Questions for moi!!

Hey! I think this is the package I sent from Egypt! I put a bunch of stuff I had left over from Hong Kong and Japan because that’s really all the papers I had. I didn’t accumulate that much paper or wrappers from India or Vietnam. I’m sad (but not surprised) the one from Vietnam has been a no show. It had some good articles in it.

The package you received is not the package I sent at all. It took about two hours to get that through their “post office,” which was in an abandoned warehouse or something. They pulled it apart. By the time it was over they had completely reorganized and taken out some of the stuff I wanted to send for one reason or another. If you liked that package, then you’ll really like the one I sent you a few days ago. It’s pretty. When my taxi driver first pulled up to it I was thinking, “OMGoodness! This is the part where I get kidnapped! I can see the headlines now!” But then a bunch of veiled women walked out and I thought well okay.

If I can, I’ll email Mr. C some pictures of the pyramids and Turkey and everything. The internet is easy to access, but webshots still takes too long.

Um..

I was so excited to hear from you all that I wrote all this yesterday on this random computer and then when I tried to update, it wouldn’t work so I lost my post. Now I cant remember all that I wanted to say. But it will make more sense now, that comp I was on had a different keyboard. That made it more fun though.

Nick- Hmmm… wat do people look like? Well er like people? Do you mean how they dress? Here’s something interesting—In Egypt a lot of women wear veil over their hair, even if they are not Muslim. And they dress a lot more conservatively than we do also. So, I saw a lot of women wear earrings on their veils where their ears would be. And girls would wear long pants and turtlenecks and then wear their spaghetti strapped shirts and short skirts over their clothes. Something else I just thought of while writing about Burmese food—the men in Burma chew on something called the beetle. It’s a leaf wrapped around some nuts and berries and you treat it like chewing tobacco. So all of their teeth were awful! I mean awful! Some people looked like their gums were in a constant state of bleeding or something. A lot of the older men that we ran in to were missing some of their teeth. Bleh! And a lot of people—men and women—walk with their arms around one another or with their arms entwined.

Sasha-since we came in the winter, Egypt was not really hot at all. At least it was not humid. There was a nice breeze the entire time we were there. Burma and Vietnam were much more unbearable. It was a nice dry heat so it was the only country at that time where I wasn’t very smelly by the end. When we saw the sunrise at the great pyramid, it was FREEZING!! Tokyo was exactly like NY except for all the Japanese writing everywhere and the people dress so differently. Maybe not drastically differently. Here’s an example—in NY you may see a lot of business people wearing sneakers or flat shoes so that their feet don’t hurt. Because you walk everywhere, right? Well in Japan, I saw everybody wearing heels or business shoes. And that’s the same with a lot of these countries, they don’t wear sneakers (they just make them).

Morgan- Ohhhh….my favorite place? Well food wise-definitely when we hit Egypt. I was starving till I hit Egypt. India I want to go back to because it’s such a diverse country and I only got to see one level of it. Different parts of India are like different countries all together. Hong Kong was a lot of fun. If I were to study abroad again in one of these countries I’ve visited, it would probably be Egypt. The people there were amazing. Hopefully, I put up a real update soon about Egypt.

Victoria- Burmese food was not my cup of tea. We went out into the countryside and I was afraid of getting sick so I was really weary about wat I ate already. Every boy in Burma has to become a monk at some point in his life. So a lot of people are vegetarians if I remember correctly. At the orphanage we visited the kids there were cared for by monks and only ate vege food. Their lunch every day consisted of rice, some spices, possibly bamboo if I heard right, and a piece of potato is wat it looked like. And they eat with their hands! And their hands are not wat you call clean. That could be an hw asst. for all of you. Make rice for dinner with some random veges and chop up some chicken and then eat it with your hands. Your goal is to not make a mess of everything! Because I most certainly did. On that note—try washing a pair of jeans in the sink and then dry them with a hair dryer! I’m telling you, I should be getting credit for all these weird things we need to do! Laundry 101.

The pyramids were AMAZING! I had to tell myself that it was real and that it wasn’t a movie set or something. By the time we realized that they only sell so many tickets to get inside the pyramids, they were sold out. But that’s okay I had a blast just walking around them. I really wanted to climb to the top of one, but I also really didn’t want to get a tour of an authentic Egyptian jail. It’s sad that the sphinx is in such sad shape. OH! Try doing this and if it doesn’t work, then I will find the pic for you. Look at old paintings of the sphinx. What is different about it? Try to find picks of the sphinx from before it was uncovered and only the head was sticking out. Do you see a difference?

We love the different time zone situation! When we change our clocks we get to have 25 hour days. So we get to sleep an extra hour! If we were on the spring voyage we would have 23 hour days and would lose an hour at night. That is not cool!

Personally, I get weird reactions because I am a woman and have REALLY short hair. At the Turkish bath the woman there said I looked like a soldier. And in Burma all the ladies were staring at me and I would get double takes from the guys when I smiled at them. Generally, I have had all positive experiences as an American. Mostly, people don’t understand you when you say the United States, so you have to say America. And their reply usually is, “yes, America, good.” And then sometimes they ask for your hand in marriage. Most of the time they want to know if you are from California or Washington DC. I was really surprised at what some Turks said about our president when we were there. They were really bold and opinionated there. But Turkey does share a border with Iraq, so that may have something to do with it.

The rest of the world, as far as I’ve experienced, LOVES AMERICANS! Generally speaking of course. It’s more an issue of my government doesn’t like your government, but people can all relate to that. In Egypt at the beginning of the Iraq affair, the American University in Cairo (which is 70% Egyptian) held a protest on it’s quad against the war. It was not a protest against Americans, but against wat our government was doing. People do that in the states all the time. So I think people across the globe have more in common than what we are led to believe by the media. I was worried about that before I left, but have been surprised. Then again we are going to places that rely heavily on tourism as well so they are not going to turn down our business. But I don’t believe it’s just that.

When I get home, I will definitely not give the media as much credit as I used to. You are only hearing about a microsecond of what is going on in the world and there is always more to be said then what you hear. When I was watching the news yesterday and they were talking about Pres. Bush’s visit to Vietnam and Vietnam’s recovery since the AMERICAN WAR there (that’s what they call it). Basically saying that the same thing could happen in Iraq. They put a slant on it and showed the city in the capital and how modern it is. I believe Vietnam has only one globally accredited university. A lot of its people live on farms on a little more than one USD a day. It still has a long way to go. Their economy is growing, but they need more infrastructures and more of an emphasis on educating its people especially in the rural areas. They really need to work on gender equality as well, because men (as per usual) are valued more since boys are the ones who grow up and take care of their parents when they get old—sorry mom and dad. I sent you my information package for Vietnam I think. Go through it. It has all sorts of info on Vietnam and it’s people and

People on the news all have an AGENDA (Yeah DR.C!!). They want you to agree with them. They want you on their side of what they are reporting. There is usually something they are not telling you, or you can’t hear the entire story. Why? Because there is always so much going on in the world. I am learning how small the world is, but at the same time how unimaginably complex it is. No matter what they tell you, I am inclined to believe there is something more to it.

And as a little something extra—for every time you hear about an American soldier acting like a fool somewhere, there are a dozen more somewhere saving lives. For once, I would like to hear more about those saving lives and less about the ones destroying them. The news today is too violent. They are just trying to shock you to get their ratings up. But we are getting harder to shock and I’m almost positive it will get better.

Well this is a lot better than my original post I wrote yesterday. I didn’t have word yesterday and my grammar skills rely heavily on word so it was pretty bad.

So many good questions!! Hopefully, I’ll get more soon!!

DD