one week

A week ago I spent the day sleeping off our long trip. Today I'm getting up and going to Ninja Training. Really, it's just self defense class and for exercise, not because I'm worried about my personal safety, but Josh calls it NT and that makes me laugh. I'm a little nervous that I'm going to be way out of my league, fitness wise, but it can't be any scarier than oh, moving to Egypt.

****************************************************************

The verdict: Ninja Training was really fun. My knuckles are a little bruised and they look like I was working out with Rocky in the meat freezer, but it felt great.

Another crazy busy day in Egypt. While I was at NT, Josh took all the kids to the Etisalat store -- a cell phone internet store. Supposedly they parked like all the other Egyptians, which means they double parked and blocked several cars in the process and were in the store for an hour and a 1/2. When I asked, "how do you know that the people you blocked in didn't have to leave?" Carter replied, "That's how you gotta do it in Egypt, mom! Just like all the other cars out there!" I'd say he's adjusting well.

My NT instructor said that once he was blocked in somewhere for 4 hours and all you do is sit there and wait for the owner of the car to show up. Sometimes they "bounce" the car out of the way - a bunch of dudes start pushing down on the bumper and get the car bouncing and then on the upswing they push it sideways until it moves enough so that the other cars can pass. Note to self: find a reliable taxi driver and keep his number on speed dial cause the idea of waiting somewhere for an undetermined amount of time for some yahoo to come back to his car = one crazy mad lady.

I hit the road again in the afternoon when a friend drove me to the commissary. Gotta get back on the horse, right? It was much less stressful -- probably because I completely shot every single nerve the day before. To get into the commissary you have to drive up to this unmarked compound where a guard checks your ID, then he allows you to drive into this cage. Then another dude checks your ID again and sweeps your car for bombs. Once it's determined that you're not a threat, then you can go buy groceries. Seriously. With that type of security, you'd think they'd be giving them away for free. Unfortunately, they aren't. However, you can buy bacon and other forbidden pork products. We only ever had bacon for special occasions in the states, but Josh has already made it twice this week. I guess forbidden fruit tastes better.

And for no reason other than because I think they are cute: