Sunday, February 28, 2010

New Days, New Challanges

Well today I got new students!  I know it is hard to believe that it has been 6 months and we have just started our 2nd semester!  Well I really like my new students!  I know it has only been one day, but they were cute.  They asked some good questions and many of them already have fun nicknames!  Except for one boy who was very concerned by the end of class that we had not come up with a nickname for him!  I told him that I am sure by the end of the year we will have one for him too!  Another boy proceeded to tell me that last year he spent many days in "Time Out" because he did not like music class!  I told him that I hoped he would make better decisions this year!  I then asked him why he signed up for music class if he did not like music!  He did not really have a response, but whatever!  Just some of the joys of funny middle school students!

Then you get the other students who refuse to sign the syllabus and have to be taken to the principles office before the day even starts!  Now that is what I call good teaching!  Oh MY!  I am not sure if they will be back for more of me but they did not leave a good impression!  Oh well that is also the joy of being young, sometimes you don't make the smartest decisions!  Well teaching always comes with its good and bad days!  I hope that I have more good than bad when all is said and done with.  Somedays I think that there could never be a good day and then other days I think that I want to do this for the rest of my life!!!!!  Oh the joys of life!    

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Relaxing Days

So today I had many plans to clean and workout and get a lot of stuff done for school.  Oops!!!  Instead I watched "You've Got Mail" and made homemade popcorn and Chai I bought in India!  It has been one of those times in life that I need some veg. time to be with my thoughts!  Who said growing up was fun!  Well I guess it is!  I love being married and traveling the world and meeting new people and loving my friends more and growing with Him who made me!  But sometimes it is hard!  Where are we going to live next?  What job should my hubby take?  When should we have kids?  Am I EVER going to learn this language!!!!!!!  Do I want to teach or sing?  How are my decisions affecting other people?  Are we in His will or just floating close by?  How can I make my relationship better with Him?  You know just the simple questions people ask all the time!  :-)  Then I just have to stop and remember, He is perfect and He knows all these questions and answers already!  What a comfort to know he is not shocked by one of my questions!  I only wish he would share with me some of the answers!  I know he will in time but sometimes it seems to take him a long time!  BUT then it always, funny enough, is the perfect time!  Don't you just love how that works!  He is perfect!  Everything about him is just perfect!

Well I guess now I can clean and workout.  He is in control and I don't have to worry about a thing!  Like the song "don't you worry 'bout a thaaaaaaang".....

Friday, February 26, 2010

Food Challenges!

Ok so today Norris and I went out with some of our friends to grab some dinner!  We do not do this often because some times it can get pretty pricey!  They just put in an Outback Steakhouse around the corner!  So tonight we went to have a little American Food!  It was great company with friends, thats about it!  We all ordered and a couple of them wanted to get the Bloomin' Onion!  Well the waiter said they had none!  NOW how in the world do you not have an onion!  We offered to go down the street to the alley to get them an onion but they did not take that to well!!!  So since they did not have the onion they also did not have some of the burger stuff and it was so funny!!  It worked out we eat what they did have and left!  We then decided to go to the Starbucks to have a coffee.  Norris and I have no become addicted to the Iced Frappaccino Carmel with coffee!  It is soooo good!  Well two weeks ago we went to get our Saturday dose of coffee and they did not have any cream for the frappaccino!  Well today they did not have any Frappaccino!  I am not sure how you can run out of Frappaccino at a Starbucks but it happened!  We were laughing so hard!  We told the man that we would try a carmel Mochiatto.  He then said is that all.  Norris in the way he does said: "well that is unless you got some Frappaccino in the last few minutes!"  The man did not get it and again went into the explanation how they did not have any frappiccino!  It was so fun!  Just some of the fun moments of being in a different place!  It is always an adventure everytime we step out of our doorstep!  What a blessing that we have the opportunity to be here!  Sometimes we can get frustrated and then we just have to remember that we must be here for a purpose even if we don't know what it is right now!      

Saturday, February 20, 2010

India Pictures

This was our boat ride down the Ganges River.  It was fun to go at sunset and see all the people around the city!  Many were swimming in the river and it was cold!  But notice Norris in his shirtsleeves and shorts!  We got to boat by different parts where people were swimming, drinking and burning bead bodies!  I think that was the most intense part of the whole time in Varanasi.  I don't think I will ever get used to seeing bodies being burned!  





These were the beautiful ladies washing themselves in the Ganges River.  They were from southern India.  It is amazing to see how far people would travel to wash in the Ganges River.


            This was Norris and I waiting for the sun to rise over the Himalayas!  It was sooooooo pretty!  But it was VERY cold!  I thought I was going to freeze to death!  Once the sun came up it did get a little warmer!  Not much though!  I am wearing my new wrist warmers!  That is what Norris calls them.  I love them.  I can still use my hands but keep them warm too!!  He was very jealous that he did not have them this morning that is for sure!
This was Norris and I at the Taj Mahal!  It was awesome!  We just sat in front of it for about an hour!  It was soooooooo beautiful!  The people were so respectful of the area and it was so clean and white!  I never realized how big it was but it was huge.  There were a lot of people around that day so it was hard to get a picture that a bunch of other people would not be in!  

There,There,There and Back Again the Hams Tale!

Strangely enough the subject line could mean more than one thing.  First, it could be for the crazy Luxor Full Marathon we ran last Friday, OR, it could stand for how many times we keep coming back to Cairo.

Well...............last weekend Norris and I and two of our friends flew down to Luxor, Egypt to run a marathon.  It was a lot of fun.  We were excited to get started with it because after months and months of running and training we were ready to be done with it!  It turned out to be fantastic.  I know this is hard to believe coming from me, but I really did love it!  I did not like training for it that is for sure but on the day of the run it was so much fun!
It was difficult to train here in Egypt.  There are not a lot of places that have a good flat ground to run on, plus being a female makes it all the more challenging.  Well we did end up finding this great place to train.  There is this club that has a gate around the outside.  You could get through the gate but not have to go into the club.  The only problem with it was the mile and a half giant hill at the end of the run.   The whole loop around the club was 5k or 3.1 miles.  Well after about 18 miles and having to run up the giant hill 5 times I never thought I would make it through.  I think that it why my goal for the marathon was 6 hours.
As it turns out the hill was just what we all needed to help us get great times for our runs.  Norris finished in 4 hours and I finished in 5!!!!!!  For my first time I was pretty satisfied!  Norris took a little break to wait for me, so had he not done that he would have finished under 4!  That is ok though 4 hours is pretty amazing.  That is until we realized he would have to cut off an hour just to qualify for the Boston Marathon!!!!!!!!  CRAZY!  We met this guy who is in the Marathon Maniacs club.  He has run 137 marathons in the last 4 years!  His goal now is to run a marathon in 20 different countries!  I am not sure I want to do that but I do think I would like to run another one just to see how it compares to this one!

There were a couple of obstacles we had to get through on the day of the marathon.  There happened to be big groups of children that were hanging out.  They just wanted to touch you and talk to you as you ran by.  I tried to be nice to them and speak to them in Arabic and give them a little fist dap when they wanted to high-five me!  I think they just wanted attention from the foreigners.  Well that was all great and dandy until kilometer 38.  Up to this point they did nothing but want to give me a high-five.  But all of a sudden these 3 little boys got around me and thought I had money in my pocket.  So the next thing I know the littlest boy was reaching his hand in my pocket.  I started yelling at him and saying the strictest things I knew in Arabic.  Little did the boy know the only thing in my pocket was a used tissue.  He was not to excited when he realized what it was!  He tried to reach in again and I realized he was not going to leave me alone.  I had to stop and yell at him and after a few moments he ran away.

Then when I was about to turn to the last little bit to the finish line this man walked up to me.  He was in a button up shirt and I thought he was part of the marathon crew.  He started talking to me and asking me where I was from.  I told him and then he decided that I must look like someone who wanted to buy his post cards!  At this point I got a little upset!  I looked at him and said: "what about my appearance right now makes you think I want a post card?"  "Do I really look like I care about anything you have to offer?"  Well he did not like that very much and he stormed off!  This was just what I needed because it made me laugh almost all the way to the finish line!
It was quite a moment when I crossed the line!  I realized I had finished in 5 hours and I knew it was all over!  It was an incredible accomplishment!  I never thought I could have done it but it was fun to have a husband who would support me and friends who would always help me when I wanted to give up!   I now can't wait to run another one!