eXoTic

"EXOTIC"

i always find this word funny

walking in any place in California and being asked my name, i answer Mennah and i have been getting the same reaction: wow very exotic!

next question is where are you from?

my answer has almost always been Egypt (unless i'm feeling like just picking another country for fun)

i get the same reaction Wow! Egypt i really wanna c the pyramids!

first i was having fun with the reaction and the excitement that i get from saying Egypt

and then i just got tired of it.

im thankful that i do not come from afghanistan no offense to the afghanis but bin ladden has ruined it for them

im also glad im not from a country the common american hasn't heard about

but it also bothers me how Egypt is thought of as a theme park

the way the media presents it here they think you walk in Egypt and the mummies are revived

like its some kind of scary movie

i dont want to be exotic i want to be me!

it is like the norm is to be jessica or jane and being mennah with dark hair i get a wow and sparkly eyes, i appreciate the excitement but from where i come from we do not eat egyptian food its just food.

i hope i'm making sense

but the funny part is even back home the really americanized egyptians start thinking of their home country as exotic and they try to fit in naming their kids easier names to announce all over, what they dont know is no matter how their name gets close to jane they will still get the wow and even if they have the passport they will still be treated like exotic

now the normal educated egyptian doesn't speak much arabic, doesn't relate to the arabic music and the egyptian cuisine.

it is kind of sad living in your country wit the eyes of a foreigner and when u travel they always think u r the foreigner in a way no place feels like home.

the sad part is i'm starting to feel exotic if there is a feeling like that im starting to feel like im a special breed.

the third question is so what do u speak in egypt?

egyptian?

it is really sad how little some of the world knows about the other half

but i like to think of it that way if we were on a stage the usa would be in the lime light and the rest of the world would be the extras, why would the star of the show be interested in the horoscope of one of the extras.

when Jane visits Egypt she is just normal not exotic and we feel apologetic for our differences.

i am not exotic i am just me