Simons Out!

During their lethargic month of downtime waiting for swine flu paranoia to subside, the Simons took their second trip to the Red Sea. There was swimming and snorkeling, skin was irreparably burned by the sun, much Egyptian beer—most of it tasting like second rate Heineken—was consumed, etc.


On one of their last nights, they booked an overnight trip to climb Mt. Sinai and watch the sun rise. After a harrowing two-hour ride through the mountains in a passenger van with a small multinational group, they arrived near St. Catherine’s Monastery to meet their Bedouin guide, Sameh. Although the night was indescribably starlit and beautiful, their guided insisted on running the three-hour trip to the summit. It’s possible some sort of on-time Domino’s Pizza-like guarantee was at work. One group member, a woman from Denmark, complained about the rate of ascension but was rebuked by a young Russian, an extreme sports enthusiast perhaps, who felt the speed was fine. So, the tired Dane joined Jen and Jay in ditching the group and the guide and walking leisurely to the top in time to observe the same sunrise from the same mountaintop. Overall, a good trip despite the head-scratching illogicality of everything Egyptian.


Arriving back in Cairo, the Simons continued working hard and preparing for the approaching school. This is, of course, a euphemism for sitting around in their pajamas downloading movie torrents online and watching outdated American TV reruns on NileSat.

The Simons signed their contracts and began shedding their worldly possessions in preparation for their move overseas. Friends benefited from hand-me-down IKEA furniture. An impressive CD and library of books was sold, donated, given away. Jay began practicing to be a pretentious, insufferable expat. It wasn't a huge jump from university instructor anyway. Jen was counting the days until she could leave her small cubicle of corporate insanity.

Then, something unexpected happened: AIS in Egypt, their future employer, contacted Jen and asked her to come to Cairo early to teach in the last quarter of the current school year. Although living apart for the next few months would be difficult, they decided that it will be worth it for her to go to Egypt early and get a feel for the school, the city, the culture, etc. Jay will be staying in Metro Detroit to finish the current semester at his university and then moving to Ohio to spend the first part of his paid summer off staying with family and friends and slacking.

(photo: Jen's going-away part at the Claddagh in Livonia, MI)

Egypt.

Jen and Jay's next adventure will take them to Cairo, Egypt for the next two years where they will be teaching middle school computers and high school English respectively. Until then, Jay will be finishing the semester teaching at the university while Jen will be staying afloat at the dying industrial giant she works for, keeping her head low to dodge the semi-regular corporate downsizings.

While their loved ones are understandably perplexed, this move has been in the cards for some time. Tired of the hardships of being overeducated and underemployed in an expensive first-world country that values education far too little, they're ready for a change of pace. In Egypt, they'll be able to save money, travel the world, and hire housekeepers, cooks, drivers, etc. In the US, they could barely afford their unimpressive Detriot suburb apartment.

Although they'll spend their summers in the US with their families and friends, they're ready to begin their lives as roving expatriates and glad to be escaping the increasingly desolate state of the US economy.

More to come.

(photo: inebriation in a sports bar in Metro Detroit)

Nomads, their friends call them, many no longer bothering to learn their address as they relocate from one area to another. It's understandable. No need to worry about putting these two on your Christmas card lists.

After Jen and Jay got together in 1999, they moved around Canton, Akron, and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, dodging delusional, violent drug-addled neighbors and apartments of varying levels of quality and utility. They threw awesome parties, they burned up the kitcshy local karaoke circuit, they did typical twenty-something type things. In the meantime, they got married, got master's degrees and attempted to start careers: Jay in teaching English as a second language at Kent State University and Jen in technology training and IT for various companies.

In 2007, Jay accepted a full-time faculty position at Bowling Green State University, and the Simons moved to a small college town surrounded by cornfields in Northwestern Ohio. Within a year, Jen got a position at Ford as an Instructional Systems Designer and Developer in Dearborn, Michigan, and they moved again to Southeastern Michigan, Jay now commuting to BGSU in a fuel efficient 2008 Honda Fit.

Other people buy houses, have kids, and settle down. The Simons get bored. It's now that time again, time to look around, weigh the options and plan their next move. Where will they end up? Stay tuned.

(photo: home for the holidays in Northeastern, Ohio)