I am brushing up on my Arabic after running into a fascinating gal recently. She makes her living as a photographer here in town and a single mom. (read that sentence again...) And guess what? She just returned from Egypt- six weeks with her son. Where did she say? (I ask naively) Oh...around, you know anyone will pick up a mom and son over there. What did you say? You mean....you just "winged it"???!!!
This is so far out of my comfort zone as to make my pulse race typing this. I so WANT to be that person....but travel and backpack should not go in the same sentence. The exception...as it always will be: The British Virgins. I COULD actually go there and sleep on the beach with a backpack (and bug repellant). It is always the exception to all of my "rules".
This woman....amazing....is teaching herself Arabic and auditing a course at Evergreen with the esteemed Mr. Farhoum, with whom I also audited a course. It only took me almost two years of intensive, six-hour a day immersion to learn Arabic. And she traveled without an itinerary to the middle east. She is my hero that I will never be. Maybe a part of growing older is realizing that we can appreciate other people for qualities that we would LIKE to have...though we know it is out of the realm of possibility to actually have them.....
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