The alarm went off at 6:00am. I resisted the urge to snooze for an extra eight minutes of sleep. Why am I getting up so early, I asked myself? The only window in our room at the hostel showed that it was still dark outside. The other five roommates were still asleep. Slowly, but surely, I climbed out of my upper bunk bed and woke Grace to get ready for the day. We tip-toed around the room hoping not to wake anyone at this ungodly hour! Today, we are headed to the island of Capri and to save money, we were [View Full Entry]

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Mt. Vesuvius towers over the skyscrapers of Naples and is the only active volcano in mainland Europe. If it were to erupt, many lives would be lost along with their homes. The Italian government has tried to persuade residence to move away from the vicinity of the volcano with a relocation incentive of 30,000 Euros, but these incentives have not been successful. An eruption would be catastrophic for the 600,000 people residing within seven kilometers of the volcano. The last eruption occurred in 1944 and the current lull, the longest in the past 500 years, has scientists worried. Grace and [View Full Entry]

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A week and a half after my trip to Lebanon, I was on in the air again, but this time to Europe! I haven't been to Europe since my last visit to Poland in the summer of 1999, so I was very excited for this trip. Italy has held the number one place on my list to visit (along with Egypt, but obviously that has be satisfied) and I was still trying to comprehend that I was actually going. I was meeting my friend, Grace, from college. We would explore southern Italy for a week before we would head back to [View Full Entry]

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Beirut, the Paris of the Middle East, as it has been previously called seems to be reclaiming the title. The New York Times has ranked it #1 on its list of 44 places to visit in 2009 . What is it that makes this a must-see place? People walk around the streets with a bandage on their nose and bruised eyes as if it were trendy. Move over L.A.! Beirut is the new Silicon Valley of the World. You need one nanny for each child you have. The nanny usually wears a "nanny outfit." Also, you can be sp [View Full Entry]

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About 40 km north of Beirut, you will find Byblos or Jbeil, the oldest inhabited city in the world. Historians estimate that the first settlers date back to 6000 B.C. After investigating my transportation options, I decided to head to Jbeil by public bus. The journey takes about an hour, but depends on traffic and on the way there only cost me $2 or 3000 Lebanese Lyra - my taxi ride to the bus station cost more ($5)! Officially the bus goes to Tripoli, but you can ask the driver to drop you off on the highway at Byblos. The bus [View Full Entry]

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Boarding the plane to Beirut already gave me a glimpse of what the city would be like - fashionable people, young Lebanese children speaking in English or French, instead of Arabic. Women were dressed in sleeveless tops and skirts above the knee - attire that would be frowned upon in Cairo and/or would attract some unwanted attention. The fight to Beirut is short, only taking one hour. The city looks gorgeous when flying in because it is located on the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains are in the backdrop of the city’s skyline. Upon arrival, I was greeted by Hadi, whom [View Full Entry]

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Just a couple weeks late in posting this... News cameras and journalists flooded the hostel to interview the residents trapped inside the morning the quarantine was finished. They were definitely trying to find a story that would set them apart from the rest of the news agencies. I overheard reports asking students "Were you scared?" or "Were the living conditions horrible?" etc. The students honestly responded saying that they weren't scared and that they were provided with good living conditions. I wanted to respond to them "It’s only the flu, not the Black Plague!" What annoyed [View Full Entry]

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Cairo is one of the megacities of the world. Not only does it have 20 million inhabitants, it is also one of most densely populated cities in the world, around 10,000 people per square kilometer. Since my friend was visiting Cairo, we decided to check out the Cairo Tower, which provides great views into every direction of Cairo. With an entrance fee of 65 LE for foreigners, it was expensive for me based on my Egyptian salary. However, it was completely worth every piaster. Here are some photos. Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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About two months ago, I made a site visit to the Zaballeen Community. Zaballeen means garbage collectors/people in Arabic. I went along with two AUC students, who are a part of the program that I manage. The students in the program must partner with an NGO/CBO to work and develop a student led project within the community. The community lies just outside the city limits of Cairo and has very few visitors. The taxi driver was even unsure of its location and had to stop along the road to ask pedestrians for the right way. Turning onto an unpaved road, we [View Full Entry]

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Since a lot of my friends in Cairo wanted a taste of Poland, I decided to take on the task of cooking Polish food!?!? I thought it would be best if I had a Polish Party which would include food, drinks and music. When I told my mom that I was throwing a polish party she asked in a surprised tone, "Who is cooking the food!?" Growing up, I would always see my grandma spending hours in the kitchen cooking pierogi or golombki or other traditional polish dishes. It wasn't until I made golombki senior year of college that I realized [View Full Entry]

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