Travel is often called broadening, exhilarating, or challenging.

But there are moments when your mouth is agape and you just know you are a foreigner.

I have arrived in Cairo, several hours ahead of Toby. Diane Tayeby, an intern at my office last year but who now lives here, invited me to join her and some friends at a performance of whirling Dervishes tonight. This was quickly arranged: I landed, made my way to the hotel (through Cairo's rush-hour traffic that wedges 5 lanes of traffic into a 4-lane road), and immediately dove into Islamic Cairo ... near the Khan el Khalili bazaar.

The performance of these talented men was great, and my fuzzy pictures and abominable video do not portray it justly. (In spite of the recording's flaws, the music was in tune and enjoyable.) Nonetheless, these samples may give you an inkling into why I need no reminders that I'm far away from home.