Naturally, we were overjoyed when we heard back from the American University in Cairo so quickly. We really weren't expecting to have any news until April so when we got the first email of acceptance on Sunday morning we were thrilled! All day we kept saying, "We're going to Cairo!" over and over. In fact, we are still saying that today. It's kind of surreal.
We're going crazy trying to think of everything that we have to arrange to make the exodus overseas. Moving to Jordan for 4 months was one thing, but moving for 2 years is a whole nother bag of beans.
Anyway, I announced during "good news" in Relief Society that we would definitely be moving to Cairo. After clarifying that this was Cairo, Egypt, and not New York or Illinois, there was, as Karen put it, a "wow factor" (she announced it in her ward, too).
Everyone always wants to know what Andrew's going to do over there. They just can't understand why anyone would want to move to such a "foreign" place. When we explain that he is majoring in Middle East Studies they all nod their head and give a brusque "Ah-ha."
We've joked about telling people that we're going there to study math or Latin-American studies just to see what they would say then.
One woman in our ward was particularly concerned about my well-being. She asked me three or four times if we were both happy about this. We are. Andrew is happy. I'm happy. Rachel is blissfully unaware that a very big change is about to happen in our lives.
She does have a certain curiosity about the Middle East, though, so I think she'll love living over in Egypt. Here she is poking around the Koran.
There is definitely a lot that you probably would need to take care of. And no matter all the things you do, you will probably still feel like you left in a whirlwind and maybe still have an uneasy feeling of forgetting something. But, once you get to your destination things will fall into place and you will get the time (eventually) to settle in, relax a bit, and enjoy the new scene. <--all of this from experience.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, again!
LOL... never show the pictures of a baby eating the Holy Qu'ran (I can't remember exactly how it's supposed to look! Sorry) to a good practicing Moslem... they might not let you into Egypt after all! hee hee. Of course, you'll probably get to know a few Coptic Christians, as well, won't you. The eastern orthodox branches of Christianity are always interesting, given how much of western Catholicism comes out of them!
ReplyDeleteHoly Cow! That will be an adventure.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can still blog. Then I won't miss you as much :)
How exciting! This is a BIG deal and SO very cool.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Nancy! What an amazing opportunity! I'm so glad you heard back. I can't wait to hear more about it!
ReplyDeleteThat is exciting! Do they pay people to do the masters program over there? You could always teach english. Jason says there is money in that :) Anyway sounds fun. We're here in Utah by the way. We should get together!
ReplyDeleteWe are still waiting to hear about scholarships. They have some good ones but from what we hear they are pretty hard come by.
ReplyDeleteWe're looking into tutoring and things like that...and I'll still be doing "Harman" (what I was doing all day in Jordan) for a while at least.
And we totally DO need to get together, Crys! I'll email you with my phone number in case you don't have it anymore...