I have been a terrible blogger. Given that I have not, in fact, blogged at all for several months or remembered to check the blog at all.
Whoops.
In my defence, it has been a hectic few months, but this is not really a decent excuse. So, here I am, returning to blogging in an attempt to get myself back into the swing of things!
Here’s a quick update of what you’ve missed:
-My parents visited Cairo. We had a brilliant time, and I got to show them round my school and where I live. We visited the Pyramids (of course) the Khan El Khalili and the Egyptian Museum.
-My school was inspected by the International Schools Inspectorate. We’ve since discovered that we achieved an Excellent, which is great news. I was not visited at all by an inspector. which had me reeling between complete relief and slight annoyance that I had prepared a week’s worth of inspection-quality lessons which were never seen!
-I took my class to Luxor for a three-day residential trip. It was amazing, the kids were lovely, it was 42 degrees. I definitely want to go back to Luxor again without children and also without the excessive heat if possible! The Valley of the Kings was a definite highlight.
-I went home for Easter for a lovely two week break, which was much needed after the inspection stress. However I was so busy I could have done with another holiday afterwards!
– I’m now into the final term – three weeks down, seven to go. I’ve managed to get through two observations in two weeks (hurrah!) and now I’m trying to get reports and assessments done so I can enjoy a mid-term break with my friend Tom when he comes out to visit.
So there is a quick update. I have more news to come, and some to elaborate on, but I shall update you forthwith when I can sit and write lots properly. I’ve got more exciting educational bumf to tell you about, plus more plans for adventures in and around Cairo.
Watch this space, I promise to be less useless in future!
Can’t believe how long I have been back in Cairo since Christmas. Also, when did it get to the middle of February? Time is flying! My parents arrive in Cairo tomorrow for their week’s holiday, so a lot of this week has been spent preparing for their arrival!
I decided to get the cleaners in this week to give my apartment a really good going-over, since I usually begin cleaning with lots of motivation and then quickly lose interest once the basic dusting is over. They did a cracking job, and I spent most of the evening wandering around the spotless apartment and marvelling at its cleanliness.
Of course, because I always have all the luck, the following day was the day of the Great Sandstorm of 2015 (so it shall be called until we have another sandstorm…) .
I was actually fairly oblivious to the arrival of the storm, I had been sitting in my classroom with the blinds down doing some work all morning and evidently not really paying attention to the outside world. I went for a wander to do some printing and did notice rather a lot of sand underfoot in the hallways, but it wasn’t until I was in the library with my kids and the light outside turned completely orange that I realised this probably wasn’t going to blow over any time soon. I developed a rotten headache which was definitely a lot to do with breathing in vast quantities of sand. Plenty of children didn’t make it into school due to the inclement weather so I had a lovely peaceful day, especially with my Year 6 class which had only 9 students in it and therefore was blissfully quiet.
The view from my classroom window (when I eventually looked outside…)
I eventually made it home (via the shops to buy all the food for my parents’ arrival) and realised that my windows are not as secure as I would have liked, and that gentle drifts of sand had appeared in most rooms and on all the surfaces. It has taken most of the remainder of the week to get rid of the bloody stuff and I keep finding small piles of sand all over the place. But hey ho, I did sign up to live beside the desert so I can’t really complain!
On Thursday evening I went to Jon and Lauren’s for a drinks party. I had still been feeling rough (probably due to having lungs full of sand) all of the day, but I managed to motivate myself to get off the sofa and head round and I had a lovely evening with lots of my friends from school.
I’m working Sunday-Tuesday this week and then I have 4 days off with the parents. I’ve got lots planned so next week’s update should be a far more interesting one!
Happy weekend to all and Happy Valentine’s to those of you who celebrate it!
So another weekly update. This one will be fairly short as I didn’t do anything hugely exciting this week, but I must keep on top of the updates!
It was another very tiring week at school. I’m still getting my classroom the way that I want it, I have a marvellous teaching assistant who has done wonders with my displays but I’ve still got some bits and pieces to do ready for the inspection after half term! It’s almost ready though.
On Friday we had a scorcher weather-wise – 31 degrees, which I think is the hottest it’s been since I arrived. I spent the morning bumbling round the balcony and doing laundry, then stupidly decided to do some exercise (still too warm even inside with the curtains drawn!)
After that I popped down to see my friends Jasmine and Al, where I drank some incredible mojitos courtesy of Jazz. My first drink since New Years, so I managed dry January and a bit! Sitting out in the sunshine was lovely, even smothered in factor 30 as I was! Maybe this is the year my skin will go a colour other than white and red…
Later on we got ready and popped to our neighbour Ashraf’s, who was hosting what we thought was an engagement party. We thought it was fairly quiet when we arrived, and as it turned out the engagement had been called off earlier that day. We wondered why it didn’t seem quite like party central, but we played a game of pool (well, I watched and cheered) and then headed to the golf club next to school to watch the England v. Wales rugby match.
My neighbour genuinely has his own pool room. Classy.
I’m not a rugby fan at the best of times so I was prepared to sit through the match and get slightly bored, but my indifference was solved through the arrival of the world’s cutest puppy. I was incredibly tempted to take her home (she was available for adoption!) but I managed to restrain myself. Maybe another time!
I really REALLY wanted to bring her home!
I was glad it had been such a lovely day on Friday as on Saturday we had to go into work to prepare for the upcoming inspection. I did manage to get a fair amount of work done, though without the photocopying and laminating people there and the dramatic breakdown of my printer (smoke came out of it and everything started flashing…) I didn’t achieve quite as much as I had hoped. The six-day week is going to kill me, but I just need to push through to next weekend, after which I have three days in school before spending my half term holidays with my lovely parents!
I can’t remember if I mentioned at some point last week, but I have also booked my flights home for Easter –I’ll be back for two lovely weeks, so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in April!
Hello all!
I was thinking this week about the fact that I chose to call my blog EDUCATING Egypt, and so far have talked very little about actually teaching. I follow a lot of teaching blogs, teachers on Twitter and the Education boards on Pinterest (My name is Helen and I am a teaching geek) and I steal a lot of my ideas for my classroom, resources and lessons from there.
If you are a. not at all interesting in teaching, b. live/spend a lot of time with a teacher (including me) or c. are a teacher and are sick of talking/reading about teaching, you may want to stop now. This won’t be a long post but I thought I’d take a chance to show you some of the things I use in my classroom and why they work (mostly)
Different methods obviously work for different classes, and it really depends on the type of children you have. I am lucky in that mine are a little older, so it’s much easier to explain things to them plus they understand what I am doing and why.
Firstly, I use a class and teacher charter. This is basically the classroom rules, but instead of me dictating them to my class they write them themselves. This is mostly to give them ownership, but it also makes it a lot easier, when they’re misbehaving, for me to go ‘look, here are the rules that you wrote for yourself – are you keeping these now?’
It was tempting to make one of the class rules ‘Bring Miss C a chocolate bar every day’, but I resisted…
I also get them to write rules for the teachers and other adults in the classroom. Obviously, there is always that one child who pushes the boundaries (‘Miss Close will give us marshmallows every day if we are good.’ Erm, nice try. But no) but mostly it’s an interesting way to find out what they want out of lessons and how they think good teaching looks. This time around, they put a big focus on being treated fairly, being given the chance to explain their actions and having more ‘fun’ in lessons (namely drama and lots of resources) I like to point out that I am following these rules as I go, because that gives them even less excuse to follow theirs. Generally kids self-police relatively well, so once the rules are up they’re often reminded to follow them by their peers, which saves me a job!
Next up – my behaviour chart. I have a couple of kids this year who need reminding about sticking to good behaviour, and who also benefit from a visual reminder of what they are doing. I also know that everyone makes mistakes, and that if I have to talk to them about something once I don’t expect to have to repeat myself. So far, this is working very well. Basically, they all start every lesson on green (their names are on the pegs) if they spend the whole lesson on green, they get an automatic Dojo point (bit like housepoints, but online) if I have to speak to them about something once, they move to yellow. At this point, it’s all about proving to me that they can improve (the majority of the time, they do) if they show me that they can get better or stop whatever they were doing, they can move back to green. They don’t earn any points, but they also don’t suffer any sanctions. However, if I have to speak to them again, they move straight to red. This loses them five minutes of break time, five minutes of Golden Time and also loses points. They can still make it back to yellow then green but the sanction remains anyway, and if they continue misbehaving they just keep losing their time. I haven’t had to go past one move to red, and the children who have gone to red have all made it back to yellow, so (so far) it seems to be working!
Clearly the class were behaving themselves that day…
The next method is an idea I stole and adapted from Pinterest last year. One of my pet hates is children sitting with their hands up for ages, not doing any work, and then me getting to them to hear ‘I need the bathroom’ or ‘I’m stuck on question 4’. So now, they use these stacks of cups to show me what help they need. Green shows me that they know what they’re doing and can happily get on with it. Orange is a sign that they could do with some help, but they can get on with something else while they’re waiting (yes, you’re stuck on question four – can you not try five, six or seven?) and red is when they’re so completely stuck they can’t possibly move on until someone has helped them. At first, they tend to use red for everything, but once I pull them up for it a few times they realise that red is only for the genuine, I-am-so-stuck-I-don’t-even-know-what-lesson-this-is situations. It’s also handy for me, as if I’ve got ten kids all on red then I know that somewhere along the line I didn’t explain the task properly and I can call them back and re-explain what I want.
The only downfall of this is when the kids decide to wear the cups as hats…
So there you go, a brief overview of what I do to keep myself sane in my classroom. Any teacher readers, please let me know if you use anything like this or similar and what you think! Any non-teachers, well done for making it through the post without falling asleep. Teachers everywhere applaud you.
So, I am making this post a two-week update. What with my apartment tour last week and a busy week at school I didn’t have the chance to update you the way that I wanted to, so you can have two weeks at once! Most of this post will be about my fantastic visit to the Egyptian Museum.
The front of the Museum. Just behind you can see the burnt-out former headquarters of President Mubarak’s political party.
Last weekend my friend Emma and I took ourselves off to the Egyptian Museum for the day. I’ve been desperate to go since I arrived in Cairo – the Museum is home to an amazing range of items from Egypt’s extensive history, not least everything related to Tutankhamun.
We set off early from our compound and arrived at the Museum just before 10am. Due to its location near Tahrir Square and other locations that have had trouble in the past, there are several military security posts and a few armoured vehicles permanently parked outside. If you didn’t know the reason behind this it would, I imagine, be rather disconcerting to the unsuspecting visitor. However, once you go through the gates into the Museum it has some beautifully landscaped grounds containing some of the Museum’s artefacts, surrounding a pretty fountain. We purchased our tickets which cost 80le (about £8) and headed towards the gates. For this trip we had tried to organise a guide who we had used before, but as he was unavailable we decided to negotiate the myriad areas of the museum ourselves. We were stopped by a guide who offered to show us the highlights of the museum, but despite his reasonable prices we decided that one this occasion we’d see what we could find ourselves.
The Museum’s grounds – no photos are allowed inside (not that it stopped most of the visitors) so this is as much as you get!
Once we got through into the Museum proper, our first sight was of two cats (real ones, not statues) getting super friendly in the main entrance. This isn’t exactly unusual in Egypt but not necessarily what you expect to see in front of a backdrop of Ancient Egyptian artefacts. However, things could only improve after this so we started to work through the ground floor of the Museum.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the concept of a ‘museum’ seems to differ considerably from what you would expect back in the UK. Museums I have visited at home have each item preserved carefully behind glass or ropes, with information related to each item clearly displayed and helpful visitor guides to answer questions and direct you on your route. Not so in Egypt; there were so many items crammed into the areas that it was sometimes almost mind-boggling, and the labelling system is erratic at best, with some items having recent descriptions, some which were clearly written on a typewriter some years ago and others which had no label at all, so we had to guess at the provenance and reason of many of the items. Obviously if we had had a guide or joined one of the walking tours things may have become clear to use, but I rather enjoyed the haphazard way the whole museum was laid out. We worked in a vaguely chronological progression starting at the Old Kingdom, which is mainly full of carved stone or wood slabs and statues. We moved through to the Middle and New Kingdoms, and it was really fascinating to see the changes in design, colour usage, and particularly (for me) the way in which people’s form and faces were depicted through time.
We went through an exhibition about Nefertari and also Ahkentaten, the father of Tutankhamun. There was so much to see and learn, and I couldn’t get over the perfection of some of the items which were created several thousands of years ago.
After we had wandered around the ground floor we progressed up the stairs to the first. This is where the exhibit containing the actual mummies is located, but due to time constraints on this occasion we didn’t visit this section of the museum. After some more wandering we finally came across the section on Tutankhamun. I had been desperate to see this anyway, but the week previous to this was when the news was published that, during cleaning, the beard on his funeral mask had been broken and repaired using (what looked like) a glue gun. While this is both shocking and also rather like something from an episode of Mr Bean, I was keen to see if it was really as bad as had been reported (it is. My year fives could have repaired it better)
We saw all of his various mask and sarcophagus accoutrements, including some absolutely beautiful jewellery and accessories that were wrapped inside the layers of bandages during his mummification (rather like an Ancient Egyptian version of pass the parcel…) and then went to see some of the other things that were included in his tomb. This was my favourite part of the whole experience: they put things into his tomb such as his childhood seats and toys, his chariots, several beds (being dead is apparently exhausting) and hundreds and thousands of other beautiful items that were either his belongings during his rather short life (he died at 19) or that it was considered he would desperately need during the afterlife. We also saw the rather marvellously made canopic jars, complete with a golden box, that were used to store his organs after they were removed during mummification.
Getting cash out next to a stone sarcophagus was a fairly bizarre experience.
Overall, the Museum was so well worth a visit and I couldn’t believe the beauty and quality of the ancient items that I was able to see. The museum building is rather too small to hold the sheer volume of items it contains, but once it moves to the new building that is currently in construction I imagine it will be much easier to negotiate. The slightly haphazard layout and labelling system didn’t detract from the charm and wonder of the place, but when I go again I plan to take a guide along with me so that I can make sure I don’t miss any of the wonders the building contains.
Balcony Barbecue! (Courtesy of Jasmine)
On to further updates. My week at school was pretty uneventful, I feel like I am getting into the swing of things now and have really got my head around the routines. Last night I hosted a housewarming barbecue which was great fun. It was more of an open house which lasted from mid-afternoon to midnight, and my lovely friends all came along with food and we had a lovely catch up. I really enjoy my weekends here, there is almost always something to do to break up the usual weekend routine of laundry, cleaning and work preparation. I’m off for a walk shortly to pop up to the pharmacy and the shops and to make the most of the lovely weather. I must say though, I am sad to be missing the snow which I know is occurring back at home! I’m a winter weather girl and heart and January just isn’t the same without being able to tramp around in snow in a pair of wellies, a massive coat and several hundred layers…
So as I mentioned in a previous post (I think) I’ve moved apartments. My old one was nice enough, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the kitchen and the massive barn of a living room, which was cold and empty and not cosy. So, I have moved. I’m now on the first floor, which means I have a balcony (which has been lovely for weekend breakfasts/drying my clothes) and also makes me feel a bit more secure. That’s all I really need to say, have a look at the photos below to show you round.
My dining room/living room. Excuse the clothes dryer, it’s been a four-loads-of-washing kind of a weekend!My living room and TV area. Note the blankets on every sofa (the desert is cold in the evenings)My photo frames! Bought from Ikea to make the place a lot more homely.My balcony and view. I love it.The kitchen. Where culinary magic happens/I microwave everything.My bedroom!My walk-in-wardrobe. With room for EVEN MORE clothes.Ensuite bathroom (mine)The spare room! Complete with two double beds, for reasons I still don’t fully understand. If you’re coming to visit, this is where you’re sleeping!Ensuite (Spare room)
So here is my newest weekly update! It hasn’t exactly been the most exciting of weeks, no brilliant trips to ancient monuments or wandering around beautiful markets. I have however been to IKEA, which to some is the Holy Grail of homeware shops. (I never said this blog would be ALL exciting stuff so don’t blame me!)
So after getting all moved in and settled in the new apartment (apartment tour still pending as I have to tidy up before I do the photos, plus it needs to be light and it’s dark when I get up and nearly dark when I get home!) I was straight back into the deep end starting at school on Sunday. My new class hadn’t actually been told that I was their new teacher so breaking the news was fun, it was a relief to hear a few cheers and even one fist-pump so I’m glad they’re excited! We’ve had a really lovely first week, they are an incredibly polite, hard-working class (with a couple of slight crazies thrown in for good measure, but you get that in any class) and we’ve had a nice time getting to know each other and for me to introduce some of my weird and wonderful teaching methods to them. I’ll do a post on this in the next few weeks, for any of you who are interested!
I also have a new teaching assistant, who is fab. She hasn’t worked in a school before and with me also being fairly new I was concerned it would be a case of the blind leading the blind, but she’s really settled in well and is such a massive help. She really gets involved with lessons and the kids like her too so that makes my life 100 times easier! She also knows where the elusive photocopier is, I have been at school for four weeks now and I still couldn’t find it easily!
I did do one incredibly stupid thing this week (‘only one!?’ I hear you say. Cheeky beggars) I managed to get myself locked out of my apartment by grabbing my classroom key instead of my house key and wandering off to a friend’s house. I realised pretty quickly, but having just moved in the only spare key was at school and it was too late in the evening to get a spare. Fortunately my friends Jasmine and Al took me in, which we used as an excuse for a chinese takeaway and a film (American Sniper, pretty good) I had to go to school in the morning in my ‘slobbing gear’ as Mama Close calls it, namely a large grey jumper and leggings. Luckily for me the very nice people at school got me a spare key and brought me home at breaktime to change and get my handbag and key. I now have a spare at Julie’s house so this will hopefully never happen again!
So after such a busy/traumatic week I was looking forward to the weekend. The school provided a bus for us to go off on our jolly to IKEA. There were about 7 adults and one of the teacher’s three boys, and it took us just about an hour to get there, straight by the Pyramids (still haven’t gotten used to driving by them to get to shops and things – to get to the IKEA at home I only drive past the Tyne Bridge, which is considerably less exciting) the only exciting moment in the journey was when we overtook a flatbed truck with about 6 camels loaded in the back, peering over the top. Sadly we were going rather faster than they were so no photographs.
I bought some photo frames and things to make my flat feel a bit more like home, and we had some lunch in the cafeteria there. We managed to become proper Brits abroad by, instead of having food halfway round as expected, doing the whole shop and then looping back with trolleys full of purchases to have our lunch. Wandering around a cafe with a huge trolley when you’re not supposed to draws considerable attention, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially when you then go down in the wrong lift and are confronted with the possibility of having to go through the WHOLE ENTIRE SHOP again to get out. Eventually we found the exit and headed home.
In the interests of healthy eating we decided to have another takeaway that evening, lebanese this time which I can pretend is relatively healthy. Ordering cake and hot chocolates from Costa at 11pm however is not healthy, and I am turning over a new leaf this week (until Friday when I will probably order more cake. Again.)
Saturday I worked almost all afternoon getting ready for an inspection that we are having next week. It is only a pre-inspection but we need to have lesson plans and resources available for the inspector, so I made sure that that was all done and dusted so that all I need to deal with this week is keeping my marking up-to-date and the children under control.
So that’s all my (not very exciting) news for this week. I’ve managed to chat with lots of my friends and family this week via Skype, FaceTime and WhatsApp so I am feeling super grateful to modern technology!
I realise the blog has been mighty quiet over the Christmas period. This is because, as most of you who read this are my friends and family back home, you were with me and therefore didn’t really need an update on my life!
I had a really, really lovely Christmas break. I managed to see almost all of the people I was hoping to catch up with and also had an impromptu trip to Harrogate for the day to see Sarah, which was fab. I’ve had lots of cinema trips, lunches and dinners out, pub quizzes, coffee dates and lying around the house doing absolutely nothing (I am a terrible host. I invite people round for the sole reason that I am bored and need entertaining and then suggest nothing useful for us to do)
I also had a marvellous New Year with my friends from high school. A lot of us don’t live in Newcastle full time any more so Christmas is when we all get reunited, and it’s always fab to catch up with them. Even if they do make you watch Iron Man 3 in the early hours of New Year’s Day (Lewis, I’m looking at you)
I saw my fantastic family from all around the North East, and even managed to catch up with my Auntie Helen before I left (who was off gallivanting round South Africa for most of the Christmas and New Year period, lucky duck) I also spent some quality time with all three of my grandparents, who are my idols and the best grandparents you could wish for. They are also the most entertaining, so they have had me in stitches with their bizarre (and not always easy to follow) ramblings!
So, I have returned to Cairo. I was really looking forward to getting back and into a routine, and also getting back to work (I am weird, I love my job) but I was also super sad to leave Newcastle again, especially since it’s for a longer stretch this time! Fortunately, my lovely Ma and Pa are coming across to stay in February so that will break up the time away nicely, and if work is anything as hectic as it normally is the time will fly by!
A brief update on my life, as I know you are all desperately fascinated by it (hah) I’ve moved into a different apartment. I’m still in the same complex (just round the other side of the swimming pool) but I wanted a first-floor flat that was a bit less drafty than my old one. I’ve spent all of today getting moved in and unpacked and it’s looking nice and homey now. I will give you another apartment tour this week so you can nose around again!
Not much else to report really, once I’m back into the swing of things I shall report back again. I’m currently going over lesson plans to check that I know what I’m doing this week, and I’ll be meeting my new class who I will now have until the end of the year. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s all going!
Lots of love,
Helen xxx
Me with Chris and Joey at New Year, because the post needs a picture…
Another busy week this week (just for a change) I am writing this back at home, which is lovely. I’m really excited to have three weeks back in Newcastle to see my marvellous family and friends and have a nice relaxing time!
The beginning of the week was spent in winding down the kids (and a little bit of winding them up near the end!) with some Christmassy activities like making cards and doing fun Christmas maths (Can you colour in 1/8 of the baubles on the tree red?)
On Tuesday evening I went out to Arkan Mall to a fantastic restaurant called Caracas, which did Lebanese food. I went with the Year 5 team of teachers and TAs and we had a great time. I ate an unbelievable amount of food, all of which was delicious, and we had a good laugh! In the evening I went to my friend Iona’s apartment for a leaving do and had a good evening having a chat with my colleagues. I am also moving in to Iona’s apartment in January (more of which later) so I had the chance to have a nosy round and see what I will need to buy for the flat!
My fantastic TA Aya.Car selfie. Don’t worry, the car was stationary!Year 5 Dream Team.
On Wednesday we had a year 5 Christmas party. We let the kids know the day before whether they should bring sweet, savoury or drinks. The amount of food they brought in was unbelievable – Pizzas, crisps, amazing cakes, hors d’ouevres – it was a pretty magnificent spread! Getting 80 children (plus staff) through the food room was tricky but we managed without too much disaster! The kids really enjoyed it and we had a good laugh. I was lucky to have the classroom with all the quiet kids in for the party, so they all sat around playing on their iPads and watching Horrible Histories – peace and quiet!
Year 5’s idea of the right amount of Christmas party food. Could feed the whole school for a week on this!
On Wednesday evening my friend Jonathan cooked a bunch of us Christmas dinner, which was excellent. Turkey, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce, followed by three different types of dessert (KitKat cake, chocolate cheesecake and fairy cakes) so again I managed to consume my bodyweight. I have never before come home for Christmas and expected to eat less!
Thursday was the last day of school and it was only a half day. The kids had PE first lesson so I was able to start getting things ready to go to my new classroom in January. Then we had a morning of very little work and I received some absolutely beautiful Christmas presents. I have only been teaching these kids for three weeks but the generosity of them and their families was astounding. I will never need to buy another scarf as long as I live, and I got some beautiful stuff to furnish my apartment with and make it a bit more homely! They really are a lovely bunch and I’m so pleased I’m staying in year 5 come January!
My amazing presents from the kids. I was spoilt rotten.
After dispatching the children there was a staff Christmas meal for all school staff in the sports hall. The food was excellent (I was expecting a cold buffet with finger food so I was pleasantly surprised by the proper hot food, though they had run out of dessert by the time I finished my main which was a highly emotional moment. Fortunately I had chocolate from the children to soften the blow) I headed home shortly after the meal to tidy my apartment, pack my bags and go and get my nails done (I have my priorities sorted for sure!)
In the evening I went to my friends Nuala and Andrew’s apartment for some drinks and to see everyone before we all headed off for Christmas. After that I went to have an early night ready for Travel Day the next morning!
On Friday morning I finished my packing and headed round to Julie’s for a pancake breakfast. The bus came to take us to the airport shortly after 11, and some Tetris-like packing of the boot meant that the seven of us plus our many, many bags made it to the airport in one piece! We were there very early so we had quite a wait before boarding. I got talking to a guy who was on his way to Saudi from Vienna which passed the time nicely, and the flight to Heathrow also went quickly as I was seated next to an Ancient Art Historian (the art was ancient, not the historian) so we talked about history, education and medieval weaponry (I didn’t contribute much to that conversation) and watched films until landing.
After the smoothness of the flight and the day so far it was inevitable that something would go wrong, and we had to wait for over an hour at the baggage carousel for our luggage as the team had ‘forgotten’ to unload one of the luggage holds from the plane. We were all exhausted at this point so we finally got our bags with great relief and headed our separate ways. I was staying in the Premier Inn at Heathrow (thoroughly recommended, bed was unbelievably comfortable) for an early flight back to Newcastle the following morning.
I was up bright and early for the flight home (no major issues this time thankfully, just a bit of a delay!) and was met by my lovely parents at the airport. We headed home where I had to hurriedly unpack, repack, shower and eat before driving to Manchester to be reunited with my lovely University friends from Lancaster, some of whom I hadn’t seen for well over a year!
We had a brilliant night out on Canal Street, much drinking and catching up (particular highlight being when my friend Ant made me down a pint of stout. I do not recommend this, ever) I headed back to the apartment with Sarah, Fisher and Sean in the early hours, via a takeaway for cheesy chips. (I wanted gravy but, horrifically, they didn’t have any) I got a relatively decent kip in before spending the morning arsing around the apartment until it was time to meet Dom and Dan for brunch!
We went to a fantastic cafe in the Northern Quarter called Home Sweet Home, where we all had a cooked breakfast and I had a peanut butter milkshake (nicer than it sounds, honest!) we had a wander round the Arndale and the Christmas markets and several coffees to bolster me for the drive home. I was really struggling by this point, I can totally understand why people warn you about driving when you’re tired – I never want to have to do that again if possible, though I made it home in one piece and it was definitely worth it to see my lovely friends!
This week is obviously CHRISTMAS and I’m planning to catch up with my best friends in Newcastle, along with some shows and family time.
I wish everyone an amazing Christmas, I hope Father Christmas brings you sackfuls of loveliness and you have a fabulous holiday!
I finally made it to the Pyramids this weekend. Of all the things I wanted to do when I got to Cairo, this has to have been number one on my list – being a huge history buff as I am the idea of really going to the actual Pyramids is the stuff of dreams!
We organised a bus through the school and seven of us set off at 9am Friday, after a lovely pancake breakfast. It took (according to my reckoning) about 40 minutes to get out to Giza. My first glimpse of the Pyramids on the horizon through the front window of the bus was incredibly exciting!
First sighting!
Once we arrived, we had to queue for a short time to pay our entry. It cost 80LE (£8) for entry to the Pyramids and the Sphinx, though entry into the Great Pyramid itself (as in going inside) is a bit more expensive. I elected to just go and look from the outside, as by all accounts the inside of the Great Pyramid is pretty cramped (contrary to what its name implies!) and my claustrophobia didn’t fancy that! If you are Egyptian and can prove it the cost to get into the Pyramids is somewhere in the region of about 2p, sadly there was no chance of me convincing anyone that I am a native Egyptian. My friends Navida and Billy did give it a go but they were caught out and made to show their Egyptian ID (of which they had none) so they had to pay full whack. Still, shy bairns get nowt!
Finally made it to the Great Pyramid!
There are an unbelievable amount of touts and hawkers selling scarves, models of pyramids, postcards and the like. I started off being far too friendly, but discovered that getting into a conversation is the worst thing you can do, so sticking with ‘no thank you’ from then on was the answer! Still, none of them came across as aggressive, only persistent – and as this is their day job, they can be forgiven!
I had a wander around the Great Pyramid and a little climb for photo purposes (climbing is not allowed on the Pyramids. See the below photograph for how much notice is taken of this information. Still, they’ve lasted this long in the pollution that is Cairo, so a bit of climbing can’t cause much more damage!)
The first rule of Egypt is that there are no rules.
I then went into Pharoah Khufu’s (Or Cheops as he is most commonly known) Solar Boat Museum, which I was really keen to see. This was a full-sized boat that was buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid circa 2500BC along with four other boats as part of Cheops’ treasures to take into the afterlife. The boat was discovered sealed under stone slabs, some of which weighed several tons. The boat was discovered in 1954 disassembled into parts and packed into the crater (so basically the Egyptians were into flat-pack long before Ikea came along!)
The boat’s oars are pointy so that the oarsmen could stab passing crocodiles if they got too close. Not sure the Oxford and Cambridge rowing teams need worry about that…Flat-pack boat’s original container. No spare screws left in here.
Of all the pieces of the boat that were carefully removed and reassembled, only one piece was found to be slightly damaged, which was one of the oars. Even the original ropes were still there, and they are displayed in the museum today! I realise the fact that I get excited about 4000-year-old rope makes me incredibly dull but what can I say, my inner Indiana Jones rejoices!
I genuinely paid money to see old rope. 4000 year old rope!Snazzy feet covers. They don’t let just anyone look at Cheops’ boat, you know.
The whole boat is held together by rope – there isn’t a single nail, rivet or pin holding any of it together. This hasn’t been tested, but it is believed that if the boat was put on water it would not only float but could be rowed along the Nile as per its original purpose!
Not a nail in sight. Clever Ancient Egyptians.
After finishing up in the museum and a close encounter with a camel (I stood near it, I felt no compulsion to ride one – I suspect old dead King Cheops probably smells more appealing) we got back on the bus to head to the viewing point at some distance, where we took some brilliant perspective photos. After that we trotted off to see the Sphinx. This was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be, though nonetheless still incredibly awe-inspiring. My favourite part was its tail, which wraps around it like a cat’s!
Jumping for joy to see the Pyramids!Sphinxy my old pal.
After that we all got back on the bus to head home, and we were a much quieter, sandier and more exhausted crowd than the one which set out!
If you ever have the chance, I would totally recommend a visit to the Giza Pyramids. They were utterly astounding and took my breath away. Next, I really want to visit the Saqqara Pyramids which aren’t far from Giza. These include Djoser’s Step Pyramid, one of the earlier Pyramid designs (Built by none other that Imhotep, the star of the excellent The Mummy films!) So watch this space for more Pyramid-related posts!
Educating Egypt 