I am writing this beachside, sipping a “Kamares Cooler” as the sun is setting on the island of Sifnos.  We will write more later, but we wanted to share a few pictures and assure everyone that we are safe and sound.

The following pictures are from the partial day we spent in Athens.  We had some time there before our ferry ride to the island and decided to visit the Acropolis and the new Acropolis Museum.  It was incredible, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch as well!  The other pictures are from our room at Alkyonis Villas in Sifnos. It’s absolutely perfect for relaxing and enjoying the view of this majestic place!  Tomorrow we are going to explore other parts of the island, so there will be lots more to post later on.

Scenes from a megamart shopping center we mistakenly visited on a busy pre-Ramadan weekend.

And finally, here are a few of our favorite photos from our photographers.  All of their photos are amazing and can be viewed on their website www.blaineandbethany.com/slideshows/emilybrandon/.

Hi folks, Emily here. So much has happened in the last month.  So much.

The biggest news is that Brandon and I got married on August 2nd!!!  It was truly the best day of my life!  Everything was perfect!  A lot of work went into the big day, and I can’t thank my Mom and Dad, Meredith, and Ryan, and the Canfields enough for all that they did to make the day so special!  It was a major labor of love… there was major assembly and setup, laying sod, hanging lights, making table runners, setting up video cameras, you name it.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!  We also can’t thank Judy enough for the amazing cake!!  It was beautiful and delicious and perfect!  Thanks, Judy!!  And thanks to our friends Pennie and Buddy for all their help with getting everything ready… from clearing weeds and spreading hay to baking berry pies, you guys did so much!!  Thanks everyone!!

Here are some pictures from the big day…

To see the awesome photos our photographers Blaine and Bethany took, visit their website www.blaineandbethany.com/slideshows/emilybrandon and view our slideshow. It is fantastic if I do say so myself!

The following pictures are from the rehearsal dinner at Brandon’s parents’ house…

I swear we aren’t really singing in that first one, but it makes for a great photo.  Brandon’s family put on a fabulous party for the rehearsal dinner!  Tamales, mariachi, and a ton of fun!  It was such a blast, and a great break from all the packing and work leading up to the wedding.  We really enjoyed getting to spend time with our family and friends.  So many wonderful memories!  Thanks Scott, Diane, Betty, Robin, and Judy!  It was wonderful!

Brandon worked the entire week before the wedding in the 105+ degree heat in our tiny unairconditioned oven of a house and surprisingly managed to not die of a heat stroke.   He got a lot done, but we still had a lot of work left to do.  Our parents were wonderful and helped us pack, sort, store, haul, and clean; and despite all of our doubts, we managed to get everything done!

So now the story of our journey…

After an eventful month of very little sleep and a lot of excitement, we made it to the airport with our beloved little Alie.  We are pretty lucky to have a cat that loves to crawl into the smallest shape possible in the tiniest space available, so things were pretty easy for her as far as traveling for 25 hours in a cat carrier.  She was a trooper for sure.  When we landed in Amsterdam we were exhausted.  Not wanting to sleep at the gate during our 8 hour layover, we checked into the Yotel.  Now, the Yotel is about the smartest idea EVER.  The Yotel (yes, I’m going to keep calling it that) is a hotel within the Amsterdam airport that has rooms with beds and sinks and foldout tables and floorspace so small you can hardly fit all your luggage.  For those of you who are curious, check it out here: http://www.yotel.com/.  We were way too tired to take pictures, although it was very cool, and I did feel like I was in the Jetson’s.  Anyhow, we crashed and slept for four hours which felt like five minutes. Well rested, we boarded our flight to Cairo and arrived shortly after 2am.

When we got home, Marti was waiting for us.  Brandon’s building manager took care of her for us while Brandon was gone, and she seems to be doing great.  Judging by her chubbiness, she certainly didn’t miss any meals, haha.  Anyhow, Alie and Marti, once the best of friends, did not have a happy reunion.  Alie hissed and growled and whined for a day or so, but fortunately she seems to have settled down now, and is mostly back to her sweet old self.  They seem to be doing just fine now.

We’ve spent most of our time unpacking and getting organized.  Brandon made a phenomenal pizza, and I made some world class PB&J sandwiches.  Married life is wonderful!

Stay tuned for more adventures of Emily & Brandon in Cairo!

What better way to take a break from packing than to share some pictures!  A lot has happened in the last month… The biggest news is that Brandon is finally home!  After nearly a year apart, it’s good to have him back in my life!  FINALLY!!!  I am also happy to report that I am mostly recovered from gum surgery.  It was horrific…  I am so grateful for my mom’s support and care during my recovery!  It was wonderful having help and encouragement and someone to keep on top of my pain medicine and to help calm my tremendous fear of every possible worst case scenario!  Despite the misery of getting a gingival graft (I will spare you all the details… that is unless you really want to hear how it all went down… it is kind of fascinating!), so despite the misery, I had a lot of fun with my mom!  The hardest part was trying not to smile.  And my mom had to learn the unique Emilycan’treallyspeak language.  I don’t know who had the worse end of the deal that week – me or my mom.  Thanks for putting up with me Momma!!

And here is a picture of me, all hopped up on pain medicine.

The details of this particular scenario are a little foggy to me, but I am sure Brandon can better recount the story.  Ice packs I can understand.  But moustaches?  on either of us?  What??

So after I recovered, Brandon came home to a mostly mended me!  We’ve been busy getting ready to marry each other!!!  YAY!!!  But seriously, who knew wedding planning would be so much work!?  Who knew!!!?  I guess I did.  Ha.  Anyhow, it has been a busy week and a half.

At this point packing is well underway.  I am having some issues parting with clothing, but hopefully I can figure out how to pare things down.  Alie won’t part with a single toy, I can tell you that much.  And she doesn’t even get a special shipping allowance!

In other news, Brandon and I went on a hot air balloon ride in Newberg, courtesy of his very thoughtful parents!  It was so beautiful!  Neither of us had ever been on a hot air balloon before, and I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun and the views were gorgeous!  It was well worth waking up at 3:30am!  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

So anyhow, it’s been a busy month!  At least everything is back on track.  I had better get back to work now…  Hopefully there will be time to post more pictures later…

H1N1 made its dramatic entrance onto the great continent of Africa via Cairo a couple of weeks ago, carried inside a little girl visiting from the States.  Now it seems some of our students brought it with them as well.

AUC Suspends Classes and Events Until June 14

As a result of the two confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu in the Zamalek dormitory, the university has decided to suspend classes until Sunday, June 14, 2009.  As a result of this decision all non-essential personnel are not required to report to campus, and a limited bus service will be available to transport essential staff. Details of this schedule will follow later this afternoon.

The university is taking this action on the recommendation of the Egyptian Ministry of Health to ensure the health and safety of the AUC community.

The students who have been tested positive are residents of the Zamalek dormitory and are receiving medical treatment for the flu. The Ministry of Health has obtained samples from all residents of the dormitory and those results are expected this evening.

The university’s administration is working closely with the Egyptian Ministry of Health to effectively manage this situation and will continue to keep the AUC community informed as new information becomes available.

Keep in mind this is the same Ministry of Health who thought slaughtering all the pigs was an effective means of preventing the spread of the virus, so their recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt.  Actually, I am more concerned with finding an acceptable alternative for printing some things I was going to print on campus tomorrow than I am of getting the swine flu.  For the record, my temperature at the moment is a perfectly healthy 37.3°C.

For those of you inclined to worry, here is a little something to help take your mind on a sensual journey through last night’s pizztravaganza instead!

sticky oily goodness

perfection

I am ready to come home now.  MLE!  Alie.  Sellwood.  Wheels are only spinning at this point.  We’ve much before us.  Hungry to begin.

Bored?  Need a distraction from woe?  Wondering how your scientific thinking skills measure up, but not enrolled in either section 09 or 14 of Sci120 at the American University in Cairo?  Take the final examination anyway!  Not your style?  How about some smuggled masa harina-based tamales, sacriliciously drowned in a black bean and corn medley?  Veggie (insha’allah) spring rolls packed for later use?  No?  Take the test.  And if I see the word nowadays you fail.

view from office

Spring semester, 2009, is officially over.  Grades have been submitted, and the students’ pleas demands for higher marks have been steadily rolling in.  Why don’t I give a B+ or an A- “like the other doctors” for an 85%?  Because an 85% in a 100-level course is a B.  The sad thing is that I am sure they aren’t exaggerating when they claim other professors do grade according to that scale.  All your students are getting A’s?  You must be a great teacher! Here is tenure for you!

On an unrelated note, thats me 2 days ago standing beneath the burning bush.  Thats right.  The burning bush.  It looks pretty good for being 3000+ years old.  It is in the monastary of St. Catherine (as in Catherine Wheel) in the southern area of the Sinai peninsula, and at the base of Mt. Moses, aka Mt. Sinai (as in commandments numbering to ten at the top; false idol calves of gold at the bottom).  This trip was amazing and I am still pretty worn out.  Highlights included being let into the monastary outside of tourist hours and attending the Greek Orthodox service that has been repeated twice daily for over 1000 years; realizing that all of the decorations and lamps and candle holders and tables and frames and thrones and nearly everything in sight in the church are actually made of solid gold and silver; having the stereotypically monky Father Justin take us to see their library, filled with a few thousand books and hand-transcribed manuscripts, most of which are hundreds to a thousand years old, and listening in amazement as he turns the conversation to digitizing, Google, and optical character recognition; going to bed by 9:30pm in order to wake up at 1:30am to climb Mt. Moses; passing scores and scores of pilgrims, tourists, tourists on camels, and Bedouin trying to get me on their camels on the way up, illuminated only with my trusty wind-up LED mini torch, to reach the summit with less than a dozen people there before me, quietly bent over the side of the chapel wall at the top in prayer (or suffering from altitude sickness, I couldn’t be sure), thus allowing me a solid half-hour to lounge in peace gazing at the most illuminated night sky I have seen in a very long time, munching on some veggie jerky and watching satellites and meteors pass by, and wishing Emily was there to share it; watching as the sun slowly revealed the breathtaking view and incredible granite formations that we had been unknowingly surrounded by; the mysterious digital iconoclast of the mountain causing multiple cameras to stop working (thankfully, not mine); touring the monastary again (this time unfortunately with the hundreds of other tourists) and getting to see some of the worlds oldest, most beautiful, and most famous encaustic icons; mango push-up pops at the petrol station on the way home; and the open and frank discussion among colleagues on the current state of our institution, our roles, and our futures, which ultimately served to remind of the void that will be left after those who are leaving this year have gone.  More pictures and details below. (more…)

Note to students:  Please check for spelling and/or typographical errors, particularly when discussing the Large Hadron Collider.