Original Work: Untitled

(Still a work in progress??? I'm not completely happy with it...)

“Ceci est le sac de semeur. Prenez et jetez au vent.” – Victor Hugo

(This is the grainsack. Take and scatter on the wind.)

He shaded his eyes from the sun, looked up, and saw nothing but red brick—the color of the earth beneath him, but in the tower above him instead. The sounds of cattle pulling carts and the salty smell of sweat surrounded him.

As he turned, his neighbor hefted a sizeable pile of bricks into his arms, coating both their arms with a layer of dust; he chuckled and said, “Get these to the top.”

The first man turned to climb the tower. “Fine. Going now,” he said.

His neighbor looked at him puzzled. What had the man just said?

Original Work: Frozen Memory (A 55 Word Story)

Snow floated gently to the ground as the elderly couple walked down the street.

It’s been twenty years since our son died, she thought. And still Bob pretends nothing is wrong.

As they turned into the driveway, Bob said, “He would have been twenty-five today.”

“I know,” she said and reached for his hand.

**It's been a few years since I've written one of these. My friend Abby and I are challenging each other to write drabbles (100 word stories) now, so hopefully I'll have more to share soon.**

Future Plans

Medora becomes quite a different town once the end of August is reached. Last summer I never experienced the "ghost town" of Medora, but I'm experiencing the first part of it now... After Labor Day, most of my friends within Medora will be gone. With that said, I'm ready to leave here. Hopefully a job pans out in the near future.

I'm looking into grad school, but have had difficulty choosing between Museum Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. After talking to my friend Abby for awhile tonight, I discovered NYU's MA in Near Eastern Studies and Museum Studies--which would allow me to have the best of both worlds!!! :) (Yet again. Some of you may remember that I did the same thing with my BA degree in History and English.) I think I will still apply to the University of Milwaukee's Public History/Historic Preservation program, too...

I can't explain just how much I'm missing Egypt and MESP this summer. I can't believe it's been a year since I left on the program. In between job searches across the United States I periodically search for job listings in Cairo, too. What I wouldn't give to be in my flat on Shaara El Fardous, Agouza, Cairo right now...

People often ask me what it is that I miss most about Egypt and MESP. I'm still not sure that I can give a detailed answer to that question. My answers center around "the people, the food, the language, the culture" -- just enough to satisfy them, without actually giving a direct answer. I miss different things at different times, but the "reverse homesickness" never goes away.

This summer, I'm back in Medora. I've missed the town and its people a lot over the past year and have realized that historic preservation may be the career path I choose to follow in the future. I've started an application for graduate school at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee that is due Sept. 1. And although I'm hopeful that I will get accepted for the Spring 2011 semester, I often will surf the internet looking for job postings in Cairo or "facebook-stalk" MESPers, looking at their pictures and remembering my own experiences in those places.

One of the things that I've been meaning to do this summer is to write a few personal memoirs of my experiences in Egypt. However, as of yet, I have been unable to write something I feel comfortable showing anyone. Perhaps by the end of the summer I will have come up with something.


Cairo, inshallah someday I will return to you...

Poem for the Future

The Future

by Rainer Maria Rilke

The future: time's excuse
to frighten us; too vast
a project, too large a morsel
for the heart's mouth.

Future, who won't wait for you?
Everyone is going there.
It suffices you to deepen
the absence that we are.

It's Friday

This morning I got to sleep in...until 8:30! I don't have any more classes left for college, just 4 exams, my Senior paper, a violin jury, and a photography portfolio review. Crazy!

I'm starting to get at least a little excited for the summer, though. I plan to go back to Medora and it will be good to see everyone from that area again. I've missed them over the school year. I do wish there was some possible way to go back to Cairo. I miss the people, the food, the language, the culture in general...perhaps someday I will find a way to go back.

In the meantime, I wrote an essay on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United States involvement. I think I'm going to try to get it published somewhere...

Already? But...but...but...

I'm not ready to graduate yet... How can there possibly be only 2 weeks left in the school year?