Hi everyone! Well it's safe to say that I fell a little behind on keeping you all informed towards the end of the semester. BUT there is good news to make up for that! I'M HOME!
My semester ended April 29, eight days after returning to Cairo after the month of travel through the Middle East. During those 8 days in Cairo, we (the students) basically didn't leave our apartment except to find food because were writing our final papers. I think I hit about 35 or so total pages in those 8 days. So then we turned in all those papers (thankfully!) and had our final retreat at a local desert retreat center. I had made the decision to stay in Cairo for a little extra time, and my mom came to visit me! So after bidding farewell to my fellow students, I found my mom in the airport and began a 10-day tour of Cairo with her! We had a great time, and it was really helpful to allow her to EXPERIENCE Cairo rather than trying to EXPLAIN it to her after arriving home! Last Saturday she and I got on a plane and made our really long journey back to the States. We arrived safely, got over jet lag, and started unpacking.
So now that I'm finally back, I have to say that I'm realizing more and more each day how many ways I came to love Cairo. Even the little things - like being able to read street signs, DRIVING my own PERSONAL car, eating non-Egyptian food, greeting people without kissing them, not living with 8 other girls - these little things all remind me of the bigger things that made my life so different in Cairo. Even though I would never have classified myself as a city person before, I'm really missing life in a city that REALLY never sleeps (you thought NYC didn't sleep...go to Cairo!). I miss my fellow American students, living in close quarters in our quirky apartment, my incredible Egyptian friends, and being constantly immersed in a place that taught me something new every day (or every hour, really).
Despite realizing everything that I've left behind, I'm also quickly realizing that it's great to be back! I spent a few days in MD at home with family and friends, and now I'm up in PA on Messiah's campus spending a few days with college friends and hanging out in my old apartment with my old roommates! On Saturday I will walk in my graduation ceremony, which honestly feels a little surreal. How am I old enough to graduate?! Four days after graduation I will be in my car driving to Jonesville, VA where I will begin training for my summer job. At the end of training I will find out my placement for the summer...a TBD county in either VA, WV, KY, or TN. I am working on staff with a Christian non-profit organization called Appalachia Service Project, which is a place I've volunteered with for 5 summers. (Check out their website... asphome.org) That job will take me from May until the beginning of August, and after that my plans are pretty open. I don't yet have a permanent job, but finding one is my task for the summer. Ideally I'd like to take a break after the summer, taking some time to relax and perhaps visit some friends who are scattered around the country now, before diving head first into yet another new endeavor. We will see :-)
So there you have it, my life compressed into one short update! Thank you all for faithfully reading and replying to my somewhat sporadic updates while I was gone! Really, it was such a good feeling to open my email (even as infrequently as I did) and see many replies from the updates I sent out. Thanks for staying in touch with me, asking questions about my experiences, and sharing important moments in your lives too since I wasn't here to experience them alongside you. PLEASE feel free to keep asking me questions because I've learned so much and I would really love to share some of that with those people who are interested in knowing! And now that I'm home, I can MUCH more easily respond to emails with a little more substance than before :-) Thanks again, keep me posted on your lives, and enjoy this transition into summer!!
