Turning Off The Lights

I'm sitting in my bed, in my now-empty room, with packed bags sitting neatly nearby, and it's finally starting to sink in that it's time to go home. It all went by so fast that it was hard to really realize that it was time to go home - even when we had final presentations in class, or as my students were crying as we gave last hugs, or as we waved our way out of the Ana al-Masri center that last time. I mean, the past week I've been telling myself that this is my last whatever. My last time in Khan al-Khalili, my last sandwich ma ful bilsalsal, my last metro ride, my last time on the Nile. There were plenty of warning signs telling me that it's time to go back home, I just never really took the time to read them, or process what they meant.

And when I say "last," I hope to not mean the last time forever. I absolutely would love to return to Cairo, and hopefully to bring a few of you with me. And I'm excited to go back home, to see my family and some friends and to go on PWILD and to go to Prague. I'm excited for Mexican food, and to see Inception, and to not be harassed in the streets.

A Quick Note, A Useful Link

Hey, if anyone would like to follow along with the activities of our whole group here, there's another blog for you: http://dukeengagecairo2010.blogspot.com/

Behold, the official DukeEngage in Cairo 2010 blog, where you can find posts from all 13 of us about what we're doing, as well as videos and pictures.

In other news, today has just been a veg day, full of shopping and sleeping. And delicious food! A few of us just got back from eating ful at a place down the street. Ful is fava beans with olive oil, chopped vegetables and spices, and it was served with pita bread. There were also side dishes of grilled eggplant, tomatoes, pickles, potato chips and some kind of cheesey tomato salad thing. Like I said, the food here is delicious.