I received my Egyptian residency today, valid through next June. Looks like I'm no longer just a tourist here! This also means that I now have my passport back from the abyss of the Mogamma so I will, thankfully, be able to carry on as planned with my Ramadan vacation plans. More details to follow, but this is the rough outline of my trip... On July 31, I will depart Cairo for Beirut with fellow CASAwiyya Miriam, and we'll spend about five days in Lebanon enjoying the Paris of the East and venturing out to places like Baalbek and Byblos. Then, on August 5, I will leave Beirut for Amman, where I'll meet up with my Sheeba from Princeton who is studying Arabic there. I'll do a couple days of visits to Petra, Wadi Rum, and the like before crossing the border into the West Bank. In Ramallah I'll meet up with my friends Clare and Ada, both living in Palestine for the year. After a few days sightseeing there, I'll continue into Israel and visit friends in Tel Aviv and Haifa, as well as do as much sightseeing as possible in Jerusalem. Finally, I will fly out of Amman on August 17 and back to Cairo, just in time for Eid el-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan.
News of the weekend coming soon.
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