Update and Book List

Hello! I'm still alive, I'm in Philadelphia, and I'm generally doing well. I arrived home on March 21.

Maybe a bit hairy.

I need to write posts that cover the two months I spent in Tunisia, the few days I was in Barcelona, the week or two I was in Morocco, and the harrowing adventure that was the evacuation flight (I'm lying - the flight was fine). That said, I've always had a hard time sitting down and writing - having my housemates blasting the TV at all hours has not helped my concentration. And, I mean, it's not like I can go to a coffee shop and write :(

That said, I can read things and type them here. With no further ado, a list of books I read (* - started but didn't compete) over the past 20 months:

Egypt

I arrived in Egypt on December tenth in order to meet up with RC again (we had previously met up in Malaysia and Singapore). Unlike in earlier countries or with previous traveling companions, neither of us knew what we were doing or how to avoid the hoards of scammers we were assured were about to pounce on us upon our arrival. Given those factors (and some planning fatigue), we decided to hire a tour company. Unfortunately, we did not end up with the best coordinator.

Now that I’m typing this, I wonder if this marks the start of a run of general bad luck for me. Upon arrival, before I had a chance to decompress from flight, before I had even seen the room, I was told to pick what optional activities we wanted to do over the coming two weeks (and pay for them in cash on the spot). With a list of strange names and no information, I picked a few cheap options and went on my way. The coordinator was perplexed that we weren’t doing something every hour of every day - both RC and I like to relax and, say, swim in the hotel pool every once in a while. Crazy, right?

Lebanon: Left too soon

One of my big goals for this around-the-world trip was to get to Lebanon. As some of you may know, my father’s father’s side of the family is from Lebanon; I figured I could go and maybe see the village they left when they came to America. (Spoiler - I was unable to accomplish this on this visit.) Add in the background of a revolution in progress and the whole build-up was a lot to handle.

My German friend and I arrived on the evening of December fourth and made our way to our hostel in Beirut. Despite what it says online (perhaps due to the revolution) there was no visa-on-arrival fee. It was a soggy day, but everything pointed toward a positive time in the country.

Short Stint on Cyprus

There exists a direct flight from Amman to Beirut - the only issue is that it’s way more expensive than flying to Paphos, Cyprus, and staying a few days. And, hey, you get to see a bit of Cyprus!

The stay on the island was so short, I'm not sure I can string together more than a couple paragraphs. My German friend and I visited in the off-season, so a lot of things are closed or close early. Most of the people you see out and about are retired British people. Everyone speaks English.

The island is beautiful - and is worth exploring if you have a car. The public transit options are nearly non-extant, which really hampered seeing the interesting sights. That said, I did a lot of walking and saw some more ruins (Tomb of Kings, &c.) and did the best I could.

The best part of the island is it’s relaxed attitude, the worst part is the traffic. I suppose it could be compared to Hawaii - though it’s certainly less expensive. It would be good to come back with more money and access to a car, but, given my constraints, I’m glad to be moving on.

RETROSPECTIVE: Sugar Bowl 2007

As with most of the other retrospectives, I'm transcribing from an older notebook. In this case, this is a write up from January 2015 about an event that happened at the end of the 2006 football season. 2019 Simon, sitting in a hostel in Tbilisi, will comment on 2015 Simon using [brackets].

Malicious Compliance?

29 January 2015: The Sugar Bowl

[I'm skipping my written introduction about a Maynard Ferguson playlist inspiring me to write a story about trumpets. For those just joining, I played trumpet in the marching band at the University of Notre Dame (ND) and got to travel with the band to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The exact date was 3 January 2007, for the record, so the events below occur a few days on either side.]

I don't remember travel arrangements being anything out of the ordinary. I flew down from Pittsburgh, sitting next to a couple of younger [high school?] teachers with whom I played a game of FLUXX. After arrival, I connected with friends and, of course, MB (my college girlfriend). Everything is a bit shuffled around (it has, after all, been eight years [almost thirteen now]), so I'll break it up into main sections.

Baptism in the Jordan

Ariving in Amman was an interesting experience - the flight from Athens deposited me in the airport at 2am. I’d taken the overcautious route of booking a hostel with a 24 hour desk and an airport shuttle. I’m not sure such measures were necessary, but how is one supposed to know beforehand?

After annoying everyone in the hostel room by my arrival at 3am (not my fault - they’d used the bed I’d booked as storage, which meant they had to move all their stuff), I annoyed them again by leaving the room at 7:00 to go meet my friends at 7:30am. I would have much rather slept until noon, but I was under orders.