Still no sleep...

So this is a picture of my eye. My eye after a night sleep that went like this; going to "bed" at 11:00...gettitng up at 12:00...trying to go back to sleep at 3:00...getting up at 4:00...going back to bed at 4:45...falling asleep sometime after 5:00 (no thanks to an extra long call to prayer "remix" of some kind)...waking up at 8:00, hungry...back to bed at 9:00...back up at 11:00. That was my last 12 hours! And of course the day that I'm wiped out and grumpy the sky actually doesn't look like the apocalypse. It was bluer and less smoggy early this morning but it still looks nice. Oh well, maybe if I feel a little better after some lunch I'll head out...
p.s. for those of you that read Ira's blog, that's the lamp in the backround that he talks about in todays' post! I didn't even do that on purpose!

Up late...again...

I have never in my life had a hard time falling asleep. I can sleep anywhere, anytime. In college, I bought a special watch with an alarm so I could sleep between classes, in public! I didn't care. I have always been able to nod off as soon as my head hit the pillow, or my book bag, whatever the case may be. Now of course I've had the occasional too-late-espresso or first-day-at-a-new-job nerves that have kept me up, but something about Egypt...I just can't get to sleep before 2 or 3 am no matter how hard I try. I very rarely drink caffeine anymore, I exercise, the bed is increasingly comfortable (thanks to some purchases at & Co.) but I just can't sleep! We live on a fairly quiet street, but you can still hear strange noises like dogs barking at weird hours and airplanes (lots of flights land late at night here) not to mention the honking horns and occasional yelling. And although I've gotten used to the call to prayer throughout the day it never fails to jolt me from sleep. I should probably start going to bed earlier, but I don't get home from teaching yoga until after 9:00 and we try to have some semblance of a dinner and hang out for a little bit. Not to mention it's a good time to chat with friends and family in the States. So what's a girl to do??? No seriously, I'm asking. If ANYONE has an advice, please, I'd love to hear it. The silver lining in all of this? I won't have any trouble staying up to watch OBAMA make his victory speech a week from now!! The rest of the week will be a disaster, but that's ok, I'll lose sleep so my grandkids can have a good story.

I can't sleep so it seems like a good time to do a blog entry. I've been having some random bouts of insomnia lately. I think my weird yoga schedule may have something to do with it. I think the fact that somedays I teach in the mornings and sometimes I teach at night is kind of screwing with my energy levels and my sleeping and eating patterns. Which, by the way, were not exactly firmed up before I started this whole yoga adventure! I think I had finally moved past the jet lag and the upset stomachs and now I'm all messed up again. Sigh. Hopefully I'm going to start teaching more in the evenings and maybe that will help...
I've made a decision to join the Maadi House. I've talked about it a little bit on here. It's a sort of country club that's somehow affiliated with the U.S. Embassy (although no one seems to know how or why exactly) It's open to U.S. citizens and you have to join for a year. It's quite lovely there. There are lots of trees and grass and although it's in the middle of Maadi, the air seems a little different and it's more quiet for sure. They have a pool, bar, resturant, playground, and lots of other activities. A lot of people go there when Cairo becomes a little overwhelming, as it can be from time to time. So far my experiences there have been at night for parties or BBQs, but today I went to the pool for the first time. That's right, the first day of Fall and I was sweating poolside. Actually, it was cute, there was a lifeguard who was Egyptian and probably about 19 who came over to Amanda and me and said in broken English "The seasons, Spring, Summer, Winter, and one more?" Amanda and I looked at each other, trying to figure out where he was going with this, and said "Fall?" He kind of looked at us funny. So we said it again "Fall?" And he said "A-U-T..." and we finished "U-M-N" he smiled and said "Right! First day!" and walked away. We laughed, it was very sweet. I am normally SO excited for the first day of Fall. I guess it kind of slips your mind here since the seasons don't change, at least not for a while. I did see some clouds today for the first time since I've been here, that was exciting!
Other than that, we're getting ready for our trip to Turkey on Monday. Which means everyone should be getting ready for another slide show!