Goodbye stateside

Four months doesn’t sound like a long time. 120 days. 18 weekends. Two holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. A single semester.

But if you think about it in terms of college years, it’s an eternity.

I’ll leave Friday to live and study in Cairo for four months. I’ll spend an eighth of my college career in a foreign country, making new friends who, after the semester, I probably won’t see again.

I’m going to miss 21st birthday celebrations with my best friends ­— my own birthday included. I’ll come back to inside jokes that I don’t understand and stories to share that no one back home comprehends.

In the last week I’ve had enough goodbye meals and coffee to feed a city. Even distant friends have come out of the woodwork to bid me farewell or at least make a request.

“Please don’t die or get arrested in Egypt.”

It’s funny to me that this is their primary concern, because the school seems to agree. Most of my preparation to go to Egypt has been based on staying safe and healthy.

For the sake of transparency, I must admit I’ve studied abroad twice before. I lived in Berlin for a summer in high school and in London last summer. But preparing for Egypt has been an incomparable experience.

I’m not saying that it’s better or worse, easier or harder, to go to a non-European destination. I’m saying it’s completely different.

To go to Egypt, I have had to sign more waivers than I possibly have the rest of my life combined. Some of them are the standard study abroad waivers.

But, as I’m going to a place that could qualify as African or Middle Eastern, many have been more interesting.

For example, I signed one form stating I recognize I’ll put myself at risk of danger from “wild cats.” I signed another to say I know I’ll be in a territory with known terrorist activity.

A third was to reassure the Egyptian government that I have no intention to become pregnant while in Egypt.

For the record, the latter is not a goal of mine.

After the paperwork came the doctors’ appointments.

I went to a special travel office to get the required vaccines. They lectured me about Egyptian health risks like bleeding fevers, West Nile virus, sun sickness, scorpion stings and contaminated water.

To get into Egypt, I had to get a blood test and papers confirming my HIV status.
I was the first HIV test my nurse had ever done. I’ll let you imagine her reaction.

To top it off, I am also bringing enough medication with me to run a small pharmacy.
It sounds scary, and at first it was. But at some point, you’ve just got to accept it as part of the adventure.

Besides, all the people who have been to Egypt have told me three things: it’s beautiful, safer than expected, and I’m going to love it. 

My parents will drive me to the airport Friday. The travel time to get there is about 20 hours, and Egypt is currently six hours ahead of Bloomington time. I’ll live in a dormitory on an island in the Nile an hour away from campus.

I’m sad to go. The goodbyes seem endless, and I know when I return, things will be different. 

But the fact that I’m so sad means I have something awesome to come home to at the end of all this.

I can only hope I’ll be this dismal at the end of my time in Cairo and for the same reasons.