Back from spring break with one month to go

I was afriad that I was going to be let down coming back into Egypt. A lot of people who have traveled get depressed and start focusing on all the dirt, poverty, low quality of ... all sorts of stuff, and inefficiency here, because the places they've been like Turkey or Israel aren't like that. I went through border control with my friend Sam and some other AUC students. As we were leaving Israel, the Israeli guards asked us questions, "Where are you going? What will you do there? What did you do here?" and generally questions I expected (and got) on the way in to Israel. Two of the other AUC students we met in line and wound up traveling back to Cairo with were Muslim, one of whom wore hijab, and she got asked about her religion and if she knew people in Israel, which seem kind of irrelevant if you don't ask follow up questions like, "How does your religion impact your feelings toward Jewish people?" or "Are those people you know is Israel terrorists?" Anyway, I've never been questioned while I was in the exit line for a country. You'd think the Egyptians would be asking us questions since we're entering their country. But when we got to the Egyptian side, the guard there said hi, glanced at our passports, and when he saw the girl in hijab, he laughed. We didn't know what he said, but he was clearly sympathizing with her, "You just came through there and you dress like that? I know they gave you a hard time." And that made all of us smile, because in Egypt, people joke around a lot, like as a nation, and when they encounter people who are suffering or just got hasseled, they know how to laugh about it. We were glad to be back.

So I'm in Cairo and feeling pretty positive about the last few weeks here. No bittersweet--I'm glad for the time I've been here and will be here, and I'm excited for this summer, which is kind of hard to picture because it's going to be so different from here. Spring break was obviously a really enriching couple weeks, and now I know for sure that I've got a job, a grant, and an apartment for this summer, so I'm very blessed. We went out to an "American" restaurant last night, kind of to celebrate things falling into place for me and kind of just to go out. I got waffles.

Briefly, since I'm thinking of it, I'll just jot down a couple things that I've explained to people about the US. As I've been here longer and gotten to know people better, they've asked me questions about things that are different. (The first couple days back in January, I got a lot of, "So how do you think Egypt is different from America?" which is an impossibly huge question to answer, particularly when you've had no time to reflect on it and get exposed to more Egypt.) It's a lot harder than I thought to elicit what the "rules" are in the US, but they're definitely there. Here are some things that people have asked me about.

• In America, men who are friends can't kiss each other in public, or anywhere, really.
• In America, you have to have friends outside of your family--if not, even your family will think that you have a problem. Further, if you don't see your friends outside of just school or work, people will think that there's something wrong with you.
• In America, Christians are the majority. They form many small denominations. Historically, these groups were significantly different from each other, but today they are similar in many regards. Christian fundamentalism has been growing in the States for many decades, and I don't know the answer to "Why?"
• In America, before you get engaged to be married, you date. You have a relationship with that person and are "more than friends," optimally for years before you get engaged. If you do not, everyone will think it's fishy and that you're making a terrible decision. There is no word in Egyptian Arabic for dating, or for boyfriend/girlfriend--only "friend" and "fiance".
• In America, male children and female children are supposed to inherit the same amount when their parents die. One son or daughter may get more than another because the parent chose to give them somethind special, but this is on an individual basis, not a gender basis. It does not matter if the parent who died was male or female. And really, not perfectly in all regards but in quite a lot, men and women are equal under the law.