Brand new year!

This is a special post for many reasons. First, it is the first post of 2011! Happy New Year! And there is something I want to say to my family and friends that have been there for me for the last several months. It has been a bumpy ride and I want to say thank you for being there for me and supporing me through the really hard times. I hope that the worst is over and from here on out things will be more manageable but I may be speaking too soon! I woke up with a brand new pair of eyes the other day, however, it could be like contact lenses and I don't know if they are the throw away kind or if they work for a while!

I had three weeks of a vacation from site. I was in Egypt for Christmas with my cluster mates from training which was a whole lot of fun!! We had a nice beach resort in Hurghada, Egypt on the Red Sea. It was all inclusive restaurant so we ate A LOT! We left the resort to head out to Cairo and Luxor to make sure we got to see what you go to Egypt to see. It was an early (really early) flight out of Hurghada to Cairo but only 50 minutes away. We arrived in Cairo and took a bus downtown. Not too difficult to navigate that one but it took us a few minutes to get the idea. Once we got downtown we were just going to find a place to eat and a place to sleep and then head out on a journey to find the pyramids. Most things are in English and most people speak English and several other languages but local transport claimed to be a little more challenging. We met someone on our way to breakfast that proved to be very helpful and we didn't know at this point that everyone is because they usually expect to be paid after they show you whatever it is they are showing you! He found us some food, a toilet, a hostel and then he took us the pyramids. He claimed to live near it so it was just on his way home.

Traffic in Cairo is quite the show and you need to search deep down to the days of attari or whatever game floated your boat back then and break out your frogger skills. I think you can also call it "Chicken". There is definitely a skill to crossing the street in Cairo and I still don't know how the traffic lights worked if at all but everyone seemed to know exactly when to go which was all the time so a break in the traffic never really came you just had to cross and cross your fingers while you were doing that. And the bus stops? Who put the bus stops on the corner of major highways while the traffic would whiz around in front of you while you stand on the side of the road which quite frankly didn't exist. You were basically hanging out in the road and you flagged down the bus that you needed and as it kept going, of course because why would it stop long enough for you to get on with the potential of getting hit in the ass by another car, you just grabbed on and jumped up onto it. Very rarely did the bus actually stop!

So on the way to the pyramids we stopped at the papyrus museum...why? I don't know because none of us were interested but I am sure this was the guy's cousin or Uncle or someone close to him's shop and he needed us to spend money there. We were catching on real quick at this point. After the awkwardness of the presentation we bought a couple of things and then got back on the bus and the pyramids were the NEXT stop! Well we got off the bus and walked down an alley way none of us really knowing what was going on but at least we could see the pyramids in the distance! We were taking to some stables to inquire about camel rides around the pyramids because we were told that walking they would be too far away from each other. It was quite a scary few moments because we had no idea what to expect and some of us were getting quite nervous but we did it and we got some camels and off to the pyramids we FINALLY go.

This was an amazing experience. The pyramids were something else and galloping along on the camels was fun. Especially since my camel had some fatuation with Amy's camel and it kept rubbing up on it's ass end with it's neck and then Amy's camel would move around from side to side and Amy would have to hold on for dear life. This was hilarious for me. I couldnt do much in this situation because I was laughing too hard. Amy's face was priceless. I think she was very nervous she might end up falling off this thing! Oh and at some point, and I regret that I didn't see this for myself, John was bitten by Conor's camel! Priceless!

The Sphinx was next and we got to go inside the temple underneathe it so we could get pretty close to it and these kids helped us do some fun poses with the Sphinx which was fun but they wanted money for their efforts. It is really kind of sad to know that these kids have to do this everyday to get money.

So after two fun filled days in Cairo we took an overnight train to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings and some other fun stuff. We met our guide when we got off the train and of course went for a money ride again. I wonder if it is just miscommunication!?! We had some really good food in Luxor, took an interesting journey through a masque and a walk through the bazaar! And then a 7 hour bus ride, with all the stops, back to Hurghada. After all that traveling some R&R on the beach is just what we all needed.

We left Egypt and the sunny warm temperatures and back to really cold a$$ Ukraine. Then I went to Lviv for New Year's Eve which was awesome! Hung out with some other PCVs and met a traveling musician at the famous coffee house "Gloria Jeans"!

After Lviv I just hadn't had enough traveling and grabbed myself a PCV and went to Budapest, Hungary. I went to the train station all prepared to go back to Konotop but there was a train going to Budapest and I decided to take that one instead! It was super cold there but the city is gorgeous and so western. The architecture there is amazing! It is a must for nicer weather but I will take what I can get.

So I am back in KTOP and it is "Old New Year" here today and this morning when I got to my office there were seeds all over the place and I didn't understand why. I still don't particularly understand why but I was blessed, if you will, by seeds later on that day while someone wished me happiness, love, health, etc they threw seeds at me. That is how they do it here! It was an interesting experience and I closed my eyes everytime they came my way. I also spent Ukrainian Christmas here which was the 7th of Jan. I had two parties to go to and I ate and drank so much between the hours of 2pm and 8pm it was ridiculous I didn't move the next day. They cook 12 dishes on Christmas and that is a lot of food. Not for Ukraine but that is a lot of food!

Till next time! Happy Old New Year!