Globe Trotting

It's official. I now have Akon tickets. Some wonder why Akon would choose Cairo for a concert, but it seems like he is fairly popular in Africa. I talked to a few Sudanese guys at St. Andrews. They've got a rap group called the Future Boys. Among influences such as Tupac, Jay-Z and Nas, they also listed Akon. Cairo just makes the most sense for a concert in Africa, since it is by far the most populas city here.

The big buzz this week was trying to figure out who wants to travel where and when. Almost every possible destination within flying distance has been thrown on the table: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Morocco, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Italy. Everyone has this mentality that we will only be in the region once, and we have to see everything possible (even though the vast majority of international students are Internation Relations/PoliSci majors, taking Arabic classes, and hoping to work for the government some day. Are you sure this will be the only time you are in the region?). Everyone has their own philosophy on travel, too. There is the "I'm in the Middle East so I am only traveling in the Middle East" philosophy, and there is the "I have to go to a European vacation spot for spring break" philosophy, among others.

At this point, I have locked down a few things. I am going to Kenya for a five-day safari over spring break. All I need to do is get a Yellow Fever vaccination and pick up some Malaria pills and I am good to go. We fly into Nairobi, where a highly recommened guide picks us up and drives us to a game reserve, where we tour via 4x4 and camp. After this I know that I want to climb Mount Sinai and visit the nearby St. Catherine's Monastery, see Jerusalem, see Luxor and Aswan, and see Jordan and Petra, all of which is definitely do-able, except that it requires a lot of long term planning on my part. This is something I'm not usesd to doing.

Due to the lack of friendly U.S. relations in Lebanon and Syria, travel to this places is much trickier. Neither will accept anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport, so travel between the three must be highly planned in order to avoid trouble. I would like to see both Beirut and Damascus, but neither are must-dos on my list of places to see and I am not actively seeking out ways to make these work.

Another place of interest is Instanbul. Travel there is much less constricting and is therefore and much more achievable goal, but I still see this as kind of a bonus trip; it would be a great place to see if presented with a good opportunity to do so, but it is not on the must-see list.

One of the factors affecting these travel decisions is time. It's hard to get much out of a weekend stay in Jersualem or Instanbul, so it's desirable to make a trip to such places a three day weekend. You have to pick and choose which places you want to spend the most time in because its not so practical to skip class every Thursday to go travelling every weekend. When formulating all of these travel plans we often forget that we are actually here to go to school.

Tomorrow morning a group of twelve of us are leaving on the 7am bus to the Bahariyya Oasis, where we will be picked up by a reputable guide for weekend camping in the Black and White Desert. It was windy here in Cairo today, so there was a lot of sand blowing in the air. Jim and I played pickup basketball during our break with some Egyptian guys (and a girl or two), and the combination of intense sun and breathing in gulps of sand probably negated any workout we got. Hopefully there will be no dust storms while we are in the desert this weekend.