle in.

Life is so good for Matt and I! So good! Yes, being married is a huge adjustment, but it's rewards are a lot more than it's "adjustments" which basically eludes to the fact that we have had to learn to move around ourselves. Let's be honest, if you've been living by yourself for 25+ years you already have your way of life settled in! What marriage does is throw a wrench in the works and forces you to really re-evaluate yourself. (Says the women whose been married for 2 months.) The tricky part is trying to mold it around someone else you love and adore and want to make happy. I'm learning a few key factors slowly about this marriage business, but it's

been rad.

Ever since we've been home from Central America I've been trying to think of possible posts. I'm not going to lie, I think I could really love this blogging business. I've probably intentionally taken pictures just so I could put them on our little blog spot. Im not sure if I should be embarrassed of that fact or not. Here are some of our latest adventures....

We recently went camping. We basically drove 20 mins up Little Cottonwood canyon found a nice spot and called it good. Stupidly enough, we realized it could be

slightly cold so we brought sweaters, when we should have brought jackets, AND we both wore our chacos, not ideal for cold nights. Our feet froze....!! This is a cold time of year to go camping. Only go if you're equipped with goods!

I really wanted to watch "The Secret Life of Bees" but I didn't think Matt would be interested in it if I just rented it out of the blue. So I made up this whole themed date where we ate honey roasted chicken, honey cakes, and made Matt dress in yellow.

I even went through the trouble of making antenna I made him wear. All because I wanted to watch a movie I knew he wouldn't want to watch willingly...

We also went

to the game where I learned that 5 mins of

football at the end of the second quarter really means 30 more mins of gasping, clutching, and I hate to say it constant watch checking. Who knew the last 5 mins of the first half would be the longest 5 mins of my life?!

Memorial Day Weekend

We started the day off with biking to Antelope Island!
However... after biking out about a mile we decided that eating gnats was no longer appealing. The bugs were seriously too much. When we turned around we crossed the road and as we headed back you could hear the gnats hitting your helmet it was so disgusting!

We ended up just driving around Antelope island exploring the little island in the Great Salt Lake and we saw a BISON! It was AMAZING!

My Grandma invited us for a BBQ but Matt saw it more as an opportunity to do some gardening, so we ate some but dug up weeds more. I'd like to say "WE'RE HARDCORE!" But I'm pretty sure Matt went twice as fast as I did. So, Matt is hardcore. :)

The funnest part of the day was when we went to see Angels & Demons. It's TOTALLY a cool flick.
We went to a 6pm showing and we were in a huge hurry because we decided we wanted to go 15 mins before it started so we raced down there got our tickets and ran into the theater. (Sounds like any non-humoring story?) We notice how quickly the movie is moving and we are left guessing why and how certain things got to where they're are, but I'm assuming that the first 5-10 mins of the show were really intense. Things move so quickly and I still want to know how the main characters ended up part of the case and why people are dying, etc (Not to ruin the film for anyone or anything.)

Near the end of the movie Matt is squinting at the ticket in the dark and looks over at me and smiles. He leans over and tells me we're in the wrong theater. The right theater ends up being right on the other side of the hall and we walked into the movie about 30-40 mins late, which might explain why the movie ended so soon and why we were left guessing how everyone got involved in the first place. I highly recommend the film, at least what I've seen. >'.-<

Graduation

This event was bigger than I expected it to be.

I guess I practiced graduating so many times in my young life, Pre-school, sixth grade, eighth grade, high school, etc, that it didn't seem it would be any different. However a sense of pride overwhelmed me as I heard the speaker talk about being an agent of change and what type of power a degree from a university instills you with. I also decided that I want to get my Masters and the robes for those who got a Ph.D were so cool, I thought maybe I could even get one of those, just so I could wear the robes with stripes on the sleeves. ;)

The ceremony made me eager to want to keep learning more and I hate to say it but some of the dissertations seemed interesting, I want to go look them up now. It was nice to have a huge clump of my family in town to celebrate with me. They love me, really.