A month into our adventure in Egypt I have many thoughts concerning the experience. I will record a few here.
Egypt is similar to Argentina:
1. Very structured days (2-7 hours of class, 2 hours of newspaper reading, 2 hours of speaking, 1 hour of other homework and the rest of the day with the family).
2. Environs (slow paced, kind of dirty, religious, full of personality and firmly third world)
3. Intensity (time moves by super fast and super slow, I fall asleep very easy)
4. Mixed emotions (feeling great to feeling like a failure,)
5. A reliance on the Spirit
6. Deep down, I really love both places
Other differences include:
1. Having a family here.
2. Not being sure if I'm really supposed to be here.
3. Having access to the internet.
4. Being 5 years older.
5. How crowded Egypt is.
6. Having a family here.
im glad youre all here with me! that counts for something, right ;)
ReplyDeletebut really, i love hanging out with cait and amir.
The family part is rough, for sure. Hope all three of you hang in there!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are having a good time - I do have to disagree with you on a few points -
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't classify Argentina as dirty nor would I say that they are firmly third world, they have fallen in the recent years due to economical struggles but they still have an upper and middle class, thus hopefully that wouldn't qualify them in the third world category.
Anyway, hope your trip continues to be a good one.
Mia Chard
Your right Mia, I was making overly large generalizations about both countries. I should have said that. I meant to refer to the places I see and saw in Egypt. I spend and spent almost all of my time in the poorer parts of Argentina and Egypt. Both countries have a lot of wealth, I just never really saw it. By dirty I mainly meant dusty as both Maadi and Mendoza are very dry places and so dust and sand is everywhere. But I don't think I am biased when I say that neither area has great trash collection mechanisms and so there is a lot more trash on the ground and dead animals in the road and in empty fields than I'm used to, though I'm sure there are places like that in the states and places like the Provo here. Like I recently added to the post, however, I really like both places.
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