Beach Vacay, China-Style

Caitlin and I getting sand-covered and sun-kissed.

Last month, our center closed for some much-needed air conditioning repairs. The closing coincided with a national holiday, May Day (the Chinese Labor Day), so by taking one day off I got five days of vacation! An opportunity I couldn't (and didn't) refuse.

Just south of mainland China is a little island province called Hainan. Known to some as the Hawaii of China, Hainan came much recommended and is only an hour and a half plane ride away.

So when Caitlin and I heard we'd have some time off, we bought plane tickets to Sanya and packed our bags for a few days of blue skies and sand! The train is cheaper and supposed to be really cool, since at one point the train cars are actually loaded on a ferry to get to the island, but would have taken too much time away from our vacation. Alas.

A Change In Weather, Among Other Things

Two weeks ago, I'd just returned from Croatia.  While the weather there hadn't exactly been warm, our trip had been favored with almost entirely sunny weather and clear skies.

We got back to Prague in time to watch the transition begin from autumn to winter.  That first week back, all you could see out my window and on the walk to the metro was fall colors.  Reds, oranges, yellows and browns were falling all over the place, blowing around in the wind and piling up under trees and on sidewalks.  I make it a habit to try to find the crunchiest leaves to step on as I walk along.  Katherine and I agree - it probably has something to do with growing up in a place that doesn't get autumn.

Croatian Explorations

As you may or may not know, I had the last week off of school.  Fall break came laden with expectations, as people went off to Stockholm, Dublin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, Naples, Istanbul, Sicily, the Cinque Terre, Madrid, Marrakesh.  Yeah, major cities or tourist destinations.  And our plans had started off big: we were going to get Balkans EuRail passes and head into Serbia, exploring Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania before heading home in only 10 days, in the ambitious way that plans always begin.

We then had everything fall through.  The flight we'd booked home from Bucharest?  Canceled.  The EuRail pass?  Impossible to get.  A week before fall break began, we had only a bus ticket to Novi Sad, Serbia, and big expectations.

Recap

Apologies for my slowness. But now that that's out of the way, I'll tell you about the past few weeks!  Munich for Oktoberfest was fabulous, and it was great to see my friend Jori, who I hadn't seen in months.

Then the 'rents and Greg invaded Prague.  They are the luckiest weather witches I have ever met.  Currently, it's 45 degrees F outside and cloudy.  It's been raining.  But while they were here?  In the 60s and sunny practically every day.  Why they insisted on stealing such beautiful weather for me, I don't know.  But I miss sunshine and 80 degree weather - I'm glad this semester is going to end with a beach Christmas!

So, the fam was here, and we had a lovely weekend of exploring Prague (hopefully, by now, their legs have recovered from walking literally the entire city).  Now, I'm being pulled down the drain that is mid-terms week.  This past weekend was spent vaguely studying and writing papers, but mostly sleeping - was feeling sick on Thursday and promptly took that as an excuse to sleep almost the entire day on Friday.  I needed a chill weekend, if nothing else than for preparation for the next few weeks.

The Bus Monologues

So, this past weekend found me in Amsterdam and Berlin, two amazing cities that I really enjoyed.  And, we took buses between the cities, which meant some really, really long bus rides.  Here are my notes from those bus rides.

Flitting Off to Foreign Places

Alright, yeah, so I'm not so good with the updates. No excuses, except - I'm in Prague. :D
Anyway, so my weekends have been vastly more exciting than my weeks, so I'm just going to talk about those!

So, two weekends ago (Sept 9-10), I went on a two-day hiking trip through NYU to Sumava. Sumava is a national park area in the Bohemian forest, in the south-west area of the Czech Republic.  It was absolutely gorgeous, of course, and the trip featured visits to a glass factory, a World War II bunker and some adorable little towns.  And, of course, a bunch of cheap beer.  I have pictures, which are on my computer but haven't quite made it online yet.  But soon!

My Work Here Has Begun

Hey, sorry for the shortage of updates. I'm sure any excuse you could come up with for me is probably close to one I could invent. But classes have started, and I'm starting up with my jobs and obligations, and Prague is still beautiful.

Turning Off The Lights

I'm sitting in my bed, in my now-empty room, with packed bags sitting neatly nearby, and it's finally starting to sink in that it's time to go home. It all went by so fast that it was hard to really realize that it was time to go home - even when we had final presentations in class, or as my students were crying as we gave last hugs, or as we waved our way out of the Ana al-Masri center that last time. I mean, the past week I've been telling myself that this is my last whatever. My last time in Khan al-Khalili, my last sandwich ma ful bilsalsal, my last metro ride, my last time on the Nile. There were plenty of warning signs telling me that it's time to go back home, I just never really took the time to read them, or process what they meant.

And when I say "last," I hope to not mean the last time forever. I absolutely would love to return to Cairo, and hopefully to bring a few of you with me. And I'm excited to go back home, to see my family and some friends and to go on PWILD and to go to Prague. I'm excited for Mexican food, and to see Inception, and to not be harassed in the streets.

A Man's Mall

So, while our relatively easy weekend was relaxing and totally necessary, all of us were ready to do something by the time this afternoon rolled around. So while some decided to go to a movie (in Arabic this time, not just with subtitles), I was among the group that felt a little more restless and didn't want to just go and sit in some theater. So Zuri, Fernando and I decided to try to find this art gallery mentioned in one of the guidebooks that has been sitting on our dining room table.

After poring over the map a bit, we figured out generally where the gallery was and headed over, getting helpful tips from a random Egyptian who assumed we were clueless tourists trying to get to the Egyptian Museum and getting dragged into a store when some of us tried to just buy a few post cards. Poor Zuri and Fernando just put up with it - they can both pass for Egyptian, but I'm pretty sure I'm the one that gives them away. But we found all the right streets and saw a sign and figured out which stairs to go up and discovered that the gallery...

A Day of Firsts

Today featured eventful transports to and from my center. On the way there, Fernando was somehow designated as the one to figure out change on the minibus, which I think I found funnier than he did. Then, we watched a mule pulling a cart cut in front of a car and win, which was really funny as we were watching it but doesn't sound funny as I describe it here.

At the center, we had a less-than-engaging guest speaker come talk to our kids about services provided by the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent) which help refugees find lost family members. He came into our center and the first thing he asked was where the computer or projector was - Fernando and I just laughed. We'd planned for the talk to be a lot longer, so we had to wing a lesson afterward, but I think the kids understand parts of speech at least a little bit better now.

On the way back, we bought grilled corn for the first time from some old ladies along the street in the market we pass through. All throughout Cairo, you'll find people sitting in front of these little coal grills on the street, grilling corn. It was good, but a little chewy, and could've used some butter. As we were sitting on this low wall eating our corn, some random man walked by, whipped out his camera, and took a picture of us. It was the first time some stranger had taken a picture of me, so that was interesting. Well, first time I'd noticed, I guess. Then, the train went by, and since our wall was right next to the train tracks if some guy hadn't told us to move we probably would've had our legs crushed by the train.

Tomorrow, we're supposed to bring our students on an outing somewhere, but our plans may fall through - we wanted to bring them to the Egyptian museum, but that may be too expensive/closed. Then, on Thursday we're heading to Alexandria for a brief vacation, so we're all excited about that. Woo!

one last day

I'm sitting in my kitchen, in the same house I've lived in for 19 years (excepting those few recent years when I've considered college my current residence), and everything is pretty much normal. My dad fed our terrapin and got bit by our cat, my mom made her delicious croissant and sausage thingies and my brother loomed around the house for a while. But in a few days I'll be waking up in Cairo, Egypt and I won't really be back in this house for any length of time until December. Has it hit me yet? Nope. Am I totally prepared and/or packed? Absolutely not.

But am I excited? Hell yes.