Shortly after graduating from Stanford with a physics degree in 2002, small town Oklahoma girl Pamela Olson decided she wanted more out of life than sitting in a physics lab for the next thirty years. So she bartended, saved her money for a year, and set off on a seven-month trip across Russia and the Middle East.
In Russia, she signed up to teach at a summer camp on the Black Sea, imagining a fun and relaxing summer of hiking, camping, canoeing, and brushing up on her Russian skills. Instead, she found herself dumped off at a post-Communist nightmare of a camp called Zolotoi Kolos, ‘Zolotoi’ meaning golden and ‘kolos’ meaning the bunchy thing at the top of a wheat stalk. It was translated as “Golden Shaft,” which summed up the experience pretty well. There were good times, though, and beautiful and hilarious times, and a lot of amazing kids.
Pamela then flew to Egypt to begin four months of travel from Cairo to Istanbul on a shoestring budget -- her first trip to the Middle East. All summer she had been dreaming of hummus and olive oil, red wine and Turkish baths, spices and silk. And even though there were difficult times along the way, in the end it was full of more beauty, surprises, and kindness than she ever dared hope.
Also included is a sample chapter from Olson’s recently-published memoir, Fast Times in Palestine (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615456243)
In Russia, she signed up to teach at a summer camp on the Black Sea, imagining a fun and relaxing summer of hiking, camping, canoeing, and brushing up on her Russian skills. Instead, she found herself dumped off at a post-Communist nightmare of a camp called Zolotoi Kolos, ‘Zolotoi’ meaning golden and ‘kolos’ meaning the bunchy thing at the top of a wheat stalk. It was translated as “Golden Shaft,” which summed up the experience pretty well. There were good times, though, and beautiful and hilarious times, and a lot of amazing kids.
Pamela then flew to Egypt to begin four months of travel from Cairo to Istanbul on a shoestring budget -- her first trip to the Middle East. All summer she had been dreaming of hummus and olive oil, red wine and Turkish baths, spices and silk. And even though there were difficult times along the way, in the end it was full of more beauty, surprises, and kindness than she ever dared hope.
Also included is a sample chapter from Olson’s recently-published memoir, Fast Times in Palestine (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615456243)
