ground for 4 hours and I already am frustrated by everything here.
Call it reverse culture shock, lack of patriotism, being European, or
just sleepless but I'm frustrated. I ended my last post with
"something is seriously up with this country" in reference to Egypt
well something is seriously up win this country. Rude airport
employees and TSA agents feel entitled to do what they want and say
what they want. People don't smile or even say "welcome to the US". I
heard "welcome to Egypt" twenty minutes before leaving from the Cairo
airport. I don't know if we consider ourselves to be a friendly
population but we aren't. Egyptians live under a dictatorship and
have horrible wages and standard of living but they still are the
happiest people I know. Strangers ask your name where your from why
you're here etc. The foreigners in America are barely respected
enough to be welcomed. It's no wonder our diplomatic relations with
other countries are bad when the customs officers are admittedly the
"face or our borders" and cannot treat anyone with anything close to
human respect. Underneath their boothes are the list of things they
promise to do including greetings, respectful manner, helpful advice
etc, it's a shame that those are posted because none of those have
ever happened to me here. And random selection my ass, the Egyptians
on our flight despite carrying American passports or greencards were
still questioned 3 to 4 times as much as any white American was.
Women in the hijab were pulled to the side for an extra pat down.
Arab women say that women here have no rights, if i was coming to the
US and they gave me a lengthy touchy pat down I would feel the same way.
Economically and and technologically speaking the US is not a third
world country but geez we are probably the least friendly people in
the world. The culture shock is infuriating and makes it impossible
for a foreigner to adapt let alone want to stay here. How you did it
mom I have no idea. I left for Egypt a little over a month ago and on
the tv in line to board was CNN talking about Brett favre and the bp
oil spill and now as I sit here waiting to board my flight to
Pittsburgh what do I see on the screen but that same purple jersey and
that infamous live video feed of the oil spill. Does nothing happen
in this country or why do we cling to the same news for more than a
month. Has anything but a cd or movie release happened here since I
left? Trust me I'm a patriot (as wierd as that feels to write, it's
true), and I call myself an American but sometimes I wish that I could
be all of that without associating myself with the America I see now.
I'm in the airport and I'm homesick but the problem is I don't know if
I'm homesick for Pittsburgh or for Cairo. Cairo is crazy, yes and I
did say that I'm glad to be coming back to normality but I forgot that
I was returning to American normality. At least Cairo was welcoming.
No comments:
Post a Comment