All about Becca Boo

9 Items, The Citadel And Some Tombs

Sarah and Maureen
"Hi Vicki and Dan Quinn!"

January was a pretty regular month – nothing exciting enough to fill a whole blog post happened. So this is a re-cap of a bunch of different little things that have been going on with us since my last post.

Item # 1: Becca is playing basketball in a women’s league that was put together to give the Cairo American College High School girls team some extra practice. They play one game a week and are supposed to have one practice a week. Becca missed one game because she had two exams the next day and there have only been two practices. Nonetheless they are sitting in second spot going into the “finals”. I will take some photos at the next game and post the best ones for you to see. Mike has been coaching the team which everyone is truly grateful for. (You didn’t believe he was going to step completely away from basketball did you? Babysteps.)

Item # 2: Mike has written two articles for the Belleville Intelligencer about our travels. I’m not sure why but we can’t access the Intelligencer website from here so I can’t even attach a link for you to see. The crazy thing is – we used to be able to. Thank you so much Brenda for mailing us the first one. That was such a nice surprise! He plans to write one at the beginning of each month while we’re here. They appear under the Opinions section. If you haven’t seen them yet, perhaps YOU can find them on line.

Item # 3: Becca made it through her first semester at CISE just fine. She didn’t run screaming after her sister to take her home with her at Christmas. She studied hard for her exams and came home after writing them saying that they were easy. Second semester has started and she now has Math, Gym, Civics, English and Arabic. Report cards should come home sometime this week....inshallah... 

Item # 4: We have joined a gym for 3 months: The Samia Alouba gym and dance studio. This is the same spot where Becca takes her Hip-Hop lessons so I figured it would be nice to be able to work out while she is dancing. The gym has three branches that we can go to. Only one of them interests Mike so he goes to that one, and I’ve been to all three. One is a women’s only branch and I really like that. The third one is the one with the dance studio and they also have aerobics. It’s expensive (same or more than we would pay in Canada) – but we like it and as long as we’re going and using it, it’s worth it. Becca doesn’t need a gym membership. With dance twice a week and at the moment basketball once (or twice if there is a practice) a week, she’s plenty busy.

Item # 5: Lots of friends and family have sent us e-mails hoping that we are safe. I can assure you, we are. On the weekend of the anniversary of the revolution (Jan 25^th) we tried to go downtown to the jazz club and the driver didn’t want to take us. He said it would be safer for us to stay put. So even when we want to go near the action, we’re warned against it. We’ll stay here in our little Maadi bubble, and all is well. The school has warned us to have some US cash on hand and a supply of food and water “just in case” so we’ve done that but so far, so good. Our next planned trip to the jazz club is Feb 21^st – here’s hoping we make it.

Item # 6: We’ve booked a March Break Trip!!! We are very excited to be going on an African Safari in Kenya. Mike loves animals and I can not wait to get my camera out and click click click. Becca seems excited enough about it, but anyone who knows Becca knows that her excitement about it will come as it’s happening or when it’s over. We’ll be gone from March 15-22.

Item # 7: It couldn’t be put off any longer – Becca and I finally found a spot to get our hair cut. The salon is called Nefertari on road 233. And now that we’ve found the spot, we’ll be going back there again before we come home for the summer.  I had 13 foils put in (highlights) and a trim and Becca got a trim for a grand total of 295LE or $50. And we’re both very pleased with the results. 

Item #8: Winter is officially over. February in Egypt is like May weather in Ontario. It’s about 13 degrees in the morning and warms up to between 19 - 24 degrees in the afternoon. I have put my socks away! My winter vest is put away too. Becca never did put on uniform pants – she’s been wearing shorts to school every day. We’re still wearing long sleeves and pants most days but this past Saturday we were out and about in short sleeves and it felt glorious.

Item #9: On Saturday we took a morning trip to see the Citadel and tour the Mosque of Mohammed Ali then went to the City of the Dead where we saw the mausoleum where Mohammed Ali’s family is buried. Photos of our trip below ….