Today is exactly three weeks until I come home to the USA. Mixed feelings for sure, but more on that later... This will just be a quick life update, because I'm procrastinating, but only a little bit!
I was supposed to go to occupied Palestine (aka Israel) for Thanksgiving, but ended up deciding only half an hour before I was due to leave that I couldnt, because I have way too much to do. I just would not have enjoyed myself at all, and I've never really wanted to go to a place as badly as I want to go to Palestine. Most places I go, I'm excited about it just because its more travelling & whats not to like about travelling?! But, I really specifically want to go to Palestine, and see the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre & Bethlehem and the Wailing Wall and just... everything. Which is ultimately why I decided I can't go this semester, b/c I wouldnt have the time to do it all, and if I was stressed out like I was about the number of papers I have due this week I would not enjoy it at all. My next trip to the Middle East insha'allah!
Instead I just stayed in Cairo & locked myself in my room to study/write. It was pretty productive. I managed to find Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with Max Soren & Soren's girlfriend, which was a lot of fun. Pumpkin pie made me so happy! Friday night I let myself out to bake cookies & drink wine with Max & Soren at our friend Drew's apartment, & Saturday night was coffee with Chris & the movie Me You & Everyone We Know with a bunch of people. If you have seen it, then )) <--> (( .... and if you havent, you should!! I'm trying to find a good balance between hanging out with all my friends as much as possible before we're all over the place forever, and doing the necessary typical student finals work. Its a little rough!
Last night we all went for dinner at an amazing Lebanese restaurant for Meghan's birthday, which was a lot of fun. the night before I went to see Egypt play Saudi Arabia in the final match of the Pan-Arab Games. It was so cool. The game itself was pretty boring (Egypt controlled possession & won 2-1, Saudi played a man down almsot the whole game) but the atmosphere was fun. We bought ski masks made out of Egyptian flags as souvenirs. Theyre amazing.
Thats pretty much it for me recently - now its just a few more classes some papers & some finals between me & coming home. Yikes!
Tuesday, November 27
Saturday, November 17
Parental Visitation!
I've been terrible about updating this, sorry - life is just crazy & theres been no time to write about it! Mom & Dad came to visit and it was just so so much fun to see them!! Being in charge of showing them around Cairo made me feel much more competent in this city than normal, and it was really nice to have most of my observations about Cairo completely validated. Like no matter how much I tell people about the craziness of the traffic or the hell that is AUC, you don't really understand how truthful I'm being unless you've been here & seen it yourself. (which is my subtle way of saying EVERYONE should come to Cairo!!) It was also fun to see my parents as more of a married couple than as parents. I guess Simon and I are pretty much all grown up now, and its pretty awesome that the first coupley-independent thing they decided to do was come to the middle east! I was so proud. :-) And I loved seeing how helpful all the knowledge I've gained from living here was. Cairo is really intimidating, and so being able to tell Mom & Dad exactly what to say to taxi drivers and how much to pay them and what to do if they yell at you and have it make their trip easier was great - all of my mistakes & stupid learning experiences have not been for nothing!
In addition to hanging out & doing touristy things in Cairo, we went to Sharm al Sheikh for a weekend, which was just incredible. Sharm is a resort town on the Red Sea about an hours flight from Cairo. You might have heard of it b/c there was a pretty big peace conference held there a few years ago, & there was also a bombing in 2004(?). Its absolutely beautiful and I got to go snorkeling and get rid of the shameful farmer's tan that has developed from the lack of tank tops and just be generally spoiled rotten. It was amazing!
Despite all the amazingness though, it was so strange. Sharm was much, much more like Europe than Egypt, and it was just very confusing for me. The number of European tourists was completely mind-boggling, and I could tell I'd been in Egypt too long when I was genuinely scandalized by what some of them were wearing! In my head, anyway, there was this distinction between what one wears at the waterfront/poolside of the resort, and then what one wears to go shopping/eating in the market outside the resort. The distinction in my head of course was that while in the resort you are in quasi-Europe, so bikinis/shorts/etc are okay, but once you leave the resort you should remember that you're in Egypt & dress accordingly... but clearly no one does. It hurt my head to have all the weird contradictions of men in galabiyas (the stereotypical dress of Arab men) speaking Arabic with gaggles of usually overweight German/Italian speaking crazies in tank tops, shorts, or bikini tops that really show so much more than any sane person would ever want to look at. My favorite moment was being by our pool and seeing a young Egyptian woman jump in fully clothed, hijab and all, while her husband videotaped her awkwardly swimming around, and then 2 feet later, lying on her back in the sun, seeing a wrinkly old European woman tanning topless. I literally did a double-take (wait, are those - oh my god. nipples. AH!). It was so weird...
At any rate, parents visiting = amazing. There will be pictures eventually, I'm just slow at this stuff. On another note, the other exciting thing thats happened recently is I have no housing in DC for the spring! So if anyone reading this knows of a 2bedroom place near campus for a reasonable price, PLEASE let me know right now! Its driving me crazy b/c I cant picture going back to DC until I have a house to live in ... eek. Insha allah it will work itself out, sooner rather than later!
In addition to hanging out & doing touristy things in Cairo, we went to Sharm al Sheikh for a weekend, which was just incredible. Sharm is a resort town on the Red Sea about an hours flight from Cairo. You might have heard of it b/c there was a pretty big peace conference held there a few years ago, & there was also a bombing in 2004(?). Its absolutely beautiful and I got to go snorkeling and get rid of the shameful farmer's tan that has developed from the lack of tank tops and just be generally spoiled rotten. It was amazing!
Despite all the amazingness though, it was so strange. Sharm was much, much more like Europe than Egypt, and it was just very confusing for me. The number of European tourists was completely mind-boggling, and I could tell I'd been in Egypt too long when I was genuinely scandalized by what some of them were wearing! In my head, anyway, there was this distinction between what one wears at the waterfront/poolside of the resort, and then what one wears to go shopping/eating in the market outside the resort. The distinction in my head of course was that while in the resort you are in quasi-Europe, so bikinis/shorts/etc are okay, but once you leave the resort you should remember that you're in Egypt & dress accordingly... but clearly no one does. It hurt my head to have all the weird contradictions of men in galabiyas (the stereotypical dress of Arab men) speaking Arabic with gaggles of usually overweight German/Italian speaking crazies in tank tops, shorts, or bikini tops that really show so much more than any sane person would ever want to look at. My favorite moment was being by our pool and seeing a young Egyptian woman jump in fully clothed, hijab and all, while her husband videotaped her awkwardly swimming around, and then 2 feet later, lying on her back in the sun, seeing a wrinkly old European woman tanning topless. I literally did a double-take (wait, are those - oh my god. nipples. AH!). It was so weird...
At any rate, parents visiting = amazing. There will be pictures eventually, I'm just slow at this stuff. On another note, the other exciting thing thats happened recently is I have no housing in DC for the spring! So if anyone reading this knows of a 2bedroom place near campus for a reasonable price, PLEASE let me know right now! Its driving me crazy b/c I cant picture going back to DC until I have a house to live in ... eek. Insha allah it will work itself out, sooner rather than later!
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