Portland, Oregon.It's T - 5, and I've taken all the appropriate steps:
I swallowed live typhoid cultures for eight days.
I took a deep breath and mailed my passport off to the Egyptian Embassy in DC for my tourist visa.
I dutifully walked my doctor through AUC's health exam. (Debilitating menstrual disease? No. Flat feet? No. Varicose veins? No, but thanks for asking.)
I tested negative for HIV antibodies.
And now I've checked my last box: creating that travel blog as promised (hi, Mom). But I don't think that any of this has really prepared me for the next five months, living in a densely populated city in a Third World country with a dominant language, religion and culture distinctly different from anything I've ever experienced before. The tourist visa (they did give me back my passport) doesn't tell you how to maintain an even-longer distance relationship with your boyfriend. The traveler's checks don't come with tips on how to exist as a young, American female in a country with some serious misconceptions as to your basic nature. I guess those are things I'll just have to find out along the way, in Cairo.
Now for the basics: I'll be studying from February to June at the American University in Cairo, the requisite study abroad semester of my junior year at Georgetown University. There, I'm a Science, Technology and International Affairs: Security Studies major, but in Cairo I'm hoping to forget my long-winded major and focus on different affairs. My goals while overseas:
- Improve my Arabic. Seriously. This needs to happen. It's not really funny anymore how poorly I speak that language.
- Explore. This means food, travel, culture, myself.
- Take a break. Study literature. Write more. Read for pleasure. Breathe.
- Start training for a fall marathon. How I'm going to do that on a treadmill, I'm not sure.
- Remember everything I see, write it down, and take good pictures.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Thanks for stopping by. But mostly, stay classy.
7 comments:
So how shall I begin? I'd like to say 'let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky'...but then I realize it'll be closer to dawn where you are when I am standing in evening.
I'd like to say 'I had no human fears'...but then of course I worry for your blonde-haired blue-eyed safety in Egypt.
'Surely some revelation is at hand'...but it is yours alone to experience.
And so, 'my darling, my darling, my life and my bride'...I'd love to quote poetry at you all the live-long day, but 'I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep'...
You rock my world. Cairo won't want to let you go.
There are only three pieces of advice I've ever found useful.
The first is probably just a smart remark: Moderation in all things, including moderation.
The second has been attributed to John Wayne: Life is tough; it's tougher if you're stupid.
The third comes from the Scouts:
Be prepared.
Moderation is something to consider, as is keeping your balance. But stupid is definitely a mistake--one of the blue collar boys says 'you cain't fix stupid.'
Usually you know something's stupid before you do it, and that's where moderation and preparation come in.
I'm really looking forward to your observations and to your return.
While in Cairo, do as the Cairoans.
Cairens*
(I swear, I'm not making that up)
(And: that, uh, expression doesn't really apply to what I'm talking about.)
Cairens? People were giving you their advice, I just thought I'd throw my two cents in. *Cachinga!*
Go back and watch Anchorman again. Then maybe you'll catch my snazzy cultural reference. ;)
Aye! I've been had at my own game. Anyway, try not to catch giardia kthanxdie!
Post a Comment