HI MOM LUV YOU!
one thing one should always remember when travelling to their childhood digs is that of course you are going to be prone to identity crises!
tomorrow I am going on a boat ride to have a picnic and since it's a very misry thing to do I am going to pretend that one of my handsome egyptian coworkers is my husband so I don't get harrassed. everything here is about strategizing for minimal harrassment. maybe if i had a child?
it's also the anniversary of the revolution [!] on Sunday so obvs is a national holiday. I'm told to avoid tourist areas because it's a trend in egypt now to bomb things on national holidays. I was going to go to Siwa but in retrospect it's probably good that I didn't because what if it got bombed!? highly unlikely though, because it's near Libya and that's a whole nother ballgame. I also watched this famoso Eg. movie the other night called 'The Open Door' and it was V. Apprope b/c it's about revolution-era Eg! imagine! ok maybe it was a little propaganda-ized [sp?]
i feel like i'm consistently skirting the line between doing really expatriate things and really, daily, every-day egyptian things, but there's no middle-ground. like i'm just living and going to the bakery and eating eg. food ALL THE TIME but at the same time, i feel like i should be more college and go clubbing or travel every weekend or something. one thing i never imagined is how comforting the presence of other expats can be. today i went to my mom's bff's house for lunch after church and there was something really nice about it, maybe partially because she's one of the only expats who's stayed around Forever and is actually committed to this place and isn't an Oil wife. it's really hard being a single girl here, too. not that i get harrassed a lot but it's always that fear and always having to be on your guard. i wear my hair in pigtails now because it makes me look younger.
right now i am scoping out flats in d-town c-ro on the i-net. i am going to register for gre's when i get back and pick out grad school[z]. at this rate i think its either c-ro and maybe california, and if i feel like it new zealand too. because i really like new zealand!!
in a month i am looking forward to reverse-reverse-reverse culture shock! i hope lena comes to visit!!!
tomorrow I am going on a boat ride to have a picnic and since it's a very misry thing to do I am going to pretend that one of my handsome egyptian coworkers is my husband so I don't get harrassed. everything here is about strategizing for minimal harrassment. maybe if i had a child?
it's also the anniversary of the revolution [!] on Sunday so obvs is a national holiday. I'm told to avoid tourist areas because it's a trend in egypt now to bomb things on national holidays. I was going to go to Siwa but in retrospect it's probably good that I didn't because what if it got bombed!? highly unlikely though, because it's near Libya and that's a whole nother ballgame. I also watched this famoso Eg. movie the other night called 'The Open Door' and it was V. Apprope b/c it's about revolution-era Eg! imagine! ok maybe it was a little propaganda-ized [sp?]
i feel like i'm consistently skirting the line between doing really expatriate things and really, daily, every-day egyptian things, but there's no middle-ground. like i'm just living and going to the bakery and eating eg. food ALL THE TIME but at the same time, i feel like i should be more college and go clubbing or travel every weekend or something. one thing i never imagined is how comforting the presence of other expats can be. today i went to my mom's bff's house for lunch after church and there was something really nice about it, maybe partially because she's one of the only expats who's stayed around Forever and is actually committed to this place and isn't an Oil wife. it's really hard being a single girl here, too. not that i get harrassed a lot but it's always that fear and always having to be on your guard. i wear my hair in pigtails now because it makes me look younger.
right now i am scoping out flats in d-town c-ro on the i-net. i am going to register for gre's when i get back and pick out grad school[z]. at this rate i think its either c-ro and maybe california, and if i feel like it new zealand too. because i really like new zealand!!
in a month i am looking forward to reverse-reverse-reverse culture shock! i hope lena comes to visit!!!