I have to think of a new word for places where I return to that bring back floods of happy memories. I felt like I went home again when I visited Poland in September, and I have the same feeling today, as I return to Cairo, Egypt.
Singapore was a blast for New Years, I'll leave it at that. The next afternoon I caught a flight to Bangkok, Thailand to catch my other flight to Cairo, Egypt. Little did I know at the time that 8 bombs had exploded in Bangkok the previous evening... that explained the military guys with uzis in the departure terminal.
The travel gods were shining upon me, and they provided me with a bulkhead, exit row seat with nearly 12 feet of leg room for my ten hour overnight flight to Cairo. I slept nearly the entire flight, and woke up on an entirely different continent. Always a strange feeling. Stepping out into the crisp Cairo air (it's winter here, I could actually see my breath), I caught a bus, and then a taxi to a new apartment I'd never been to, to live with a friend of a friend I'd never met. Sounds exactly like home, right?
I spent hours wandering the familiar, yet different streets of Cairo which I knew so well three years ago. A little has changed, but much remains the same. It is still a dirty, backwards, and crowded city which for some reason I love. My rusty Arabic is returning to me, and at least the taxi drivers and food salesmen are understanding me.
It's good to be back, it should be a pleasant month and a half of cultural immersion and Arabic language classes. For a related prayer request, pray that I have success in my studies, particularly because if I do go to graduate school this coming fall (wow, it's 2007), I'll be studying Arabic and the Middle East.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, Happy Holidays, and all that good jazz. With love from Cairo.
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