This blog is like the friend I've been meaning to get in touch with because we've been living in the same town for over 3 months but now it's just a little awkward.
Nonetheless, I will try to do my best to highlight the past 2 months (yikes). The month of December we spent working as teachers at the Global Education Center in Cairo. It was like diving into the Arab culture and creating an actual life, contrastingly deeply with our previous itinerant lifestyle. I had an apartment, a pessimistic Canadian roommate named Neil, an actual 1 hour commute to work, friends, commitments, a salary... It was a real life, much like the ones our peers who took on the responsibilities of a job had. Teaching English to Muslim and Christian adults at the center was an incredible and taxing experience. 8 hours of work, 6 days a week, and 8 classes of individuals to keep track of became the focus of my life. I had to dig up good english conversation topics, and learn grammar that I had never even applied to the English language before. The past perfect? I had only used it in spanish...thank god for senior Bright. Teaching was a perfect guise to penetrate the Egyptian culture. I had the opportunity to get chastised for suggesting that dreams could predict the future, and that we should drink wine in Italy. I breached the religious traditions religiously, and heard the word haram alot. Outside of teaching, I spent evenings drinking Sahlab and playing dominos in the city center, drinking 2 dollar beers at horreya, and going to sleep after watching nip tuck in our bare apartment. I knew I was out too late when I heard the 5:30AM call to prayer. Cairo was a very nocturnal city. Who knew it would get cold in Cairo?
I picked up a substanial bit of Arabic, but it is fading fast in the face of re-learning Hindi for India. Due to the bread heavy + foul diet in Egypt, i gained a few and had to join a gym. I lifted weights and actual began running again to the sounds of the Koran being recited. Very cool. I had a love-hate relationship with this city. I only remember the fond moments, because of the way I think the brain works. New years I spent with close friends singing christmas carols and laughing over boiled chickpeas at the corniche el nil. The Nile is really beautiful at night. As I was preparing myself and my students to leave I found i was in too deep. I ripped off the bandaid quickly enough and I left there teary with many many many friends and memories. Luckily I left to join my best-friend Jess in Thailand.
Thailand...
Went by too fast. I did more people things than the country. I spent the first couple days getting my bearings from wheeling out of the middle east and into a steamy and strange Bangkok. We met Jess in the apartment of 3 wonderful French guys who were living the high-life in the depths of the city. I left with Jess after renting some bikes for Chiang Mai, and began the bike trip of a lifetime from Chaing Mai to Mae Hong Song. The path, previously only navigable by elephants till 15 years ago when the Japanese built a road, was a tortuous 2,070 turns up and down the mountains of north western Thailand. Each day we road 50-70 km up morale breaking hills. I had a previous disinclination to climbing; but that quickly ended after the 2nd day of ridiculousness. Jess and I treated ourselves to a 3$ 60 minute thai massage to ease our aching butts. Truly meditative, cycling and diving are two things that will connect Jess and I forever. Same with Cow lam...
After reuniting with Joe in Chiang Mai, we splurged on a "Flight of the Gibbons" zipline adventure. Then we traveled back to Bangkok with a stop in the Khao Yai national park. There we rented a motorbike and zipped around mountainous jungle highlands in search of elephants. All we found were monkeys and barking deer. (?!) All the while my father was making his way overseas to meet us in Bangkok. We then spent two weeks with him in Southern Thailand, Ko lanta, and then to Malaysia. We went into a real rain forest and battled leaches and tourists on night jungle and high canopy walks. We ended the trip relaxing on the beach and getting lectured/prepared by my father about what we can and cannot do in India. That brings us to the present. We leave tomorrow for Chennai. We don't have much of a plan yet but for sure we will be in Southern India for a while and make our way North, eventually to be with my cousin sister Shivli for her engagement. That's all for now! Sawadee KAI, and please PLEASE please don't stop the music!!
