Not Much Happening

I've been reminded by a couple of people that I haven't written on the blog for a while and I guess it's because not much as been happening. But after talking with Jim and Josie this morning I suppose there are a few things worth mentioning since my last post.

• Mum and Dad have Skype :-) It was a struggle but they've finally moved onto Broadband thanks to Susan and Phil. It was so nice to actually talk to them face to face after being away for 3 months.
• Tony has worked as a substitute teacher 4 times at the Canadian International School. The first three were a breeze (because they were middle and high school classes) but I think yesterday gave him a bit of a fright. He had Grade 3 (Year 4) and they were "the worst behaved kids I have ever come across"(unquote). Maybe Justin, Chubb and Paul could given him some advice on how to deal with unruly 8 year olds. Working, even if it is on the odd occasion, has been really good for him.

Iti outside Canadian International School

• Tuesday was an easy day at work. Most of the kids took the day off due to planned disruption ie protests to commemorate some protest last year or the year before where people were killed, and Egypt was playing Ghana. I had 10 kids out of the 15 turn up for school which makes it difficult to teach anything new - yeah right.
• Wednesday Tony and Bill headed into Zamalek via the Metro train. It was Bill's first time so it was a bit of an experience for him to be crammed into the train carriage with 100 other people. Bill had to return to Maadi at 12 so Tony continued into Tahrir Square on his own. Tahrir Square is where all the protest marches and killings have been happening over the past few years. What he didn't know was that the army had barricaded the square so no one could get near it (even though the locals did manage to get past them on Tuesday and damage the new monument the government had just opened in commemoration of the dead from past protests.) To cut a long story short, after leaving the square he wandered back towards the shopping area and found a leather goods shop that sold the elusive leather jacket he's been looking for. After a bit of bartering he managed to buy it for 650LE ($(115).

The road to Tahrir Square. The museum is on the right.

• Thursday was the last day of Book Week. It's not like Book Week at Gladstone. We started the week with the kids bringing in posters and models for the competition, which they made at home. The rest of the week there was nothing until Thursday. Everyone was supposed to dress up as a book character but because we had just had Halloween the enthusiasm wasn't there. Only one teacher looked any different than normal - ME :-) The kids weren't much different either, only 3 in my class wore different clothes and when I asked the others who were in street clothes who they were they didn't know.  The book fair was interesting - it went over 2 days and each class had a time scheduled. The local book store set up and gave 20% discount on their regular prices. I was impressed at the number of kids that brought in 200LE and 300LE to spend on books. Unfortunately the book sellers had more "activity and colouring in" books on display than the decent books but being the teacher I am I pushed my kids towards the chapter books and non fiction.
  

• Finished the working week off with a nice Chinese / Thai meal with Bill and Bonnie. The restaurant sold alcohol so that made it even better. I guess the most memorable part of the evening was when the cab dropped us at home. Bill and Bonnie decided to walk home from our place and about three minutes after we walked in the door we heard the Brotherhood protest marchers approach from 218 street which is exactly where they had walked to get home. Couldn't help but wonder what bush or shop door Bill ducked behind.
• Today is blob out day. Skype catch ups with people and then lie on the sofa and watch movies. Love days like this! Tomorrow we will head to the ACE Club to watch the Kiwis play England in the World Cup semis, hopefully ending our week on a high note.

Other than that ... not much has happened this week :-)