Egypt running through my head

The first thing I noticed looking around the rest station was how fat, sloppy and skimpily dressed people were. I was sitting with my mom eating a big green, albeit slightly flavorless, salad at the Charleston rest stop on our way home from Logan Airport in Boston. We left Zamalek 2:00 a.m. Cairo time and arrived in Boston 2:45p.m. EST.
The last day in Cairo was also our first day back from Abu Dhabi, we got to the Marriot, where we had rooms for the day, at 9 a.m. slept, shopped for souvenirs’ and were packing when the guys—Mufas, K-$ and Amir arrived at our door.
Mufas--7p.m. is too late, this is your last night in Cairo. Lily-we’re not done packing—come at 6:30. They arrived at 6, the first time they—or actually I’ve ever seen any Egyptian, arrive early. Lily-How did you get here so fast? K-$—We were at Macs. Lily-Where!? K-$—MACCdonalds.—Ohh. Lol. Right down the street…..

Conversations usually go like that with them.

It hasn’t hit me that this is more than ‘cya in a week or two.’
Some cried when we left. I didn’t; felt pretty detached actually. Denial? The rush of all I have to do here right now….we’ll see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

What I’ll remember most about the trip, aside from Arabic—inshallah, are the people. They not only influenced where I went and what I saw but how I saw and understood it all. They provided a lens, showed me Egypt as they knew it.

‘I know I’ve asked you this before,’ Mufas said. From the way he said it, I was knew it would be yet another thoughtful question. ‘But how has your view of Egyptians and Egypt changed from being here?’

We were sitting at an outdoor café the most casual type—a few tables, juice and sheisha, at Moquttam Hills with the lights of Cairo glowing below us and the pyramids visible, at least before it got dark, in the distance.

I tried not to have a lot of expectations. Be open-minded. Plus, I told him, I left in such a rush. Finals, job searching, goodbyes, moving and packing, I hardly had time to think.
The difference is I feel more connected now, I won’t picture pyramids when I think of Egypt, I’ll picture friends and places I love and remember ridiculous stories about one-way streets.
The answer, unsurprisingly, didn’t satisfy him.
I tried to explain it like this.
When we were in Marsha Matruh I met a guy Rami, half Palestinian, half Greek, born and bred in Egypt. Everything I told him, he shrugged. Nah, I think it’s just those people, if I showed you Cairo it would be completely different, you wouldn’t think that.
While I think he’s right to some extent, it’s not that simple.
If I had traipsed Cairo with him I don’t think my picture would be more correct, simply different.
It’s slice replacing slice.
We can expand by seeing more and withholding judgments. We can accumulate slices and fit them together like puzzle pieces but even then, even if we were to complete an entire puzzle, it’s still only one out of countless and we’re only seeing it through our own lens.
Insert nature vs. nurture debate here if you feel the need…I know where I stand.

The whole journey for me was perfect. Amazing. I hate using phrases like best thing of my life so I won’t. I think it’s silly to qualify like that, unnecessary. How it turned out was an endless array of choices and risks and chance. I can use words like “perfect,” but really a different choice could have led to another perfect and who am I to mess with words like that….
So what is was….
Probably the most I ever laughed and smiled
Tons of great quotes, phrases and invented words
More thoughts chasing each-other and jousting for space inside my head, blog and conversations than ever
The most I’ve talked about things I care about
I won’t compare girl friends—I am so lucky in that regard, but the guys—in the highest percentile I have ever known, you guys make it hard to accept what’s here…i.e in the US.

And speaking of here…
I am typing at the kitchen table in my home—my mom’s home—where I still have a bedroom and some stuff and I’ll be living for the next week or so before, inshallah, I find an apartment in DC.