Belated Christmas Pictures

This is going to be a picture-laden post with very little text. I have not had a lot of time to write lately, and when I have had time I haven't felt like uploading pictures...so it just keeps getting put off. This weekend was supposed to be jam-packed and busy, but it turned out a little more laid-back than I thought (thank goodness), so I have had time to do this. Here is a quick batch of pictures from our trip home.

Mom, Daddy, and Kari met us at the airport.


Here are pictures from our annual Chili Dog Night with friends. Somehow Jason started wrestling with Luke and George (maybe because I told George to go after him...) so it started like this:

And quickly devolved into this:

There are 4-5 children piled in there, depending on whether you count Jason or not! This went on for about 15 minutes, I'm guessing. I do have to also mention that Meg had an awesome edible craft planned for the kids to do that was really fun. Meg is a SUPERSTAR!!

We met Avery, Cheryl, and Bill at North Park to try to go see Santa. Cheryl got there early to get our Santa tickets, and they told us (at 9:00) that we could see Santa at 4:30 or 5!! We decided to skip the lap-sitting and just stay for storytime.

After storytime, lunch in the food court, and a jet-lagged Luke had some snuggle and song time with his precious Mimi.

Then it was off to the Trains at North Park.



Leave it to Luke to go see the trains and ALSO find some construction vehicles.


The next day was Christmas Eve and we went to see Jason's good friend Clay, his wife Jennifer, and their new baby Joshua. He was precious! I got to play Baby Whisperer and put him to sleep and then rock him for a long time. It was wonderful. Luke got a little jealous and had to come snuggle, too.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at Mom and Dad's church and then came home for our traditional Christmas Eve brisket dinner. Kari's friend John joined us for our Christmas Eve festivities. Here's the fam in front of the tree Christmas Eve:


After dinner we sang Christmas carols around the piano - a longstanding Echols family tradition, and the one that used to be my favorite as a child. We sang all the songs you DON'T get to sing at church on Christmas Eve!


My Daddy met his sisters for lunch one day before Christmas, and they sent Luke some super-cute jammies to wear on Christmas Eve, with a matching pair for Granddad, too!


Time for Christmas Eve Night Sugars so Luke could go to bed and Santa could come!


Santa was good to all of us! Here's what he brought Luke:

(a tent and sleeping bag)

and
a purple camera (which he asked for), a remote-controlled dump truck, and two new books. He also got lots and lots of other wonderful toys and books from his aunts and uncle, and G-dad and Mimi. Here are a few:


He loves to dress up and pretend, so Mimi gave him a fireman costume and a Peter Pan costume, which she made. We have had lots of fun playing Peter Pan and Captain Hook since we've been back!

He also loves Little Einsteins, and he plays with his new Rocket a lot.


Other favorites: a Thomas hay loader from Aunt Kari and his steamroller from Mimi and Granddad.

Mom has started a new tradition of giving me a ridiculous purse (at least ridiculous given my personality) each Christmas. Thankfully she includes the receipts so I can exchange them @ SteinMart! Here is this year's purse:


That super-cute scarf around my neck was knitted by my fabulously talented mother. I love it and am kind of afraid to wear it out in fear of it being yanked from my neck by some covetous admirer.

Jason gave me these beautiful earrings for Christmas from James Avery. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them:

And one last picture from Christmas morning. Find the floating head. It's "smooky", as Luke would say! (Spooky.)

The Job Fair

We are back in Cairo after a successful job fair in Bangkok. We traveled safely, Luke was fine here while we were gone, and we're happily reunited in Cairo. Here's sort of a quick run-down on the fair. First of all, I didn't go to the job fair Jason went to to get his job at AIS. I have never been to any sort of job fair, so I didn't really know what to expect. My best analogy is that I think it must be like going through rush in college. I haven't ever done that, either...so I don't know if that's quite right, but Jason seems to think it's a good comparison.

Jason and I arrived in Bangkok one day early and had time to orient ourselves, go out and get lunch, get my haircut, and then come back to the hotel and sleep. The morning of the 6th we got up and went to the registration table for the fair. They gave us a packet of information and showed us where our mailboxes would be. Each candidate had a mail folder for recruiters to leave messages and interview requests in, and the recruiters had folders as well. We could leave resumes and notes for them there.

After registration, we had our buffet breakfast (I ate about 8 pieces of bacon) before getting dressed and having our first interview with a school in Myanmar. We had already had several conversations with the head of school via email and had been in touch with two different teachers there--one who has a child Luke's age--so we went in with a pretty good understanding of what the school was like. Greg, the head of school, asked us lots of good questions and gave us plenty of opportunities to ask all the questions we wanted. It was a good conversation - we visited for 2 1/2 hours or so - and it ended with us being offered jobs. A high school math job and an elementary art/ESL position. There are lots of things we liked about the school and not much we didn't. It sounded like a tight-knit group of teachers who really love the school and the kids, and Myanmar (surprisingly) sounded like a great place to live. I asked the guy some difficult questions, including, "If you had an adult daughter who was considering moving to Myanmar, what would you want her to know about life there? What would you worry about for her?" He really answered well, and we left assured that we would be well cared for and respected in Myanmar should we decide to go there. He gave us until 6:30 PM the next day to consider the offer.

We had an interview with Korea International School in Seoul, as well. We met with them about an art job and high school math, too. They were really nice people, very well-organized. Pretty school, good facilities, nice location, a Costco (!), good benefits, including after school care for Luke free with other teacher's children. It's in a beautiful location on a hillside with hiking trails behind. Our interview with them on the 6th was an initial screening with a 2nd interview scheduled the next morning.

By the end of the first day, 16 schools had expressed interest in us. We weeded out all the schools in the Middle East (definitely ready for a break from the sand) and a few schools we weren't really interested in. We decided to set up interviews with about ten of the schools that had contacted us the next day.

The 7th began with interview sign-ups. That meant that each school had a table set up in the hotel ballroom, and the candidates were invited to go to the tables they were interested in and/or from whom they had received invitations to interview. We signed up to interview with schools in China, Bangkok, Tunisia, Hong Kong, Korea, Switzerland, and Venezuela.

Our first interview was a separate interview (Jason in one room and me in another) with Zurich. I loved the elementary principal - a German lady who was a good listener and asked good questions. Jason had a good interview with the head of school. There was no time to talk before we went next to our 2nd interview with Korea. In that interview, the guys who interviewed us the day before offered us the jobs (art and math, though not IB math) and we spent the time talking about what life in Korea is like.

Following that, we met with the Venezuelan school, Escuela Campo Alegre (ECA), which has been around forever, has a great reputation, and serves the embassy families in Caracas. We love that we'd have lots of opportunities to learn and speak Spanish, there are (again) young families there, and very little pollution.

Then we met with Dalian (China), which only had a 6th grade math position for Jason. The guy who interviewed us basically said he would not consider me for the art job, which he had already told me he WOULD consider me for... anyway, the interview went really well, we set up a 2nd interview for later the same afternoon. When we had a chance to talk, though, we decided that Dalian might not be the best place for us. We ended up canceling our 2nd interview there. Then we went to our IS Bangkok interviews. At the time, we both thought they went well. We were rejected by them later, though, which was very, very painful - it was probably our top choice. However, we HAD prayed that God would close doors, and this one was firmly shut.

We had a short break before meeting with two guys from the Canadian IS in Hong Kong. We really had a great meeting with them. We think they wanted to hire us BUT they don't have jobs that fit our experience! A case of wrong place, wrong time. We do feel like our contact with them was worthwhile. After that we had an interview with the superintendent of Shanghai American School. Also a dream school. Neither of us feel that the interview went particularly well. It was the end of the day, and you can see that it was a LONG day of interviews. We ended up canceling our interviews after that with Tunisia and Dalian, effectively narrowing down to the two offers we'd been given: Myanmar and Korea, and the three we hoped for call-backs on: Venezuela, Zurich, and Shanghai. We received invitations for call-backs from Venezuela and Zurich that night, and we didn't hear anything from Shanghai. We figured we were backups for Venezuela and Zurich, and we didn't anticipate hearing anything from Shanghai except "Thanks, but no thanks."

At that time, we both felt comfortable with the offers we'd gotten from KIS and Myanmar, and I think of the two we'd have chosen KIS.

That night (yes, even after so many interviews) we attended the candidate/recruiter social and made some good contacts with people currently teaching at KIS. We also visited a little with the ECA (Venezuela) and ZIS (Zurich) recruiters. We fell into bed at 10:30 or so, exhausted and emotionally drained.

On the 8th we went to the ECA presentation at 8:30 AM. It was short and basic, nothing new. We had call back interviews with Zurich at 11:30 and ECA at 12:15. We decided we would choose either of those schools first above Korea. Our Zurich interview was a joint interview this time. It lasted around half an hour, went well, though they didn't really ask anything new or particularly revealing. We left there feeling unsure whether they might offer us jobs or not. We went immediately to the ECA interview, where they were very honest with us right from the start. They told us they liked us, but insist on contacting references during the fair to make sure candidates were a good fit for the school, and they were having trouble reaching ours. Jason found out which ones they particularly wanted to talk to. We left there nervous that we might lose the positions because they couldn't reach our references! Luckily, they were able to talk to Jason's principal, and we were offered jobs at around 2:30 on the 8th.

Honestly, being offered the ECA jobs was both a relief and a worry for me. First of all, the stress involved in interviewing that many times, repeating the same information, beginning to babble... wanting certain schools, not knowing what is right... it just all builds up. I was relieved to say "yes" to ECA. It's a super school with a top-notch reputation, located near the mountains in Caracas. Jason's job will be IB math, and mine will be 5th grade. I really did want art, but the superintendent at ECA assured me that he would consider me for art should a position open after we arrive. Fifth grade is my favorite, anyway, so I will be happy to be back in the fifth grade classroom. I have missed that bond with my own special group of students. At the same time, it will be a much more demanding job than teaching art. I have mixed feelings about that, because I want so badly to be the best mom I can be to Luke. (And as I write that, I've just told him to go read a book and let me write! Hypocrite.)

Anyway, we are excited about ECA and everything involved with it. The best part is that it's about a 5-6 hour flight DIRECT from DFW! The time zone difference will be like an hour and a half. Yes, I said and A HALF. Venezuela has its own time.

We slept so soundly that night - the best we've slept since leaving Texas - and then the next day jet lag truly caught up with us. We were up and out sightseeing by 10 AM that day, and by 2 I was super-exhausted. That night we went out to dinner with the administrators from ECA, another couple who will be teaching with us there next year, and a teacher who is leaving ECA to go to HKIS next year. It was cool to be able to ask questions, learn more about the school, and get to know our new superintendent. There is a chance I will have his daughter in my class next year! We asked about church (yes, there is one, and we will probably go to the same one our supt. goes to), places to ride bikes (Luke can practice at school), sports, music (there's a community choir at school), and lots of other stuff. I can't wait. I think it is going to be a really neat place for us to live.

We left the night of the 10th to come back to Cairo. The planes did not fly fast enough. The seven days we were away from Luke were too long. We arrived home at about 4:45 AM on the 11th, and Luke must have been waiting for us. We did not even get the front door closed before he was padding in from his bedroom in his footed pajamas. Those were the best hugs we've ever gotten! We told him our good news, to which he replied, "South America! That's my old favorite continent!" (FYI his new favorite is Australia.) He was concerned that he doesn't already speak Spanish, but excited that he did already know how to count to 10.

This will be a great new adventure for our family. We are grateful to God for his faithfulness. Our prayers were answered. We were all safe. God showed us the way we should go; He made our path clear for us. Thank you for your prayers and support. We hope we'll have lots of visitors!

(We will be home for the summer as usual, and we move to Venezuela August 4 or 5.)

What other questions do you have? Post them in the comments and I will answer them. I've left out stuff, for sure!

Back in Egypt - and off to Thailand

Well, our ten days at home went fast - too fast! We had a great time with family and were thankful to get to see the few friends we got to see, too. If we missed you this time, we can hopefully get together this summer. I will post pictures soon of our trip home.

In the meantime, I would like to ask for prayers for Jason and me as we travel to Thailand for a job fair this week. We will be leaving Luke with Leni in Cairo. Not my ideal situation, but we are confident that Leni will take good care of him as always and that being in his routine with good care is better than dragging him to Thailand and having to improvise or depend on friends to care for him while we interview. Please pray for all of our safety during these five days we'll be apart. That will be more stressful on me than the job interviews, I think!

We are going to this job fair not really knowing what we expect or what to hope for, even. We both love our jobs here in Egypt but would prefer to live somewhere that is better suited for families with little kids who like to play outside. We are praying that we will be open to God's leading and that His desire for us would be clear to both of us. If that means that we should remain in Egypt for another year, then we will be fine with that. If it means that we end up somewhere else, then we will be happy with that, too. Please pray that we will listen to the Lord and not our own desires while we interview and consider the options.

We wish you a happy 2009 and hope you had a wonderful Christmas season!

Almost Time!!

It's 11:08 and we are supposed to leave for the airport in 2 1/2 hours. We are all packed except for our computers. All three of us are so excited we just can't hide it!

Luke went to bed as usual at 8...only to get up at 8:30 and announce, "I had a short sleep, Mommy! I'm ready to go to Texas!" I sent him back to bed, and Jason let him get out of the bed an hour later. Since then, he has been up running around like a wild man, telling all about the different places we're going in order to get to Texas, telling what the pilots and copilots do, that flight attendants can either be men or women, that our planes have jet engines and not propellors... His energy level has not wavered in two hours of running around, playing, singing, talking to himself. I just hope when he bottoms out he does it gracefully.

It took me until today to get excited. I was still in denial that the time to go home had actually come. Today I packed, cleaned stuff up, organized, did some shopping, made a bunch of presents, and NOW I feel like it's actually real that I'm getting on a plane in 4 1/2 hours! I am excited for Christmas, excited to go shopping at TARGET (Oh, Target, I miss you!), and most of all, excited to see my excited family!!

Thanks for reading and counting down with me. I don't know if I'll post in between now and the time we return. We will have a pretty packed 10 days. But I will post sometime shortly after the New Year to give an update on our job fair plans and results. In the meantime, please pray for safe travels for us and others traveling at this time. Merry Christmas!

Vacation Week AKA Week of the Pyramids

Warning! This post is long and possibly too educational. ;)

We had this past week off from school because this week was Eid al Adha, a Muslim holiday during which Muslims remember Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael on Mt. Moriah, and God's provision when He provided the ram instead. The story is the same as the Genesis story, the son in the story is different.

The celebration involves sacrificing a sheep, camel, cow, or similar animal and then feasting afterward. One of the important parts of Islam is providing for the poor, so half of the meat is usually given away.

We know friends and neighbors who have been to watch the actual sacrifices, but we chose to hole up in the apartment, instead.

Sacrifice Day was Monday, and the feasting and celebrating was supposed to conclude on Wednesday. We figured it was safe to go out again on Tuesday - when I say safe, I just mean we probably would be spared the gore and blood - so we hired a driver to take us to the lesser-known pyramids near Cairo.

We went to the Great Pyramid last September, and I was appropriately amazed, but for some reason these lesser pyramids intrigue me more. (Maybe I sympathize with them because they must be insecure, right Mom?) Anyway, the first one we visited was the Step Pyramid at Sakkara.

This type of pyramid was the earliest type of pyramid, and this is the first one in Egypt. It's basically six tombs built one on top of the other. It was supposed to have been covered (like all the pyramids were) with white limestone, and the appearance would have been smooth. The limestone was later stripped and melted down for lime.


This pyramid complex is surrounded by tombs and the mortuary temple. You can go in the tombs, which are little rooms with hieroglyphs on the walls, like these, which show different offerings brought to the noble who was entombed there:


This is the hypostyle hall (big columned area) inside the mortuary temple. The columns were different than any I've seen so far in Egypt. They are very smooth, and they are supposed to resemble bundles of papyrus.


After the Step Pyramid, we left and drove to Dahshur, where there are several more pyramids. The first one we went to is called the Red Pyramid, though it's not very red....
This pyramid was built by the same pharoah who built the next one we saw (stay tuned), and that guy experimented a lot, trying to build a smooth sided pyramid with good construction. This was the first truly successful smooth pyramid. (Again, it would've appeared smoother when it had its limestone covering. Some of that covering is actually still intact on one corner of this pyramid.)

Anyway, this pyramid is cool because it's not crowded and you can get in and see everything without anyone hassling you for tips or trying to sell you souvenirs. Do you see that hole in the pyramid about halfway up? That's where you go in.
Once you get to the entrance, this guy takes your tickets and tells you when to go in.
You can see the size of the entrance there--that's how big the opening is the whole way down into the pyramid. It's a long, steeply slanted walkway with metal ribs that keep your feet from sliding down, down, down.
Jason went first, followed by Luke, and then me. As we descended, the smell of ammonia strengthened, and by the time we reached the bottom it smelled like a cat box that had not been cleaned out for a week or two. With multiple cats. And your face hovering inches above the litter. Pretty nasty. Apparently bats live in the pyramid.

Jason's editorial note: he doesn't think the smell is nearly as bad as I do. But this is my blog. ;)

Being inside the pyramid is a creepy experience to me. Never mind the bats. I get a little panicky in the closed passageway and do better once I reach the bottom and can stand up in the chambers down below. However, Jason kept saying to Luke, "Luke! Can you BELIEVE we're INSIDE a PYRAMID!?!" and then I began thinking about all the rock on top of us... I had to ask him to quit saying that. As long as I don't think about it, I don't freak out. But I could easily get over-anxious. Anyway, this pyramid was neater inside than the Great Pyramid, because there were several chambers we could visit. Here we are inside the first one, about to go through the passage to the second chamber.


And here is my honest reaction to being in a pyramid:
(It's hot, humid, no moving air, and again, a litter box, I tell you!) This picture was in the second chamber. Then we climbed those stairs to get to this third area, which I think was the actual tomb where human remains were found.

Thankfully, after that, it was time to get out of there. Jason took this picture as we were climbing back out of the pyramid. I normally don't allow pictures of me to be taken at this angle, but I had little choice.

When we got out of the red pyramid, we all cooled off and had some water before climbing down the stairs to the ground. When we got to our taxi, a guy and a girl from Russia were waiting for us. They asked if they could share our taxi back to Cairo. They explained that they are archaeologists at Giza and had walked from Sakkara to Dahshur (!!! a long walk in the desert!!!), where they wandered too near a military base and were escorted to the Red Pyramid by the military guys. We explained that we weren't going back to the city yet, and told them they could go with us to the next pyramid and then accompany us home. It was weird, but we had some interesting conversations with them.

The last pyramid we visited that day was the Bent Pyramid.

The same pharoah who built the red pyramid started this one at an angle that was too steep. The pyramid began to collapse, so they finished the pyramid at a gentler angle. This pyramid has a lot of its smooth covering intact, so you can imagine better what the pyramids looked like thousands of years ago.

Our first order of business here was to stop and have lunch. PB&J hits the spot every time. It's what real explorers eat.

Then, Luke declared he had to go to the bathroom. Jason took him to find a place in the desert... when you gotta go, you gotta go... and I, thankful for the lack of crowds, was hoping they would be discreet. Not Luke. He finished and came running across the sand, shouting, "MOMMY!! I WET THE SAND!! I WET THE SAND!! COME LOOK!!"

Business done, Luke and Jason went to check out the pyramid. Here's George Bailey and son:


Apparently I gave birth to a mountain goat, because all Luke wanted to do was climb on things. Jason let him climb on the bent pyramid a little. You can see Luke's little red shirt, but not much of the rest of him.

Luke and his Daddy are good climbing buddies.

I'm including this picture because in the background you can see a French family with their Santa hats on taking their Christmas card picture! The kids are all sitting on the camel.
Later in the week we went with Noel and Rachella to check out a restaurant overlooking the "real" pyramids. We couldn't pass up a chance to run in and say hi to the Sphinx, though. It's my favorite Egypty thing, and Luke loves it too. I also love how Egyptians say it: Sphink-us.





Here's the view from the restaurant we will take you to when you come visit us in Egypt, Mom. :)


And one last great pyramids shot to wrap up with.


On a day like that, it's great to be in Egypt.

Christmas Preparations

Here are the Thanksgiving pictures I kept meaning to post. First, our feast. We feasted and feasted till we could feast no more, and then we had leftovers for nearly a week. It was a beautiful thing! Our food was so delicious and we had a wonderful, relaxed day with the Simons.

Because we are coming home in 10 days (WOO HOO!!!) and will celebrate Christmas with our family, we don't decorate a real tree here in Cairo. However, I'm always looking for a project to do (which is why being an art teacher is great for me), so we created a Christmas tree out of our handprints to hang on the wall. Even Jason participated (He was given no choice.) and so the tree is all three of our handprints. The next night, Luke and I painted ornaments, and the next night, we cut them out and stuck them to the tree. Here's our finished product.

We have a DVD with several Christmas specials on it, including the Grinch. We watched it for the first time just over a week ago. Luke was initially terrified of the Grinch. We were snuggled on the couch watching. He had his hands over his ears and was all balled up and trembling! I actually stopped the DVD and told him the rest of the story so he wouldn't be scared. Then I gave him the option to turn it off and not watch any more, but he wanted to watch. Ever since then he has begged to watch it over and over, and he LOVES pretending to be the Grinch. He taps his fingers in that Grinchy way, recites the lines of the story and the lines the Grinch says. He practices his Grinch faces in the mirror, too! This is his Grinch face when the Grinch gets a "wonderful, awful idea":
So you can see, we are ready for Christmas! We've got 5 more days of school, and then it will be almost time to come home! Can't wait.