Well it is official, my sister and I are going to Egypt together in January. I can't believe Beth actually got the time off! We are going with Intrepid Travel, a company that focuses on small backpacker-type independent travel itineraries and supports grassroots organizations in each country where it has tours. Intrepid uses locally available transport (instead of big tour buses, we will be on donkeys, camels, local buses, trains, and our feet), sets up hotels, and leaves the travelers free to plan their days.
In addition to diving the Red Sea, seeing the pyramids, spending the night sailing down the Nile in a felucca, and climbing Mt. Sinai, we will visit a garbage collectors organization in Cairo where they recycle the trash into usable items and visit an animal orphanage for abused/neglected animals.
This week I was asked if I would like to renew my fellowship in Turkey for the 2008/2009 school year. It is likely that my post in Izmir will not be renewed as the State Department is trying to move the ELF program to more remote areas, but other posts in Turkey would be available to me. Among those, there is one or two that I think would fit my "professional interests" (warm weather, coastal), so I gave an initial yes. I will have to make my final decision by the end of February. I do hope the post in Izmir gets renewed for another year, however, because I feel like I have just started to form friendships here, gotten my house in order, learned how to get around the city, and learned enough about the culture of DE University to be somewhat effective . Ah, but I must remember that change is the spice of life.
