I feel like I have seen so many amazing things this year and I struggle with all my might not to forget them. I guess its kind of what I do with this blog.
I remember driving up to 太平山 (Taiping Mountain) through such dense fog that we could only see a few feet ahead of us. The path was windy with sudden sharp turns and we wound back and forth in our small car. At the time, those girls were little more than strangers to me and there was no way that I would anticipate how much I would eventually get to know them in the weeks to come.
I remember sitting in the back seat of a taxi cab driving to the Allenby/Hussein border crossing. The windows were open and the cab driver smoked a cigarette while he and Garrett talked in Shammi Arabic. Outside the window was the sparse Jordanian countryside, with its deep valleys and scattered houses. It was beautiful.
I remember looking out of my window on our way to Jerusalem and staring out at the Israeli terrain --the small raised plateaus and the crooks and crevices that were so different in comparison to how flat all of Egypt was. We were let off at the Damascus gate stop in a small alleyway. From there, you could see a small mountainous rock that some said was Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. It was the day before Eid, the busiest I saw Jerusalem while I was there.
I remember sitting in completely halted traffic as we tried to leave Ain Sokhna, only to receive news that the roads were closed after a truck had exploded further down the road. Having been only a few minutes drive away from our hotel, we then got off the bus and made our way back to stay an additional night. We were instructed to form groups with designated male escorts to surround the girls and ensure our safety. The IPL's became heroes after that day.
I remember the first time I got on the bus to go to AUC, I saw Cairo through my bus window with its unique array of crescents and crosses jutting into the sky, that strange picture of a soldier holding a baby in front of a military area and then the sign that told you not to take pictures, men selling pretzels to cars with open windows, and the relentless traffic. This would eventually be the most routine part of my day, sitting through almost three hours of commute to get from home to school. But this, to me, was Cairo.
I remember driving in the Avenue of Giants on our way down the 101. I couldn't even see the tops of the trees through my window without tilting my neck and leaning against the door. The giants towered above you as you suddenly realized how small you were and the hush of the forest seemed to suddenly put a lot of things in perspective.
I've seen a lot of things this year.
*I didn't intend for so many memories to have emerged out of some form of a car window, but I guess a lot of them happened that way (and decided to keep it that way after I saw the trend to keep things more cohesive) These memories are a scattered recollection of experiences from different places so I apologize if it is a bit confusing.
