Twelve Years Later

It's been twelve years since I first travelled to Egypt as a graduate student with UCLA's Fayum project. Recently I came across my old journal from those seasons, and I thought it would be fun to read it again and at the same time create a digital record of it here as I go along. Back in 2003-2004 everyone didn't have personal blogs and social media didn't exist, so I was kickin' it old school writing in a journal and sending emails home when I could find an internet connection.

In the fall of 2003 I was 23 years old and headed to Egypt for the second time. (My first trip to Egypt was with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's undergraduate study abroad program in the spring of 2002.) It was only a year since I graduated college and moved to Los Angeles from rural Illinois. With so many changes in my life happening all at once it was both a terrible and wonderful time. Thankfully, I took the time to write about it so that now, even though over a decade has passed, I can look back and "remember when."