My study abroad experience in the Middle East can be divided into three phases: The "Wow - look at the pyramids!" phase; the "HolyShitSomoneCrashedAirplanesIntotheWorldTradeCenterandPentagon!" phase; and the "The world's about to end so let's get drunk and talk in Arabic" phase. Nothing could have prepared anyone for September 11th, obviously, but when I headed off to the Middle East in August of 2001, watching Egyptians celebrating massive American casualties wasn't exactly on my list of things to see. But I did. I saw reactions to the tragedy that were far more complex and nuanced than the knee-jerk patriotic fervor that swept across the U.S. There were people who celebrated the tragedy in my face, and there were people who came up to me and other Americans to personally apologize for what had happened to our country. Of the 200 or so American study-abroad students at the American University in Cairo, 150 left to go back home (I was the only student at AUC from Columbia that semester). I stayed, and saw the aftermath of the terrorist events on the Egyptian economy as tourism plummeted. I also made the closest group of friends (Arab and American) that I've ever had, and traveled with them throughout Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. We rode donkeys by the Aswan Dam and rode faluka boats down the Nile. We went to nightclubs in Beirut and castles in Syria. And we learned that even when the greatest tragedy occurs, the world keeps spinning: the stray cats of Cairo stalk the streets, the men light cigarettes one after the other, and the call to prayer echoes throughout the city five times a day. It is an experience that, despite its tragic backdrop, I wouldn't trade for all the hot mint tea in Egypt.