Liquid vanilla is difficult to find. Mostly you get a powdered white stuff which does NOT do the trick.

I'm trying not to confuse Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where I was before. I know I had trouble finding shredded coconut in Saudi. When I did find it, it was loose in the spice shop and had absorbed the taste of the surrounding spices. NOT what you want in a cake, let me tell you.

If you cook with Lipton Recipe Secrets, bring them with you. They are also hard to get. And I know most US women have quit wearing panty hose, but you won't find any in Egypt.

Check on medications. Those that do not have generic equivalents, such as Requip, are not available. Others are available OTC that NEVER would be here, like Clonazepam.

Alexandria is a nice place. It doesn't have the pollution problems of Cairo, and is a reasonable train ride away. Enjoy your adventure!

I moved from a Cairo school last year to an inner city school in the states this year. Last year I taught the children of the wealthy, people who own hotels and shopping malls, and this year I teach in the "hood." There is far more resemblance between those two groups than you would think. They resemble each other more than they do the middle class. Most Egyptian private schools, and the others are right, the only truly "international" school in Cairo is CAC, can only be afforded by the wealthy. So many of the attitudes I list below will be exhibited by the Egyptian students.

Each has a sense of entitlement. In the child of poverty this comes from "I have so much less than the rest of the world that I am owed something to make up for it." In the child of privilege it is, "I've always had things given to me and that's the way it should be."

Each has a lack of purpose and the attitude "It doesn't matter what I do." In the child of poverty this is because s/he has never seen success in those around them, coupled with a sense of victimization. In the child of wealth it is generated by the fact that there will always be more than enough money, so why should s/he work to earn more?

Each has a tendency to not take care of their surroundings and materials. In the children of poverty, this is because they don't have nice things. In the child of wealth, they can always get another one.

Now before I totally irritate somebody, let me state I am aware I am speaking in sweeping generalities. I had motivated, hard-working students this year and I did last year. I understand there are exceptions to every rule. The above is merely my observation of the characteristics of these students in general.

But the values you are looking for, of committment to excellence and a high work ethic, are middle class American values, and you will only find them where middle class Americans dominate. That is CAC.

As an aside, "the student game" was less of "what is the minimum I can do to pass" and more of "hey, I paid for an A and that's what I'm going to get."

Completely normal. Leaving everything and everyone you have ever known for a far distant country where you probably don't even speak the language and NOT being nervous, now that would be weird!

I get the impression you are not at the same school as the director you want to protect. I also am assuming you are not personally aquainted, so that a private "watch your back" would be out of line. Without those two avenues of contact, I don't know how you can get the message to them.

I do know how to fight people like this. You document, document, document. People like this thrive on whispered conversations and they do NOT like their words coming back at them. Their whole campaign depends upon impressions and interpretations, not facts, so they HATE paper trails.

After a private conversation, send an e-mail saying "This is just to confirm my understanding of our conversation on..." Make this recommendation to everyone. You don't have to link it to the person, although I have in the past. It is pretty easy to have a conversation about a "school you used to teach at" or a "director you've heard about" from a "former colleague."

When you have someone like this, make sure you are never alone with them. Have witnesses, preferably someone you trust rather than their crony. However, if you can show a disparity between the crony's story and their story, you are still to the good, and people like this don't get their lies right every single time.

Last but not least, do your best to not screw up. We all make mistakes every day. What someone like this does is take ordinary human failures and blow them into catastrophes, if they can't get away with out and out lies. Documentation takes care of the lies. A good relationship with the boss and/or the rest of the staff should take care of the rest.

And if nothing else, console yourself with the thought that people like this rarely get away with this stuff forever. Just a lot longer than any of us want them to.

How would you feel if the school did that to you? "Could you wait around for a month or so while we see if we can find someone better? We'll give you a job if we don't, but in the meantime we'd like you to pass up other opportunities while we look."

When businesses of any size receive a complaint, they figure that for every complaint they receive, there were 25 others with the same problem who didn't bother.

I am curious as to how the site would verify the information, as SpecialEd suggests. I am sure it is my ignorance, but how would an independent organization such as this one investigate multiple schools around the world?

Call up the school and ask? Does the site have the resources to make that many calls around the world? And if ISR called up and said, "We've had a complaint about your school, would you care to respond?" what do you think they would get? And when do they call? At each complaint? Every five complaints?

If they call directly after a complaint has posted, wouldn't that be giving a clue as to the person's identity? The site is anonymous because everyone KNOWS the schools engage in reprisals. I understand that some of the schools check ISR, but there still is still the possibility that the poster can be long gone by the time the school reads the post. Of course, if any poster is smart, they won't post UNTIL they are gone.

As someone who was unfairly targeted by a school, to the point that they FORGED documents to try and cause me a problem, I can tell you that anonymity is very important. Should I have kept quiet and not warned others about the lack of ethics? If ISR called the school and asked, "Do you engage in felonious behavior if you feel it is in your interests?" do you think they would have gotten an honest answer?

I recognize the legitimacy of the original question, and the truth in some of Specialed's response. But I truly am curious as to what s/he thinks ISR should do.

I taught with a woman who was certified in the UK, but because she already happened to be in Saudi Arabia with her husband, got paid the local hire rate. She was quite bitter about it actually. Basically, if the school can classify you as a local hire they will, and it won't matter what your credentials are.

I also taught with a woman who got her certification through an American university, but did her student teaching overseas. I am not quite sure how she managed it.

Whether certification can be managed online or not will depend upon the state certifiying you. Texas, where I am, is so focused on on-campus experiences, I don't think it would be possible to get certification totally online. But probably someone will write and tell me they are doing it.

In any case, you need to check with the certifiying agency of the state you want your certificate from.

Just hope that your school's sponsor has enough wasta to get you your iquama. We never got ours and during that month off (3 weeks actually) weren't able to do anything except sit on our compound. It was so bad, the school offered to release everyone they hired that year from their contracts, because NOBODY was able to get an iquama, and honey, without that, you ain't doing NOTHING.

I wouldn't mind going back, actually, because as you say the money is great, and Saudi Arabia is okay, as long as you can leave it.

In the case of my daughter, it meant inappropriate touching, mocking her when she spoke, forbidding her to speak, downgrading all her opinions, stuff like that.

She got so tired of it all, she told us she was going to punch her most serious tormentor. Since we had tried talking to the students, talking to the teachers, and talking to the administration, we said okay, but if the school gave a punishment she was taking it. People since have lectured me about cultural differences, but I said this then and I say it now.

If the Egyptians didn't understand that when an American woman says "no, stop", she means "no, stop", then they needed to learn it.

My daughter should not have to tolerate having her private parts "accidentally" fondled on a daily basis in ANY culture. And no one can convince me that the Egyptian culture promoted or even tolerated such behavior. I know it did not.

My son's was more serious. They baited him unmercifully, taking his things, tripping him, calling him names, pulling his chair out from under him... they alternated between that and treating him as an "untouchable", someone who couldn't be spoken to or touched.

My principal put it best, after she had talked with him about some of the things going on. "It's hard watching someone in that much pain, isn't it?"

My husband, who also worked at the school, actually heard a group of students, who were unaware he was my son's father, planning on how they were going to do something (I forget what) and blame my son for it.

Even the class he got transferred to (the other one had some real sociopaths in it, let me tell you) took advantage of his unfamiliarity with Arabic, telling him to call himself a donkey.

If your son is part-Egyptian, and has learned (or can learn) Arabic easily, you shouldn't have much trouble. My son was the only non-Egyptian, non-Muslim, non-Arabic speaker in his class; my daughter only one of two non-Egyptian, non-Muslim students in her class, and the other girl spoke Arabic.

Speaking from a limited overseas experience, many overseas schools are NOT accepting and supportive of special needs children. There are many reasons for this.

One is, of course, special needs children are EXPENSIVE. A significant portion of a stateside school's budget goes toward supporting these children. Therefore, a school that wants a profit is not going to accept a child that costs anywhere from twice to ten times what a non-special needs child would.

Another reason is stigma. In the US, we have moved beyond this in many, (dare I say most?) cases. This was NOT my experience overseas. Schools prided themselves on "accepting only the best", that they were "college prep" and prided themselves on their "rigor", self-delusional as all that might have been.

To admit such children attended our school would have lowered its quality in the eyes of our parents, so we all struggled with children we couldn't serve because we had no resources to serve them with, all the while pretending that their needs were being met and they were college prep material. A depressing picture, certainly.

Perhaps you can find an enlightened school with a supportive administration, but it will be a hard search. I wish you all the best.

That is where the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication comes in. Had we been face-to-face, I could have made it clear I was poking fun (gently, I hope) and not trying to humiliate.

It does however, touch on an increasing controversy here in the states, which is teachers who cannot, or do not, model what we want the students to do.

My husband and I are stateside this year, and we work in a high-minority school and district. (70% Hispanic, 30% African-American for my school; I'm not sure about the district.) I would classify 90% of our population as ESL. That is because if you respond to "Did she leave? She forgot her sweater." with "She gone, but she won't be needing it." then in my opinion you have the same issues as an ESL student.

We are receiving instruction in the SIOP model, which is Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. One thing being stressed is the necessity of teachers modeling academic English. But many of our teachers do not. My question is, how in the heck are we going to teach students it's not "them rocks" but "those rocks" if we dont' model it? If we say "She don't" instead of "she doesn't."? A friend told me on Wednesday of the her son's band director, who put "Drum Core" on his drum corps simply because he preferred the misspelling.

As teachers, we have an obligation to use correct, academic English if we are going to teach in it.

So while your bobble was amusing, it also touched on an issue to which I am rather sensitive.

I will now get off my soap box.

Okay, I'll be tacky.

What is "grossery shopping?" Is that like, shopping for really disgusting food? Or REALLY shopping for bulk items? Or maybe shopping for bulk amounts of really disgusting food?

Egyptian children do not accept western children. Both my children, a 4th grader and an 8th grader, were targeted and harassed by their Egyptian peers.

See if UNI has a child care center. I am certain they do. I don't know if you could get your child in on a temporary basis, but they might have some ideas. It is a place to start, anyway.