The End

Waking up from the nap in Cairo felt so refreshing, but there was no time to lay around since we only had about 12 hours left. First Katharine and I attempted to lay by the pool to add a last-minute bronze to our skin, but it was so hot under the sun that we didn’t stay out for long. From there, it was time for some last-minute shopping for presents. Coming home from this, we experienced the most depressing setback ever: the Lebanese place had temporarily closed. Innocently wanting a last dessert mankousha, we had walked up to the door of our favorite Cairo eatery. Tamir was still there, and we started to walk inside, until he stopped us by spreading out his arms. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but we closed the night you all left for Abu Dhabi.” Apparently they decided to do some renovations to the place, and had waited until we left the country to do so (it’s not just because they liked us, although they did- we were definitely huge moneymakers, in terms that probably at least 15 of us ate at least one meal a day at this place for a month straight). Anyway, Katharine and I were pretty much devastated, to say the least.

Karim, Mostafa, and Amr came over later that night as we were finishing packing and showering. After much debate (the boys almost never formulate a game plan for the night until they are actually with us), we decided to go to a place called Muquttam Hills. As you can imagine, this is near the garbage village. It’s a beautiful area (thankfully, although it shares the name it does not smell the scent of the other location) overlooking the entire city of Cairo; we arrived in the waning minutes of daylight and were able to see all the way to the pyramids in Giza (they are in the background of this picture). For the next three hours, we watched the sun go down while we smoked shisha and talked about all kinds of stuff. Dale had asked me at one point what Americans the Egyptians did admire, so I posed this question to them during a lull in the conversation. The answers? Mel Gibson, Matt Damon, and Will Smith. Angelina Jolie and Barack Obama also received honorable mentions. I’m not sure what to think of the fact that four of the five aforementioned people are employed in the entertainment industry. Then again, I also admire Angelina more that G.W., so…

The guys came back to the hotel with us for the last hour that we had in Cairo, so more random conversation continued, until we finally had to meet the group in the lobby. Saying bye to those three guys was so hard. Leaving Cairo alone wouldn’t have been easy, because I love the life and character of this place, but it was immeasurably harder to leave because we had formed such close bonds with the guys. Knowing them these last few weeks made our time in Cairo so enjoyable and filled with memorable times- even if all we were doing was sitting in a café downtown.

The last hours since then have been nothing but a blur- we left Cairo at 5:30 in the morning, flew four hours to Frankfurt, and had a long layover there. The decreasing sobriety of several members of the group made the first part of the second plane ride sort of amusing. Thankfully, I slept through the entirety of the first plane ride, as well as a good chunk of the second one. I also watched “27 Dresses” in Spanish, and realized that even if my speaking ability had declined while I was studying another language so intensively that I am still able to understand spoken Spanish.

We arrived in Boston around 2:30, and Katharine’s lovely parents gave me a ride home. Ever since, I’ve been struggling to readjust on so many levels. I went for a walk with Kara, and the only clean clothes I was able to find after my shower were shorts and a sweatshirt. Even though my shorts were long (by American standards), it almost felt scandalous to be showing so much skin. So imagine my reaction when I saw a girl wearing a mini-skirt that barely covered her butt…it’s incredible how very quickly we became accustomed to Cairo and the norms in that city, down to adopting them for ourselves. Also, why am I not seeing Arabic lettering on street signs and businesses? I’m so confused.

It’s been great to see everyone so far, too, but I’m still struggling so much with the return. It’s so easy to close my eyes and picture Zamalek, from the walk to 26th July Street to the view from the balcony of Sharia Ismail Mohammed. It’s hard to realize that I know that place so well and it’s so ingrained in my mind, yet I may only see it again in my memory and never in reality. I loved Cairo and Egypt as a whole enough that I’d want to go back someday, but there are so many other countries to see, and who knows what the coming years will bring to my life.

My internal time clock is shot to hell, especially considering the past 48 hours have been full of travel and naps at random times. It’s 5:30 in the morning as I write this while listening to the music of Wist El-Balad. I went to bed around midnight American time, and woke up once around 2:30 A.M. as well. For me, it’s really about 1 PM. This is only helping to disorient me further. It’s going to be a tough few weeks ahead.