Return and Review

Re-arrival to America has been rather seamless. I am happy to be home, but I am even happier that I went. My time in the Middle East was life changing and eye opening. It is very difficult to summarize my time there, but more than anything I will remember the people I met, the Egyptian and Syrian students especially. Everyone has been asking me all kinds of questions about my trip, and I truly feel that so much is misunderstood between our cultures because of a lack of travel to these areas. As I mentioned in my first post, it is uncommon for Americans to visit the Middle East, often opting for the tropics or Europe. For students especially, however, programs like this one allow a frame of reference where we can actually speak knowledgeably about the places and people we have visited. Aside from sounding like a shameless promotion for the Dialogues program, I can honestly recommend such voyages to everyone I know. Almost everyone has asked me about safety concerns during my travels, and I can sincerely say that I always felt very safe. As one of our professors put it, one advantage to authoritarian governments is that they do have tight control over the people, and therefore a tourist can feel very safe. It would be important to read (a lot) about the places you were visiting before you went, however. I would recommend catching up on the last 60 or so years of history in the region, specifically American foreign policy. Happy travels…

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