#coronastyle

New Orleans - Day 2

A day well-spent in the haunted French Quarter!

Tasnim and I had lunch at Subway in the French Quarter where we watched a circus street performance, observed the witches and fortune tellers in ever corner, enjoyed the jazz music playing everywhere, and grabbed postcards!

The French Quarter is much like Old Cairo, Muizz Street back home; based on spiritual stories and history, so touristy, and has great architecture — of course with New Orleans having ghosts and hauntings that we don’t have (or at least know of) in Egypt!

Without Christie, our tour guide who told us all the spooky stories of the French Quarter on her night tour, we would’ve just kept thinking it is a lively vintage part of town! The Ursuline Covenant, St. Louis Cathedral, Bourbon Street, and many more corners seemed so different after their stories of haunting ghosts of couples, duelers, and even pirates, were told.

We learned a lot about NOLA, its geography, architecture, history, religious practices (mainly voodoo), and of course, ghost and pirate stories. One of the best days on this trip ever!

P.S. It was funny when Tasnim and I discovered that our socks hit the right vibe of the day! (The Scream and James Sullivan)

I may be posting almost only outdoor activities, but I felt the necessity of also recording the challenges that no Fulbrighter has gone through before this year's batch.

Fulbright FLTA's 2020-21 have done their orientations, and are attending and giving classes remotely. The fun part has been reduced to less than half of what we signed up for. Some of us are still working from their home countries, and those who got to travel are stuck in another room with new people, fully communicating with their students and professors through screens.

We should've traveled to another Arab country for our Pre-Departure Orientations, then arrived in a different state in the US or another orientation before settling in our host community, and of course we should've been teaching ans studying on campus, but -- boom, thanks to COVID.

We are still doing our work despite of the endless uncertainties we have to deal with. It is a tough time, but we gotta go on and enjoy the experience, limited and challenging as it is.

That's all what being a Fulbrighter is about after all: stamina, flexibility, and an adventurous soul (that could feel devastated at times, but always has to keep going).

We will tell the tale of the most exceptional Fulbright experience ever.

A morning walk in the rain in Old West Durham.

I finally went through the path past the seven rocks (seems inspiring for a new novel/poem or so?)

Back to Egypt.

The adventure is over, but it will last forever in my heart and memory. To more adventures!

Thank you, Fulbright, for making all of that happen. I am forever grateful.

New York City | Day 2

New day, new adventures! The girls and I checked in at Moxy Hotel and it was so cool! After that we sprinted to the American Museum of Natural History and were super excited to meet our favorite characters from Night at the Museum, and we did! Dum Dum was definitely the highlight of the visit (we didn’t forget his gum gum).

Our next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but we were so hungry, so we grabbed a hotdog sandwich and soft cream then walked through Central Park to the Met. We found out we were too late, so we decided to use our ticket the following day and headed to Guggenheim instead. However, half of the museum did not have any collections on display and the staff suggested that we could use our optional CityPass ticket at Rockefeller Center instead, but we did take pictures and visit their museum store (and never used the ticket actually to visit Rockefeller Center—never had enough time).

Then, we proceeded to Dumbo Brooklyn where we watched sunset at Pebble Beach between Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. It was so much fun to finally be where one of my favorite songs, Woodkid’s Brooklyn refers to.

At that time we were super hungry, so we headed to SoHo (which was pretty similar to Masr El Gedida district in Cairo) where we had burgers and lots of laughs, jokes, and our favorite song:

1+1=?

2!

2+2=?

4!

4+4=?

8!

8+8=?

I dunno. You dunno? I dunno. YOU DUNNO?? I DUNNOOO!

I miss teaching, like face-to-face teaching. I miss running from class to class, greeting my students and learning about their day. I miss their long list of excuses for arriving late or not doing their homework. I miss knowing their heights and clothing styles, I miss seeing them get in with their favorite drink, I miss memorizing the favorite spot of each of them in class. I miss the side talks and punishments and class games. I miss the technical problems and the longer-than-promised breaks. I miss the side jokes and the smell of fresh markers on the board, I miss passing between them as they do a task and some of them would ask me to repeat all the instructions. I miss the on-spot presentations and open discussions. I miss hearing my name a thousand times a day that I almost hated it. I miss the end-of-class photos.

I really miss teaching.

New Orleans - Day 5

Our winter trip has come to the end!

We spent our last day in NOLA walking around the city, and had some fun in Louis Armstrong Park. We wanted to visit some cemeteries but we didn’t book a tour for that, yet Max drove us around a couple of them yesterday, so we felt we didn’t miss anything in New Orleans!

The harsh part was the airport though, having to shove everything we have in 2 bags and check one of our big bags, last minute. It was so stressful but we managed and ended up dressing in like 4 layers each of us, and had to pay for the checked bag and all.

But anyway, it was a great adventure after all. And here we say good bye to the Big Easy!

Right now, we have a flight and a long layover (7+ hours) before we take the final flight back to Durham. Prayers for us!