Sunday, January 25, 2009

New Postings

Please go to tmallare.wordpress.com for further postings. Thanks. --Teresa

posted by Teresa @ 12:13 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The House in Marassi

We have finally moved into our new house up on the coast. As always, an adventure. First, no one gave us the ID card to get into the gated compound. We had to talk our way through. Fortunately we knew the name of someone else who lived there so we said we were going to visit him. Upon arrival, I found out we have a "house guy". He lives in a small, attached room behind the house. At first blush you may think, “So what’s the problem? Such a deal!” Well, I’m not saying it isn’t a good deal. But it is completely weird to have someone else in your house all day. He takes care of the outside maintenance, the kitchen, the floors and the dusting. I cook, Ron and I eat in the dining room. I come back to the kitchen, the pots and pans are washed and drying (there is no dishwasher here). I clear the table and take the dishes to the kitchen, he washes them immediately. TOTALLY weird… but not unacceptable! :)

We were told the house had heating and air conditioning. We came to look at it ahead of time and it had similar type units to what we have in Cairo. They have the heating and AC together in one unit and each unit is controlled separately by remote control. There’s at least one unit in each room. Guess what? The units here are AC only. It gets down into the 40’s on some nights! Last night was our first night and again, it was reminiscent of the Harrison Street house when we could see our breath in the air upon getting up on cold mornings. To make the situation more interesting, Ron was absolutely determined to make the unit in our bedroom have heat. He finally got the fan going (blowing cold air all over the place and taking the room from cold to frigid) and then could not get it to shut off. Oh happy day! At least it gives me something to write about!

posted by Teresa @ 1:31 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Alexandra's Visit to Cairo

Ali has already posted many pictures of her visit on Facebook. We spent fun times together at coffee shops and local shops in Maadi, Cairo. We made two trips to the famed Khan al-Khalili Suuq - one of the oldest bazaars still in existence, dating back to the fourteenth century. The suuqs are where all the "bargaining" occurs. ALL prices are negotiable. And the wares seem unending. The Egyptians are, by and large, a very honest group of people. However, they do not consider asking more for an item than it is worth as being dishonest. They feel we should know the value of what we are buying and, if we don't, then they will use that to their advantage. Fortunately, I was accompanied by two of the best bargainers I know, Ali and Ron. Between the two of then, we came away with some terrific buys. Ali and I spent one day in Alexandria, on the north coast of Egypt. It is about 180 kilometers north of Cairo. One day was not nearly long enough but, we made the most of our time there. First we visited the Citadel, also known as Qaitbay Fort. This fort was originally built in 1479 where the Alexandria Lighthouse (one of the original seven wonders of the world) once stood. Our next stop was the Greco-Roman ruins (discovered less than fifty years ago and still being excavated). This was an awesome site and extremely interesting. Our last visit of the day was to the Bibliotech. It is an engineering marvel and has been open only since 2002. It is believed to be at or near the site of the original Great Library of Alexandria. Ron's administrative assistant has a sister who works in Alex (as the locals call it). She served as our tour guide and was a wealth of knowledge. Ibrahim was our driver and he was superb. I plan to spend a lot of time in Alexandria as time goes by so I will report more as I learn it. We saw our first demonstration against the war in Gaza while in Alexandria. It was a peaceful demonstration on the courthouse steps. Heba, our guide, said these are common and always peaceful. She said at times there will be people lined up along the Corniche for four kilometers or more holding signs of protest. Ron and I do not talk politics with the locals. And they do not ask us our opinion about the current conflict. They all love our newly elected president and believe he will bring positive change to their world. He gets a thumbs up from everyone we have met here. Back to Ali. She had a great trip and we are so thankful she could make it here to see us. She has already started devising a strategy for how to get back for another visit when the weather is warmer. She was hoping for 80 and 90 degree temperatures instead of (only) 70's. :)

posted by Teresa @ 5:28 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Ron and I were fortunate to see Megan on December 11th in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Abu Dhabi is one of the seven Emirates that combined to form the United Arab Emirates. We toured the Prince's palace, spent time at the beach and worked in some shopping. We capped off the evening at a Lebanese restaurant that Megan had been to before. Excellent! Megan was well, as you can see in the picture, and we very much enjoyed our time with her.

After Abu Dhabi, we drove to Dubai to see the storied development in the shape of a palm tree and the indoor ski slope at the Dubai Mall. In terms of shopping, Dubai is a Mecca. They have a one-month long shopping festival in Jan & Feb. that attracts shoppers from all over the world. It exceeded my expectations and imagination. The King of Prussia Mall in Philly is big. The Dubai Mall is mammoth. And they just opened the Emirates Mall, which is just as big but all the spaces are not yet filled. The Palm developments were quite interesting and parts of it were beautiful. All the Palms (there are currently three) are still under construction. In fact, all of Dubai is still under construction. It is not a beautiful city. Maybe 10-15 years from now it will have a gorgeous skyline. Right now every other tract of land is a construction site and the tower cranes dominate everything. The city is like a life-sized development model. Everything is new… buildings, cars, roads, everything. Unlike Egypt, you can get anything in Dubai. It is very Westernized and rather sterile, almost to the point of soullessness. We were there during the International Film Festival. There were news cameras at all the theaters and hotels. We missed all the movie stars… darn!

We returned to Abu Dhabi to fly back to Egypt. Abu Dhabi is older, and it was a lovely city to visit. Ron and I were actually glad to get back to Egypt. With all its difficulties, it is quite vibrant, full of life and is a never ending source of adventure.

posted by Teresa @ 10:28 PM 1 Comments

Christmas in Cairo

Ron and I found an Episcopal church for Christmas Eve service. It was in a tiny little church that holds maybe 75 people if some are standing. Ours was the family service, so it was flush with children singing and arranging the crèche at the altar piece by piece as scripture was read. We sang all the traditional Christmas hymns and the service ended in candlelight. I didn’t think to take my camera but will later post a picture of the church.

Here’s the finished turkey product for Christmas dinner. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. When I took out the giblets and neck to make chicken stock, THIS appeared at the end of the neck! You’ve no idea how unexpected THIS was. When Ron came home I led him to the kitchen and then to the covered stock pot. He was thinking, “Oh good, hot turkey soup.” I was thinking… “Chop that head off!” He was severely disappointed. How do you like my apron? I didn’t think to bring one so I tied the arms of an older shirt around my waist. It’s not too pretty, but it worked.

We spent Christmas Day with a British couple from Ron's work. Ron is putting an ornament on the tree that they brought for us. We had a very different Christmas this year but an enjoyable one.

posted by Teresa @ 9:50 PM 0 Comments