More pics from Cairo…check it out yo :D

SO, for my non-Facebook friends, I posted more pictures from my trip here in Egypt…if you’re bored check them out :D

ps. Sadaf….I know this isn’t exactly the “blob” you wanted…but I will try to update soon. :D :D

Under the Weather…Again.

So, I’m feeling a little bit under the weather once again. This time I think I have a cold…but I’m not sure. For the past two days, my throat has been scratchy, but now it’s to the point where it hurts really day. Also, both of my ears hurt really bad…they feel like they need to be popped, but I can never get them to. My nose was a little stuffy…not so much anymore. The main bother now is the hurting throat and ears….and I am perhaps fever-ish.

 

But, enough complaining about feeling under the weather, I didn’t go to the Citadel yesterday L But I definitely do plan to go before I leave…I mean, I still have over three months left and it’s only like 20-30 minutes away.

 

Hmm, what else is new….I joined this organization called World Faith. Basically it’s just people who get together and teach each other the language they know. So I got paired with someone who speaks Arabic and knows English, but needs help with reading comprehension. So I will help him with that, while he helps me learn Arabic. It was interesting because all of these people are so into learning English, and some of them even want to learn, on addition to English, Chinese, French, German. One of them was even so intent on loosing an accent and kept asking me to repeat words while pointing and saying, “I want to sound like her.”

 

Anyways, so this was kind of a boring blog. Not much has happened since I last wrote. I’ve just been laying low and hanging out—taking a little break from traveling. All of the international students are, on their own, planning trips to different countries and as much as I would love to go, I think I just want to stay in Egypt and enjoy it for what it is while I can. For now, I don’t need to travel to Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, etc. just so I can say I’ve been—which rather than enjoying the culture, is why I feel most people are planning their trips.

 

OK BYE. E-mail me if you wish :] So I don’t feel like I’m in exile!

It’s All Relative

I love Egypt. I love Cairo. From the moment I set foot here it was clear that I would fall in love with this place. Sure, it has it’s downfalls; it’s chaotic moments. But, in the end, this place is amazing.

Tomorrow, I will have been here two weeks. I’m not sure if that’s enough time to say you love a place or not. Perhaps I haven’t had time to get tired of the place yet, but for now (powerful as a word it is) I love it here.

I feel like I’ve already learned so much about life- Egyptian lifestyle, Middle Eastern/African life and I’ve even learned a thing or two about the States.

There are some things that are universal; McDonalds, the mall, Facebook, cell phones. This place is swarming with American franchises; Pizza Hut, Radio Shack, Papa Johns, Chilli’s, Hardrock Cafe, etc., etc…The list could go on and on. It all reminds me how much we are all the same; no matter your race, religion, gender, etc..

Last week I was at a Pizza Hut sitting at a table across from a group of Egyptian girls. Just like typical American girls they pulled out their cellphones and took pictures of each other. They talked about their ringtones and I’m sure gossiped a bit too.

This scene could have taken place anywhere, but the fact that it was here in the Middle East; a place where many Americans would have never guessed this sort of thing to happen; a place where things appear to be so shaky, is just a bit ironic. We are all the same; we are all human, and we all enjoy and want the same things in life.

Also I’ve noticed people here, especially the Egyptians, to be very social people–hence; Facebook. It’s funny sitting here in the computer lab of my dorm for the American University in Cairo and seeing local Egyptians catching up with their friends via Facebook. Egyptians, typical young adults, commenting on their friends pages, looking at their pictures, “Facebook stalking” I might add. They’re just like us–I’m not sure who they and us are, Egyptian and Americans respectively? But, we are all the same.

Finally, at the City Stars mall in Cairo, Egypt my friend and I see none other than emo Egyptians and rocker Egyptians. Or, typical teenagers, that happen to be Egyptian, smittin with one another and causing havoc at the mall, going to the movies and just wanting to have a great time.

I wish every close-minded person could spend a night in Egypt. I’m sure they’d come to learn that we are all the same.

Egypt in one month…and then some more.

þ

 

 

 

QSo…I leave for Cairo, EGYPT in exactly one month!!! Q

 

I am both excited and nervous. I think it’s just now really starting to kick in that I am actually going to be spending four months in the Middle East. It’s both exciting and a bit scary at the same time.

 

I’ve been reading Richard Engel’s “A Fist in the Hornet’s Nest: On Ground in Baghdad Before, During & After the War,” which has really been an eye opening book for what journalism during wartime is like. At times I forget that what I’m reading in non-fiction; a biography. Everything seems so unlikely and unrealistic—untrue. It’s just that some of the images Engel described were so heart-wrenching and saddening and a little too brutally truthful.

 

I admire Engel for diving right in, and being one of two American foreign correspondents that remained in Iraq, even in the worst of situations. I admire his bravery and genuine character, and most of all, I admire how he started out his career.

 

After starting the book, I must admit, that for one brief millisecond I doubted myself. Do I really want to be an international correspondent in the Middle East. It’s not that I don’t want to, I’m just not sure I’d succeed.

 

Also, I think life would be so much easier, especially as a journalist, if I were a guy. I see all these intelligent female journalists on TV plastered in make-up and designer suits, but I just can’t picture myself as one of those journalists.

 

I think like would be easier as a guy journalist especially in the Middle East (not that I am supporting the decision that women are oppressed, because they aren’t).

 

After reading Anderson Cooper’s biography (which I can later give a review on: A+ + +) and the beginning of Engel’s I see that they both went on their owns to these dangerous foreign countries looking for hard-hitting news to report, hoping to fulfill their dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent.

 

I’m not sure that I would be able to grab a visa, wads of cash, a camcorder, and other necessary equipment for a journalist and venture out to unchartered (by me) territory looking for news. Sure I am more than willing to take that risk, but I’ve got two problems. One, I don’t have the money for that. Two, I might could get money from my parents, but once I told them I was just traveling hoping to turn myself into my dream of a correspondent, they would never go for it. Three, the world is fiercely competitive and I on the other hand want everyone to get what they want before I indulge in my dreams.

 

That’s the difficult thing in life. Though anything is possible, there are limitations. I feel the old cliché of hard work and perseverance doesn’t always pay off the way that it should for the intended person.

 

Anyways, back to Engel’s book, I’ve been busy working 50+ hours a week so I’m still not done with the book. I never thought I’d find myself reading a book with an index for fun. Ha. Ha.

 

There was one particular paragraph that I really could relate to from. It was the opening paragraphs of the book after the introduction and reads,

 

“The journey that brought me to Iraq started in Egypt. I moved to Cairo after graduating from college in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and no real clue what I was getting into. I didn’t speak a word of Arabic or have any contacts in the Middle East. I’d set off with a thousand dollars in cash wallpapering my pockets and tucked into a money belt around my waist […] and a hope that I’d be able to make myself into a foreign correspondent.”

 

I first read this paragraph and though, “What a coincidence I’m going to Cairo in a few months and I have that same hope of making myself into a foreign correspondent.” Engel and I definitely have that in common J but who knows where this “foreign correspondent” dream will take me.

 

ANYWAY…I didn’t mean to get sidetracked….I hope to learn a whole lot from this trip for Cairo including culturing myself, learning more Arabic J, traveling around the Middle East (if money permits, and my parents don’t get freaked out by that idea)and I want to just appreciate life for what it is and maybe inspire others. I don’t know how, but hey…I could happen??

 

Anyways, I still have a lot of stuff to do for my trip; things to buy, papers to mail, and oh yeah, I still need a visa. K

 

I’m sure my blogs from now on will be talking about my excitement and anticipation for August 21^st when I leave for the big city of CAIRO!