New Things

Great writers have said that to see newness, you don't need a new environment, just fresh eyes. I get the point, but having just been exposed to a fascinating new landscape--Egypt--I can't help but question that mentality. I was there for two weeks, where I saw women in scarves and burqas, the great pyramids scraping the sky, minerets of mosques punctured throughout Cairo, underwater fish and coral in the Red Sea, and a croweded but nonetheless peaceful sunrise atop Mt. Sinai. Experiences like that cannot help but change you, long after your plane drops you off at home and you put your pictures in a shutterfly album. There are some things you appreciate more, like the taste of fresh bread and people speaking English and traffic-free (relatively, anyway) streets. But then there are things you miss--like the sense of adventure, putting on the scuba gear with a nervous energy bubbling in your belly, finding a cute coffee shop within Cairo's populated quarters.