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Leaving One Overseas Home for Another

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

Remember when I said that I’d be traveling until the money ran out? Well, the money ran out. (But I’m still not returning to the US!)

As usual, my blog is a little behind–I’m in Cairo now, but I will leave Egypt at 2:45PM today for Italy. Matteo and I will be housesitting in Rome (another reason why I love dating an Italian man) for the winter and, inshallah, earning some euros to continue our trip through the Middle East in the spring and, probably more importantly, pay for our eventual flight home to the US.

I’ve been to Italy with Matteo twice before, and know the house in Rome well, so I feel a little like I’m coming home. I’m looking forward to eating good Italian meals (and learning to properly cook said meals), walking around the Colosseum and other amazing sites, taking side trips to France and Switzerland to practice my French (only $75 roundtrip from Rome on RyanAir!), brushing my teeth with tap water, shopping at stores with fixed prices, cleaning my clothes in washers and dryers, and, more mundanely, having time and a quiet space to finally finish my pesky graduate school applications.

In the next few days, I’ll post stories from Bahariyya and wrap up my thoughts on Egypt. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to my American family and friends. Enjoy your turkey and pumpkin pie, and all of those tasty foods that, despite the promise of a dinner with mozzarella and prosciutto, I’m going to sorely miss today.

By the Sea

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

When we first arrived in Egypt, Matteo and I had planned to travel straight from Cairo to Alexandria to wait out the summer heat near the breezy Mediterranean coast. Our plans fell apart, however, on our first night in Cairo, when we fell in love with the city as we sat drinking mint tea on a sidewalk café, watching busy crowds of Egyptians and Gulf tourists browsing shops still open at 2AM. We soon became completely entrenched in Cairene life—we made friends, I found a job teaching English, Matteo continued his Arabic studies with a private tutor—and now we view the city as a sort of second home. (Or really, these days, it’s our only home.) Yet, despite my fondness of Cairo, I always wondered how my life would have been different in Egypt’s second largest city.

Nearly a week and a half ago, we finally traveled to that second city and, as luck would have it, fell head over heels in love with yet another Egyptian metropolis. (Who knew that I would be such a fan of this country? I still don’t know if I love it because it’s Egyptian, or if I’m simply fascinated by Arab society…I’ll have to see how I feel about the rest of the Middle East in the coming months.) Alexandria (or “Alex” to those in the know) is in so many ways like Cairo, with the same bustling energy and crowds, but, with its beautiful, wide blue-green harbor and stately old European buildings with ornate facades, it also reminds me of another city across the Mediterranean named Marseille. And, I admit, while I remain a fan of Cairo, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t stick with our original plan.

Thoroughly burned out from the temples in the south, Matteo and I didn’t visit a lot of sites in Alexandria. Instead, for three days, we walked everywhere, admiring the gorgeous views, and ate everything, happily tucking in kilos upon kilos of freshly grilled calamari, shrimp, and fish and gobbling delicious cups of fresh ice cream at some of the dozens of stands along the water. At night, we wandered down streets draped with brightly-colored flags and banners, along markets selling anything and everything—clothes, shoes, feta cheese, olives, pomegranates, bananas, seafood, live chickens and rabbits, radios, notebooks, gigantic stuffed teddy bears—and settled down at cafes where patrons smoked apple-flavored sheesha and played chess over cups of strong Turkish coffee and shai.

On our final day in Alex, we visited the Roman catacombs and had, for the third time, an Indiana Jones experience as we wandered deep within the earth. We were alone; at the lowest levels, water had seeped into some of the graves and flooded the ground so I walked along creaking wooden planks and stifled screams as I spooked myself with visions of ancient corpses emerging from the water’s depths or crawling out of the dark spaces.

Back above ground, we stopped at a dilapidated building with crumbling brick walls where young boys were playing ping-pong and pool. We challenged several to games, and drew enthusiastic crowds. A boy of about 10 or so tried to give me trick gum (there was a plastic cockroach attached to the end hidden inside the package), while another one, mistaking “love” and “like” as so many Egyptians tend to do, declared that he “loved” Matteo. And I was happy, because moments where I can bond with people rank among my happiest overseas.

From a sea of water we moved on to a sea of sand. Next stop: Bahariyya Oasis.

Temples, Tombs, and Tourists

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
From Hurgada we continued on to Luxor. The ride was unusually eventful; I was seated next to a deceptively demure veiled woman in her 50s who broke the ice 30 minutes into the journey by showing me a film clip ... [Continue reading this entry]

Wait– It’s Been How Many Days Since I Last Posted?

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
I don't even know where to begin. I've pretty much traveled the whole of Egypt at this point, and now I'm cursing myself for my procrastination and trying to figure out how to put together a nice, succinct posting ... [Continue reading this entry]

True Story

Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Today I saw a man hoist an unwrapped, skinned lamb carcass into the trunk of an idling taxi with his bare hands. So that's where my meat comes from.