Back to Cairo!

Sisters on New Years!

From 16 January 2010
Sitting at the Baltimore airport, still amazed at what an incredible past month it has been. I got to spend so much quality time with my parents, sisters, grandparents, extended family, high school friends, college friends, friends from my Australia semester abroad…One month seems the perfect amount of time to do most everything I wanted to do in the U.S. without being away from Egypt so long I forget it. Now I’m starting to remember the sand and Arabic, taxis and heckling, and the great friends and students I know there, like a dream that is just now coming back to me.

Gorgeous winter day in D.C.

When someone is traveling my dad always asks what s/he misses about their country. I had a year in Egypt to miss things like driving, drinking tap water, bundling up for cold weather, fields of green and forests of deciduous trees, the orderly cleanliness of D.C. and its bars and international restaurants, draught beer and good wine, the random list goes on…Being back in the U.S., mostly I enjoyed simply understanding what was going on around me (and the wine). When Ryan and I first arrived in Chicago airport one month ago, we celebrated the revelation that we could eavesdrop on people again! English everywhere! We bent our ears to a noisy crowd that had just boarded the skytrain with us, but after some eager suspense our faces fell slightly. “Oh.” Shrug. They were jovially discussing the other loud people and babies on their previous flight. Does that mean most people around us are discussing mundane things (ie, not talking about us behind our backs?). Once again I was put in my place. It’s funny how paranoid and sensitive one becomes when thrust into the insecurity and discomfort of not speaking the local language. Although, if someone is staring at me and giggling, I can’t help but suspect that I’m being dissected. It’s that damn ostentatious blonde hair of mine.

Obama's House

I got to host Hisham, a friend from Cairo, in D.C. at the end of his U.S. cities tour. It was fun to experience reverse culture shock and compare notes with his culture shock. I liked entertaining his questions (even ones I didn’t know the answer to…) about things I’d always considered natural. Why don’t people honk to communicate while driving? Aren’t the woods eerie?...That’s how they’re portrayed in American movies. Why are bouncers at bars and nightclubs such unrelenting jerks? Why can’t you talk your way out of things with the “I’m a tourist!” argument? And I still had American questions for him. Why would you put salt and pepper on a buttered bagel? and ketchup on scrambled eggs? Or insist on carrying my bags that are actually your bags; ie why can’t I help carry bags? He’s very patient with my endless inane questions.

With Hisham at the Lincoln Memorial -- Washington Monument backdrop

The highlight of my time home was being with family and friends. Just sipping coffee or going on roadtrips with my parents and sisters were the most joyful, restorative moments of my time home. I’ll miss them so much, but I am satisfied with how well we used the time we had together.