half-here half-there feelings the result of two weeks confusion at home
Not a good sign. The rate at which I’m posting seems to be slowing down, more days are creeping between entries. Does it mean I’m lazy? I’m too bored to move? That there’s no news in my life? Possibly.
Actually, I’ve been sitting around in Houston the past few days since I returned from Egypt. (I say ‘actually’ as if trying to explain that “in contrast to not having anything to do, which is what you’d expect based on the previous sentence, in fact I am about to tell you something exciting and unexpected that I am doing with the abundance of free time that I am now in possession of.” Apologies though, nothing of the sort is happening.) I read Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, which was fantastic (not unlike all his other books). Each new book he puts out gets longer, and this one, which came out a few years back is about a thousand pages. His writing is unusual but very clever; long sentences that almost but don’t quite turn into run-ons but still manage to maintain excitement, multiple-page descriptions of objects such as Cap’n Crunch cereal flakes, and plots that thicken, complicate, bemuddle, and generally confuse the reader before coming together at the end of the book with quite a few loose ends and unanswered questions. I highly recommend his books, particularly Snow Crash, and The Baroque Cycle.
It feels odd here at home, though. I’ve finished my summer trip, but school hasn’t yet started, so I’m in a kind of relaxation, post-adventure, wind down, recover-from-studying-everyday mode. At the same time, I feel anticipation, excitement, mixed with some dread (at the thought of more studying) while I wait for the start of the new school year. The two bodies of feeling aren’t compatible.
So what to do? Download music, poke around with Middle Persian, confuse myself about my majors, and then do chores for my mother. Not very exciting. I have a list of things to do while I’m here, but haven’t started on that yet, really. I was wondering what it would be like to get a Lonely Planet on Houston and see what they’ve got in it. Maybe I’ll do that . . . could lead to some exciting things that I never knew existed around here. Is it bad when you have to get a guide book to your own city because you don’t know what new to do?
comments on my return home, or why are the swiss so good at everything?
So I’m finally back home after a rather long combination of plane rides. It doesn’t really feel like I’ve left Egypt; I think that the taxi ride to the airport functioned as a good-bye tour of the city and I got all my sad feelings out then. Then it was off to the comfort of Swiss Airlines.
Let me tell you, some people just know how to have airports (and airlines). Like the Swiss. They do everything right. I’m in love with Switzerland. Why? Because the Zurich airport was the best airporting experience I’ve ever had.
I started off in the Cairo airport – most of it is under construction, its crowded, and security is minimal. And there were no chairs in the waiting area. From there I took a nice flight on SwissAir to Zurich; it was one of the most pleasant flights I’d ever had – great food, friendly (trilingual) staff. The Zurich airport is entirely made of glass, so as you walk through it, you get a perfect view of the Swiss countryside…its beautiful! But the best part is their security. As I went through the carry-on checkpoint, I first tried to take my laptop out of my backpack, as I’m used to. After asking me in which of three languages I would be most comfortable speaking to her in, the security woman explained that I could just leave the laptop in my bag. After all, since their machine can detect laptops inside of backpacks, they just save everybody the hassle. Next I tried to take my mobile and coins out of my pockets. She told me that I didn’t have to do that, either. Since their machine can detect coins in people’s pockets, why not save them the inconvenience of reaching in their pockets and removing objects? Makes perfect sense. I didn’t even have to take my shoes off, or my belt, or anything else. Thank you Zurich airport.
It was downhill from there, as far as airports go, though. London’s Heathrow airport isn’t very modern and has a lot of construction. I had to stay overnight there, so I went into a closed restaurant and slept in one of the booths. The flight to Toronto and then Houston was decent, but I was pretty annoyed after having everything searched – including the fly of my pants – by the paranoid people at the Toronto airport. Seriously, I never want to have to fly through another U.S. or Canadian airport again. Actually, I’m moving to Switzerland so I can just go the Zurich airport all the time and enjoy myself. Leave it to the Swiss to do everything in a superior manner. I’m in love with them.
So after unloading my bags and having a nice long bit of show-and-tell with my mother and Jamila last night, I crashed. Woke up this morning to send Jamila off to the airport; her RA training starts today. Leanora will be back in town tomorrow, I think. I brought back some Libyan green tea, so I’m going to test out my tea-making skills later and see how it works out. And Jamila brought home plenty of Belgian chocolate…so I’ll be testing those out for like, quality and uh, taste, later.
The best part so far, though, is sleeping in a decent bed. My bed in Egypt was just a cushion on a wood frame; livable, but its always nice to have like 2 feet of padding or whatever when you sleep.
oh no its the end of my trip and i still have so many things to do : typical feelings preceding a return flight
The last day of class is over, and my stay in Cairo is nearing its end. What to think?
My brain has been boggling all week long, as I try to remember things that I need to do and buy and people that I need to say goodbye to. I even made a list, but then lost it. Instead of going to Heliopolis tonight for dinner, I’m just taking a an evening in the flat; trying to relax, do a little packing. I’ve got some mixed thoughts about leaving.
First, the part of me that wants to leave. I just can’t wait to have some quality air conditioning, a nice shower, clean(er) air and streets and cars, and ethnic food (egypt seriously lacks in that department – and egyptian food doesn’t count as ethnic food when one is in egypt). And it will be very good to see many friends and family members again. And of course I’m looking forward to USC beginning again, so I can go the gym, swim a lot, eat a lot, sleep not a lot, and take some classes (am I really saying that?). I actually kind of miss not dying over my Old Persian homework every night at 1am; Namit, you know what I mean.
On the other hand, I’m just getting to the point where my Arabic conversational skills are beginning to exist. I don’t want to slow my learning momentum that’s been picking up speed. I’ve made some great friends, learned an absolutely phenomenal amount about Arab-Egyptian-Islamic culture, and found some really great places to hang out.
Argh. I guess the solution will be to come back whenever I get the chance.
Let me gather my thoughts and I’ll post some reflections about my sojourn.
