I have been in Egypt for a very arduous, very brutal 59 days, 4 hours, 21 minutes, and 6 seconds. It seems like a lifetime since I've been in the United States, and I find myself getting restless to return.
In honor of this special occasion marking the "half-way-over" portion of my trip, I thought I would devote this blogpost to a candid reflection of the experience, without sarcasm or humor to hide behind.
Undeniably this has been one of the hardest experiences of my life, being so far away from home, and completely isolated. (My living situation is not the greatest, and I rarely get to meet with other study abroad students).
The only real human interaction I get is through skype calls to family and friends, without whom I would be lost. The environs here are harsh, and I have never had to fend for myself to the extent that I have had to here, in Egypt of all places. I travel everywhere alone, have to cook for myself (I will appreciate a meal plan so much when I get back to Lawrence), grocery shop, laundry (the old fashioned way), deal with visa issues, money, and credit cards, as well as street harassers, and taxi drivers.
Luckily, I have not suffered some more horrible fates, the tales of which have been circulating around the study abroad population at AUC. Many students have lived through multiple bouts of food poisoning, bedbugs, inappropriate touching from locals, and horrible travel experiences. Those people who came here idealizing this country are going to be leaving sorely disappointed.
I came into this experience understanding the difficulties I would encounter, and will leave with an appreciation (but no love) for them. Egypt is not and never will be among the things that I love. Yet it will be a place that sticks with me, because my solitude here has facilitated a lot of soul-searching, through which I have learned a great deal about myself and what I can handle.
I can't wait to come home. Now I just need to hold my breath and pray that the following 60 days, 2 hours, 57 minutes and 8 seconds go by at the speed of light. In the words of a fellow classmate "I'm so over Egypt."
I hear you.. I was there and facing an uninterrupted full year in Egypt. It was not my favorite place either. In fact, it was really in the years right after that experience that I came to love the place. I'm not predicting you'll be teaching classes about Cairo, but let it sit. It gives you a better sense of the hostility to Egypt as seen in the Yacoubian Building.. and other recent works. It's not a land of mystery, it's a land of trash and stress. I found it hard to make good connections at AUC too. We're looking forward to getting you back here (and I use "we" as a Lawrence faculty collective pronoun).
ReplyDeleteWow Ari. I admire your bravery and dauntlessness in dealing with Egypt, and your frankness in admitting you don't care for it. I, like most Westerners, tend to idealize the Egypt of a particular time and place- whether it be ancient Egypt of the pharaohs, medieval Egypt as a cradle of Christian monasticism, or even colonial Egypt, when the cities such as Cairo or Alexandria were genteel and full of Europeans. I doubt I could cope with the realities of modern Egypt today. Even a Coptic woman in my hometown near Chicago, a green-eyed beauty, told me in her elegant French that the Egyptian streets have been claimed by "canaille" (the rabble).
ReplyDeleteHere in grad school I am also having challenges of living by myself for the first time, and I find it trying, so I can't imagine how it must be for you. One plus: after Cairo, the rest of life's challenges will seem minute and you officially qualify as "tough". I will say this though: it is natural to miss your own country. The only foreign land I've been to is Italy, which wasn't quite so foreign to me since I am mostly Italian, like you. And even in Italy I found myself getting irritated by little things and missing home.
And you did get to see the pyramids and other famous sights, and experience Egyptian life, but things like this keep me in perspective. As much as I listen to Umm Kulthum constantly and sprinkle my room with rosewater to daydream myself into Egypt, I'm sure there's a Cairene fellahin somewhere who would love to come to the American Midwest.
You learned a lot about yourself and, again, I doubt I could do all the things you did. As much as I talk about wanting to travel, travel is often difficult. They did not separate the word 'travel' from the word 'travail' (sorrow) until the 19th century when a bunch of upper-crusty Englishmen began making Grand Tours of the Continent. If I was at AUC, I would probably hire a maid to do my laundry and eat restaurant food a lot, then I'd run out of money and have to come home! LOL. I wouldn't last long.
I think I will skip Cairo altogether when I visit Egypt. Alexandria, being the center of the Library and the old Hellenic world, and so much knowledge and poetry, is much more in my interests. The Christian heritage of monasteries and churches is preserved better there, too. And being by the sea, it's got to have a milder climate than Cairo. If my day sucks, then at least I'll get to go to the beach at the end of it. LOL.
I miss you and though I can no longer claim to be part of the Lawrence collective (tear), I'll be glad to see you come home!
Love,
Mark L
xx
Honey,
ReplyDeleteThis post really captures the reality you are facing every day. I like what your friend Mark said above about you officially qualifying as "tough". You have gone beyond the "toughie" you were as a child. You have always had it in you. I think what Martin Smith says is true...Egypt will leave an indelible mark on your life, and you might come to love it for who you become as a result. I will echo what he said, "Leave it sit for a while". You are an awesome young woman!