Global Weirding Hits Egypt

In Digital Journal, Andrew Moran writes:

In Egypt, a strong hail storm has killed at least four people and injured approximately 50. The storm has caused extreme chaos on the streets of Egypt's capital. Friday, a hail storm in Cairo, Egypt has killed at least four people and more than 50 others. Severe weather conditions have caused chaos in the capital’s streets, while traffic accidents have increased and panic among citizens. Cairo’s storms saw slippery roads and lightning consistently striking the streets. In the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria, there have been reports of waves as high as two-story buildings. The General Authority for Red Sea Ports announced that a European luxury cruise ship smashed into a pier in the small town of Sharm el-Sheikh in the morning, which killed three sailors and injuring four tourists. Meteorologists are expecting the weather to continue into the weekend.

Our Personal Experience:

Thursday morning we were walking to the gym when I felt a drop on my head. "It's raining! Either that, or a bird just shat on my head," I said. "I'm sure it's a bird," Seth offered helpfully. Then he felt a drop. Nope, it was rain. This was only the beginning. Later that day the wind kicked up and the dark clouds rolled in. Marble-sized hail began to batter the windows and trees. I wouldn't say it was "raining" so much as "mudding." All the accumulated dust and grit on every leaf was washed down onto the roads and cars, covering them in sticky mud. From the apartment window the lightning lit up the wild scene outside, accented by occasional cracks of thunder. I was oblivious to the havoc the storm was wreaking with the city.

By 7:00 pm I hadn't heard from Seth yet to say he was on his way home, which is unusual. I picked up the phone to call him but there was no dial tone. Cell phones weren't working either. Clue #1. Thirty minutes later Seth got a text message through saying that he was on the subway platform waiting for a train. A half an hour after that he called to say he was stuck on a train that had lost power with some passengers choosing to abandon the train and walk. He stayed on and the train began to move again, slowly. Then it stopped again and this time he joined the crowd leaving for the streets. Once off the tracks and on the road he realized it was going to be one long 7 mile walk home on flooded roads as traffic was at a stand still and all cabs were full. Ugh.

The poor guy schlept himself along in soggy dress shoes for the next 2 hours. When he finally got close enough that the cars could get through I drove to meet him and bring him home.

*sigh* Rough night, but it was much worse form some others. Happily home safely.

Olympics Overseas

We're out here watching the olympics on AFN because normally we don't watch enough TV to justify the costs of satellite TV. Normally AFN does a reasonably decent job, we can see quite a few sports events that would be shown in the US, but sometimes you have to get up at odd hours because they're shown live.

The Olympic coverage however has been, well, frustrating. We get home, have some dinner, then turn on the TV to see if we can find some olympics. Every day... that's right, EVERY DAY for the last week or more has been curling. Not skeleton, not ski jumping, not even something as exciting as cross country skiing. It's CURLING.

The photo would have you think curling is a high paced sport that is amazing to watch. There are certainly a lot of tactics involved which makes it a little interesting to watch, but as one commentator called it, "a high speed sport that fans will flock to", it is not.

It has been on EVERY NIGHT at 8pm for 3 hours, LIVE. I watched the women's curling team lose against China, and I actually cheered because I assumed it meant the end of curling on TV. So the next day I sat down to see what we could get today. You know what I got. NOTHING.     NOTHING! No Olympics at all! I could have watched 24 or maybe watched some CNN. SERIOUSLY AFN?!??

So, it's 8am on Friday morning (my weekend) and I'm finally able to see some highlights.  Maybe I'll skip the rest of the work week and just watch Olympics on TV.

It's hot and it's only February...

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Originally uploaded by MTB Egypt

Today I went for a run in the Wadi. It's a nice enough place to run with lots of options for me to explore. This morning I hit the road a little after 9am and was running by 9:30am. During my hour run, I bumped into a cross country track race that was about to start. I guess the American School, CAC, was hosting an invitational and schools from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha were all present. The course was going to be 5k over 2 loops and seemed to be reasonably hilly but a fun course. Races were starting at 10 and would continue until almost noon.

I was done running by 10:30am at which point temps had already hit about 80F. My core temp was already getting quite warm, almost uncomfortably so, and I had drained my water bottle during the run. (Last time I ran this, the water bottle was only half way gone when I completed.)

It's 80F degrees out and it's mid-February. What the heck am I going to do when temps start pushing 100F? Guess I'm going to become more and more of a morning person whether I like it or not.

Diving the Red Sea in Dahab, Egypt

Over Valentine's Day weekend we successfully completed our Open Water Diver certification after a whirlwind week of class work, pool work and open water diving. For a variety of reasons this class was compressed into 5 days of class and pool time and culminated in a trip to Dahab, Egypt on the Red Sea for the 4 open water dives required to achieve certification. It was a difficult week for classmates with full-time jobs or school commitments but we made it.

We caravaned to Dahab with 3 other cars across long stretches of open desert. We drove under the Suez Canal and saw wild camels and oil drilling platforms along the way. After 6 dusty hours in the car we arrived at the Hotel Daniela.





The rooms were comfortable and the food delicious. We were greeted with small glasses of mango juice as we checked in and ducked in to our room for a short rest before our first open water dive. Seth and I both had headaches (likely from a combination of dehydration and de-stressing from the busy week) and laid down for a short nap. Upon waking Seth felt even worse but managed to rally with the help of a few Tylenol and sips of Coke.



We drove to the Canyon dive site and began the process of suiting up and assembling our gear. Then came the moment of truth, going underwater in the open ocean for the first time. If you have not experienced this it is difficult to describe. The gorgeous, vibrant colors we have all seen in underwater photographs were all there...but they were moving and alive. During each dive we did we had a set of skills we needed to complete as an assessment after which we would take a short tour of the reef and surrounding area. I often found myself wanting to linger over a small patch of plants or coral and watch the fish swim in and around them. I saw two fish chasing one an others' tales in a circle and clown fish darting into the protection of their anemone. There were many lion fish as well as blue spotted rays, gray Morey eel, Napoleon fish and cornet fish.



Our instructor was excellent, thorough and clear, breaking each dive down for us before entering the water. He made diving seem easy and we had a wonderful time for it. Our final dive was at a site called the Islands, referring to 2 islands of coral reef that you descend to and swim around. This was a spectacular ending to an incredible trip. The variety and complexity of life that we explored on this dive was thrilling.



On Valentine's Day we awoke to a quiet sunrise before piling into the car for our return trip to Cairo.



The weather in Dahab had been warm as it is significantly further south on the Sinai Peninsula and we were expecting to return to Cairo as we had left it, in the cool 60s. It looks like Mother Nature got one over on us as the evening temp upon our return was in the mid-80s. Could the warm weather be returning already?

Egypt Tromps Algeria in African Cup Football, and the Party Comes to Us

In the wake of violent riots following their previous meeting, Egypt's football team headed to Angola yesterday for a rematch against bitter rival Algeria in the African Cup of Nations semi-finals. Security messages were issued by the embassy warning all to stay away from downtown areas where spectators had gathered to watch the match in an effort to avoid potential violence following the expected 12:00 midnight finish.

As it turns out a trip downtown would have been a waste of cab fare, the Egyptian football fans brought the celebration to us, literally. At 12:50 am we awoke to the sounds of a raging party outside our bedroom window. Horns blared, drums were beating and voices sang. As I drew back the curtain and blinked away the haze of sleep I expected to see a house party at our neighbor's home. Instead I saw the Egyptian version of the Rose Bowl Parade making it's way down our little street. People were piled on top of trucks waving the Egyptian flag and singing at the top of their lungs. Traffic was crawling as processions merged from all directions.

I crawled back in bed and muttered, "Egypt won."

A few moments later police sirens could be heard in the distance. "I wonder if they are breaking up the celebration or participating in it?"

On to the finals!

Skiing in Switzerland

For better or worse, we have returned from a 10 day trip to Switzerland.

After a 3.5 hour flight and a 3 hour train ride, we arrived in Fiesch, Switzerland to meet up with the Telemark Ski Company for a week of skiing lessons. After a quick night in Fiesch, we woke up to 4 inches of fresh powder. We hustled onto the gondola, tossed our bags into the hotel we'd call home for the rest of the week in Fiescheralp then hit the slopes. Little did we know, it would be the only fresh powder we'd see all week.




Despite the lack of fresh powder throughout the week, our instructors did a great job of teaching as well as finding untouched powder stashes throughout the mountain.  After classes ended on Thursday, we had another day and a half of skiing with students from the class, then Meg and I continued on our own for two more days.

A Feluccaing We Went

This week marks the third 3-day weekend in a row as Coptic Christmas is celebrated. As a kick-off to the long weekend, and a celebration of a friend's birthday, a group of us met up at the docks along the Nile in downtown Cairo for a relaxing felucca ride.

A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat that was once used as the main mode of transportation along the Nile and other bodies of water in the region. Today they are popular among tourists and are still used for transportation between cities in Upper Egypt.

We filed down the dock and across a gang plank onto a boat. Walking along the narrow side and around the stern we hopped across onto a second boat that would be our ride for the evening. As we stepped down into the boat and each took a seat on the U-shaped bench I was reminded of squeezing into a limousine on prom night when you would cram as many people in as possible.

As we shoved off the dock the sail was raised and the food was spread out on the table. We snacked on hummus and pita, tabbouleh and falafel, shawarma and birthday cake. Wine was uncorked and we sat back in the breeze to unwind. The evening was cool and most were wearing a light jacket. After some discussion we agreed that "felucca" could be used as both a noun and a verb as in "to felucca" after all, you can sail, canoe and kayak right?

My first impression was the noticeable quiet of the river. The sun had long since dipped below the horizon and the city was pulsing with light and traffic. Tail lights lit up the bridge spanning the Nile like an airport runway and yet...the predominant sounds were waves lapping the hull of our boat and conversations among friends. When I stopped to listen I could make out the distant sounds of traffic and city noise but, in a city of 18 million people, the fact that I had to try to hear it was remarkable.

We had asked for a 2 hour ride and we began to realize that we were tracing one large circle on this portion of the river as we could not pass under the bridge, possibly due to the height of the mast or some other restriction I didn't find out for sure. Regardless of the repeated views the evening was relaxing and lovely and the conversation was fantastic. But, as mom always said, be sure to go to the bathroom before you leave the house (dock).

On another note, our taxi was involved in a small accident on the ride home as one too many cars thought they could squeeze into the traffic circle at the same time. One buckled door later we all slid out onto the sidewalk and paid our cabbie as he argued with the other driver. Fortunately we were a short walk from home.