Sleepless night
11:05 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
Its 12 am and I have to be up in 6 1/2 hours, but instead I find myself struggling for the second time this week. I'm struggling because I miss Cairo. I miss the Middle East. I miss my second home. I miss everything about it. The sights, the smells, the sounds, the adventure.....everything. It literally tears me apart sometimes, and for the second time in a week I find myself in tears just dying to go back.
I had the same problem on Tuesday, but it was different. I found myself sad from the moment I woke up. On the verge of tears for most of the morning especially as my Egypt playlist played through on my iPod. I could remember walking down the street from the Mohammad Mahmoud Gate of AUC or through the tree and embassy lined roads of Zamalek to my fruit guy. I think I'd been dreaming about it and to wake up and realize I wasn't there was actually painful. Tonight, the weather has been a big part of it.....today was just like it was in Cairo.....and then I was watching this thing on the news about a marathon in Morocco and the desert just drew me back.
I know to most I probably sound utterly insane, but the funny thing is, my friends from Cairo get it. They totally understand every feeling, every tear, every moment of missing a place you learn to hold so dear. To describe Cairo or the Middle East to an average person would probably never make them want to set foot over there, but to experience it and to live it changes that perspective entirely. How do you explain to someone how you come to love the beeping of the taxis? Or the random people who remember you from weeks earlier? Or the hospitality in the Old City of Jerusalem? Or laughing at the security forces as you line up to caravan through the desert? How do you explain to someone how such experiences shaped you when you have trouble understanding it yourself? Walking through a Palestinian refugee camp......getting lost in the Old City of Jerusalem.....walking in the footsteps of Pharaohs and seeing the ancient ruins of Karnak or Luxor Temple.....sailing down the Nile while sunbathing.....climbing Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night to watch the sunrise.....scaling a mountain to get a better view of Petra.....chit-chatting with Bedouin along the way......
Is it ever possible for people to truly understand that? How you come to live for the adventure and find a completely foreign city to come to feel like home?
It truly is indescribable. I miss home.
Wahashtiny....
I had the same problem on Tuesday, but it was different. I found myself sad from the moment I woke up. On the verge of tears for most of the morning especially as my Egypt playlist played through on my iPod. I could remember walking down the street from the Mohammad Mahmoud Gate of AUC or through the tree and embassy lined roads of Zamalek to my fruit guy. I think I'd been dreaming about it and to wake up and realize I wasn't there was actually painful. Tonight, the weather has been a big part of it.....today was just like it was in Cairo.....and then I was watching this thing on the news about a marathon in Morocco and the desert just drew me back.
I know to most I probably sound utterly insane, but the funny thing is, my friends from Cairo get it. They totally understand every feeling, every tear, every moment of missing a place you learn to hold so dear. To describe Cairo or the Middle East to an average person would probably never make them want to set foot over there, but to experience it and to live it changes that perspective entirely. How do you explain to someone how you come to love the beeping of the taxis? Or the random people who remember you from weeks earlier? Or the hospitality in the Old City of Jerusalem? Or laughing at the security forces as you line up to caravan through the desert? How do you explain to someone how such experiences shaped you when you have trouble understanding it yourself? Walking through a Palestinian refugee camp......getting lost in the Old City of Jerusalem.....walking in the footsteps of Pharaohs and seeing the ancient ruins of Karnak or Luxor Temple.....sailing down the Nile while sunbathing.....climbing Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night to watch the sunrise.....scaling a mountain to get a better view of Petra.....chit-chatting with Bedouin along the way......
Is it ever possible for people to truly understand that? How you come to live for the adventure and find a completely foreign city to come to feel like home?
It truly is indescribable. I miss home.
Wahashtiny....
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