Danielle
Danielle Johnston Joined: December 30th 2004
Logged in: June 26th 2011
Logged in: June 26th 2011
July 2007- May 2008 I took off again, this time my travels took me to the other side of the globe - spending three months in Alexandria, Egypt studying Arabic and then 6 months outside of Accra, Ghana working at a UN Refugee camp for Liberians - with lots of travel in between (Jordan, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Togo).
August 2008 - June 2009 I taught English to kindergarten children over in Doha, Qatar.
Now it's August 2009 and I'm a graduate student at the American University in Cairo - obtaining my Master's in International Human Rights Law and Forced Migration and Refugee Studies. I'll be here for 2 years...
Contact me via this blog or at daniellej6@hotmail.com
Enjoy!
~D
"As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.... If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." -- Henry David Thoreau
Travel Blog Posts
I'm officially done with my Master's program. I can now proudly state that I have a Master's in International Human Rights Law with a Graduate Diploma in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies. My graduation is June 16th which I'm excited to say will be celebrated with my parents and sister. They're arriving on Saturday for a week and a half. I'll spend the first few days showing them around Cairo and all the obvious sites (pyramids, museum, mosques, bazaar, etc.) along with some of my places of daily routine (where I shop for my groceries, fruits/veggies, school) so they can get a real feel for what my life has been for the past 2 years. Its been a crazy few months - with the revolution and all - things have been quite on edge this semester. ... read more
My street
Here are a few photos that one of my roommates caught from our apartment - these are literally taken all right outside of our apartment building - literally in the heart of it all! Thankfully everyone we know around here was safe and no one was able to loot our building thanks to the kindness of our neighbors who all came together to protect their neighborhood! The burned cars are police vehicles - the Egyptian people RESPECT the military, NOT the police - they're too corrupt!... read more
18 days later and the Egyptian people are "free"! Its been quite an exciting 5 days since I've been back to Cairo. Things aren't "normal" and there is definitely something (tension? uneasiness? something!) in the air. As soon as I got back I knew that things had changed. The trip home was greeted by many tankss on the drive from the airport to my home. The moment I got to my apartment I skyped my parents and at JUST that moment a protest was going by - the police - outside window! But really things are calm around here. Tuesday, Amanda and I walked around Tahrir. We were stopped twice and asked for our passports so that is definitely something we've had to get used to. We don't go out now at all without our passports. ... read more
I'm currently at the airport in Ghana - waiting for my flight to German - been here for 4 and have 9 more to go - ugh! I'll be there in the morning just in time to catch my flight to Cairo. I was supposed to have returned back on the 1st but, as many of you already know, due to the political unrest (only 2 blocks from my house) I was unable to since all the flights were canceled. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend 2 additional weeks in Liberia (so ever thankful to my parents for providing the financial support for those 2 weeks - I know I've caused them quite a headache and lot of worries when they were determined to get back to come back home and I was ... read more
It's been 16 months and finally tomorrow night the plane I'll be boarding is America-bound!! Will be arriving into JFK at noon on Weds and into Vermont at 6pm! I'll have a little less than a month to relax at home before heading back over here on Jan. 11. I'll be in St. Louis visiting family from the 26-30 and in NYC Jan 3-5. The rest of the time will be hanging out at home - so hopefully I'll get to see all of you! I just submitted my last paper yesterday so I'm officially done with school - til next semester, anyways! I only have to take 1 more class next semester and write my thesis (ugh!) but excitingly enough I just found out on Thursday that the research grant that I applied for to ... read more
I told you I am months and well, especially in this case, MONTHS behind on my travelblogs so here is a quick lil thing on my 2 weeks in Morocco and some photos! Enjoy! Maria came to visit for a month and besides hanging out in Egypt for 2 weeks we went to Morocco. It has always been one of my top 3 countries to visit as I've always viewed it as some exotic, far off place so I was eager to get there. Unfortunately, after a few days I was eager to leave! I really think that it was just because there were only 2 of us and we were both females but the harassment seemed to be worse there than it was in Egypt. I can't say that I hated Morocco I just think ... read more
10 Days in Istanbul truly just isn't enough... Turkey is fabulous...beautiful, clean, nice people, delicious food (again, when isn't it?!) and just such an amazing place to travel to. Amanda, Ellen, Justin and I stayed with Sarah for 10 days - Sarah is a good friend from Cairo who is currently living in Istanbul working with refugees. Luckily for us, she lives just a few short minutes from Istiklal - one of the main streets in the city. Istanbul is divided into 2 parts - 1 half of the city is in Europe while the other is in Asia - we took the boat across to the Asian side one day for some food! haha. For 10 days we literally walked around, ate, walk around some more, ate some more, took some photos, had coffee and ... read more
In September I went to Israel/Palestine for a week. Amanda and I, along with a Palestinian-American friend, took an overnight bus from Cairo to Taba. There we got off the bus and walked for about 10 minutes to the border which is where all the "fun" began! We waited in line forever - the security here might possibly be tighter than security for the U.S.! By the time we finally got to the immigration officials, as we had already talked to a few others, who would allow us in, we had already been there for about an hour and a half. Well, the Israelis don't like people with Lebanon and Syria stamps in their passports - both of which Amanda and I had - just like, if you have an Israeli stamp you're not allowed to ... read more
It was recently decided that I will become the next President for STAR (Student Action for Refugees); the group with whom I have been volunteering as both English teacher and as Academic Director for the next year and a half. I will be assuming the position next month and am really looking forward to the challenge and to making some really great changes. We are the only branch of STAR outside of the United Kingdom and as the semester has moved along we have been reaching out to them as we lost "connection" a few years back and are attempting to re-establish a relationship with them. Since they were holding their annual STAR national conference we decided to attend. So Nada, the current VP, and I flew to London (luckily all expenses paid for by AUC) ... read more
I know, I know it's been a while since I've posted a blog and I have quite a few that I need to do and so am hoping to do them this week. Justin came back "over" for 2 weeks, during which time we took a "quick" trip over to Bulgaria on a night train! Amanda, Sarah and Ellen (all of whome I traveled to Lebanon and Syria with and Amanda is a roommate) joined the adventure. Bulgaria is actually a beautiful country so we were glad that we chose it because well 1) it was a random country of choice and 2) when else would one ever decide to go to Bulgaria. Bulgarian people are really friendly but are unfortunately, the Eastern European country suffers a poor economy in a former conflict region (think the ... read more
Maroon 
