While more insomnia caused me to sleep in until two again, I managed to enjoyed my Friday quite thoroughly. After blogging, emailing, catching up on the news, and the like, I headed to Beano's where I had my first "dinner" with Natalie and some other classmates (Mike and Claudia) and a friend of Natalie's named Emmanuel. We discussed the ethical considerations of doing research on refugee communities (as Natalie does and Claudia will also be doing) and how involved one should be in helping refugees. Are they strictly research subjects or are they human beings in need of help? The consensus among our young and idealistic crowd was to err toward the latter, though it's clear there needs to be some distance because you simply cannot help every single person you come into contact with.
Natalie happened to be going to Zamalek, so I shared a cab with her and ended up grabbing a few things at Metro Market before meeting Erin. She'd invited me to get Thai with a friend she'd made who's working at the International Organization for Migration named Amanda. Amanda, in turn brought along a girl from our Refugee Studies program. The four of us, eager for Thai, were disappointed to discover that Erin's usually haunt had abruptly declared that it would be closed for two weeks. I therefore suggested Bird Cage, where we ended up having what I thought was quite a tasty meal. The conversation was good and I found out that Erin's originally from a town right next to where my house in Minnesota is.
Well, clearly I'm descending into the banal details of my evening that only the most devoted readers (hi, Mom and Dad) would care to take in, so I'll refrain from continuing. I'm staying up (because, let's not kid ourselves, I probably won't fall asleep until 5 AM again) to watch the presidential debate or at least Al-Jazeera English's coverage of it.
News of Egypt:
Journalist arrested in Alexandria
Shifts in Egyptian entertainment appetite
Egypt and Pakistan only countries in BBC World with majority non-negative views of Al-Qaeda
Egypt's first female marriage registrar appointed
Ramadan from the perspective of a foreigner who joined in
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2 comments:
Interesting how people's views on the world are so affected by where they live and what is going on around them. I'm good friends with a woman from Egypt (although she's been in the USA for a while now) and from talking to her I've learned things I would've never known otherwise. She also teaches journalism at my university.
Mom, Dad, and me!!
I am grateful that you share your experiences with everyone, including us back in the States.
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