Cairo 2009
The team and our 2009 'hand sign!'
Guillaume (boys #1) being a tourist! For the record, these shots are hard to line up!I've realized that over a month has passed since the last blog, so I'd better get to putting something up....so here it is!
If February can be summed up in one word, I'd say that word is tennis! And that's a good thing for me, because I love tennis. During the month I'm busy coaching tennis at school. This year was a bit strange as both the JV and Varsity tennis teams were combined into just one Varsity team as the JV tournament (usually held in April) could not find a host. I had a great team! Most of the players from the JV team last year happen to be the best players in the school, so they are the ones that made the traveling team along with a lone senior who played last year. The girls team travels along with us and is coached by a good friend of mine. The tournament this year was held in Cairo at Cairo American College (which is really a international high school). I don't care what people think or say, Cairo is a cool city in my book. It's big, it's dirty, it's chaotic, it's full of history, it's polluted, but it's REAL WORLD!! I'm not going to dog Dubai, but it was good to be in place where culture surrounds you. Don 't get me wrong, the area of Cairo where the school is located and near where I stayed is in a very nice upscale part of Cairo. The saying among teachers that live in the area is, "we only live a 10 minute drive from Egypt!" In one of those typical 'six degrees of seperation' type moments of international teaching, I stayed with a couple and the guy turned out to be the younger brother of a girl that I knew of from my Kuwait days and later met on a trip to Thailand! During these tournaments (three straight seven hour days of tennis) don't provide a whole lot of time for other activities but there is usually a team outing or social as part of the tournament. This year most of the teams went to this place called the citadel, which like most cities that have a citadel, is situated on top of a hill in the old part of Cairo. The citadel is no longer there; now it's a park. And since it was Friday, the first day of the week-end in the Islamic world, the place was packed with families, couples, and people just enjoying an evening out. The team and I people watched, acted like fools, and later ate at the restaurant on the hill. As we were there it was unusually clear, so we saw a good sunset over the city of Cairo. Since the sun was setting, it was prayer time and it was so cool to hear all the different call to prayers going off at ALMOST the same time at the various mosques in the area below us....and there must have been at least thirty. Our flight back to Dubai the day after the tournament ended didn't leave until early evening so that meant a day of sightseeing. For most of the students, it was like (hoo hum) the pyramids again! Most had been to Cairo on trips before, but since my fellow coach had never been as well as a few players, there was no way we were not going to the pyramids! This was probably my 5th trip to the pyramids (at least!) but the first trip in 10 years. They are so awe inspiring and just plain cool. One side of the pyramid area is right next to the city and the other side faces a wide open Sahara Desert. We walked around, took tons of pictures especially of the one where it seems as if you are touching the top of a pyramid that is in the distance, and just enjoyed the team camaraderie. I'm usually an astute traveler and seldom fall for the scams, but one got me at the pyramids before I knew it! In front of the entire team I had on an Arab men's head wrapping and was being positioned to put my finger on top of a far off pyramid! Of course he wanted no money UNTIL the end and it was apparent that we didn't want to buy anything from him. The team was rolling, but it did provide some entertainment! After the pyramids we enjoyed lunch at TGI-Fridays (yes, they are just about everywhere!), but this one is on the banks of the Nile. Suprisingly, on the opposite side of the Nile, it is not built up so you can see some farmland and a more rural way of life. There were also a few fellucas (old style wooden boat with canvas sail) out on the river. They are used for transporting goods, but in this area more for transporting tourists up and down the river. After lunch the team took a 45 minute ride or sort of ride! It was very windy, so all we did was go out on the boat into the middle of the river and just kind of floated around there! Still, it was cool to be out on the Nile in a felluca! On the way out, we saw fisherman families trying to get ready to go out for the day. The Nile is cool...while it's the longest river in the world, it's not very wide - at least as it passes through Cairo. For the SC people reading, it is probably as wide as like the Wando River where 526 passes over it....if that!
Before leaving for Cairo I managed to see one night of the pro woman's tennis tournament that was in Dubai. It's one of the riches tournaments in the world (of course), so it attracts a star packed player list. I saw Ana Ivanovic play in the only match that I saw. I had to pass on Serena Williams as it was the night before I left for Cairo. The tournament was ripe with contrversy and unwanted publicity for Dubai, as the government denied (at the last minute) the visa of an Israeli player who is ranked in the top 30. For the record like most Arab countries, Dubai doesn't recongnize Israel as a country, therefore those with Israeli passports are not allowed into the country. The week after I returned, the men's tournament began. Unfortunately, Federer, Nadal, and Rodick pulled out but just about all the other top players were there. I had tickets for the entire tournament so it was a pretty intense week rushing from school to the matches and watching them late into the night. Several students have bigwig fathers who work for companies that sponsor the tournament, so VIP tickets are often given by the students to teachers. I was lucky enough to sit in 'prime' seats for most of the tournament. I either gave my 'regular seating' tickets away or sold them at the gate as the tournament, especially the later stages, sell out in less than an hour! My best seat had me at center court, in the first row for a Djokovic/Simon three hour semi-final! Incredible...that kid gets an 'A' in English for the year!! Of course, he is already an 'A' student so it's easy to say that!!
Another thing I got involved in irecently was dragonboat racing, which is one of the oldest forms of boat racing in the world going back to China like 2,000 years or so. Basically, there are 22 people in a long narrow boat and you paddle like hell for the distance that you are racing. I was on a team of teachers and one student that represented my school; our name - rock and row! Technically, we paddle but who needs to get technical with a name!? Of the three school teams, we won in the final few meters as our push towards the end nudged us every so slightly ahead. It was a photo-finish and we won by less than .5 second! We also raced in another division, but because of a technicality we, as a team, didn't want to wait around all afternoon to race again so we forfeited our spot. No matter, it was a fun time racing and training for the race. It was held on a manmade canal that runs through the manmade marina district of Dubai! It is a beautiful area with shops, high rise apartment buildings, and 'lifestyles of the rich and famous' type yachts.
As fun as that was, the real fun was the afterparty. It was one of those nights were you just dance until you can't dance no more! The dragonboat experience was fun and one that I'll probably do again next year. We had plans for the next one in Dubai but it's during our spring break, so we'll have to take a pass on it.
Recently, the World Cup of Rugby was held in Dubai, so some friends and I headed out for the finals and bought some scalped tickets for less than the $80 they were selling for. It was a beautifal Dubai day (sunny and warm) to be outside enjoying some sport entertainment. This form of rugby is called "the 7's." This means that there are seven player on a side and each half is only seven minutes long with two periods being played. Since the field is regulation size and regular rugby has like 15 players on a side, the action is fast and furious with a lot of scoring. As soon as one game is finished, another team takes the field right away and another game begins. There were both girls and guys playings It was a lot of fun...both the competition and all the activities in the stands. Rugby isn't huge in the US but it's massively popular in England, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia and since there are a lot of people from these countries living in the UAE, this was quite the event with over 100,000 people attending over the three day tournament. People in the stands are waving flags, chanting, dancing, etc. As there were teams from all over the world playing, there was much commotion going on. Combine that with the way those above people like to drink and things get pretty festive. For the record, the men from Wales and the woman from Australia won the this edition of the Rugby World Cup.
Now, it's the last few weeks before spring break. As most teachers and students will agree, I can't wait! I'm off to Bali for a week by way of Bangkok for a day on both ends of the trip. I was in Bali during my gap year for a long week-end but hope to do a few more activies this time around like spending a day exploring on a mountain bike trip and some whitewater rafting, and maybe some diving. This is a wrap...until the next blog.....
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