Sunday, February 05, 2006

The Bitch Is Back.


Hey everyone, Happy Year of the Dog. I just got back to Cairo last Thursday afternoon and am back at AUC for the first day today. It's surprisingly untraumatic to be back. It probably helped that I ran into two fellow Casawiyeen, Amir and Nir, at the airport, fresh from their Indonesian jaunt, so I had good company for the typically smooshy, stop-and-go, death-defying taxi ride home.

I flew in via Malpensa Airport in Milano; I don't know how I missed the scenary on the way to the states back in December. It happened to be an exceptionally beautiful morning, vibrant blue sky and and bright sunshine illuminating the pristine snow atop the Dolomites hovering in the distance. Breathtaking. As opposed to the smoggy, smudgy skies over Cairo Airport that blocked out the sun.

So I've promised you all, dear readers, that I would blog more regularly this semester. Given my schedule, I don't have an excuse not to. With any luck, I'll have a three-day week at school: Writing, Translation, Media Arabic and a seminar on Civil Society and Development. I fear this first week will be a rude awakening after six long weeks of Arabic-free living, but I'm excited, too. I'm hoping to spend much more time exploring this crazy city, Egypt and bits of the region (while my American passport still lets me) in the coming months, so hopefully I will have entertaining stories to share.

To start with, I have a new flatmate this semester. Her name is Abeba, and she is a lovely young woman from Ethiopia. She married an American guy named Howard a few years ago and has a beautiful young daughter named Hana; the unfortunate bit is that it's taking an awfully long time for Abeba to get her American citizenship so she can be with her husband and daughter who are now in the states. In the meanwhile, she is here taking English classes, watching a lot of Oprah and making some really incredible meals that I would be a fool to refuse. I can't imagine how hard it must be to be separated from one's family and not know how long it will be before the great American bureaucracy stamps the right paperwork. Anyhow, I'm really enjoying getting to know Abeba while getting a totally different perspective on Cairo from someone who's not a priveleged young American studying abroad.

Thanks to Debbie, I've been reading some great books the past few weeks: for starters, Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays, a beautifully sparse and bitter story of West Coast living in the late 60's; and currently, Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines which is about his adventures in Australia following the Aboriginal traditions by which the world was sung into creation. His writing is so goddamn good and each chapter is a captivating story in and of itself. I remember not being able to get into In Patagonia a while back, but am now thinking I should give it another shot when I get back. Somewhere between Didion and Chatwin is where I'd like my writing to be, if that makes any sense at all.

1 Comments:

Blogger Alex said...

I'm disappointed that there was no mention of the bowling league. Glad you made it back safe.

Tue Feb 07, 01:10:00 AM GMT+2  

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