Live, from somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Sam's going to Egypt!

Ah. Where to begin. Well, I think this journey began 2 1/2 years ago, as a sophomore at Cornell University, nearly 200 feet above the ground--locked in the silent, almost deafening abyss of the 7th floor stacks. Finals time; not the best, brightest time of year, especially in snowy Ithaca in December.

Most of the those nights are now a whirlwind of a memory--studying, eating, stressing. But one conversation with my parents' during that finals period sticks out in my mind. "I want to do something cool," I remember whining to my unsympathetic parents (who were half-way through spending nearly 180,000 for this "uncool" experience). "I'm tired of sitting around and just reading about history and politics. Enough with the sidelines. I want to experience something challenging. I want to do something different that will really test my mettle. How else will I ever know what I'm made of?"

I may not have been so articulate that night, but I meant something along those lines. The question was--where? Where exactly did I want to go on this adventure, and for what purpose? It's one thing to be gun-ho about traveling and down for something new, but it's also pretty important to have a reason. This summer I was in Brussels on a fellowship working for the Transatlantic Institute, a policy center that focuses on relations between the European Union and Israel. I came home 8 days later. "What the hell happened?" my parents asked. "Where's your responsibility, your commitment? You can't do things like this!"

You can, and I did--even if it wasn't the best way of handling a poor situation. But I left mostly because I was missing that purpose. The idea of Brussels was exciting. Traveling abroad, weekend-tripping through Europe. Awesome! Maybe. Just not this summer. I'm not very interested in European politics or culture, and could care less about the inner-workings of the European Union (sorry!). I wanted to be in the real action, or at least close to it. I wanted to be in the Middle East.

Some of my friends having a running bet about this year. "So, I'll see you in a few weeks?" someone joked a few days ago as I was bidding my farewells. "I got $30 you're home by October," another friend texted me.

Egypt's going to be different. Sure, I'm anxious about spending a year in a city, Cairo, that I don't know much about, and I am nervous that the language and cultural barriers will be difficult to surmount. But I also really want to be in Egypt. I studied abroad at Hebrew University my junior year of college, and wrote an honors thesis on Iran and U.S. Foreign Policy over the past half-century this last year. I'm considering seriously a career in Middle East politics and affairs, and need some experience on the ground before pursuing a further degree or job in the field. I need to know that this is something that I'm seriously passionate about. And there's really only one way to find out. Live it. What better place to start than in Cairo, a bustling city that is a cultural and political center of the Arab world?

So there you go. It may not be the most flushed out analysis, but it's a start.

Quickly. What I'll be doing over the next 10 months: I landed a fellowship with the American University in Cairo (it's called the Presidential Internship Program). I'll be working for the provost, Dr. Lisa Anderson, learning Arabic, and pursuing my own research project on how Egyptians from my generation perceive U.S. foreign policy in the region. How's that for generalities?? (I'll flush this all out as I learn more). But on its face, I'd say this year has the chance to be pretty damn exciting.

So stay tuned, and stop betting against me (!). I'm staying for the year, and posting all about it.