A creature was stirring...

A lot of new buildings have pest issues, which are typically resolved once everything is sealed up and pest-control companies are employed etc etc. Although the floor with our offices is (mostly) finished, we are still working in a building that's still under construction with big open walls and holes everywhere, so once in a while we get a little visitor. Today a couple of mice found their way onto our floor- just teeny little ones. Well you would have thought that someone had let loose a bunch of scorpions or a great white shark the way people were carrying on- it was crazy. The women were screaming and crying (actually crying from fright- real tears and everything) and holding each other, even some of the men were looking a little pale. It was ridiculous- I don't mean to be insensitive, but their country is full of garbage!! There are street cats and wild dogs on every corner and they're worried about a tiny little mouse? The foreigners were just shaking our heads looking at each other- I think egyptian children need to be forced to join scouts and guides so they don't turn into such scaredy-cat adults. Really!

Also, they thought I was crazy when I begged them not to kill the mouse if they did catch it. Thankfully he was too fast!

Off to the track for a short, hot workout, hope you're all doing well!

xoxo C

Hamburger flu

Well swine flu, sorry, H1N1 influenza, has finally reached Egypt. Actually it came last week- a 12 year old girl coming back from the states was caught at the airport with a high temperature and kept in hopsital and it was confirmed the next day.

(Total aside: On the way back from copenhagen, when I got off the plane in cairo I had to fill out a card with my address and answer a few questions- was I feeling sick/feverish etc- then I handed the card to a guy with a mask and had to go through another line where, I thought, they took a picture of me, I remember laughing to myself because after we handed in the cards the line up got totally out of order and wondered how they would ever manage to match the pictures up with the cards. Anyway apparently egypt is ahead of the times and what I thought was a camera was actually a scanner that measured if you had a temperature or not. This was the machine that caught the little girl with the fever that was actually swine flu. I know this is an unprecedented move, but I would like to officially apologize to Egypt for laughing. (Just this once though- most of the time it's warranted).

Anyway, so yesterday two more cases were confirmed at the american university in Cairo and today 5 more cases were found. They have closed the campus for a week and the dorm where the students live have been put under quarantine. Anyway at lunch today this was a topic of conversation and a funny discussion ensued:

Mohamed #1: Hey did you hear about those new cases of swine flu at AUC?
Mohamed #2: yeah, they were americans right?
Mohamed #3: yeah they were
Mohamed #1: Did they say how they got it?
Mohamed #1: I think Obama brought it.
Mohamed #2: yeah he probably did
Mohamed #3: well americans are always eating hamburgers
Mohamed #2; yeah that's how they got it, from eating ham
Me: um, okay, I don't think Obama brought it, and anyway, mohmaed, you know hamburgers don't have ham in them right?
Mohamed #1: yes they do, it's in the name- HAMburgers
Me: No they're named after the place in Germany, Hamburg, they're beef. And anyway, you can't get swine flu from eating pork. Those student probably touched a doorknob or shook someone's hand. The best thing we can do to protect ourselves is just wash our hands frequently
Mohamed #2: I don't know.....I think it's those americans and their hamburgers

No matter what I said, I couldn't convince them....but how could I when their own government ordered the slaughter of every single pig in the country?

This is a funny example, and they were joking about Obama (actually the response to his speech here was very good- some people say he reminds them of their much-loved late president Anwar Sadat who was assassinated in the early 80's) but it's easy to see how fear and ignorance can quickly turn to hate and prejudice. That goes for the North American media as well.. they do a pretty good job at sensationalizing things and generating fear.. I think the best thing we can do in any situation is go in with an open mind and try to learn as much about both sides as possible. Okay I'll put the soapbox away now.

So I don't want to get too excited yet, but I think my foot is almost 100% healed. I ran on Sunday about 30 mins at the track and it was fine and the tonight Peter and I did about 45 mins, with the last 20 mins at a pretty quick pace and no pain at all. Not in my foot anyway, my lungs were hurting a bit- it's been warm lately and was still about 32C at 7:30pm when we were running. It takes a lot out of you. I turned even redder than usual and was getting some strange looks at the grocery store afterward- I think people thought I was really sunburned.

Okay I'm off to find some food, but hope you're all doing well! Also, a special 'shout-out' to Mum and Dad who are hiking in Utah! Hope you're having a great holiday and staying hydrated.

xoxo C

Definitely no Twister at this party...

It was a great night- the party was hosted by Nabil, one of the runners- it was a hot night (still 30C as we drove home at 1am) so the whole thing was outside. Chefs BBQ'd burgers, hotdogs and corn on the cob; and for dessert- ice cream in waffle cones cones. yum!

There was a wide range of costumes-everything from hippy to disco to Austin Powers style femmebot... I think everyone was a bit confused by the twist theme. The dancefloor was set up by the pool and during one of the songs it started pouring with rain, a welcome respite from the heat so everyone just kept dancing- it only lasted for a few mintues anyway. Today I slept late and have been trying to stay cool- I think a trip to the red sea is in order next weekend. Hope you're all well. xoxo C

Let's twist again...

Yes I know, this is my 3rd post in less than 24 hours.... it's because Julie, my only friend in Cairo, is in Virginia for 8 whole weeks, so instead of spending time with her I am having one-sided conversations with you, my virtual friends...

That's not true actually, I have lots of great friends from the running group still here- last night we had pizza on a felucca and tonight we're off to Nabil's house for a "Twist Party"- at first we all thought it was a Twist-er party, (as in: left foot blue, right hand yellow) but apparently not... (with so many different languages in the group, misunderstandings and mistranslations like this happen ALOT!)- we actually have to dress in costumes from the era of 'The Twist'- the early 60's dance phenomenon...it should be a fun night!

So this morning we did a really cool run- Joe, a Maadi Runners Alumnus who is now living in Islamabad and also happens to love history, is here for a couple of weeks, so using this book he designed a slow run through Maadi with stops along the way to tell us about some of the old buildings and houses in our neighbourhood. It was a great tour- he knew so much and I discovered some things that had been right under my nose this whole time but usually I don't notice because of the traffic and chaos that consume the streets every other time but early friday morning. Even more exciting (for me) than the history lesson was the fact that I ran/walked for over an hour and my foot didn't hurt!!!! I was definitely aware of it, but I wouldn't call it pain-- I am going to rest it tomorrow and maybe try another short run on Sunday. I'm SO glad- the last few days have been torture!

So thrice-daily blog posts aside, I think I am becoming a bit of a 'social media' junkie...this morning I asked if anyone else had seen pictures of Lance Armstrong's new baby- when nobody had and they asked me how I knew, I said- "oh, I follow him on twitter". Then later on someone else asked when I was going to email my Copenhagen pictures to the group-- my exasperated reply "Nobody does that any more, aren't you on Facebook, Flickr, Snapfish, picasa, photobucket or Yfrog?" There is definitely a time and a place for such uber-connectedness- case in point: the english guy who knocked himself out while running and tweeting, but it seems like these technologies aren't going anywhere anytime soon so I guess we'd better get used to them, and better yet, embrace them...

The other thing that's getting more sophisticated apparently, are socks- I got this pair in Copenhagen and you actually have to make sure you put them on the correct feet! I haven't run in them yet, but I'm sure if I'd had them during the race I would have knocked that 45 min off my time, easy!

Why, yes, that IS me you saw with the British Ambassador in the Egyptian society magazine (from the fundraising gala a few weeks ago).


Okay, that's all for now, have a great friday, I'll see you here again soon, if I don't, tweet, IM, SMS, wall post or poke you in the meantime ;) xoxo C

Felucca pics

Now taking applications...

Since they're closing all the streets for Obama, we had to leave work early before our route home was closed- I am home about 3 hours earlier than normal and my housekeeper is still here- it's weird sitting here when she's working away, cleaning, but I know I would just annoy her if I tried to help- (plus, she has to earn her $3/hour!)

So, something funny...we got to work at 6am today (also to avoid the Obama traffic) so I thought I'd take the time to sort out a stack of applications I'd been ignoring for a while-- in doing so, I discovered that our Engineering department has been interiviewing candidates for the position of "hand job team teader"! I think the postion is acutally the guy who is in charge of the handymen or people who do odd jobs and fix stuff around the hotel, but I'm not totally sure...regardless, I think I'll have to talk to our chief engineer about changing that job title- STAT! It was a funny start to the day though!

So I've gone for 11 days with no exercise at all and it's been terrible- my foot is feeling almost completely better, so I'm going to try a slow short run tomorrow morning and see how it goes. Tonight a sunset felucca ride with some of the runners in honour of a running group alumni who is in Cairo for a visit.

In both April and May I took a week's holiday (Crete and Copenhagen) and it would appear that June will be no different! At the end of the month I'm going to the UK for a week! I'll stop in London for a few days to see Kate and Amanda and then I'll head up to Leeds to see Mum and Dad and my aunt and uncle for the remainder of the week- I've started the countdown already!

Okay, off to supervise the domestic help ;) Hope you're all doing well,

xoxo C

Tweet tweet

Some of the other hotels have been using Twitter as a recruitment tool lately, so I thought I'd give it a try with a personal account first. I'm not sure I really get the concept- it's like updating your status on facebook but waaaaaay more frequently-- I'm not sure who would actually be interested in knowing what I'm doing every second of the day, but some people seem to really be into it.

I almost went running tonight but I thought it would be better to rest for one or two more days, but I am SO bored- especially since I only get 4 english tv channels.

Obama is coming to Cairo on Thursday, everyone is excited- I am not, because I won't see him anyway and the traffic will be terrible.

Hope you're all doing well!

C