Journies to Distant Lands and a New Semester

Well, I'm officially back in Morocco after a whirl wind of a winter break full of lots of exciting travels. Whew.

To begin the recounting of my winter break adventures, let us travel back in time to December 19, 2009 when I boarded a plane to Cairo, Egypt. My mother and I had plans to spend ten days traveling in Egypt, first in Cairo, and then on a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan, and finally back to Cairo for another two days of sightseeing. Our first day of Cairo sightseeing was great. We explored all of the pyramids in Giza, and several "step" pyramids built in the surrounding area. It was incredible to see the pyramids standing there against the backdrop of smog filled Cairo. Talk about places where the past a present walk hand in hand! Our guide was entertaining and knowledgeable, and a good times was had by all. The hotel we stayed at was also a total trip. Apparently late December is a big time in Egypt's tourist season, because all of the little resorts in Giza were absolutely packed with foreign tourists. Going outside the hotel was strongly discouraged, as my mom and I found out when we attempted to take a short walk after dinner, and each hotel had a whole complex of restaurants and shops. Our first night we ate at a Tex Mex restaurant in our hotel. It was wild.

After our day in Cairo we boarded an early flight to Luxor. The rest of that day was spent touring the monuments along both the East and West banks of the Nile in Luxor. We went to the Valley of the Kings and actually walked through three tombs with all of the original hieroglyphics still in place! We also visited the temples of Luxor and Karnak, which were amazing in their scale and detail. It's so hard to believe that all of these buildings were erected thousands and thousands of years ago, and still mostly standing!

The next few days were spent sailing down the Nile and stopping at various points so that all of us tourists could disembark with our various guides and visit the historic monuments located close to the shore. It was absolutely crazy floating down the river seeing ship, after tourist filled ship passing by in both directions. On the cruise, my days were mostly spent reading novels and chatting with a group of Sri Lanken teenagers who befriended me (I think in large part because I was the only person under 35 who spoke English on our ship), and avoiding the remarkably persistent spa workers who absolutely refused to believe that I did not want a massage.

Probably my favorite place that we visited was Aswan. In Aswan we saw that high dam, the Nubian Museum, and a temple devoted to Isis, which was one of the twenty or so monuments that a UNESCO project moved to a new location when the rising waters behind the Aswan dam threatened to flood them. I had no idea that so many temples were physically moved to new locations, or that so much Nubian history had been lost because of the dam. Anyways, the temple was located on an island, and was absolutely gorgeous. Especially with the water and flower filled backdrop. My mom and I also visited the Coptic cathedral in Aswan on Christmas day (their Christmas wasn't until our Epiphany). After Aswan it was back to Cairo for another couple of days of sightseeing within the city itself. The biggest highlight here was a trip to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities where all of the loot from King Tut's tomb, plus a number of mummies were on display.

Overall, I'm really glad that I went to Egypt and got to see all of the incredible monuments, temples, and historic artifacts. That being said, going to North Africa when it quickly became apparent that I really wanted a break from North Africa was not the best idea. I am so thankful that I got to spend Christmas with my mom at least (and she was a perfect saint for putting up with all of my whining and emotional moments that frequently occurred during this trip), but it was still depressing. It was high sixties and sunny on Christmas day, and I missed cold weather, familiar carols, trees, and traditional decorations. Instead of being at home with my family, I was in a weird sort of tourist limbo and it made me ache with homesickness in ways that I cannot even begin to describe. I think my lowest point came while waiting alone in the hotel (my mom's flight was much earlier than mine) for my ride to the airport. "There's No Place like Home for the Holidays" came on the loudspeaker as I was wandering aimlessly through the sprawling complex full of tourists three days after Christmas. I felt like crying. Ah well, next year I'm going to be so full of Christmas cheer that my family will probably want to strangle me long before the holiday season is over.

Egypt was also difficult, surprisingly enough, because of my Arabic skills and Moroccan background. People on the cruise, and both of our guides (we had a different one in Luxor and Aswan, nice guy but not nearly as knowledgeable as our Cairo guide) were stunned to hear me speak Arabic. Sometimes this worked in our favor. My mom and I made good friends with the barman on our cruise, and our Luxor/Aswan guide told us more about his personal history than he would have if he hadn't developed some personal interest in us. Other times though, I just wanted to be left alone and that was simply not an option. Waiters came up to me just to see if it was really true that I spoke Arabic, and I was given a significant amount of teasing for not knowing how to speak Egyptian Arabic, even though I can get along fine in Moroccan Darija, and Classical Arabic. Also, Morocco is just close enough to Egypt culturally that I thought I would be able to successfully navigate Egyptian streets and markets without a problem, but also significantly different enough that my mom and I still ended up getting ripped off when taking taxis or shopping. This frustrated me to no end, as I felt like I wasn't able to relax and act like a complete tourist, thanks to my Morocco experience.

OK enough whining! Sorry for the angst in this post! I hope I haven't further alienated my already dwindling readership with all my complaining. Luckily, my depressing Egyptian Christmas was followed by a spectacular New Years in London with my friend Erin. Erin and I spent an enjoyable few days visiting museums, such as the Natural History Museum, the Royal War Museum, and my personal favorite, the Sherlock Holmes Museum. We also saw the Sherlock Holmes movie, ate in pubs, drank alcohol, and took a thoroughly touristy trek past Westminster Abby and the Houses of Parliament. Erin took me to an Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral, a wonderful Anglican tradition that once again had me in tears, and on a slightly more contemporary note, we saw a fabulous hip/hop rendition of the Pied Piper story. The highlight of the trip, though was seeing my AU friends again and ringing in the new year, on the bank of the Thames, with some of the most wonderful people I've had the pleasure of knowing.

Erin and I finished both of our vacations with a trip back to Morocco. We toured Fez and Chefchaouen, two of my favorite places in the country, and managed to get around by ourselves just fine with a strange mix of French (on Erin's part) and Darija (on mine). Despite the rain (it rained all week) and several travel setbacks, including having to spend the night in Portugal after missing a connecting flight, forgetting the PIN to my debit card, and leaving my Moroccan cell phone on the train to Fez (I know, I apparently really do not travel well) I haven't passed a more enjoyable week in quite some time. For those of you who don't know, I spent the summer working on a research project with Erin, which involved several trips up and down the eastern seaboard, and it was really fun to carry on the Adventures of Catherine and Erin in Morocco. Erin is a wonderful travel companion, as she did not complain about the general dampness or lack of indoor heating in most Moroccan buildings, and she charmed the pants off my host family. It was great coming back to Morocco with her, as I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to handle coming back all by myself. I'm living alone with my host family now and I was not looking forward to the lonely space left by Evelyn's absence. Luckily, a week of fun was just what I needed, and although I certainly suffered bouts of homesickness, especially after I dropped Erin off at the airport, my transition back to Moroccan life has been OK.

My classes started today, as I mentioned earlier, and so far everything seems to be going well. The new group of students seem great, it's just a little weird figuring out our relationship, since the six of us year-long folks are on a rather different plane now. I'm sure that in a couple of weeks everything, including the new dynamic with my host family and the new American students, will have settled and I'll be back at an equilibrium again. For now, I'm going to sign off, start my Arabic homework, and try my best to get back in the swing of things!