Giza Pyramids!

Our first sight-seeing trip in Cairo was to the Giza Pyramids!  Being there was a complete dream come true for both of us!  We took a camel ride up to the pyramids and then walked around admiring the pyramids and the Sphinx.  I couldn't believe I was THERE next to such ancient history!  And it really was surprising how HUGE those pyramids are!  I mean, really... how did they do that?!

I still can't believe I live just 30 minutes away from all of this!  Pinching myself... 

Humble Abode

Our new apartment is ENORMOUS compared to our previous apartments in Korea and Indiana.  It is also very mismatched.  This bothered me at first, but now I'm sort of embracing the crazed color scheme.  It is also on the 5th floor of a building with no elevator.  So we get our exercise, especially when carrying our groceries. :)  But how can we complain when we have so much space AND have Norris next door?!  Jackpot.  Here is a tour...

Sitting Room

Dining Room

Porch at night.  It is AWESOME out here.

Kitchen

Living Room

Bathroom #1

Long Hallway

Guest Bedroom (my favorite room)

Tons of closet space in the guest bedroom!

Bathroom #2

Bedroom.  Don't feel bad about judging these colors.  I feel the same way.

My awesome amazing vanity!

Our closet!  This thing isn't even close to halfway full!

And that's it!  By the way, those of you eyeing that Guest room, it's open for business any time anyone wants to come visit! :)

Final Destination... Cairo!

On February 15th, we finally arrived in Cairo, just 16 days late! We were excited to start our new life, and thankful for the protection that we had felt throughout all of our detours. And when it was all said and done, our 4 overweight suitcases had made it from Seoul, to Istanbul, to Dubai, and then finally to Cairo with no extra charges! We know that it was only through prayer that this was possible, and we are so thankful. Ultimately, I think all the waiting and stress that we experienced made our arrival in Cairo even sweeter, and made us all the more grateful to be here.

Although there has been a lot of conflict in Egypt over the past few months, we feel so lucky to be here during this time of change. It has been amazing to hear the first hand accounts of people who were protesting in Tahrir Square, and who were elated when Mubarak finally stepped down. I feel so proud of the Egyptian people because of the peaceful way they went about getting their freedom. The future is bright, and there is hope in the air. Things are still not stable yet, and of course there will still be conflict, but it feels great to be here during this time to see history in the making.

Over the past few weeks, Tim and I have worked on getting settled. And a big part of getting settled is figuring out what life is going to look like in our new place. Where will we go shopping? Where will we go for entertainment? Where will we go to church? Who will our friends be? What will our schedule be like? These are all questions that we have dealt with recently.  And I'll be honest, it's hard to start over. In the first few days of being in Egypt, I found myself craving the ease and normalcy of Korea. I missed our neighborhood, our friends, our church, our students, and the beautiful life that we had carved out for ourselves there. It's hard for me to start from nothing and build up our life again, especially when I felt like we just did that. But I came to a point when I realized I had to let go of Korea a little bit and just jump into life here in Egypt. I couldn't be cautious and just test the waters little by little. I couldn't look back and dwell too much on the life that I had before. I needed to be all here, and not be afraid to let myself be vulnerable and open to the changes. This shift in attitude has helped me so much, and now, although I will always miss Korea, I’m all Egypt!

So now Cairo, and more specifically Heliopolis, is starting to feel like home. We love our apartment, which is in a really quiet and safe neighborhood, and is much larger than the one in Korea. It also has an oven, which we have not had for a year and a half, so we are free to make as many cooking masterpieces as we want. We've found our local grocery stores that are within walking distance, and we love that groceries are so inxpensive. Norris has taken us to church, and we've met some great people there, and have already gotten involved in the worship team. I can tell that we are going to love being a part of that church. As far as school goes, it has had its ups and downs. Things started out very chaoticly, as the students had been on break for a week, and had a hard time getting back into the routine of school. And I felt a little overwhelmed about jumping right in to teaching Music with no real direction. Also, as we have come to find out, there are a lot more discipline problems here than we had in Korea. So it was definitely hard and very exhausting at first, but now we’ve gotten things mostly figured out and we’re enjoying getting to know our students. I finally have my classroom organized, a good discipline plan, and a vision for my end of the year concert. And I have a truly amazing teaching schedule. I teach for about 3 hours a day, and the rest of my time is for prep and planning, which I have definitely needed lately. I think I’m really going to love teaching Music. Tim is teaching Kindergarten for the rest of the year, and that is definitely something different for him!  But he is so great with those kids, and the kids adore him!  So all in all, a rocky start with school, but now things are really starting to stabilize and we’re enjoying it more every day.

One of the best parts about living in Egypt is that we get to live right next door to Norris, and eventually Angie when she gets back to Egypt with Baby Ham! It's great to have family nearby, and we're really thankful that Norris has been kind enough to show us around and help us get settled. We realize that we have so much to be thankful for, and we’re not taking any of it for granted. It was a long journey, but we’re finally in Cairo starting our new adventures!

Dubai

Since we hadn't planned on a stopover in Dubai, we had done no research, and basically had no idea what to expect from the city.  We also knew that we could be there for awhile, so we wanted to do some sightseeing to fill our time.  When we first arrived, we were so excited to see the culture and history of the area... little did we know, there is hardly any culture or history to be found in Dubai!  The city is a concrete jungle of huge buildings (including the tallest building in the world), pristine beach hotels (including a self-proclaimed 7 start hotel), and MALLS!  Wow, are there a lot of malls in Dubai!  A mall with a theme park inside, a mall with an indoor ski park, malls with every store or restaurant you could ever dream of... some of the biggest and well-kept malls I have ever seen!  The theme in Dubai seems to be "over the top".  Everything has to be the biggest, the best, the most luxurious, etc in the world.  I think they might have some kind of complex. :)  They are also really into making their own islands.  They have islands in the shapes of palm trees, and right now are in the process of making islands that look like the map of the world.  Pretty cool.  There are so many eccentric things... I've heard it said that Dubai is like a combination of Las Vegas and Disneyland.  I think it's true!

Soon after we arrived, we realized that Dubai definitely did not fit the mold of the places that we normally like to visit. Not to mention that it was expensive and difficult to get around.  However, once we came to terms with the things that weren't our style, and changed our expectations, we were able to enjoy Dubai for what it was.  And we indulged in the "Dubai way" a bit too. :)  There were a lot of things that we loved about Dubai.  First of all, the international school there is great!  It's really new and modern, and has a very laid back atmosphere.  The teachers that we met said that they love teaching there.  Also, we had a great apartment!  It was very modern, spacious, and had great furniture.  And there was a great community of teachers who lived above, below, and next door to us.  We had an awesome time hanging out with and getting to know these people!  Another positive is that everyone speaks English in Dubai.  The city is a fusion of people from around the world, and the common language for almost all is English.  This made it extremely easy to get around and communicate with people.  And although we are not really "mall people", we did love the fact that the malls had tons of American restaurants (not to mention Indian, Lebanese, Thai, etc)!  Almost everything we could think of was there in Dubai.  So we ate a lot (too much)!  And if we had needed to go shopping for clothes, we would have had NO trouble finding exactly what we needed.  In many ways, Dubai was really easy, and we really appreciated that.  And really, it is a beautiful city.  The skyline is one of the most interesting ones I have ever seen.  The beaches are nice.  The weather was gorgeous.  The whole city is sparkling clean.  And there are all kinds of different people sharing the same space peacefully. We definitely came to love and appreciate Dubai, and we had a wonderful time sightseeing!

Here are some of our excursions...

We took a boat ride on the Creek.

We went to the Dubai Museum, where we learned that up until about 40 years ago, Dubai was just a small fishing and pearl diving village.  When oil was discovered and exported, things really started to take off!

We went on a Desert Safari, where we went dune riding, rode a camel, watched some belly dancing, and ate some delicious Bedouin food.  It got chilly at night in the desert!

We visited the Jumeirah Mosque.

We watched the sunset at the beach.

We had high tea at the Burj al Arab, the self-proclaimed 7 start hotel.  But it was more than just tea.  We had sandwiches, croissants, scones, cookies... We were stuffed by the end!  Apparently every room in the hotel is two levels and has one butler and two maids.  Tim went to the bathroom, and he said that there was a person in there who turned on the water in the sink for him, pushed the soap dispenser, and handed him a towel when he was finished.  That was too much for me.  I knew I would feel really awkward about that, so I opted to not use the restroom in the hotel.  But really, it was a beautiful and over-the-top place!

We took a day trip to Abu Dhabi, which was a great city!  I felt like it was more down to earth, and had more vision than Dubai.  We traveled there with one of the teachers from the school and her parents.  We had a great time!  First, we saw the Grand Mosque, which was so gorgeous.

Also in Abu Dhabi, we toured a palace that has been changed into a hotel.  It was beautiful!

Back in Dubai, we went to the Dubai Women's Tennis Championship.  It was so awesome!  We saw some really great players!

To end our trip, we went up the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  No trip to Dubai would be complete without that. :)

So as you can see, we saw a lot of beautiful things in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and we met some wonderful people as well!  There were times that we felt worried about the future and somewhat purposeless, so it was good to have people around to interact with and things to see to distract us.  To be sure, we had a great two weeks in Dubai, but we were anxious to get to our final destination... Cairo!

Istanbul--->Dubai

Remember how we were able to see the power of prayer on the first leg our journey?  (Read about it here).  Well, that theme continued as we traveled from Istanbul to Dubai.  We got to the airport early because we needed time to talk to the people at the check-in desk about our extra luggage. This time, for such a short international flight, we KNEW that our suitcases were overweight by a lot.  But I also knew that we had prayed them through before and we could do it again.  Also, I believed that with the right words with the right intention, the airport workers could understand our situation.  I prayed all the way to the airport that I would have the right words to explain our situation, and that we would be shown grace.  When we got there, I explained that our suitcases had been cleared to go through to Cairo without the extra fee, but that now, because of the chaos in Cairo, we were stuck with them.  I explained that we were moving from Korea, and had we known that we were going to have all of these stopovers before our final destination, we would have packed differently (Truly. Those suitcases were a PAIN to lug around).  After I finished explaining everything, they spoke in Turkish to each other, and it did not seem like they were going to have sympathy on us.  But then, all of a sudden, they started weighing our suitcases and putting stickers on them!  We had prayed them through again!  We were so thankful!

We had a good flight, and we arrived in Dubai in the early morning.  The administration from Universal American School (a sister school to our school in Egypt) arranged our airport pick-up, and we were brought to our apartment.  We were also taken to the school to talk with some people there, and get reimbersed for our travel expenses.  We were given a cell phone and taken to a mall so that we could get some groceries and things for the apartment.  We were so thankful that we were being taken care of!  Also, our apartment complex was filled with teachers from the school, so we were invited to a party that night!  Being in a new place is always easier when there are people around to connect with.  So things were looking up.  Although there were still so many unknowns, we felt a peace for the time being.  Have I mentioned we were thankful? :)

Istanbul!

To be honest, I was very much not opposed to our unexpected stopover in Istanbul!  Of course, we would have liked to be there under better circumstances, but we were going to make the best of it!  As soon as we got to our hotel, the stress of the frenzied morning in the airport began melting away.  The hotel staff was extremely friendly and helpful.  There was a cute little elevator in the hotel that had something like a cage door on it and reminded me of a dumbwaiter.  The room was spacious and decorated with colorful patterns and royal colors.  We had an awesome view of the water and the quaint town from our window, and we had free internet so that we could stay connected and updated on the Egypt situation.  AND, we were just a short walk from three important attractions in Istanbul-- The Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and Hagia Sophia.

The Grand Bazaar was the first place that we went on our first afternoon.  There were endless shops selling rugs, jewelry, dishes, and lots of beautiful things, which of course we could not buy (remember our overweight suitcase situation?).  But it was fun to walk around anyway.  It seemed like everything had so much color and so many small details.  I definitely like the Turkish style!

The food in Istanbul was the BEST!  First, we ate amazing kebabs at this tiny hole-in-the-wall place outside of the Bazaar.  The cook even had to go up a ladder and cook some of the food up above because the kitchen was too small!  Gotta love it.  The kebabs we ate came with spicy rice and delicious flat bread.  I think I could eat that meal every day.  Later we went to a pastry shop and bought baklava that tasted heavenly!  The next morning we had a delicious buffet breakfast in our hotel with lots of bread, cheese, and fruit, and we ate while admiring the beautiful view of Istanbul.  We had great food experiences, that is for sure!

Already, the food had me falling in love with Istanbul, and then we visited the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.  They are right across the street from each other and they are STUNNING pieces of architecture.  We marveled over them at night with the sunset behind, and then visited them again the next morning.  I kept saying to Tim, "I can't believe we're here!"  I felt so lucky to be seeing such a beautiful culture and history so close up.

Hagia Sophia

Inside the Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque

 Everything about Istanbul was so enticing.  I loved the food, the architecture, the cobblestone streets, the colorful buildings, the ornate decor, and the eerie, yet beautiful call to prayer.  Istanbul is oozing with culture, and we loved experiencing it.  Of course, all good things have to come to an end.  On our first night (just as we were starting to get settled), we were notified by our school that there was another change of plans-- they were now going to fly us to Dubai!  There was school there affiliated with our school in Cairo, so we were told we could stay in the school housing and be taken care of by the administration.  We had flown into Istanbul in the morning one day, and were to fly out late at night the next day.  I felt like I was in some kind of movie or something-- flying from country to country like it's no big deal!  We would have definitely loved more time in Istanbul, but we were so happy with the things we were able to see and experience.  It was Hello, Goodbye, then off to Dubai!