Presidential Inauguration

We've made friends with the head of the American Consulate here in Alexandria since we've been here. She is young and newly married too, a lot of fun to hang out with and on our school board. She invited us over for an Inauguration party to watch President Obama sworn into office. We had a very good time and mingled with some interesting people to chat with. She had several guests that were being hosted by the consulate either for political, business, or social good will travels to Egypt. She also had American snacks where were a great treat.
Egyptians are very excited about our incoming president. They are huge Obama supporters, however, whenever I ask someone why they can never give me an answer. All they know is that he promises "change" and they want "change". But then again, when I ask what do they want changed they really don't know that either. I've had several occasions out in public where someone has come up to me and asked if I was an American and then said, "Yes, Obama!" and show that they are so happy we elected him.

New Year’s Resolution

While we were home we realized just how many people have been reading our blog. It made us feel really good to know that so many people were interested and also that it helps so many of our loved ones feel more secure with our new life style. We also found out that a few people that we don’t know personally but are friends of our friends or family have also been interested in following our blog and learning about the Middle East. “Hello new friends, nice to have you reading too.”

We also had a lot of really good conversations with people that made me realize how many misconceptions are out there about Egypt, the Middle East, and Islam that I am very proud to be brining a first hand experience to people. I also know now what type of things you are interested in reading about.

So this year my New Year’s Resolution is to be better about posting more frequently on this blog. However, I have a request. We want to know what you are thinking and who is reading our blog. We’d love some feedback. At the bottom of each post there is a little link that says “comments”, please click that and leave us a comment once in awhile.

Home for the Holidays

The old classic Christmas carol was right, there is no place like home for the holidays. Over all we had a nice trip home and enjoyed our time with family and being back in our own country. Seth’s dad’s surgery was very successful and the entire family appreciated all the love, concern and prayers we got from so many people.

It was fantastic being with family again, especially during Christmas. We really enjoyed spending time with our nieces and nephew and we were trilled to see our dog Desiree again and soaked up as much time with her as we could. We apologize to all our friends and family that we missed out on seeing; hopefully we’ll get to see you over the summer.

I was missing winter weather in Egypt but we defiantly got our share of it on this trip. It was snowing when we arrived and we had several snow and ice storms and even one freak wind storm while home. I was ready to get back to the consistent weather of Alexandria.

We defiantly satisfied a lot of our food cravings while we were home, especially with it being the holidays and the abundance of food around. Kristal’s mom was great about asking what foods we missed and cooking them for us. However, we didn’t get to any of the restaurants we were missing; we’ll have to go to Chipotle and Cold Stone this summer. The other great thing about coming home is that we got the chance to pick up a few things that we didn’t think to bring or realized we can’t get in Egypt and also a few warmer clothes since it doesn’t stay in the 100 degree range all year round like you always imagine the Egyptian dessert to be like. The number one thing we bought to bring back....Crystal Lite! And I think I should get some kind of award for my skills at packing and the way I was able to make every single one of those packets fit into something else as to not take up any extra space.

But after a month of living out of a suitcase and jumping around from house to house we were ready to come back home to Egypt.