Hello, Salaam, Male!
I stepped off a plane nearly three days ago after spending the past six weeks sweltering in the desert sun at a refugee school in Cairo, Egypt, where I taught creative writing to nearly 400 Sudanese, Eritrean, and Somali youth who caused me to reconsider my entire viewpoint of world. It is currently 6:00 AM and I am clattering away in my kitchen after a bad case of jet-lag gave me the brilliant idea to make brownies at this early hour because sleep is certainly evading me. I'll take the chocolate treats to the refugee families here in Nashville that I will visit this afternoon. My phone has been ceaselessly ringing since I returned to the States, each answer is filled with a tiny voice chirping "Hello Miss Cayce!" from another one of the refugee children I work with here in Tennessee that want their "prize from Egypt" or to see some pictures of those "big mountains". Pyramids, I'm assuming, is what they mean.
I am also knee-deep in finalizing (or perhaps just figuring out) plans for my next two semesters at New York University, overwhelmed by the options of Study Abroad sites and inundated with applications for part-time jobs and internships. My laptop is covered in sticky-notes that remind me of the plethora of places available to spend my Spring 2010 semester with the School of Social Work: Prague! Ghana! Tel Aviv!. Cover letters, resumes, and some writing samples fill my desk and course lists for various Minors I am interested in pop up on my computer screen. Middle Eastern Studies? Creative Writing? Africana Studies? Comparative Lit?
I suppose this is an introduction of sorts, in a very unorganized form, but perhaps it shows the current status of my daily life and upcoming weeks. I return to New York University in nearly three weeks, which is a date I am anxiously awaiting as I am eager to move into my new apartment and begin what seems to be a very eventful semester. After spending the summer in Cairo, I have developed a strong interest in pursuing a Middle Eastern Studies minor alongside my Social Work major in hopes of a career working with refugees in the Arab and Eastern African world. I am also selfishly excited to live next to one of my favorite bakeries in New York City because I feel that a chocolate croissant will make early-morning Arabic class a little easier to attend. I am still uncertain about my exact volunteering and internship plans for the fall, but after searching NYU Career Net and speaking with some great people at an African immigrant youth organization, I am thrilled about the possibilities to plug in for the Fall term.
My head has been so entrenched in so many different cultures and my body cannot quite decide which time zone it chooses to be in currently, so I am not sure what language to tell you goodbye in because it seems that I cannot seem to settle into one place or people group at the moment. So it's overcoming Egypt jet lag, visiting my favorite Sudanese children this afternoon, and finishing the evening at the best cheap Mexican restaurant in my hometown. And if I'm lucky, I can maybe squeeze in a run at the Tennessee state park.