On the Road Again

“But you know what is really strange after all this time and after all these continued feelings of unrest and confusion…. that I still have so much faith in Chance. I still really believe that if you go into an experience openminded and full of hope (even if we are cynical about certain aspects), if we are overall optimistic that the choice is beneficial to us and to our environment, then we will surely find the answers guiding our next great decision at some point during it.”
-Nicole Pollio

Hi-dee ho, good neighbor. The last week in Cairo has indeed been one to remember. It’s a vibrant city with reckless and yet somehow reckless drivers. I fell victim to the tourist industry and invested on a camel trip into the desert to see the pyramids at Giza, but I enjoyed myself. My camel riding skills were in fact so superb that my guide allowed me to try the “crazy gallop”. I did not know that camels could run. I will never question their ability again. In the meantime, I’ve spent a lot of time wandering the streets, taking it all in. The first few days were as Heather mentioned, a big celebration/feast here called Eid Al-Adha, which involves the killing of cows and sheep, etc. So I would walk down one street and see a cow tied to a storefront, and a while later, pass that same spot to find cow pieces. I chose not to watch any of the “cuttings” as they’re called, for myself. The aftermath was quite sufficient and did not leave too much to the imagination. People here are very friendly and very proud of their city. I’ve never hear the phrase, “welcome..” more in my life. On the other hand, some people are a bit too friendly and walking down the street as a western woman can actually prove quite a hassle, having nothing to do with my nationality. The immediate effect of this was my sequestering myself away in my hotel room for a good deal of the day, reading. The longer term effect is now showing itself in my decision to skip the rest of the region for the moment. I want to stress that it is not a matter of safety that I no longer wish to travel in the middle east alone, but a matter of my impatience with the unwanted attention I garner walking to and from the internet cafe. That said, I have booked a ticket to Bangkok which leaves tomorrow. I have one night in Abu Dhabi and then I arrive the next day to Thailand. My college professor, Dr. Chasek, has put me in touch with a woman who lives there and whom I’ve met before, so I’ll have a friendly, familiar face and someone to give good advice about where I should go in the country and what to see. So that’s it for now, folks. Sorry that I haven’t put new pictures up in a while, the internet cafe I go to here doesn’t have Windows XP, so I haven’t been able to work it out yet. But soon.