Turkey

Our first full day in Turkey and what an amazing day it has been! Jumping off the boat, going sea urchin hunting, returning the sea urchins to the sea after we realized they were inedible, shopping in the port, beautiful scenery, delicious food, etc. etc. etc. Turkey in its first day is seriously rivaling Gouna and that is saying something. I'm sad my arabic doesn't work here though because the crew seems so fantastically nice and interesting.

The scene
Our boat
The port
Post running through the airport to catch our plane. Hot, sweaty, and tired.

We have been in Cairo for the past few days and the bulk of our time has been spent at the JW Marriot hotel where they have a totally awesome water park. Complete with slides, sprinklers, inner tubes, and a wave pool!
As if the Marriot wasn't awesome enough they also had American pancakes available! So the second day we went to the water park we were sure to get there early enough for breakfast.

Please note the plate closest to the camera and its complete lack of pancake. Those pancakes are now in my belly! Also take note of the OJ on the table, we suspect it of being the the culprit for Tut, Ram, Maggie, and my icky tummies this morning. Not fun.

Here is Han's (the boys cousin) enjoying his first ever pancake that has been dipped in maple syrup . A life changing experience.

The second most interesting and exciting thing that we experienced in Cairo was driving in Cairo traffic. Today we were on our way to have lunch with the entire family when we came to stand still traffic due to some unknown obstacle. Egyptians unlike Americans will not wait for the road to be cleared, however, and instead invent their own way to escape from sitting on the road for hours.

After following suit and driving the wrong direction on a four lane highway our driver took us on a detour through the city. We saw many interesting things and I've decided Cairo is the best city to play Punch Buggy No Punch Back in. I've never seen so many old VW bugs and if I wasn't afraid of getting in trouble for teaching the boys a semi violent game we could have had a grand time walloping each other every few minutes. Instead I had to settle for teaching Maggie the game.

Tomorrow we are off to Turkey where we will spend the week on a massive sail boat touring different islands. We will be without the internet on the boat so the next time I post will be from Paris.

Correction: it takes 11 egyptians to get a boat out of the water and even then not so successfully. To their credit though it was the wrong type of trailer for Teti's boat.

Traveled to Cairo today. I believe the plan is for Maggie and I to spend the next few days tearing up a water park with the boys. Should be fun even if I do have to wear a shirt over my bathing suit.

Last night in Gouna. Things that are easy to say goodbye to... sharing a house with Coco (the dog that barks too much), the knob on the closet that always falls off, and bathroom with its trick door and limp shower head. Things that are harder to say goodbye to... the boat ( speaking of boats. How many egyptians does it take to get a boat out of the water and onto a trailer? 8. I know I saw. And even then sometimes they don't succeed...), the islands, and Kitesurfing. There are of course many other amazing things about Gouna but these are my favorite.

Last night in Gouna, last day kitesurfing. And would the wind cooperate? No. I had to wait hours before going in the water because the wind was too high. When I was finally able to kite, the wind dropped as if it hated me. I had fun with the other kiters though and got ahold of some great German rap.

From here we travel to Cairo for a few days and then on to... TURKEY!! ON A BOAT! a BIG boat! so that should be quite fun and I hear the scene is gorgeous. However I have already been informed that we will be sans internet on the boat so pictures and postings will have to wait until we get to Paris.

mourning the loss of my underwater camera. but just like all the famous musicians that have died I will be releasing some photos and videos post mortem.

We have been visiting a new island called Shedouin, I think a more appropriate name would be hermit crab isle. It is my favorite spot that we have visited thus far. After leaving our bags unattended for a short time we returned to find them literally crawling with crabs.

When we returned from our trip and were unloading the boat Maggie found a surprise in the garbage bag.

Maggie "it's a shell, wah! it's a crab!!!"

I hope that crab isn't too upset that his new home is the murky lagoon and not the glorious Hermit Crab Isle.

Tomorrow is the finale of my Kite surfing lessons. I've been looking forward to it all week! can't wait to spend the rest of my free time and money kitesurfing!

I'm way behind on my blogging but i'm just too bummed to blog. I took my underwater camera in the sea without closing one of its compartments, hence, rendering my waterproof camera un-waterproof, probably missing my only photo op with an octopus... a big octopus. SInce you can't see it you'll just have to believe me when i say it was awesome.

Kitesurfing day 2!

Got back out on the water today. Love is too small a word, I'm addicted. Possible future career: kitesurfing instructor. Today it was me and this girl Anna taking the course at the same time. She was very nice and encouraging. I was able to stand on my board today and Lucas has high hopes for me. I believe very talented were the words he used. But alas i need to stop talking or my ankles will be too large for my shoes.

(There will be a photo here of Anna and I one day when the internet isn't hating me)

Hamed (the driver) picked me up after kitesurfing. These days riding with Hamed is like going to a dance party.

And the interesting fact of the day is: riding in cars with open alcohol is fine as long as you aren't the driver. This was kindly explained to me before I ran out of the kitesurfing bar to catch my ride and ride I did.

Kitesurfing!!!!!!!!

Finally, my first kitesurfing lesson where there was enough wind to actually learn something hands on. There was so much wind in fact that had my instructors not had a good hold on me I would have flown into the air on more than one occasion. It is so exhilarating to feel the power of the wind and use it to pull yourself through the water or in my case sometimes out of the water. I can't wait to get back out there and get on a board.

Me with my instructor Lucas and his apprentice Martin post lesson.

On a completely different note I have a confession... Maggie and I have decreed the official song of the summer is Justin Bieber's - Baby. Am I ashamed? Yes. Will I still dance and sing along when it comes on? Of course.

No wind for kite-surfing yesterday but it was a beautiful day for boating. Of all the times i've been here I have never seen the sea so calm. A trip that is usually filled with bumps and jolts was as smooth as butter.We took advantage of the calm seas and day tripped to an island called Gobol. It is a gorgeous island, with beautiful beaches, and wonderful coral to look at.

One of the fun things about going to different islands is that we have to jump from the boat and swim or walk into shore. I felt like a real native carrying my bag on my head to protect it from the water.

On our way home we had what I think was our most exciting dolphin experience yet. The water was teeming with them and we estimate there were at least 50. They were leaping out of the water, swimming around and under the boat, and we even saw a baby one.

That night Maggie and I went out with the boys cousins to go dancing. We went to a club called Duport which has a bar, a dance floor, and a pool. Maggie, Hans (a cousin), and I tore up the dance floor. But after dancing for a while in the egypt heat and with no breeze we were considering the pool. Dressed up for our evening out we were unprepared for a dip in the pool. But clothes are clothes and we figured it was worth it.

Near the end of our evening... around 2 we left Duport to figure out how we were getting home. The mode of transportation in Gouna is something called a tok tok. It is sort of like an open taxi cab that I can visualize people falling out of very easily. Well we got to the tok tok stand

and there wasn't a single one in sight. Ofcourse they stop running at a reasonable hour of the night and there wasn't a phone between us. We had resigned our selves to walking, which would have taken hours if we knew the way, and praying that we came upon some insomniac tok tok driver who would take pity and rescue us. And thank goodness that's exactly what happened about 2 minutes into our walk.

So happy to be semi-safe in our insomniac driver's tok tok!

Yesterday all of the boys cousins arrived and so we decided to take a trip into the sea to feed the fish. At first we thought we weren't going to see any but thankfully the lure of our delicious bread was too much for their little fishy senses.

Today was my day off and I finally took my first kiteboarding class. There was no wind though so I only got an hour of theory. It is very frustrating to keep having setbacks like this but I think i can safely say that come Monday the wind will be up, I'll have my day off, and I will finally get the chance to learn this bloody sport.

Now for the rest of the day I think we will be touring the deserted island of Gobol. Should be fun, I juts hope that my tummy holds out... It was rather rumbly this morning but it seems to have calmed considerably.

No kite surfing today for me because I had to work and wouldn't have enough time for the class but officially tomorrow, no if ands or buts about it... I will be taking my first kite-surfing lessons! My instructors name is Lucas and I start at 9am. Not much wind tomorrow so I hope I can still have a good lesson.

Less Missy

At the house here in Egypt there are two dogs, Coco and Tara. Tara is old, has only 1 tooth, loves to beg food, and no matter how often she is bathed manages to smell like wet yucky dog. Coco is much younger and energetic. He loves to bark at everyone, show tons of affection to Tara (if you catch my drift), and runaway to get filthy dirty.

I have tried on many occasions to befriend Coco but no matter how hard I try he still Hates me. It is a constant joke between Ola, a woman who works here, and I. She thinks Coco is nice and I know he is magnoon (crazy in arabic).

Well today I was getting a bowl from the kitchen and Ola started to say "Missy, less Coco" over and over in a joking but reprimanding tone. Well this egged Coco on and he began barking ferociously at me. So Emal, another woman who works here, started to really scold me for bothering Coco. She doesn't speak a word of english so to the best of my ability I tried to explain that Ola had provoke him. We all had a good laugh as I took a hasty retreat. I asked Lula , the children's grandmother, what Ola had been saying to me and she had been saying to leave Coco alone. Well Ola, less Missy!

In other news I am officially registered for kiteboarding and will have a short lesson tomorrow with a longer one on Friday! Now I just have to pull myself out of bed in time to make it there.

Today was the hottest day yet. It was so hot that when I got out of the car my glasses fogged. Enough about the heat though let's talk about me. I'm going to stop apologizing for not writing everyday because I've accepted the fact that I'm not the everyday type of gal.

The most exciting thing that has happened these past few days would have been when Maggie, Teti, the kids and I all went out on the boat to feed the fish. As we were on our way to what Teti called an outdoor aquarium our boat was surrounded by dolphins. As you can see from the video below i was very excited and my camera work definitely suffered because of it. (due to technical difficulties the dolphin video can not be loaded.) You'll just have to trust that it was awesome.

Once our boat was anchored Maggie and I leapt into the sea in an attempt to swim with the dolphins. They never came close enough to see but when you put your head underwater you could hear them, it was a very high pitched noise with a fast clicking. Maggie tried calling them closer but without success. She does a great dolphin though.

It has been awhile since I have posted and i really don't have a good excuse. It's getting late now and I'm tired so this will have to suffice. This was taken on the island of Mahmya, the has a restaurant on it and nothing else, quite good food too.

Ram strolling the beach.

Independence day... or lack there of.

Being out of the country for the 4th of July was a very strange experience. In America it is such an important and hugely celebrated holiday while here it just seemed like every other day. I was half hoping that some american tourist would have the great idea to shoot off a few fireworks but as the night wore on I realized it wasn't meant to be. So the extent of my 4th of July celebration consisted of drinking an egyptian beer, whilst smoking an american cigarette, and singing our country anthem for Maggie. And let me just say cigarettes are not a good substitute for fireworks but at least the beer was good as was the company. I rounded off my sadly lacking 4th of July celebrations by falling asleep to Jaws . No 4th is complete without it. Now, whether it was a good idea to watch a movie about a killer shark while vacationing by the Red Sea remains to be seen. I'll keep you posted.

I have officially decided to take the egyptian themed names. So Look for lots of stories about Tut and Ram. They have been saying some pretty hilarious things lately so you can also look forward to a Kids Say Funny Things post. There was a real doozy today that I'm looking forward to posting.

Vacation on Vacation!

Today was my first day off! It is so wonderful having Maggie here because it gives us both time to really enjoy our trip in egypt. The boys have really taken a liking to her so it has been a very smooth transition for them.

I guess I have been having anxiety about kite surfing because last night I had a dream about signing up for it where everything was going wrong. The man who was suppose to be helping me kept walking away and dealing with other things before he would help me. It was very frustrating... But thank goodness the dream wasn't prophetic because today I went to do my research on all the logistics of kite surfing and it was very encouraging and exciting! The people who run it were wonderful and very helpful. They said as I continued to surf they would become like a family to me and I can't wait!!!! So if all goes according to plan I will be having my first kite surfing lesson next week!

I also did a little shopping and was so proud of my bargaining skills. I was on the hunt for postcards and had finally found some. I was set to buy but when I asked for the price the man said it was 5 pounds each. As if. I told him that was ridiculous and when he wouldn't lower his price I walked away. When I was about 20 steps away a man who knew I had been looking for postcards and who I guess was the owner of a couple of the stores. Saw me walking away empty handed asked what happened. After being informed of the situation asked me to return to the store where I received all the postcards that I wanted for only 1 pound each. Score 1 for Missy!

Also I have had a brainstorm about re-naming the family I work for. I might go for a flintstones theme, or a possibly an egyptian theme . Any thoughts? I'm going to do some hard thinking and make a decision before my next blog.

Mom-Nefretiti

Dad- Teti

Older Son - Tut

Younger Son- Ram

Mom-Wilma

Dad- Fred

Older Son-BamBam

Younger- Dino

Harem, Khan el Khalili, and El Gouna

Have been sans internet for 3 days now so I have quite a bit of catch up to do. It has been an exciting start to the summer, beginning with a trip to the pyramids!

Maggie and I were awoken monday to the news that we had five minutes to be up and ready if we wanted to see the pyramids. Talk about a rush. The trip to the pyramids is always interesting because even just being on the road you are able to see so much of Cairo and the very interesting and different ways people live here.

The pyramids are of course awe inspiring and it is amazing to think that people thousands of years ago were able to construct something that we still marvel at today. Our pyramid trip of course included the token camel ride which is always fun. Maggie was even brave enough to kiss a camel multiple times for a photo op. I think she attempted about 5 times to get a good picture of it before we decided a video would be our best documentation.

I considered kissing a camel, but that was before I got a good look at its mouth that was covered in frothy, green, yuck. Blech.

After getting a good look at the pyramids Hamed (the driver here) took us down the road so we could get up close and personal with the Sphinx. There we were separted from Hamed because a guard who was on a bit of a power trip forced Hamed to return to the car and get our tickets, and then once Hamed was at the car said we could go ahead in if we wanted to... I will never understand the male ego. While trying to snap a few photos we were approached by two egyptian boys who proceeded to help us take all these great photos with the pyramids and the sphinx. My favorite is below. After they were finished helping us I felt terrible because lacking Hamed we were also lacking funds but we took photos with them and they seemed pretty satisfied with that.

Later that day after relaxing for a bit the whole crew took a trip to Khan El Khalili where we experienced a Souk, ate dinner, and saw some very beautiful Mosques. While at dinner we had a delicious drink Fresh squeezed lemonade with pureed mint. Soo scrumptious and I am definitely planning to make these once I return to the states. The only thing I would change is to remove the bacteria that gave us all rumbling tummies the next day.

After doctoring ourselves a bit, we packed up and headed to the airport. El Gouna is as always stunning and a completely different aspect of egypt. I was talking with Maggie last night and we decided that Cairo is where the nitty gritty real culture is and here everything is so surreal.

We've played very hard since arriving, swimming in the pool, taking walks around the lagoon, cruising on the boat, spying on the fish, and eating Mohamed's delicious cooking! I took my underwater camera out for the first time yesterday and I can't wait to play with it more.

Cairo

This was taken in Cairo Airport. The boys always get to ride on the luggage cart. We make quite a caravan with 10 pieces of luggage, 2 boys, and the mom (I need a good alias for her too) and I flanking either side to make sure the boys don't fall off. All following Poppi and whatever random men are helping us to the car.

Today after having lunch in Ottamaya we went for a Felucca ride down the nile. The Felucca is the traditional boat that the

Pharaohs used. It was lots of fun! I only wish we had gone earlier in the day so we could have seen more of the nile and the city but we still did get a pretty amazing view! As you can see by the photo below.

Landed

We have arrived in Cairo! Even though I am pretty tired I have to say it was an easy trip. I think I watched / half watched about 10 movies. We will be in Cairo for a few days before we head off to Gouna. While here we should be hitting up the pyramids and fulfilling one of Maggie's dreams to ride a camel. For those of you who don't know, Maggie is another girl about my age who will be spending the summer with us to teach the boys french. Speaking of french I forgot to add that learning to speak french is another one of my goals for the summer.

Nothing else notable has happened to today except that I have already had my first egyptian Mango! If you haven't had one you need to get one because words can not describe how wonderful they are.

As this is a blog about being a nanny at large I suppose I need to tell you about my charges. I help take care of two little boys a 5 year old and a 7 year old. For the sake their safety and privacy I have decided to give them an alias... and once i decide what that is I'll let you know. If you have any good suggestions please post. I was thinking something along the lines of Tom and Jerry but not them. A duo for sure.

until next post

And we're off!

Heading to Egypt today! Not to return until August 25th-ish. Should be an exciting summer. Some of my goals this summer include learning to kite-surf and hopefully sketch or paint or do anything art related... it has been far too long since I've created artistically. I will try to keep this thing as updated as possible... no promises though. I'm excited about the opportunities that traveling as a nanny gives me but I will miss everyone at home terribly. Until next post