arenzano

Dream. Dream big dreams. Leave the small dreams for those who are content to have

It was a misty upwards cycle this morning.

them. Discover what you are good at and then have faith in what you know you can do. Never allow others to make you doubt yourself. Often, their doubts are simply reflections of their own self-doubts. Dream. Dream big. And believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself.

I have no idea what happened today. Whatever it was, thank you, God.

This is what I posted on Facebook last night before I went to sleep:

1. This campsite is giving me the impression that Italians travel in very large numbers.
2. I have two large mountains to climb tomorrow, it seems.
3. It’s raining.
4. I’m in a tent.
5. The weather report predicts rain tomorrow.
6. I will be on a bike.
7. I predict lots of wetness.
8. I’ve had a headache all day and just took the last Panadol tablets I had.
9. I’m going to have to have a late start tomorrow to make sure I eat a proper breakfast. The restaurant here opens 7 or 8 depending on who you ask.
10. I’m pretty sure there’s an ant or two running around in my underpants. We’re just going to have to get along together.

I was worrying about having a tough day the next day especially because I wasn’t feeling very well yesterday.

I had looked at the route that my GPS suggested I take. It involved cycling up two 500 – 700 meter mountains. The weather reports weren’t good. And it rained all night.

I woke up to a drizzle but I was feeling better than the previous night. (more…)

Fatwa #397 issued by Sheikha Nadia El-Awady: Married women are not to travel unaccompanied by their husbands in Italy. Italian men are too handsome and their smiles too charming. Single women, on the other hand, should get their butts over to Italy PRONTO.

Yesterday was a very happy day for me.

The day before, shortly after I published my last blog post, I went out for another walk

Really, Monaco?

around Monte Carlo. My afternoon walk made me feel very overwhelmed with the beauty of it all. My evening walk made me feel very uncomfortable with the excessive opulence I was witnessing. There were escalators and elevators to take people from one level of the city to the next. You heard me. The most expensive cars roamed the streets. I walked to the casino. The cars standing in front of it! The people going into it! I watched people sitting on their extravagant yachts sipping champagne. It was the stuff of movies. And it wasn’t for me. I needed out.

I left early the next day and had another wonderful and peaceful cycle along the

Italy!

Mediterranean. It wasn’t long before I saw it: the sign that indicated I was crossing into Italy. “Oh white day!” I said out loud in Arabic. It sounds silly in English. آنهار أبيض is what I said and kept repeating with a very silly throaty laugh. I then started getting carried away with myself. One of my many personalities started saying, “Who woulda thought? Me, Nadia El-Awady, from the fallaheen in rural Egypt, cycled from Portugal to Italy!” And then one of my other personalities interrupted, “You’re not from rural Egypt! That was your father! YOU were born and raised in the US until the age of 15!” “Oh yeah,” the other one said. “Still. Nadia El-Awady, daughter of Abbas El-Awady who WAS from the fallaheen, cycled from Portugal to Italy!

It was Italy! I was home! The Italians! My beebol (people in Egyptian English)! My most favorite beebol among all beebols. This was something I already knew about Italians. I have been to Italy many times. I know the Italians. I understand them with their loud voices, their belly laughs, their expressive gestures, their hot tempers. They are people who leave nothing on the inside. It’s all out there. And I get that. I relate to that. I understand that.

And the Italians made sure to leave no room for doubt that they were mine and I was theirs. (more…)