Fulbright Conference Rox my Sox

The Fulbright conference finished yesterday. That is the purpose of my being in Tunisia, to go to this conference of Middle East and North Africa Fulbrighters (with flight and hotel paid for by Fulbright, naturally and awesomely). I saw this and thought, "Well the conference will be bullshit, but hey! free trip to Tunis!"

It was not bullshit. I was actually amazing. Meeting the other Fulbrighters in other countries, mostly Jordan and Egypt but also the UAE, Bahrain, Tunis, and even Israel. The rest of us had no idea Israel was coming, and there was a collective "what?" going through the room when they were introduced, except for the PhD student studying the Palestinian national movement of the 1930s. People were saying they should go to Europe, but it actually turned out to be very interesting talking to them.

Most people were not at all pretentious, despite many having reasons to be, as their projects and previous work are amazing. The conversations! Oh, the conversations! It makes me miss college and having these intellectual discussions. Wow. These people are so cool. I felt happily inadequate compared to many of them, but others shared my same feelings.

There's more, but I have to go enjoy Tunis.