inwtblh. e.

Back in the USSR

Hello there,

So it’s been a while, as per usual. But figured I should update.

I’ve been back in America for about four and a half weeks so far, and it already feels like I never left. It’s amazing how quickly we internalize so much of culture. Mostly, my time in the Arab World feels like a strange dream at this point. I guess it was sort of necessary for me to come back and appreciate certain things about where I’m from…like nicer bathrooms, knowing how to navigate through the social system, speak the language…being able to chose my own food is a huge plus (although that wasn’t such a problem in Jordan/Lebanon….I miss za’ater and kibbeh). I like being around people I’m comfortable with, and I think Xenia has been extremely helpful in reintegrating me into American college life. It’s nice to spend a low-key day studying Arabic, hanging out and watching movie-films in Xenia.

Being pensive about the experience is hard. Because I guess the first thought is that “The Middle East” is one giant experience that can be analyzed singularly, where in fact it can only really be tackled on a case-by-case basis. It’s slow going, and I don’t think it’s going to get any easier…I thought that, when leaving Egypt, I had figured out a lot of things about myself as an Arab-American (feel free to roll your eyes around now). Then I went to Lebanon, and it immediately got much, much more complicated. So I’m trying to decide what I think about things. Especially after that ridiculously crazy conversation I had with my cousin (who is like, 45) Hussein about my religion and identity and all that stuff. Really fun – except not really.

The weather has been a nice change from Middle East blegh, and J-term has provided a lot of time for spacing out, which I should be using to engage weird questions and look for summer work. Motivation, since returning from the Middle East, is hard in the relearning – which is why my class project is coming around at a snail’s pace.

Let’s see…Middlebury things: course books are up, grades are up from Egypt (I’m happy about that), and housing is finally dealt with. The many personalities of campus are nice to see again after so long a hiatus. In addition to summer work, I have to hunt for a job for now, seeing as I’m currently earning nothing (which makes me very uneasy).

I’m looking towards Spring semester apprehensively. I need something to keep myself occupied, but I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to return to the workworkwork of Middlebury if I’m feeling so out of it right now. Really, I need a new operating system.

We’ll see how that turns out.

On the Way Home

So I'm sitting here using my free hour of wireless at Charles de Gaulle, trying to beat the battery on my computer before it dies. It's been a long night/morning, and will continue to be pretty long for a little bit. Sigh.

Lebanon was definitely an experience. There were some very strange things about being there, some things tending towards the negative, but for the most part I really just ate up being back there. It is....indescribably unique.

At this point, sitting in the airport of a Western country, I'm switching back into my American-raised Western mode...the part where I stop worrying whether the soles of my feet are facing anyone, and when I can start to actually meditate on my varied study abroad experience - mostly in Egypt, but I certainly learned a lot from my stints in Jordan and Lebanon. I can't wait to meditate from my bed, before or after rereading Harry Potter (or the new Terry Brooks novel...well not new, but I've been abroad...). But for now, airport bench suffices.

Holiday wishes to everyone else out there, and hope your enjoying time with family. My family don't really know I'm coming home early, and that my sister is picking me up at the airport to bring me to our house in Western Mass. That should be a pleasant homecoming - assuming I'm conscious (this really has been a traumatic few days for sleep). But I'm feeling happy now. A sort of deep kind of happiness, which is more than I can say about while I was in Egypt. I'm just glad I can get somewhere where I can just relax and not be anything in particular. Thank God.

Jordan: A Different Country Completely

Hello there, anyone who's still bothering to glance at this.

So I'm in Jordan at the moment. It was a bit of a rough start getting here from Sinai, because the ferry was late by about seven hours, and then didn't leave/arrive for another long period - so I wound up in a strange city at 1 AM in holiday season (it's Eid al-Adha here), having to bargain down raised hotel prices and very tired. Eventually we stumbled into a room, went to sleep, and woke up well-rested (or at least I did). Matt (Groh) had gotten sick overnight, so I went out looking for medicine and stuff, exploring the city in the daylight. It was such a lovely change from Egypt. I sat in a park, where there were green things, and benches, and picnic tables, and a playground for kids. Said kids were all running around, playing, laughing. Everyone was well-dressed, clean, quiet. The facilities were the right size for the amount of people using them, which is never the case in Egypt. There was no trash, and the weather was gorgeous. So I wonder how I'm going to feel when I get back to the US. Seriously.

So later that day we took a bus to Petra, where we relaxed for a whole day before visiting the ruins. It was really nice to take a load off, having had a sort of gogogogo mentality since Sinai, and just relax in a warm room, meet backpackers and hear interesting stories. As I've mentioned, I was reading a really geeky romance fantasy book to pass the time. I didn't finish, so I kind of want to go find it at a library in the US and do so.

Petra was phenomenal. It's really hard to understand what buildings carved out of the mountain are like until you see them. Especially the Monastery part of the complex, which is all the way at the top of one of the mountains. But there are other things, like the amphitheatre and some lesser facades. Also, the hiking area was just gorgeous. Pictures to come in the (relatively near!) future.

Yesterday morning we got up at 5:45 to catch a 6:30 bus to Amman, the capital and largest city. It's similar here too: almost no trash, clean shops and people, the food is great. We met up with Anne Wilborn who was in Alex with us, and had dinner at this great artsy restaurant. We did all of the important sights in about two hours because, seriously, the city isn't really that old. It was actually built on the site of older things to make it feel older, I think. But it's amusing for me to think that the biggest problem with Amman is the possibility of boredom after living here for a while. Which is a lot more than I can say about Cairo or even Alex. Because Alex is boring, but also dirty and a lot of other things.

Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in, snag a relaxing lunch with Anne and then head to the airport early and curl up with a book, waiting for my flight. I'm pretty excited to be almost on the return home, but I'm enjoying this part of my abroad experience enough to be patient. But Lebanon should be wonderful, if Jordan is this 'good'.

I hope everything's going well for all of you in other countries (read: Europe), and for those still at Midd celebrating the end of finals/Christmas. Also: Hannah (W), are you going to be around for J-term at all? Cause I should. It'd be cool to see you at Xenia sometime.

I'll try and post something when I get to Beirut. Toodles.

So.

Obviously this is the first in a while from this blog. In not too long I won't be in Egypt (most Egyptians sort of chuckle when you talk about Sinai) - and I'm fine with that.

On the whole it's been a good experience - at the end. But Egypt is wearing for a lot of reasons: ignorant people, lack of services, lack of respect for history (even Islamic, sometimes), and lack of decent food. There are very, very few choices for anything here, which means conformity is the only real option. I was uncomfortable with what I knew about Egyptian culture when I got here, and having been forced to cope with it for three months has strengthened my...awareness that I am not going to miss it.

That said, there are good things in Egypt: the people are incredibly nice (for the most part), very hospitable (almost to a fault) and you almost never have to worry about crime in Egypt. My first impressions were mostly those of someone who barely spoke the language, didn't know what is normal, and really just wanted something to work right (which doesn't happen in Egypt). Granted, my first day in Cairo was certainly far from ideal, but now that I speak well enough to get by I know that there is almost no time you should feel unsafe (at least, as a male) in Egypt's cities. Maybe uncomfortable with the gestures and occasional stares (you're a foreigner), but still safe.

Irregardless of all that, I'm glad to be getting out. Jordan and Lebanon will be a great change, and I promise to take lots of pictures. The return home may be direct or may include a brief stay in Istanbul, Turkey (depending on how eager I feel to just go home). There are options. For now, I'm just glad to be finishing up and getting ready for what I've been actually looking forward to.

Spring Schedule

So, to completely gloss over my recent trip to Upper Egypt, I have an incomplete but for the moment passable Spring schedule, which is as follows:

GIS - TR 8-9:15 AM, W 1:30-4:15 (I have no idea how I'm going to motivate myself for that one)

Intro to the Philosophical Tradition - MW 11:15-12:05, F 10:10-11:00

Identity in French Literature - MWF 9:05-9:55 AM (though I'm going to sit in on FREN 221 and see if I don't die. the subject matter looks more interesting and it'd be nice to skip ahead a bit, if I can force my French to improve quickly).


The fourth class remains to be figured out. I'm interested in the Romance Linguistics course, but the Wednesday class falls on the GIS lab period I have, so I have to try and switch with someone in the Tuesday lab if I really want the class. If not, there are a few other options I'm interested in: Western Musical History Part II, 19th Century European Painting and Sculpture, maybe an intro Econ course. Maybe something very different. Who knows.

I also may try taking a poetry workshop as a fifth class. I have the approval from Parini already, so I'm going to try and go ahead with it. Awesome.

That's it for now, I'll summarize the Luxor-Aswan trip a little later.

Updates

So I've officially gotten over my sickness. I ate Egyptian street-food and felt fine afterwards, which means that my stomach has regained its hardiness. Hurray for lack of digestive problems!

Tomorrow evening we leave for Upper Egypt (the Saeed). The train ride should take about 17 hours from Alex, which....I'm not too thrilled about. But it gives me time to space out I guess, which is alright enough. We get to run around a fair bit on our own once we get down there though, and I'm excited (and a little wary) to float down the Nile in a felucca. Because it's flowing water we should be alright in terms of mosquitoes and such, but still. It's just nice to get out of the Alexandria area, which is kind of dull after a while. Pretty, but dull.

I may or may not spend time on the last few free days of the vacation in Cairo, seeing the Museum and a few other must-sees. Pictures to be taken and posted at such a time as Facebook allows me.

Still trying to hammer out travel details. Which means I have to actually be decisive. Gar. But thankfully I have the option now of being indecisive, thanks to a long chain of frustrated emails exchanged with financial aid.

Again, I hope everyone is enjoying/feeling better in their respective situations abroad and at home. I hope to wake up and find a better four years in store (i.e. Obama has won the election), for all of us.