Oh Happy Day!

What a lovely morning! I have figured out the secret (after 6 months) to having a happy errand running experience in Maadi. The early bird gets the worm, and the nice weather! I left the house at 8 am, I normally wait until 10 to go anywhere since most things don't even open before then. But today I was craving an apple donut from Fino (the bakery) and I wanted to eat it for breakfast. So, I headed out with my Ipod playing Tristan Prettyman, it's warm enough that I was just wearing a hoodie and a light scarf. The weather right now feels a bit like April at home. Once I arrived at Fino and ordered my donut, I couldn't resist the mincemeat pastries. I forgot about them while we were gone and man they looked good! I couldn't decide between the oatmeal and the whole wheat bread so I got both. Eh, they're small loaves and one doesn't usually last more than a day in this house anyway. From there, I walked a few more blocks to Seoudi to pick up a few groceries. I had a good feeling before I even got in the door. There were moutians of produce outside waiting to be stocked. I navigated my way around the oranges, herbs, and leeks and found a cart. As I approached the produce section I saw a man stocking crates of strawberries, there must have been a dozen or so. I took a big package right from his hand and made my way through the store. I grabbed some ginger and by the time I got to the vegetables (only a few steps) I realized there was no one in the store! Well, a few people but not the usual insane mobs that I have to deal with in there. Typically, I can't even walk in that store let alone push the cart through! And then I noticed something even more glorious, Seoudi was completely stocked! The yogurt! The juice! Everything that I normally have to dig through to find the brands and flavors that we like were in neat rows. Neat rows! It was like, dare I say, an American grocery store! That's when I vowed to make my Seoudi trips at 8 am from now on!

The Breathing Room

Here it is! As I mentioned in earlier posts, there are some women in Maadi who were eager to start a yoga space, or "co-op" as they've been calling it. It's been wonderful, everyone has different talents and interests and we each bring something to the space. Gordana has been so great about the admin. side of things. Everything from making sign-in sheets, to crunching the numbers, she's been working hard. We had our first meeting on Saturday and talked about things like keys and money and all the boring stuff, and then I gave everyone a class. From a teaching perspective, it was very easy because all of them had experience. Last night I taught the first "real" class. That was a lot of fun! Mark, Amanda, and Ira came out and then there were a couple of the women from Saturday as well as some new faces. I did a led primary class and it was great, a lot of work, but great. Everyone was VERY sweaty, which is the whole point! I was very impressed with the whole group, there was a lot of "I haven't done it forever...blah, blah" but they were wonderful, and followed the cues perfectly. This morning was a much smaller class (although, I think this time slot will grow to be one of my biggest classes) there were only 3. Belle, who is also a newbie to Maadi, Wendy, who I met on Saturday, and Alice, who was new to me but not new to the space from last year. This was more of a Mysore class. They didn't need me to cue very much so I focused on assisting and "encouragement", haha. It was a different feel. They were still sweaty (it is Cairo) but I felt that the energy was a little less exciting than it was the night before. That could just be because there were less people, it was early, etc. So it's been a great experience so far. I have another class tomorrow night, and then another on wed. morning.

Ira and I have been eating in a lot. I've been too tempted by the veggies at the market so I've been making some stir fry and some pasta dishes. Although tonight I'm a little pooped so I think we're going to get some yummy La Rosa pizza delivered!

Maadi Bus Tour

Hello! Today we took a bus tour of Maadi (our neighborhood) that AUC provided. We met some other new staff-Brandon from Portland, OR is starting in the Chemistry dept., and Steve and his wife Stephanie from D.C., he's starting in the Finance dept. There were others, but those were the lucky few who happened to be sitting near us and had to listen to my witty quips about the heat. The tour confirmed that I have no idea where I'm going, and probably won't for a long time. Sigh. But, we did go to an AWESOME book store that also has a little cafe. It's open early and late (I can avoid the heat!), they have all the new titles, cute journals and cards, and some knitting books that I've never seen before! Yes, I think this may be my new hang out. So, enjoy the pictures. From left to right, top to bottom they are, the Maadi Grand mall, the bookstore, 2 pictures of the Seoudi Market (which is where we buy our groceries), and the Median Victoria (where the tour began).