Marhaban everyone, sorry I’ve been gone so long. Between the internet outage, which is getting better and almost back to normal and the unfortunate fact that I came here to, you know, learn things, I’ve been busy with orientation sessions, then classes and homework.
A couple notes about cool parts of orientation. 1) we had this party in a palace from Muhammad Ali which was an awesome building. GORGEOUS. An interesting guy I intend to read more about, for more information check the following. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_of_Egypt
I went on a big mass trip to Old Cairo, which was a mistake b/c tours in big groups are rarely fun. But this time we did get to go to a mosque that’s on the site of the oldest Mosque in Cairo, except it’s been destroyed by an earthquake a couple times. It was serene, and very interesting. I luckily had a scarf on, but some of the girls had to put on these big green things reminiscent of one of Mrs. Grupe’s stories. Also, our tour guide explained Islam in a nutshell, but said mistakenly that the Shi’ites worship Ali as a prophet, and girls tried to argue with him, but how do you go about telling someone about his own religion he thinks he knows more than a bunch of white girls. Yes, we’ve started calling ourselves “white people” in self-effacing way. Face it, we just kind of stick out. This is Sunni country.
Also, I blew out my hairdryer when, frustrated with the Internet, I absentmindedly stuck it directly into my power adaptor instead of my converter. Teresa and I went hunting for one, and we found an 85 pound model that served our needs. Trust me, when you pay 17 bucks for a made-in-China hair dryer, you get what you pay for. Also, I successfully bargained them down to 160 total for the two of us. In Cairo, almost anything is negotiable.
Alright, more soon.
Hair dryer adventures!
Which continent, exactly?
This blog's title isn't in reference to actual continents (I've now been to four), but is rather drawn from "The Third and Final Continent," a stunning short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, from her collection, The Interpreter of Maladies. In particular, I'm inspired by the following quote that summarizes the attitude I try to carry with me through life and on my travelsI am not the only person to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.
I love this. It calls on us to consider the tiny details of our experiences, both one-by-one, and in the aggregate, and to maintain a sense of wonder even about the seemingly mundane things that are the building blocks of our lives, and often, the glue that binds us to our traveling companions.
This blog began as a chronicle of my study abroad experience in Cairo in Spring 2008, and continued last year while volunteering in Geneva, and South Sudan with a wonderful organization, VIDES.
Now in graduate school, I'm returning to the Continent this summer while interning in New Delhi, India.
Please enjoy, inquire, and learn.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment