I am sitting in the Denver airport after more than 36 hours of not getting any sleep other than what I could snatch in the cattle car section of the flights on the way home.  So if this is incoherent, just chalk it up to exhaustion.

It will be so good to get home, and yet it would have been nice to have a few more days in Egypt.  Other than Friday, there was simple no time to do more sightseeing or to go shopping.  I did save lots of money as a result.

The whole interview process was fascinating.  We managed to agree on 10 finalists for next year and identified a number of alternates that will do just fine if a finalist drops out for some reason.  There are lots of stories to share about that, but not today.

On our last day, a few of us squeezed out enough time at the end of the day to visit the Egyptian museum.  Although I was really happy to get there, it was so sad to see that it is kept up so badly.  Certainly that has to be due to money, but it is tragic.  There are items stacked everywhere in glass cases labeled only with a number.  If there is a label, it has been prepared on a manual typwriter and has been there for a long time.

They do have all the Tutankhamun items in on large part of the museum.  The items that toured the U.S. back in the late 70s are the only items that are nicely displayed.  It was impressive to see those again.

So what will I miss about Egypt?  The people and the food.  Everyone there was so kind and so eager to communicate with people from the U.S.   I really is humbling.

What will I NOTmiss?  The cigarette smoke and the traffic.  It is going to take my neck some time to recover from the sudden starting and stopping that is traffic in Cairo.

As for this blog, I will continue to "Maloufinate" about my trip to Egypt.  There is still much to tell.  There  simply was not enough time there to do the work and blog.

Stay tuned!

It is hard to believe it is Sunday evening.  We have spent seven hours the last two days interviewing the semi-finalists.  What an interesting and exhausting experience it is.  There are 50 semi-finalists being interviewed, all of whom hope they are one of the lucky few chosen to spend a year teaching Arabic at a school in the U.S.  None of them are native speakers of English, and their proficiency varies widely.
I both look forward to, and dread, the final meeting tomorrow in which we have to settle on 10 finalists and 8-9 alternates.

The Egyptian Coptic Christian pope passed away today.  Many people in Egypt, both Christian and Muslim, are very sad.  He was admired by all of them.  We have been advised that we should leave for the airport at least four hours early tomorrow evening for our early morning departure since the cathedral is on the way to the airport where people may go to view his body before services on Tuesday.

I have so much more to share, but it is late and there is one more day of interviews for which I have to prepare.  These posts may have to wait until I return to Missoula.

It is Saturday evening after a long day of interviewing candidates for next year's TCLP program.  I can hear the call to prayer echoing through the city through the sliding doors of my hotel room.  You hear this sound everywhere.

You would not know it is St. Patrick's Day here in Cairo.

Yesterday, after our visit to the pyramids and the sphinx in the morning, we took the short trip back into the oldest part of Cairo to visit a couple of Coptic Christian churches,  Taking pictures is forbidden almost everywhere and, even if it weren't, it is too dark inside to get a decent picture.  We saw icons (in this case, paintings) dating back to the 15 century A.D.  One of the TCLP alums from Egypt is a Coptic Christian.  Because it is now the Lenten season, they are all fasting and are not eating any foods that contain meat or dairy products.

After lunch in a typical tour-guide-chosen restaurant, we made our way through the crazy traffic to visit the Citadel of Salah din and the mosque of Mohammed Ali.

We stepped into an older mosque that reminded me so much of the mosque in Cordoba in Spain.  It is lovely in its simplicity.

This is a view of its court yard with a minaret in the background.  As you gaze across the skyline of Cairo, you see minarets everywhere.

In the outer courtyard of the Mohamed Ali mosque is the fountain where Muslims would wash before entering the mosque to pray.  It is carved of alabaster.

Although the mosque is no longer used for services, everyone is required to remove their shoes to enter.  It is surprising how cold marble is on bare feet!

The mosque itself has 12 domes.  The inside is ornately decorated.  The carpets on the floor are original from the time it was built.  Although this mosque is not formally used for prayer services, Muslim visitors often pray here if it is during one of the five required prayer times during the day.

This picture is dark, but you can see the Arabic calligraphy for Allah to the left of one of the corner domes.  The stained glass windows are much smaller than those in a Catholic church, but there are many more of them (or so it seemed to me).

This mosque sits on the top of a hill inside the Citadel of Salah Din which was constructed to protected the Arabs from the invading Christian knights on their way to Jerusalem.  The view of Cairo from this area is beautiful; however, the smog/sand was really obscuring the view by late afternoon.

This is a view from my hotel room.  You can see the Nile in the background.  The hotel sits at the tip of an island in the middle of the Nile.

What can I say other than wow?  No matter how many times you see a photo of something, the real thing is just so much more spectacular.  Our day on Friday started with a visit to the pyramids.  You can actually see them from our hotel, they are that close to downtown Cairo.  It boggles the imagination to consider how much material was moved at a time when technology was so primitive.

As with every monument you visit all over the world, especially in countries with significant poverty, there are  many people trying to sell you postcards, or head wear, souvenirs or camel drivers wanting you to take their picture.  If you buy from one, then you are besieged by all the others looking for their piece of the fortune.

Our TCLP group leader commented on how few people there were compared to last year at the same time she was here.  The revolution has taken a serious toll on tourism.  Our tour guide said it has been a difficult year.

Here I am standing on the great pyramid near the entrance.  I am with Michael Michael Hydak (l.) from Austin, TX and Michael Kuban from Washington, D.C.  The same first name for all three of us made it easy for our Egyptian hosts to remember our names!

We did not go inside the pyramid.  They only allow a limited number of people per day to do that early in the morning. It is hard to believe that this structure was once completely covered with a smooth facade.

Joining the group for a photo is Zara Hovhannisyan, Senior Program Officer from American Councils.  In this photo you can see the three largest pyramids in this area.  There are quite a few other smaller pyramids as well.  In fact, as you look around from this vantage point, you can see a lot of pyramids.

From the pyramids, we traveled a very short distance to see the sphinx.

I will write more in another blog!

So here I am in my hotel on the 24th floor with an amazing view of Cairo at night.  Too tired to do pictures tonight but I will tomorrow.  The ride in from the airport was an experience!  The horn seems to be every driver's best friend.  And traffic lanes?  Ha!  They are there but mean nothing.  I will NEVER complain about traffic in Missoula.  It is literally every man for himself here.  And if you are a pedestrian?  Forget about it!

The security for our hotel is tight.  We had to pass through a check point at the gate to the hotel and also had to have our bags checked at the hotel entrance.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Kebabgi here in the hotel.  We were tired so settled on sharing appetizers.  We had some stuffed grape leaves, several spreads including hummus, some tiny meat pies, some cheese wrapped in phyllo dough, and a couple of other things including desserts that I cannot remember the names of (I know, a dangling preposition!).  This came with flat bread freshly made that came out in big round puffs of hot yumminess!

There was a trio of musicians, one of whom was playing an ooud and singing.  They were very good.  Other diners did have the kebab which consist of a hot coal brazier brought to your table on which you cook your meat.  Egyptians typically eat late dinners:  9 pm or later.

Tomorrow we will meet for a tour that will include the pyramids, the sphynx, Sakara, and maybe a camel ride. Apparently if you go on the camel ride you get to go behind the pyramids and see three smaller prarmids.

Thankfully, all the flights were on time.  I met a surgeon from Cairo on the flight from Frankfurt.  We had a fascinating chat!  More on that later.

Best turn in and try to get my internal clock set for a busy few days!

Not sure where the giant E came from in my last post.  I was using my Ipad.  I'm not very good at typing on it.

I made it to Denver and am now waiting for the flight to Frankfurt.  It will be a killer 10 hours.  Ugh.

I had a wonderful chat with a UM math professor who is on his way to Argentina.  He is of Indian (the country) decent and speaks eight languages!  The US has got to step it up in the world language department.  I am proud that we are doing as well as we are in Montana.

Still hard to believe that I will be in Cairo before too long.

E

I'm Sitting in the Missoula airport waiting for the big adventure to begin. A very loud alarm is breaking what was otherwise a quiet moment. Phew! it stopped. In a lititle over 20 hours I should be touchimg down in Cairo. I think I have everything I need. I hope I have everything I need. Stay tuned for more exciting reports!

Lecture to students about treating the sub with respect:   check.
Sub notes written and copies of materials ready:   check
Desk and teaching area tidied up:   check

Miscellaneous tasks/errands completed:    check

Packing:   Haven't even started! Oh, my!  But I leave tomorrow, ready or not!

How can I possibly be ready to leave on Wednesday?  Preparing for a substitute for six days is a nightmare!

Plane tickets - check.
Hotel reservations - check.
Visa application - check.
And all kinds of other arrangements are in place and yet I still cannot believe that I will be in Egypt in a week! 

Egypt!

Pyramids, camels, pharoahs and the Sahara Desert.  Even though I know that Egypt is more than that, those are the images that immediately leap to mind when I hear the word.  In fact, as the mentor teacher for Wael Saleh and Mohamed Abdelsamad of the Teachers of Critical Languages Program (TCLP) funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State and administered by American Councils for International Education I know a lot more about Egypt than I used to.  Being a mentor teacher and working with TCLP teachers has been extraordinarily rewarding in spite of the amount of work that it added to my plate. As a result of this program, it has been a hope that I would one day get to travel to Egypt to explore the place that my new Egyptian friends call home.

My dream has come true sooner than I would have expected.  American Councils for International Education recently invited me, as an alumna of the program, to travel to Egypt to interview and assist in the selection of the cadre of Egyptian teachers for the 2012-13 cadre of TCLP teachers. My first response to the invitation was whether or not the district would let me go.  Of course, the answer was yes and so...here I am, preparing to leave for Egypt in about a week.