World Cup, cleaning, teaching, thinking

I've been doing lots of all those things! The current round of matches doesn't fit my schedule very well. I can't see any of the early match and then I have a couple of hours to kill after class until the late match (10pm here). With that said, I was able to watch a great Sweden/England match on Tuesday night and a very exciting Spain/Tunisia match on Monday.

I'll be on a trip to Alexandria with a group of 20-something Egyptians from my church in Tanta from Thurs-Sat, so I probably won't get to see any of the matches. *sigh* But maybe there will be some real football nuts and we'll find somewhere to watch. In any event, it should be a nice trip and hopefully my first of many trips to Alex this summer!

Cleaning: As mentioned previously, I move out of my current apartment at the end of June. (very soon!) So, I've been trying to clean out old papers and junk that I don't need/use and throw them out. I've been taking a bit of time each morning to do that and I think I'm making progress.

To update you, I do have a place to live after leaving this apartment. During the gap between leaving my old place and getting into my new place, I will be staying at a friend's apartment. His parents and sister are in the U.S. for his sister's wedding, so their place is empty. What great timing! My buddy will be there, so it'll be fun. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the furniture during that time. Maybe that's something my current landlord will have to deal with!

Teaching: It's been good to be back in class. We've been doing some new topics and also had Quiz 2 this week. Next week, we will finish this level and have the exam. Then new courses for summer start in July. I don't know my schedule yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Thinking: My future, jobs, the past, my time in Palestine/Israel...all of these things have been on my mind. Ideas are coming together from my trip and I will try to post them soon.

My Wacky Nephew

Just finished chatting with my nephew in Michigan. What a funny kid! He's really growing up and his sense of humor is really great! He also likes computer role-playing games! What a kid!

(I really love him and all my family, so I just wanted to share about him)

First full day back in Tanta

Back in Tanta. Met with my students for a welcome back/refresher class yesterday and then we'll get back to classes as usual on Tuesday. Last night I watched the 2^nd half of the Brazil match and most of the France/S. Korea match. Exciting stuff!

I really need to keep better track of the schedule. If one of my students hadn't left class early to watch Brazil play, I wouldn't have known about it! *laugh*

Today, I've been sorting things out in my apartment. I have to move at the end of the month, so I'm taking the time to throw out old papers and things that I don't need. I'd do this before leaving Egypt in December anyway, so it's better to do it now and not move it with me to my new place.

Not quite sure where that's going to be... *smirk* At present, my new place will be available on July 20, so there's a gap of 3 weeks when I'm not sure where I'll be living. That's my mission for this week – talk with friends and see what options are for staying with them or possibly in an empty flat for that short time. Crazy!

I bought a bunch of fruit yesterday. The grape season started while I was gone, plus a new crop of bananas. I ate lots of yummy stuff in Israel and Palestine, but not much fruit. I wanted to try things that were different from what I could get in Egypt, so fruit wasn't on that list!

The main thing I discovered was the wonder of Jewish bakeries. *grin* Oh, my goodness!!! The first day I paid full price in the morning for sweets, but then I discovered that at the end of the day (around 9pm), prices are slashed in half and everything is still really fresh. Full price for 1 kilogram was about $5 which was worth it for the great stuff, but $2.50 was even better for the day-old goodies!

Tonight, I'm hoping to see some friends to catch up on things and watch whatever matches are on. Yup, it's a football-crazy place!