This afternoon (25.11) I randomly decided to travel to Mansoura. Like I mentioned in a previous post, there is nothing too particular drawing me to the city, but this country drives me nuts sometimes and I feel like running away. It turns out the only place I have to run is to another chaotic city.
Right now, I feel like Angelina Jolie’s character in The Tourist.. No, I do not look as stunning as she does in the film, but I can turn heads just as much as she can. I walk down the train isle looking for my seat and every single (and not so single) man hopes that I will chose the vacant (or not so vacant) seat next to him. Grace and I were discussing this phenomenon after we watched The Tourist with our friends Adly and Mahmoud. We realize that it is our different-ness that turns heads and we questioned what it will take for us to not be treated like tourists in the city we call our home this year.
Being treated like a visitor has an adverse affect on my ability to feel settled in my life here in Egypt. I am doing my best to learn the language and have progressed significantly this past month because Adly talks to me in Arabic about 50% of the time now (and 100% of the time we spend on the phone). I am trying to expand my vocabulary and mastery of colloquial phrases in everyday situations, and I can finally see improvement in myself. This is really encouraging, but yet I still feel like a tourist.
I am hoping this feeling will subside, and I have a feeling that it will very soon; my parents are coming to Egypt this Saturday and it will be my chance to host foreigners! I have their two weeks planned with trips to famous historical sites in Luxor, Aswan, and Cairo, but I am most looking forward to showing them around Alexandria. I want to take them to the university to see where I work, to my Arabic lessons to meet my tutors, and to my basketball practice to meet my coach and team. More than those outings, I want to introduce them to my fruit seller, butcher, favorite kofta sandwich maker, the best juice squeezer in Alex, and other seemingly trivial people who are actually the people who make this city my home.
Right now, I feel like Angelina Jolie’s character in The Tourist.. No, I do not look as stunning as she does in the film, but I can turn heads just as much as she can. I walk down the train isle looking for my seat and every single (and not so single) man hopes that I will chose the vacant (or not so vacant) seat next to him. Grace and I were discussing this phenomenon after we watched The Tourist with our friends Adly and Mahmoud. We realize that it is our different-ness that turns heads and we questioned what it will take for us to not be treated like tourists in the city we call our home this year.
Being treated like a visitor has an adverse affect on my ability to feel settled in my life here in Egypt. I am doing my best to learn the language and have progressed significantly this past month because Adly talks to me in Arabic about 50% of the time now (and 100% of the time we spend on the phone). I am trying to expand my vocabulary and mastery of colloquial phrases in everyday situations, and I can finally see improvement in myself. This is really encouraging, but yet I still feel like a tourist.
I am hoping this feeling will subside, and I have a feeling that it will very soon; my parents are coming to Egypt this Saturday and it will be my chance to host foreigners! I have their two weeks planned with trips to famous historical sites in Luxor, Aswan, and Cairo, but I am most looking forward to showing them around Alexandria. I want to take them to the university to see where I work, to my Arabic lessons to meet my tutors, and to my basketball practice to meet my coach and team. More than those outings, I want to introduce them to my fruit seller, butcher, favorite kofta sandwich maker, the best juice squeezer in Alex, and other seemingly trivial people who are actually the people who make this city my home.
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