A bit about where I'm living:

No A/C -- fans only. I have 2 floor-fans in my room, then in the TV room there's a ceiling fan, and in the dining room (where I eat lunch) there are quite a few fans which help keep the air moving.

The food has been good and I definitely feel like I'm "eating like an Egyptian". I've been having many foods that I had only seen or maybe just tried 1 times. Now I am eating them on a daily basis. Let's see if I can describe some things:

-Green peppers stuffed with rice and seasonings
-bread and cheese
-meatball-type things
-corn "soup" (kinda like soup, but not quite)

New pictures up of where I'm living...

Username: jpics
Password: easy

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289823393

and the recent MCC meeting

I also just added a page with the books I've been reading. It's "books".

Hmmm...so they've changed the way thing work for the software I use to write my journal. It looks a bit nicer for me to type, but it shouldn't make any difference when it comes to how you view it.

Things have calmed down here in Tanta, but apparently I've been acting a bit tired/grumpy today. Two different times, people asked me, "why aren't you happy". But tomorrow is a new day!

I hope people are still reading this, even though I haven't been posting much and didn't send out an email about my most recent posts.

This is also the first post from my laptop in Tanta. The guys at my local Internet Cafe' have been nice enough to let me connect here. It's not very fast for downloading *frown*, but it'll do...

On the way back from Cairo on Sunday night, I started talking with 2 guys on the train. Both are studying to be translators at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Very bright guys and friendly, but of course not Christian.

Tuesday afternoon, one of them called to invite me to come with them to his agricultural village a few kilometers outside Tanta. Everything was so green, nice fresh air, a great sunset, and the opportunity to see fields of apples, grapes, oranges, mangos, and corn. (the guy's family owns property and raises crops). He sent me home with a bunch of apples and I shared a meal in the family home.

Great! Right?

Well, for me -- yes! I felt completely comfortable and safe the entire time and really enjoyed the experience.

Unfortunately, the folks at Dar Phoebe (where I live) weren't thrilled. I left around 5pm and got back at 11:30. Before midnight when "the big outside door is locked".

So this morning, Tessuni (the sister who runs Dar Phoebe) and others were very curious what I had been up to, where I had been, and why I hadn't told them when I would be back.

Mostly b/c I wasn't sure how long I was going to be gone. Also, I didn't think they wanted/needed to know my movements, but apparently they do.

Due to this and the people I was with not being Christian, I got into a fairly long talk today with Tessuni about who I should (and shouldn't) be friends with. *sigh* Mostly I said lots of "I understand" in response to what she was saying. It seems as if they would like to choose my friends for me, or at least make sure that they are Christian.

I know that I am teaching with/for the Orthodox and they feel responsible for me, but what are the limits? Overall, being at Dar Phoebe is wonderful, but it would be even better if they would just relax a bit. I'm feeling like choosing discretion over honesty is in the position I'm in now. Up to this point, I've been telling them everything when they ask, but now it feels like that's going to cause more problems.

(this was the text of a message I sent to my bosses about things in Tanta, but I thought it made for a good journal entry, too)

A good weekend in Cairo. Frisbee, a couple of movies ("You've Got Mail" and "When Harry Met Sally"), a meeting/goodbye party for Craig/Karen, and a bit of baking. Busy, busy!

I watched "Mail" with other volunteers at Dawson Hall on Friday and decided to watch more Meg Ryan, so "Sally" was on Saturday. Funny thing is that it was the edited Egyptian version, so _the_ scene was completely taken out!!! *laugh* I won't explain, but hopefully folks understand.

Also went to a big "Refugee Day" at the American University. Good music, food, fun, and learning about different organizations.

I met a couple of interesting guys on the train last night, coming back to Tanta. Both are students in Cairo, but coming back for the summer with their parents in Tanta. One is studying "Islamic Law" and the other is studying to become a real-time translator (like for live speeches and that sort of thing)

They might call me later in the week to get together. We'll see...