Ok, I lied.

I didn’t update about the microphlebectomy and vascular surgery.  It has been 6 weeks since my surgery.  I’ve run the gamut of recovery and still have not reached the finish line.  The pain and post-surgery slowness have gone away.  I no longer get crackling electric shocks up my leg if I try to walk quickly… Continue reading Ok, I lied.

Microphlebectomy

If you are weak of stomach, you may not want to read this saga.  It will be ongoing – with new additions periodically. On December 15th, I underwent a procedure called “Endovenous Laser Treatment with Microphlebectomy”.  What the HELL does that mean?  “Endovenous” = inside a vein; “micro-” =small; “phlebectomy” = removal of vein. I… Continue reading Microphlebectomy

Recycling overload

Our shipment arrived.  The boxes were a tad beat up, but nothing was falling out or OBVIOUSLY damaged from the outside (unlike our boxes from Namibia – but that is another story). Nineteen boxes take up most of our living room – full or empty. When they arrived – full – there was a mere… Continue reading Recycling overload

Can’t fully grok this

Our AUC car will be here to pick us up in about 3 hours.  This is nothing new or different – but it is.  THIS TIME we don’t have a return flight.  THIS TIME we aren’t coming back. I am having a lot of difficulty with this, for many reasons.  I am not fully prepared… Continue reading Can’t fully grok this

Finally free

It is just before 8am on Monday, June 15th, and the doors of the Zamalek dorm are unlocked, finally. People are coming and going in a nearly festive mood.  Outsiders are coming in and greeting some of the “inmates” as though they have just been rescued and released from the Somali pirates – happy to… Continue reading Finally free

Authorization for Departure

No kidding – I have to be authorized by a bunch of bureaucrats and secretaries before I will be allowed to depart!  LOL I have begun the long and tortuous process of collecting signatures on an “official” piece of paper.  We are in the 21st century, at a “state-of-the-art” campus and I am spending hours… Continue reading Authorization for Departure

Stress springs eternal

Especially at this time in the semester! I *should* know better/have learned by now….and yet, in the inimitable words of my hubby, “I spend my life lurching from one crisis to the next.” The end of the semester is always stressful.  Students are cranky and have already checked out for the summer.  Grading MUST be… Continue reading Stress springs eternal

Mafeesh Pork!

In an unprecedented (and almost definitely ill-advised) move, the Egyptian government decided that the way to prevent swine flu in the country was to kill all the pigs.  I am simultaneously stunned and not about this knee-jerk over-reaction. These actions demonstrate a distinct lack of: Understanding of the virus and its epidemiology There have been… Continue reading Mafeesh Pork!

Yogi Berra

“It’s like deja vu all over again.” Yup, it’s true.  Three years have FLOWN by, and it is time to begin the grueling ordeal of relocating half-way around the world AGAIN. Looking at the bright side – we divested ourselves of virtually all the furniture, vehicles and other large consumer items before coming to Egypt. … Continue reading Yogi Berra

More Bassily…

Another installment of the vissicitudes that mark the use of Bassily Hall.  This time I must laugh heartily at myself. In the last writing, I was bemoaning the lack of equipment in the hall and then expressed my great relief that it was “worked out” in the Wednesday lecture. So, in I walk for the… Continue reading More Bassily…