I am sitting in DC getting ready to board the shuttle to Dulles, to begin the long journey to Alexandria. With consecutive redeyes, I will get to try out sleeping in a chair for two nights in a row!
Some of you have asked about my itinerary so here it is:
UA 74 V 22JUN SO SFOIAD HK1 1010P 617A 23JUN
UA 932 V 26JUN TH IADFRA HK1 954P 1145A 27JUN
LH 676 V 27JUN FR FRAHBE HK1 845P 135A 28JUN
MS 721 H 10AUG SO CAIDAM HK1 330P 515P
BD 944 B 29AUG FR DAMLHR HK1 1135A 320P
UA 925 V 29AUG FR*LHRIAD HK1 420P 734P
UA 225 V 29AUG FR IADSFO*HK1 953P 1229A 30AUG
The upshot of it is six weeks in Alexandria, and then about three weeks of travel after that, using Damascus as a home base. Syria requires a visa, and that requires a passport, which is something I have been without for nearly a month now. Were the wounds not so fresh, I would try to recount the preposterous circus that my poor passport got caught up in lately.
In Brazilian Portuguese, there's an expression called "roda baiana" that nicely sums up the experience. Phonetically, you'd say "hoda bye-ana", which means to turn like Baianan's. Baiana is a state in Brasil, and its people Baianans. They have a famous dance that they do there, kind of like our square dancing, except that they go in circles. Whenever you do something that is extremely frustrating and gets you nowhere, to the point that you get angry about it, you can say that it's a roda baiana.
But I can't get caught up in Portuguese, or any other language for that matter, as I must maintain a laser-like focus on Arabic and Egyptian for the next six weeks. To this end, my little group is strongly contemplating doing a Language Pledge, which is an idea born out of Middlebury's famous summer immersion program, where participants forswear all but the target language ("L2") for the duration, 24/7. This linguistic fasting will likely drive me insane, but I am curious about how I will sink into madness, so I feel as though I will give it a try.
Blogging in English is allowed, so you will certainly hear from me again once I'm settled in Alexandria. I am excited for the adventure but I already miss everyone.
