TravelStream™ news feed for member evelyn.ng on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/evelyn.ng en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:22:22 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254856318/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254856318/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254856318/tpod.html Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:22:22 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Chobe National Park, Botswana

So after breakfast at the Azambezi Lodge our pickup arrived to take up to the border of Botswana and Zimbabwe.We picked some other travelers and we headed to the Botswana border where I got another lovely stamp on my passport and found our pickup who would take us to our accommodation in Chobe, Botswana. Mowana Safari Lodge I would rate as one of the top 10 places I've ever stayed at. Julie and I were quite in awe of our accommodations and I think the other people who were going to be dropped off after us were in awe as well. Mowana Safari Lodge is the same place where the Bill Clinton stayed as well! 3pm came along and Julie and I went to our first of four game drives. This one was different because we were going on a river game drive. I didn't know what to expect but I can honestly tell you that I didn't expect to see so many hippos and elephants up close! We spent about 3 hours on the boat and saw so many hippos and elephants. Also saw some crocodiles sitting on the banks of the river. We were given the option to have 2 morning game drives and 2 river boat drives or 3 game drives and 1 river boat drive, Julie and I decided that since we saw the animals up close and were happy with what we saw, it would be better to have more game drives because there were more animals to see on the game drive. By the time we finished our boat game drive it was already after 6. We quickly confirmed our reservation for the next morning game drive as well as the afternoon game drive before our buffet dinner. Dinner was good, but it was funny to see that Julie and I were the youngest ones in the restaurant. After dinner, Julie taught me how to play Rummy and we spent the rest of the evening playing Rummy. Tomorrow we have our morning game drive. We need to be up by 5:30 to get ready and leave for 6am. So early!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1255779673/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1255779673/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1255779673/tpod.html Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:45:51 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Cairo, Al Qāhirah, Egypt

 So this year's birthday was better then last year! Mainly because I didn't get left behind at school and wasn't forced to take the late bus to get back to Ma'adi.  My TA, Sally, made me lentil soup for me and that brought up my day right then when she brought out the tupperware container! Lentil soup is something that I'm going to try to make next week. I've been asking Sally how to make lentil soup and she's been helping me. I finally have lentils now so I just need to find containers to put the extra soup in.  The kids were somewhat behaved although, I'm still looking in shock collars for some of the students and trying to convince the school to add it to the school supply list.  Headed to Bua Khao, a Thai restaurant in Ma'adi, for my B-day dinner right off the bus. I had invited the Heritage staff to come join me for Thai food and there ended being about 24 of us who got off the bus for some delicious Thai food. Of course I had my typical Tom Kha Gai soup with rice, Tom Kha Gai is a coconut chicken soup and it is so good! I of course got the large and end up eating it all and had to sit up straight because slouching over hurt my stomach.  I had so much fun talking to the other staff of Heritage that I normally don't get to talk to because a) they aren't a kindergarten teacher so not on my floor of the schoolb) not on my bus so I don't see them especially if they're on the top floors. So thanks again to those who came out and celebrated my birthday with me. For those who couldn't come, it's alright we'll have to try to meet up at a later time. evelyn
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254854520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254854520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254854520/tpod.html Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:09:33 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Cairo, Al Qāhirah, Egypt

So yesterday it was Julie's birthday and today is Glen's birthday. So for Julie's birthday celebration we headed over to TGI Fridays on the corniche after the bus yesterday. We enjoyed Friday's 2 for 1 drink special (not so much their service) and sushi from Fusion, the restaurant that shares the same outdoor eating area as Fridays. Natasa and I shared a plate of 20 sushi pieces and the ice cream cookie madness from Fridays. It was all delicious! After trying to find out how much we owed from both restaurants (Fusion has so much better service compared to Friday's) we walked down the corniche some more for a felucca ride. Enjoyed the peacefulness that the Nile offered and had a great time overall.So now on Friday, there's two more birthdays and we'll be heading out of Maadi to celebrate them at Sequoia which is well known for their sushi! yum! So anyways Happy Birthday to Julie, Glen and Ethan who turned 1 yesterday! evelyn
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254132598/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254132598/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254132598/tpod.html Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:37:11 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

So we just have 1 day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe before we head to Chobe, Botswana for our 2 day safaris, we then drive back to Victoria Falls for 3 days before going back to Jo'burg then back to Cairo. Didn't do much today, flew into Vic Falls airport and paid a big chunk of money for a single entry visa, $75 USD for a single entry visa and met a representative from Flame of Africa, the company we booked with. We quickly checked into the Azambezi River Lodge and decided to go into town. We got dropped off at the Victoria Falls park, but decided that Julie and I would see it when we got back from Chobe. So we walked back to town and looked at the different souvenir shops and stalls. Also looked at the different activities around Vic Falls, and Julie decided that she really wanted to do the white water rafting, I'm still deciding what to do, I'm thinking zipline across the gorge. We also ordered some food and waited for the shuttle bus to come pick us up to head back to the lodge. Julie and I were quickly befriended and Julie decided to trade some mentos and US dollars for some of Zimbabwe's dollars. Zimbabwe's dollars have been scrapped since their economy is crap. The largest bill that we saw was worth 100 trillion dollars! I was going to do some trading, but one of the guys touched my foot so I decided against it. Evening was quite uneventful, we discovered that one of the working channels we have is CNN, so we quickly got caught up in the world news. Going to bed early, because we have an early pickup to head to Chobe for our safaris! evelyn 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254081473/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254081473/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254081473/tpod.html Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:54:10 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

So we finally made it to Jo'burg and what a great day Julie and I had. We were initially quoted a price of 400 RAN/person/way to get to and from our hotel. We instead found a man who would drive us around Jo'burg and pick us up the next morning to get us to the airport for 800 RAN.  So we get to our hotel and quickly changed and refreshed ourselves and headed on our tour of Jo'burg. Our first stop was at the Apartheid Museum, it was a lot of take in for the 2 hours that we were there and there was a special Nelson Mandela exhibit as well so that was really interesting to walk through. After the Apartheid Museum, we headed over to the area where Nelson Mandela lived and actually got to see his house, his ex-wife's house and his friend the Archbishop who ended up getting a Nobel Peace Award for peacekeeping as well. After seeing his place, we went to the Top of Africa, it's a building downtown that allows you to see Jo'burg at 50 stories above. It wasn't as cool as the CN tower but it was still fun to go up and look at the city. After that we headed back to the hotel where Julie and I had planned to nap and then go to a mall to do some shopping and eat dinner, but that ended up sleeping till 10, so we headed over to McDonald's for some fine dining and splurged on a Mint Chocolate Milkshake (not that good by the way). Nearly froze on the walk back to the hotel, it was only 13 degrees outside! Made a quick pit stop for some water and candy, a guy there thought we were American because we called it candy not "sweets". Made it back to the hotel and quickly went to bed excited for our adventure. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254079830/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254079830/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1254079830/tpod.html Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:40:35 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Cairo, Egypt

Tomorrow early morning, I'll be heading on my second holiday before I even meet my students! Julie and I will be heading down to Jo'burg, South Africa for a day, then fly up to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for a day, then drive to Chobe, Botswana for 2 days, then back to Victoria Falls for 3 then fly back to Jo'burg for 5 hours before heading back to Cairo. I'm super excited about this trip more countries to add to the list of places I've been, and more pages to be filled in the passport! Anyways I got to go finish packing.evelyn
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1252754256/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1252754256/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1252754256/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:16:18 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Cairo, Egypt

Since last year, our school schedule has changed many times. Original school schedule was teacher orientation/classroom setup for 2 weeks, Parent/Teacher orientation on Sept 7th&8th first day of classes on Sept 9th. And Eid Break from Sept 18th-22nd. But due to swine flu scares, the government decided to push back the school start date till after the Eid break. With the school being so kind, they also agreed to give us a few extra days for Eid Break, so Parent/Teacher orientation was then pushed to Sept 27th&28th and first day of classes started on Sept 29th. Eid break was extended from Sept 18th-26th. So now rumour on the street is that school doesn't start till Oct 3rd now,which is a Saturday, meaning school wouldn't start till Sunday, Oct4th. Boss has pretty much confirmed it and I'm sure we'll getconfirmation on Sunday at work. The reasoning for the delay in starting school is because Eid break finishes on the 26th, and if school starts on the 27th it doesn't give the foreign teachers the mandatory 8 days for quarantine, which is why we now don't start till Oct 4th. One would think this is fine and dandy but I'm slowly going stir crazy now. Because of Ramadan things are closed pretty much during the day and with the time off, I would normally head off to travel but due to lack of funds and well the quarantine, I'm pretty much stuck in Egypt.  What sucks is that the government is so concerned about swine flu, when in reality there has been only two deaths so far confirmed related to swine flu, TWO deaths! I guess all I can hope for is that on Sunday we'll finally get more resources to use. The school ran out of laminating paper on Wednesday and hopefully I can get stuff done this week before the Eid break. I'm going to have a pretty good looking classroom if classes don't start soon.evelyn
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1252181322/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1252181322/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1252181322/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:01:53 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Ain Sukna, As Suways, Egypt

Still haven't meet my 14 students yet, but I've already had my first long weekend break! Had the Thursday off with the Friday and Saturday. Decided to go Ain Sukna for the long weekend. Last year some of the teachers went to Ain Sukna for the weekend, I decided to go to the pyramids but headed to Ain Sukna for the day. Didn't regret not going for the weekend but I did wish that I had a chance to go again during the year. Like last year a whole bunch of teachers went for the weekend, this weekend, there was about 20 of us who went and enjoyed the sun and the red sea. Stayed at the Palmera Beach Resort which was fabulous. It had 2 pools and direct access to the beach. Our resort included breakfast and dinner. Spent most of the days in the sun, did sunscreen but didn't quite reapply enough as I'm a little red and the skin feels a bit tight. But all is right because it'll give me a few weeks for the burn to heal to a beautiful brown...I hope. Friday night the Palmera had a show that they put on, the highlight was the Whirling Dervishes performance. What happens is a man twirls and whirls around in circles, he wears colorful "skirts" that twirl. The performer can twirl for a good 20 minutes and it's pretty amazing to see. The performance is supposed to be a prayer to Allah. They had other short dances but the Whirling Dervishes was probably the highlight of the evening. Overall a good weekend trip hanging out with new staff and getting used to the intense Egyptian heat.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1251232929/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1251232929/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1251232929/tpod.html Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:14:13 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt

This year seems to be getting better and better! Originally the school year plan was 2 weeks of teacher orientation/classroom setup. On the 6th and 7th it would be Parent/Student Orientation and then on the 9th classes would start. School would continue on till September 17th, students and teachers would then have their Eid break (a holday to celebrate the end of Ramadan) till the 22nd. But becaue of the H1N1 scare, the Department of Education is a little afraid that the foreign teachers may bring the H1N1 virus to Cairo, so they've strongly suggested that students not come to school till after the Eid break. The school finally agreed and even generously gave us an extra 2 days off so that we would have 9 days to travel instead of 5. Now, the parents and students come to school on the 27th and 28th for orientation, and classes don't start till the 29th! That's an extra month of non-contact days with the students! Of course there would be a long weekend taken away and we have the students for 5 more days later, but that's alright with me! At first there was rumours that we would just have the 2 week orientation and then have 2 weeks holiday...unfortunatley that was squashed. oh well.This incident is another reason why l love teaching overseas, not only do I get the Canadian (Thanksgiving and Victoria Day) and Manitoba holidays (Louis Riel Day in February) I also get the Egyptian/Muslim holidays. I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to go home to teach with just the occasional Fridays off, 2 weeks at Christmas, Easter and one week Spring Break.Ramadan Kareem!evelyn
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1250705229/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1250705229/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/evelyn.ng/2/1250705229/tpod.html Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:56:40 -0400 Egypt 2.0

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Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt

Almost 26 hours of travel I have finally made it back to Cairo. Travel started off in Winnipeg where I got up before the sun rose for the first time this summer. It wasn't easy but I managed to wake up and headed off to the airport and arrived in Montreal almost 3 hours later. Arrived in Montreal around 11:20ish and headed over to Brenda's friend's place. It was great I was able to leave the airport without having to go through passport control or grab all my luggage, as it was going straight to Cairo. So all I had with me was my backpack and my small carry-on. Montreal was so hot and humid, two things I didn't experience in the two months that I was home. Went to Old Montreal where we had a beaver tail, not exactly what it is but it was delicious as it had cinnamon and apples on it. Walked over to Chinatown, which is more of a street but oh well. After that we headed back to the apartment where we watched a movie to get away from the heat. After that Brenda and I headed back to the airport where we met up with another teacher Jessey and managed to get seats together for our flight from Montreal to Cairo. After checking in, we were informed that we were delayed by an hour. By the time the plane arrived, and we were in the plane and had taken off we were about delayed by another half hour. Finally arrived in Cairo, and when I was getting off the plane the heat wasn't as bad as I remembered, but it also could have been the fact that it around 4:30 when we get off the plane. But just reflecting from the first time I got off the plane when I arrived in Cairo to this time, the experience is completely different this time. When I got off the plane last year I was totally unsure what I was doing, and completely thrown off because it was 4 in the morning when we landed, it was cold on the plane and it was super hot even at 4am. Egypt has improved immensely since I arrived, and one thing they have improved a lot since I've arrived is their International Airport. Last year I remembered asking myself what in the world I was getting myself into. I remember comparing Egypt's dingy, poorly-lit, arrival hall to Thailand's grand and spacious and well-lit airport. Even the luggage carts in Egypt's old arrival hall were crap, the wheels didn't work, or you had to use all your effort to steer it the way you wanted to go. But this year with the new arrival area it's well lit, spacious, and the carts actually moved where you wanted it to go and it had brakes on them! All summer, people I've worked with in Egypt has told me that the second year will be much better and truth be told I had some doubts. And if the working carts and the lack of anxiety when I left the plane is a sign that itll be a good year, then this is going to be a great year! evelyn
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