Genova Excursion

The 5/6 in front of the Aquarium before our tour.

Thursday, April 24

The 5/6 planned an excursion that was scheduled as a 14 hour day. We knew that it was going to be difficult and there was a lot of potential for complaining or bored children. However, it was a rather peaceful and pleasant day.

At 6:45 am we all gathered together in the Main Parking lot waiting for our bus, munching on Turkey sandwiches for breakfast. Once on the bus the kids settled in for a three hour ride into Italy, with the destination being the Aquarium and the Citta di Bambini.



We practiced our fish faces while we waited to enter the museum.


All the girls of 5/6


Mr. Cali snuggling up to the aquarium mascot.


The TV studio inside the Citta di Bambini. The kids dominated this area for some time before an Italian school kicked them out.



This activity was really neat. The kids stood infront of a blank screen and placed their arms in different positions. Then rocks began to tumble down filling their arms and moving with their bodies. You could throw the rocks, dump them, and even pass them from one person to the next. Not really sure how it worked but the teachers had a good time playing as well.


Guia and Mike crawled on their hands and feet to view the turtles participating in their natural reproduction dance. You would expect this from the kids but not the adults.

Both destinations were great and kid friendly. They couldn't get enough of the fish, sharks and turtles and then at the next stop, there was a TV studio that was kid friendly. They produced their own news cast which entertained them for quite some time.

The bus ride home was a little more adventurous with the bus not working after dinner and having the kids play in the parking lot for twenty minutes while the problem was solved. We arrived back at TASIS at 9:30. The next morning, I only had 3 kids out of 8 arrive for classes. I guess that is the way to cute numbers.

San Moritz - April 5 & 6

Nothing like coming back from a hot vacation and spending the next weekend surrounded by snow skiing at one of Switzerland's swankiest resorts, San Mortiz. Carla, Allie and I took off at 6 am Saturday morning, initially in flip flops and enjoying the warm beautiful weather of Ticino. Then as we drove through the pass we were in a winter wonderland.

The skiing was probably the best that I have had all year. The snow was fantastic and the weather was warm. The only downfall was it was difficult to tell the variations in the snow on some of the slopes, causing us to slow down as to not wipe out. Then on Sunday morning we woke to white out conditions. So we departed, driving through new accumulation and even as we left the pass on the other side there was snow on the ground where there wasn't the day before. However, Ticino was still untouched but it was the beginning of two weeks of rain and clouds upon us.

Egypt Day 8-11 Relaxing, Markets, Alexandria, and more Relaxing

Saturday, March 22 - We sat by the pool for eleven hours getting toasted by 103 degrees. It was fantastic and much needed.

Sunday, March 23 - We flew from Aswan to Cairo where we met Ramez. He had already booked another group for the afternoon and evening so Allyson and I decided to go to the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar on our own. Of course we first checked that taking and catching taxis would be safe on our own by asking 18 different people. It ended up being so easy. At the market we did a fabulous job bargaining for boxes and essence burners before heading home for the evening. It was really fun to be on our own without a schedule or someone to report to after our adventures.

Monday, March 24

Allyson, Ramez and I headed to Alexandria which started out with a 3 hour ride with Ramez smacking his gum, fake laughing, and asking the same question whenever there was a pleasant silence. Little did we know that the ride was foreshadowing the whole trip.

First stop the National Museum of Alexandria. My own personnel hell. Every single piece was explained to us and we received its full history. Then we were off to the Catacombs of Kom El-Shoquafa where we went deep below the ground to see multiple tombs and passages connecting them. They were buried under homes until the 1900's and they continue to have to pump water out of the them daily so people may enter and tour.

Next stop Pompey's Pillar and the sight of our first picture of the day. We were beginning to think there would be no documentation of our trip to Alexandria.



Then the highlight of the trip the Bibliotheca Alexandria. Also known as a really big library on top of where the largest library once stood. We broke our guides record as the quickest visitors ever to enter and leave. Essentially it was a big college library. However Allyson and I took another picture as not to be rude.


The roof of the library was really cool. There was a design competition to determine what the building was going to look like.

Then they finally fed us because we were becoming slightly cranky from exhaustion and starvation. After lunch it was off to our last stop the Montazah Palace Gardens. We reached this destination after sitting in traffic for almost two hours in which I napped. There is not much to say about the gardens or the palaces.


Allyson and I in front of one of the palaces which is now a hotel.

Allyson and I with Ramez and Sahay our Alexandria tour guide.
We took pictures then back into the car for the four hour ride to Cairo where Ramez taught us a game that was an advanced version of go fish. He couldn't understand rummy so we had to settle for that for a painful amount of time. Once the cards were put away we taught him many new words and phrases to improve his English.


Ramez, Allyson and I on our last guided tour.

Tuesday, March 25 - We sat by the pool once again and got our toes done. A fantastic end to a wonderful trip.

Egypt Day 7 - Abu Simbel

Friday, March 21 ~ This morning we had to say goodbye to our friends and check out. We were off to a flight to Abu Simbel to see Ramses II and Nefertary's tombs.

At the tomb we were missing our regular company conversation and tour guide so we made up our own.


Clive do you think all this is still getting excavated? (The answer is NO but we didn't find that out till later.) It was actually the only portion of the cliff that was not original. It was put there to provide support for the front of the tomb.


The tomb was impressive and so different from the others. It had also been moved from it's original location because of the building of the dam. It had been 64 meters below the water not to far from where it stands now.


Clive I think it use to be right there!


What was different was that size of everything. It was all huge, the statues, the hieroglyphs, the stones inside. And they were all still so well preserved because yes, they had been under sand, only to be discovered by a peasant walking by.


We tried to interpret hieroglyphs to feel lie we were back with Amir but it just wasn't the same so we left the temple to fly back to Aswan to sleep the rest of the day.

Check me out...this just shows true enormity of the statues. I am standing by Ramses II at Nefertary's tomb.


Nefertary's Tomb. Ramses was a smart man. He built her tomb first in order to allow for the architects to practice building before tackling his tomb.


This is a view of both tombs set into the cliffs. From this picture you can really see the task that had be tackled to move them from under the water.

This was the first day that we really felt uncomfortable and pressured to tip. All the guides have been very forward asking for money as well as hitting on us or making comments about our looks. It may have been because we were tired or it had finally gotten on our nerves.

Egypt Day 6 - Aswan

Thursday, March 20 ~ Another early wake-up after a late evening of dancing to an interesting mix of music where "It's Raining Men" was the song to get us all on the dance floor.


After we departed the boat we had to wait with the hordes of tourists whose boats had also passed through the locks the previous day in order to enter this temple. While we waited it felt like we were cattle being driven through a small door. Everyone pushed and pushed to be the first ones in. We stood quietly waiting, resting getting ready for Amir.


This morning we docked in Kom Ombo where the Temple of Sobek exists.

Sobek is the God of the Nile who is represented as a man with the head of a crocodile. At this point it looks like all the other temples and we even tried to get out of the tour by teaching Amir many points during the party the evening before. We did a quality job of predicting what he was going to tell us.


The highlights were the mummified crocodiles



and Allyson and I taking glamor shots among the ruins.


The other was the hieroglyph of a women having a baby who was predicted to be the next king and the calendar of the ancient festivals.


We found another Nile Meter, it wasn't too exciting. So Allyson, Marco and Clive spiced up the picture by attempting to jump in.

This is a typical strip of shops outside of all the tourist sights. Inside those stores are men who will heckle nonstop.

Then we set sail for Aswan where we visited the Philae Temples. This temple looked just like the Temple of Horus, but what was really cool about this one is that originally it was completely under water, when they built the Aswan Dam. The Dam actually put 19 temples under water and the Egyptians with help from other countries have slowly been bringing them to dry ground, with no evidence of the move.


They moved the temple by building a wall around it and drained out the water. Then they disassembled the entire temple to move it to an island. Inside the temple was the Temple of Isis where her throne stills exists. While looking at this thrown we learned her importance as wife of Osiris and the one who was able to find Osiris and bring him back to life multiple times after his evil brother chopped him to pieces and sent him to float down the Nile.


Amir lecturing us about the different aspects of the temple.
From there we drove across the Aswan High Dam and stopped to take pictures of Lake Nasser. Then once again to an essence place were Allyson and I were suckers once again and now we are set with scents till we are 80. Clive again began to wander, all the way up to the top of a building and into someone's home. It made Amir a little nervous but it amused the rest of us.

The highlight of these tours was the sunset Felucca ride around the Elephatine Islands.


At one point, the driver of the Felucca handed the wheel over to Marco. He took on the job, with only a couple of faces made.


However, when I got home I realized I was so interested in the sunset and the boats on the after that I completely missed the huge boulders that look like elephants bathing.

Our last evening on the boat was interesting to say the least. There was a Nubian Show where three men continuously pulled women to the dance floor to do various movements. I successfully stayed in my chair until the end where I was pulled up by a man in a head dress, skirt and was screaming. He was scary but I have not laughed that hard in the longest time. He lined us all up to repeat a series of gibberish sayings and crazy hand movements. Michelle was really the only one to behave and so she was asked to the middle to demonstrate and teach us. She really made the show.

Egypt Day 5 - Temple of Edfu / Horus

Wednesday, March 19 ~ we finally got through the Locks at Esna during breakfast. The water had to raise 7 meters before being raised high enough to enter the other side.

It was very comforting as we watched the process to see three men use masking tape to repair something along the walls.



Later that morning we visited the Temple at Edfu, also known as the Temple of Horus. According to Amir it is the best preserved temple because it was buried for so long. However damage was done when the Egyptian Christians were vacated out of Cairo and they hid in the temple bringing in animals and they started fires which burned off a lot of the color damaging the walls and many of the interior tombs.




Every wall and column was covered with hieroglyphs. There were multiple chambers inside where some of the color had not faded off. In one of the chambers there was boat that represented how the gods of the time to the after life.
Then when we went outside were were shown where there is record of belly dancers during the time of the pharaohs. From there we walked down a steep set of steps into the Nile Meter. The Nile meter is used to measure the level of the Nile and determine the quality of the crop for the year. I was the first to walk down the steps and it was dark with everyone behind me providing no true light. I kept walking towards the little square of light where I could clearly see the Nile lapping against the walls only to find myself actually stepping into the Nile up to my ankle. Luckily I was able to warn everyone else of the potential hazard so they were able to keep their feet dry.

Afterwards Amir graciously gave us some free time to walk around and shop. The men heckled us once again as we tried to purchase outfits for our ethnic party. Allyson was much more patient then I and found an outfit. she also got asked how many camels for her hand in marriage. As a table we had said that none of us would dress up. So I didn't heckle or purchase anything. However, all their stories changed and they came back with outfits. So on the bus I decided on getting a gallabiya for the dinner. Amir told me no because the boat had to depart. I did it anyway and Clive helped me get a dress for 36 Egyptian Pounds. Plus the rest of the group decided to shop as well so I was the first one back and they held us up instead of me.



The Sunset as we floated down the Nile.


Clive, Michelle and Allyson sitting by the pool.

The evening was a lot of fun. Some people came totally decked out in costume, while others had just a shirt or turban. Our whole table dressed, even Marco and Mike.

During dinner, Sam our waiter entertained us with napkin folding tricks. I successfully made a chicken, while Sam made a lily for me and a princess crown for Allyson. Clive being funny made his napkin trick, also known as a flat triangle, and said "Look a pyramid". Sam wasn't all that amused.


Table 3 in all their glory.


At the after party we took a family picture where the Cowboy's and Indians united. Then a series of scandalous games were played including roll the potato with a string between your legs and pour a beer into your wifes lap. Clive won the potato King Crown.