Egypt!!!!

 My aunt Florence and I leave for Egypt on Saturday and I thought I would post our schedule for those that are interested. I am super excited about this trip

First we get into Luxor on Saturday (omg! a week!!!) at midnight, get the visas and then go in a convoy to the ship, A welcome on the ship then off to the land of sleep

Day 2 Luxor-Thebes- visit Thebes, the valley of the kings  and Medinet Habou.stop for photos in front of  les Colosses de Memnon. Go down the nile to Edfou,

Day 3 At Edfou visit the temple of Horus and then leave to travel down the river to Kom Ombo and visit the temple of  Sobek. Navigation to  Assouan.

Day 4- Visit the temple of Philae and then go by special boat around the island of Elephantine . There is a special lights show that you can do, don't know if we will yet.

Day 5- Taking a bus to Abou Simbel temple, spend the morning there then the afternoon on the nile going up to Luxor.

Day 6- Visit the temples of Luxor and Karnack , another sounds and light show optional

Day 7- Cairo-  go by plane to Cairo Vist the pyramids, the Sphinx, Cairo museum.

Day 8- to the airport, we leave really early must be around 2am as we get to France at 615.

So as you can see very hectic schedule but I am so psyched. Im brushing up on my arabic, just simple gretting also outfits to wear ie being a muslim country its good to respect their values, not too much exposed skin ect ect, also the art of haggling must be learnt. Iv read and also saw a hidden camera show on cruise ships, and when going to a gift shop a lot of the time you haggle with the person as to how much you pay. My friend who went to Morroco said it is the same thing over there and has given me some good tips, they key is to act confident,

London and the end of work

London was amazing. Of course being London it was cold and miserable for the day that I chose to go sightseeing but that did not dampen my enthusiasm for what I saw.

I stayed at my cousins place, it was great. Especially hearing stories about my parents when they were younger. Easter day was spent wallking around redhill which is outside London and going to the village in which the film the Holiday starring Cameron Diaz was filmed. It was a quaint english village and very cute.

The next day was raining and wet , I went into London by train to see the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, The London eye and Big Ben. I went on one of those hop on and off bus tours. It was fun, would of been even better if it had not been raining. The tower of london was huge!. Not suprising considering it has served as a royal residence, fortress and jail. So many people of note have been executed that, some of the most famous being Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard -two of Henry 8ths Queens. You can see the site where they were executed and also the chapel in which they are buried but not take pictures. Apparently every May Day (the day Anne Boleyn was arrested) someone places a rose on her grave.
 

I then did a river cruise from the tower to Westiminster in which you go past the London Eye, I did not go into the church as you had to pay quite a bit. I did take pictures from the outside and also saw Big Ben. It was very cool.

The next day I went with Harry to the British Museum, it was amazing and so big, there was so much to see that we did not cover all of it. The Egyptian part was especially nice. I also saw Buckingham Palace which was cool. I then went back to France to get ready for the last days of teaching.

I have finished teaching and I must saw thank goodness, on the second to last day with my final class at one of my schools I just wanted ti to be over! the kids were just not listning or caring and it was so annoying. My other classes were well behaved however and gave me lots of pictures.

I have booked Egypt and leave in approxinatly two weeks...exciting!!!

Nuts and Bolts

Hard to believe that I only have 2and a bit weeks of work left. Where has the time gone? This last term has been draining, my CMs are doing english evaluations so been preparing them for that also trying to come up with fun and interesting lessons for my students. Games work well...but not when they end in a kid tripping over his shoe laces and hitting the floor (he was fine) and as the teacher said, A good example of why you should tie up your laces but still not something you want to happen in your classes.

In terms of blogging, I have neglected this blog but to be honest it is so much easier to write mass emails and update my facebook, still that is no excuse.

Future plans include Egypt (currently organising) looks like it will be a 8 day cruise at this point at the start of May, very excited.

London this weekend I am so excited about this.....foreign money to add to my travel journal is also a bonus. One of the things i love about Europe and what I will miss is the ease of travel to different countries.

Going back to life in New Zealand is going to be an interesting experience