eudaimonia & anagnorisis

I am very glad I packed:
1. my rap/hip-hop/ghettoPop-filled iPod. Few things inspire nostalgia for the states more than some thug-worthy rap. Music that I pseudo-liked in the US now finds a very warm place in my heart and eardrums, aparently Egyptians aren't Poppin' Their Collars, Big Pimpin', or Leanin' wit it, Rockin' wit it. In fact, they aren't even Bringing Sexyback yet.
2. a tremendous sense of humor. In Amsterdam, an Egyptian immigrant told me I couldn't enjoy Egypt if I took anything too seriously. He said: If you worry about terrorism, you'll drive yourself crazy. If you worry about feminism, you'll be cranky all the time. If you expect anything on time, you're very mislead. Whether its punctionality, air pollution, or . Instead of getting my panties in a twist I've just been able to laugh my frustrations away.
3. a sewing kit. This seems like an obvious one, but I was unaware of how agressive license plates on parked cars could be to pants and skirts before living here. It's only a matter of time before my wardrobe looks like a kleenex kid... explaination of this phrase is needless if you've walked the streets here, and explaining it would just make me feel elitist.

I wish I had packed:
1. ducktape. This amenity would make our showerhead, which remains sub-par and the household joke, somewhat functional, among other things.
2. a thousand AA batteries. I have recently dicovered "everReady" batteries, convienetly available everywhere in Cairo, have enough power to let me take ONE picture before my camera alerts me that my battery is exausted, again.
3. a normal sized - no, a king-sized! - bath towel. I had some serious towel-envy this weekend on the boat as I dried myselves with my washcloth sized Egyptian towel with ugly embroidry...*grumble* hah.
4. all of my class notes from sophomore year. my academic loads seems like a mirror image of last years classes, except with less SAT words and no copy-right laws.

I am feening for:
1. pleasure readers. People talk about reading like it was some bad habit they gave up shortly after highschool.
2. my sense of academic ambition and career-driven priorities. for the first time in my life I am complacent to the possibility my life might be spent in aimless pursuit of something to pass the time, help people, and reassure me i am not a waste of human potential instead of some solid career. at this point even grad. school seems like an option among others rather than the next thing on the list. this might be bad, but this might also be the liberation my life plan was in need of.
3. standard, sophisticated English. I sound fobbier and fobbier every day. Even my French is suffering from some serious Arabic infusion. I sound like a North African with no solid or grammatically correct grasp on any language. Articles and adverb agreement are fading into conversational

Suprisingly, I do not even slightly miss:
1. my treo or the internet/email addiction that came with it.
2. PrinceCafe and its absurdly over-priced shisha.
3. intimacy. its almost enjoyable to have returned to a state of prude innocence, hah. the lack of sexual intention makes interactions so much more pleasant and gives any slightly lustful exchange of glances so much more refreshing.