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Published: September 7th 2007
well I survived my first week of school!! I am sitting at another cafe having some dinner/lunch while the loaudspeaker blares out the days prayer and my hair is blowing in the wind..oh wait thats not wind...its the giant fans that they put on the patios to simulate wind! it feels nice all the same though because it has cooled off considerably since we arrived, but its still sweaty hot!
It blows my mind to think that I have only been here two weeks because I just feel so adjusted already. This morning I woke up went for a run, went to the gym, came home and made some eggs and coffee for breaky, chatted with my roomie and the other girls downstairs and then we walked to the cafe. Such a normal day!!!! tonight we are going out for one of the teacher's birthday to a pub in Cairo. I hear those places are really smoky so should be interesting.
So my week at school went pretty darn smoothly all things considered. It was really funny the first day of school because when i was introduced at the first assembly all the students started whispering and talking about me! I was pretty nervous wondering what the heck they were saying, but by lunch time I had been informed that the students had googled me last year and found all the pics that are on the web from soccer nationals and my athletic scholarship award from UCC!!! hahha the rumour has spread that I was a national soccer player!! oh the beauty of translations!! so very first recess I get out to the soccer field to referee becuase i had been warned that the games can get pretty brutal without constant supervision.
IT was really fun watching the little guys, they were really good!!!! I tried to convince some girls to come play but no luck. LUnchtime came and the high school boys came to ask me about soccer and see if i wanted to come play...so i get up to the field and they set the ball down at my feet and they say: "we hear you are good.. show us what you can do!!" WOW! talk about pressure..im like uhhhh what do you want me to do? so one of the boys goes in goal and they just say "shoot!" so i let one rip ( i figure at least if i miss then they at least think i have a hard shot) I got lucky though and knocked it side netting!!! phew..ok start the game. BUT NO! another boy goes in goal and the ball is again placed at my feet, "do it again!!" so i wind up...same place, side netting! WOW I was soo lucky! and now these guys think im UNREAL! hahah so we play and i really giver and wind up scoring a goal. so luckily I was able to hold up my reputation!! and thank god because these soccer guys run the school and they think Im unreal. So now I go out at recess and lunch and play soccer with all the kids, alternating between the elementary and high school kids. I harassed some of the girls on the second day to come play and now they cant get enough!!! Im still working on getting the boys to pass to the girls, but that will come because some of our girls are really quite good!
We only have one nice, decent sized soccer pitch, so at lunch either the secondary or elementary kids have to play on the back grass that is kinda lumpy and crooked. Apparently the older boys usually just dont allow the little guys to play on the nice field ever, so they were pretty ticked at me on the second day when i made up a scheduale so that they only get it 3 of the 5 days of the week... "BUT MISS LEAH!!!! we need to train hard for soccer!!!" haha I called them spoiled wimps and told them that if they were real soccer players they would play anywhere! haha didnt go over well..so i offered to run a practice for them on the days they are "stuck" on the side field! hahaha they actually agreed and asked me to be the coach for their school team! I was SOOO PROUD! and you should see the look on the construction workers faces that are building our fence when i run the practice and show the guys how to do something! hahah
The teaching part of things is going well also. kids are the same all over the world which is nice, but there are definitely a few cultural differences that drive me crazy. I WILL break their awful habit of interrupting me or other students every 5 seconds with their constant attempts at being "THE BEST" student. I am so sick of that phrase the best in the world....these kids are absolutely obessed with the biggest and the best!! they expect it of themselves as well, ive never met so many young little perfectionists...they are constantly asking for reassurace that what they are doing is perfect.."MISS! MISS! is this ok??" I asked for a draft copy of an assignment to be due and most of the kids brought their finished products to me and when they realized the small things that they needed to change, they redid the entire thing!!!!
I am teaching French, which has been surprisingly fun. I am really enjoying speaking French, and the kids are really good at french! The PE classes are a bit wild, but I am slowly training my little monkeys how to play nicely with each other. I am doing an entire unit on cooperation games with ALL of my classes. It is insane how little they understand about teamwork and cooperation!! we have mini discussions after ever game (which they hate) because sometimes i play the game and i realize that they totally didnt understand why anyone would want to work together instead of "winning"!
anyway, apparently it works out to about 6 dollars to get a manicure or pedicure here, so i think i am going to see about that now...
We are hittin up the pyramids tomorrow, thankfully becuase i have yet to see a freakin camel, so I will post another entry about the adventures at the pyramids...as long as they dont trade me for a herd of camels!!!
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Kelley O-biatch!
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Egyyyyptttt what!
Oh Miss leah, you are crazy...sounds like you are having a good time and the kids love you!!! Thats awsome, I am glad you are enjoying yourself, just don't enjoy it too much cause I still want you to come back. Glad to hear you can go for runs and work out there, that woulda been shitty if you couldn't have, good to hear! Well good luck, keep having fun:) Love Kel