so life here in the longest continuously inhabited city is pretty fantastic i must say. the people are nice, the food is fantastic, and the taxi drivers only try to rip me off half the time (take that, egypt). overall, i'd things are pretty comfortable here and it is horrendous to think that i only have another three weeks to enjoy it here...though i hope to avoid what happened to me the other day...
there is an old adage that says "all roads lead to damascus". unfortunately, that adage has to be slightly amended in my case to "all roads in damascus lead me in the wrong direction". i'll explain
so we started our private lessons 5 days a week with a syrian teacher (who is great btw), but it requires us to travel a few kilometers to another part of the city...no problem, i figured. but after miraculously making it there on the first day, day 2 rolled around and we weren't so fortunate. here's the scene:
the day before i had been pretty sick, probably just ate something that didn't sit well, plus the food here is really really rich so it could have been any number of problems. anyway, i woke up still feeling pretty crappy, but couldn't sleep anymore so i decided to head to the lesson anyway. ryan left about 30 minutes before me, so i got my life together and walked to the square to get a cab...found a nice cabbie, no problem, things are going smooth...i ask for "souq sarujeh" and we are en route...but this is where things went wrong...(don't get the wrong idea, things go wrong here all the time, it's just that they rarely matter because i have no agenda and usually end having an interesting experience regardless)...
anyway, apparently someone in there infinite wisdom decided to name one place "SARIJEH" and another COMPLETELY DIFFERENT place "SARUJEH"...it is difficult to convey via text, but neither of these names are particularly easy to say (at least for me...they may as well be japanese, since every syrian says each one differently too) and i apparently conveyed that i wanted to go to souq sarijeh, rather than the correct 'sarujeh'...so my cabbie drops me off at some unfamiliar place bustling with syrians and wreaking of olives and raw meat (a horrible combination if you hadn't guessed, especially while being sick)
things would have been fine had i just called my tutor and straightened things out, but me (in my own infinite wisdom and making my best effort to perpetuate the "dumb american" stereotype) decided that the place i needed couldn't be far from here, so i began to walk.......well, that didn't go well because things only got more unfamiliar and started to smell worse, so i called husam (my tutor) and the real adventure began. he informed me that i was mispronouncing sarujeh and that i would in fact have to walk to the correct place...no problem i figured...
so i do an about-face and head toward the opposite direction...in my broken syrian arabic (and trust me, its reaaaaal broken) i asked for directions about every 19 meters (yea, they converted me to the metric system temporarily, sorry america) and people just kept saying "last street, turn right"...so i walked for 25 minutes, and when i couldn't walk straight anymore, i turned right, only to see the giant souq (market) that is only minutes from my house in the first place...so not only did i needlessly waste money on a cab (okay, it cost like a dollar, but you all know i'm pretty cheap), but i could have easily walked to my lesson (which we now do without any trouble)...so i finally find a bridge i recognize and i knew i was warm, so i ask an old guy and he starts helping me, then he starts speaking perfect english, so i think im home free! we start walking toward where i told him i needed to go, but we are back -tracking and i get suspicious, so i ask one more time "we are going to sarUjeh right?" and he says "no, sarIjeh, like you said"...so he essentially walked me half a kilometer in the wrong direction for no reason...in 95 degree weather...while im sick...
determined as ever i turn to the friendly shop owners (2 of which refused to help me earlier and looked at me like i was covered with scorpions) and he jokes with me that i'm really far off (in arabic, mind you) until he realizes i am in no mood to joke and points to the right...so i walk right...and im still not in the right place...(as an aside, i have mastered about 5-8 sentences in arabic which i'm proud of...but this inevitably hurts me because people i ask for help immediately assume i'm fluent/really good at arabic so they start speaking fast and i spend the next 2 minutes pretending i understood more than the words "building", "car", and "street"...but i digress)...then,husam calls back cuz i had told him 28 minutes ago that i was close and sure of where i was...so i find a cop, throw my phone (with husam on the other end) at him and they sort things out, he walks me somewhere, points straight and i finally find my oasis, which really is just a scrubby little hotel where i was supposed to meet ryan and my teacher
i realize this is a pointless story, but i had to rant about it. it was simultaneously the most frustrating/interesting 1.5 hours of my life (yes, i was lost for that long, sadly). the best part is that ryan got dropped off in the wrong place too! except he was dropped off in a place called mezze (how in the world the cab driver mix that up mix sarujeh?!)...and the best lesson i learned from this is that syria, in all its beauty and hospitality, really has to change the name of sarujeh/sarijeh...preferably to something much easier to say.
otherwise, very little going on besides lessons, homework, eating, and loving the city. here are my final thoughts:
-damascus is hands down one of the most tolerant cities in the middle east i have seen (2nd maybe to beirut)...for those of you picturing camels, fully covered women, sword-weilding men, and every stereotype from alladin, im sorry...you will find covered women, but equally mixed with girls wearing lots of make-up (a world epidemic apparently), showing skin, and wearing unmistakably western clothing...same with the men...and nobody cares! everyone gets along...christians, armenians, alawi muslims, sunnis, shias...its great and so fascinating...in fact, at night from my roof you can see dozens of blue neon crosses mixed in with the green neon lights of the minarets of the mosques...really cool...
-syria all of the sudden got really windy
-not sure if i mentioned this, but i got shaved old fashion style with a straight razor in a barber shop and it was the greatest thing ever
-in the states, modern standard arabic is taught (the formal language)...in the middle east, every speaks their own dialect that sometimes resembles modern standard arabic...so from now on i think we should teach foreigners Olde English and Shakespeare and then send them to the united states and see how it goes, just so they know how i feel...
-i got mistaken for a syrian the other day! although my fraud was discovered as soon as i tried to respond to the question that i was asked...but still, i apparently tricked someone! except for every other shop owner/cab driver that knows immediately before i even say a word that i am from the states...
-i celebrated 4th of july over here in typical american fashion...by eating myself sick on ridiculously good fried-chicken (actually broasted chicken, whatever that means)...i sort of missed the typical hotdogs and fireworks, but my friend let me wear his american flag sunglasses for a few minutes (inside the house, im not that ridiculous) and that was enough patriotism for the day
-kevin (my bud from ohio) is on his way as i type...this should be a great adventure
til next time, ma'a salama
todd
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
an (islamic) wedding story
so i have been here about 10 days or so now, and i must say i am pretty smitten with this country as a whole. so far the only thing i truly dislike is the damn guy that walks our streets at ungodly morning hours selling something that looks like laundry detergent or flour. the only problem is nobody buys his stuff and he just constantly yells what he selling while we are sleeping. otherwise, syria is pretty great.
this weekend we ventured to aleppo, the second biggest city in syria, a few hours north of damascus. we went because ryan was invited to a wedding being held there for the son of a good acquaintence of his, and we thought it'd be a pretty interesting experience (we were pretty accurate)
we took a 6 am train to aleppo from damascus (5 dollar first-class ticket, incredibly nice and comfortable train especially compared to egyptian public transport). we found a hotel with the people we traveled with (5 italians, 1 german), and headed out for a great feast. we ate at a beautiful restaurant that overlooked the huge ummayad mosque and had pretty much every stereotypical middle eastern food (kibbeh, hummos, baba ghanoush, tahini, kebab...oh and that arab favorite, french fries). then we headed up to this huge fortified castle that overlooks the city for a little while and headed to the hotel to change for the wedding
despite ryan and i not having what we thought we wedding-appropriate clothes (i wore sandals, horrible i know), we got to the hotel, found his friend, and were immediately treated like honored guests for the next 8 hours. the wedding was fascinating and completely contrasted western weddings i am accustomed to. there were no women at the ceremony (they had their own separate party that night), but ryan and i were the only white/western males among about 50 arab men ranging in age. to make things more interesting i sat right next to the shiekh (muslim religious scholar) who performed the 'ceremony' and spoke beautiful arabic that i could at least partially understand (hard to explain what makes arabic beautiful to most people, but he spoke the formal language as opposed to the dialects which are often unintelligible for students of arabic)
so after hanging with the sheikh for an hour or so, he began a sermon-like speech that ended with the fathers of the bride and groom sitting at a table together and essentially blessing the union of their kids. we all drank this odd drink that tasted oddly like suntan lotion (though i kinda liked it...ryan loved it), and the end of the ceremony consisted the men joining in this insane chant in arabic (no idea what they were saying) that essentially blessed the couple (even though the bride wasn't there)...then they pulled ryan and i in the huge circle to cheer for us, i suppose to bless our future weddings and just be nice in general. that marked the end of the men's ceremony and we spent the rest of the evening hanging with the groom and his dad until the groom had to go pick up his bride, bring her to the hotel and endure the women's party
the only men permitted in the women's party are the groom and the groom's father (but only for a few minutes). the groom drives in a huge procession of cars to pick up his bride and her entourage (all-in-all about 15 women...yikes). they arrived to a band playing and walked up to the party room to approximately 70 arab women yelling and bleeting like you wouldn't believe. needless to say, the groom must have been terrified, i know i would have been. but that essentially marked the end of our night (approx 1 a.m.) and i must say it was pretty cool
it is difficult to describe, you almost HAVE to see it to understand and appreciate it. but they thing ryan and i noticed was how we were treated. we were introduced to literally 25 men and treated like long lost relatives. people went out of there way to greet us, practice their english on us (hilarious), give us their phone numbers in case we needed anything, offer their homes to sleep if we return (which we will), and essentially offer any help they could to us. awfully strange behavior for a country that the u.s. government insists no americans travel to, even stranger for all these 'radical, arab, muslims' to treat us with respect and the renound hospitality found all over the middle east and the islamic world, don't you think? the point is syrians, like most everyone, are able to look past their political qualms with the US and give us an incredible experience that few will ever witness. just one reason why i love this country
the wedding may very well end up being the highlight of the trip, though there is lots left to experience and see. but i strongly recommend that any of you reading this attend an islamic wedding if the opportunity presents itself.
we begin our private lessons today and have already learned a great deal from all the people we have met here. everyone we spend time with has treated us with unparalleled hospitality and its been amazing so far. 6 weeks here will hardly be sufficient. as usual, i will end with a few random notes.
-its hot here. really freaking hot. though the weather at night is incomparable to anything i have ever seen. its just perfect
-the view from our roof overlooks all of damascus and its absolutely incredible. pictures will come eventually
-in general, syria isn't as picturesque as many countries i have seen. there are no pyramids to blow you away, but what syria lacks in monuments, it makes up for with the people. don't get me wrong, there are some pretty incredible castles and mosques, but that's about the extent of it.
-syrians certainly know how to barbeque. i think i gained 11 pounds in 23 minutes last night.
-i am naturally astonished that michael jackson died. and so is a huge part of the middle east. amazing to see how far his influence reached
until next time, fii aman allah
todd
this weekend we ventured to aleppo, the second biggest city in syria, a few hours north of damascus. we went because ryan was invited to a wedding being held there for the son of a good acquaintence of his, and we thought it'd be a pretty interesting experience (we were pretty accurate)
we took a 6 am train to aleppo from damascus (5 dollar first-class ticket, incredibly nice and comfortable train especially compared to egyptian public transport). we found a hotel with the people we traveled with (5 italians, 1 german), and headed out for a great feast. we ate at a beautiful restaurant that overlooked the huge ummayad mosque and had pretty much every stereotypical middle eastern food (kibbeh, hummos, baba ghanoush, tahini, kebab...oh and that arab favorite, french fries). then we headed up to this huge fortified castle that overlooks the city for a little while and headed to the hotel to change for the wedding
despite ryan and i not having what we thought we wedding-appropriate clothes (i wore sandals, horrible i know), we got to the hotel, found his friend, and were immediately treated like honored guests for the next 8 hours. the wedding was fascinating and completely contrasted western weddings i am accustomed to. there were no women at the ceremony (they had their own separate party that night), but ryan and i were the only white/western males among about 50 arab men ranging in age. to make things more interesting i sat right next to the shiekh (muslim religious scholar) who performed the 'ceremony' and spoke beautiful arabic that i could at least partially understand (hard to explain what makes arabic beautiful to most people, but he spoke the formal language as opposed to the dialects which are often unintelligible for students of arabic)
so after hanging with the sheikh for an hour or so, he began a sermon-like speech that ended with the fathers of the bride and groom sitting at a table together and essentially blessing the union of their kids. we all drank this odd drink that tasted oddly like suntan lotion (though i kinda liked it...ryan loved it), and the end of the ceremony consisted the men joining in this insane chant in arabic (no idea what they were saying) that essentially blessed the couple (even though the bride wasn't there)...then they pulled ryan and i in the huge circle to cheer for us, i suppose to bless our future weddings and just be nice in general. that marked the end of the men's ceremony and we spent the rest of the evening hanging with the groom and his dad until the groom had to go pick up his bride, bring her to the hotel and endure the women's party
the only men permitted in the women's party are the groom and the groom's father (but only for a few minutes). the groom drives in a huge procession of cars to pick up his bride and her entourage (all-in-all about 15 women...yikes). they arrived to a band playing and walked up to the party room to approximately 70 arab women yelling and bleeting like you wouldn't believe. needless to say, the groom must have been terrified, i know i would have been. but that essentially marked the end of our night (approx 1 a.m.) and i must say it was pretty cool
it is difficult to describe, you almost HAVE to see it to understand and appreciate it. but they thing ryan and i noticed was how we were treated. we were introduced to literally 25 men and treated like long lost relatives. people went out of there way to greet us, practice their english on us (hilarious), give us their phone numbers in case we needed anything, offer their homes to sleep if we return (which we will), and essentially offer any help they could to us. awfully strange behavior for a country that the u.s. government insists no americans travel to, even stranger for all these 'radical, arab, muslims' to treat us with respect and the renound hospitality found all over the middle east and the islamic world, don't you think? the point is syrians, like most everyone, are able to look past their political qualms with the US and give us an incredible experience that few will ever witness. just one reason why i love this country
the wedding may very well end up being the highlight of the trip, though there is lots left to experience and see. but i strongly recommend that any of you reading this attend an islamic wedding if the opportunity presents itself.
we begin our private lessons today and have already learned a great deal from all the people we have met here. everyone we spend time with has treated us with unparalleled hospitality and its been amazing so far. 6 weeks here will hardly be sufficient. as usual, i will end with a few random notes.
-its hot here. really freaking hot. though the weather at night is incomparable to anything i have ever seen. its just perfect
-the view from our roof overlooks all of damascus and its absolutely incredible. pictures will come eventually
-in general, syria isn't as picturesque as many countries i have seen. there are no pyramids to blow you away, but what syria lacks in monuments, it makes up for with the people. don't get me wrong, there are some pretty incredible castles and mosques, but that's about the extent of it.
-syrians certainly know how to barbeque. i think i gained 11 pounds in 23 minutes last night.
-i am naturally astonished that michael jackson died. and so is a huge part of the middle east. amazing to see how far his influence reached
until next time, fii aman allah
todd
Monday, June 22, 2009
week one: cairo eat your heart out
so i realize the name of this blog no longer applies, but for the sake of continuity i will just use this same website to update anyone on my little excursion to syria. it is far too difficult to email/facebook everyone and sending mail is uber expensive, so read this if you like
so after what i would call a long and arduous trip from akron to damascus, we finally arrived here a few days ago...i won't fill in all the details since that would take literally pages but here are the highlights of the trek here:
-5 hour delay of flight from NYC to Rome
-horribly uncomfortable flight to Rome followed by a 10 hour layover there which may yet prove to be the hottest day of my life, but Rome was still excellent
-overnight flight to Beirut (the redeye if you will). arrive to beirut 2 am and pray our baggage made it (affirmative). catch a taxi (subsequently get horribly ripped off despite my negotiating efforts. dropped off at the syrian border (sounds great to most of you i'm sure) at 4 am and wait there for about 6 hours to get our visa into the country...all in all horrible 48 hours of travel but definitely interesting, no doubt about that
anyway, we then caught a taxi into damascus (not ripped off this time, ha!) and met ryan's friend Fuad who subsequently found us an awesome room in a house in about 2 hours and got our cell phones working...honestly without him ryan and i would probably be dead and/or homeless by this point, so thank you to him...but our room is on the bottom floor and we share the 3 story house with 2 german girls, 2 syrian/italian dudes, 1 hungarian girl, 1 syrian, and one saudi/syrian for the time being...and honestly all of them are incredibly nice and have helped us a great deal already in the last few days, so we definitely lucked out
at any rate, ryan and i mulled over the decision to attend the university and decided against it since we hadn't heard very many good things about the program. so instead we are hiring private tutors which ought to be much better. probably 2 hours a day with them (only 8 bucks an hour) one-on-one which is more helpful than 4 hours in a class of 20, then studying and practicing at the stores and in the streets here...ultimately i think its the best decision, and in fact i just had my first lesson with bashir, a dude from Chad (i'm certain more than half of you reading this have no idea where that is...look it up) who speaks no english...a challenge? yes. but just after my first lesson i could tell it would be incredibly helpful
all in all, so far, so good. damasacus is incredibly cool and i suggest you all make it here someday...and no, it isn't a scary, terrorist laden country crawling with long-bearded extremist arabs. in fact, i'm probably one of the few with a full-fledged beard around here because i'm lazy...but the barbers here will also shave my face for next to nothing, so consider that on my list of things to do. i am tired of the paragraph form though, so i'll end this in my typical list fashion:
-of all the middle eastern cities i have been to (capitals and other cities, maybe 10-15), damascus is the by far the cleanest (hence the title "cairo eat your heart out"...honestly, cairo, you should follow damascus' example, its almost pristine)
-the first thing ryan and i noticed were the highways are perfectly paved...if only our first world country could follow this example
-i feel safer here than i EVER have in columbus...or downtown akron for that matter...ever
-the weather here is hot with a capital H...during the day its pretty unbearable outside, though its not too humid so it could be worse...in the evening, however, the weather becomes incredibly mild and perfect...which is great for our house because the equivalent of our "living room" is an open air courtyard and it's awesome
-this blog will not be nearly as in depth as the one from cairo, if you read that one. i don't really have as much time to write, and there isn't nearly as much to tell yet, though that may change
-the traffic here is almost as nuts as cairo...though they actually obey traffic lights here (amazing)...also, ryan, fuad and i were pulled over in fuad's car the other day cuz ryan didn't have seatbelt on (neither did i)...no big deal...except the cop that pulled us over was ON FOOT. hard to explain, but we didn't get a ticket, though our pride was dented from being stopped by a cop without a vehicle
-there certainly aren't as many things to take pictures of here, so there may only be a few pictures posted during these next weeks. sorry
-i hope you're all doing well and i hope to hear from you all/see you all at the end of july
fii aman Allah,
todd
so after what i would call a long and arduous trip from akron to damascus, we finally arrived here a few days ago...i won't fill in all the details since that would take literally pages but here are the highlights of the trek here:
-5 hour delay of flight from NYC to Rome
-horribly uncomfortable flight to Rome followed by a 10 hour layover there which may yet prove to be the hottest day of my life, but Rome was still excellent
-overnight flight to Beirut (the redeye if you will). arrive to beirut 2 am and pray our baggage made it (affirmative). catch a taxi (subsequently get horribly ripped off despite my negotiating efforts. dropped off at the syrian border (sounds great to most of you i'm sure) at 4 am and wait there for about 6 hours to get our visa into the country...all in all horrible 48 hours of travel but definitely interesting, no doubt about that
anyway, we then caught a taxi into damascus (not ripped off this time, ha!) and met ryan's friend Fuad who subsequently found us an awesome room in a house in about 2 hours and got our cell phones working...honestly without him ryan and i would probably be dead and/or homeless by this point, so thank you to him...but our room is on the bottom floor and we share the 3 story house with 2 german girls, 2 syrian/italian dudes, 1 hungarian girl, 1 syrian, and one saudi/syrian for the time being...and honestly all of them are incredibly nice and have helped us a great deal already in the last few days, so we definitely lucked out
at any rate, ryan and i mulled over the decision to attend the university and decided against it since we hadn't heard very many good things about the program. so instead we are hiring private tutors which ought to be much better. probably 2 hours a day with them (only 8 bucks an hour) one-on-one which is more helpful than 4 hours in a class of 20, then studying and practicing at the stores and in the streets here...ultimately i think its the best decision, and in fact i just had my first lesson with bashir, a dude from Chad (i'm certain more than half of you reading this have no idea where that is...look it up) who speaks no english...a challenge? yes. but just after my first lesson i could tell it would be incredibly helpful
all in all, so far, so good. damasacus is incredibly cool and i suggest you all make it here someday...and no, it isn't a scary, terrorist laden country crawling with long-bearded extremist arabs. in fact, i'm probably one of the few with a full-fledged beard around here because i'm lazy...but the barbers here will also shave my face for next to nothing, so consider that on my list of things to do. i am tired of the paragraph form though, so i'll end this in my typical list fashion:
-of all the middle eastern cities i have been to (capitals and other cities, maybe 10-15), damascus is the by far the cleanest (hence the title "cairo eat your heart out"...honestly, cairo, you should follow damascus' example, its almost pristine)
-the first thing ryan and i noticed were the highways are perfectly paved...if only our first world country could follow this example
-i feel safer here than i EVER have in columbus...or downtown akron for that matter...ever
-the weather here is hot with a capital H...during the day its pretty unbearable outside, though its not too humid so it could be worse...in the evening, however, the weather becomes incredibly mild and perfect...which is great for our house because the equivalent of our "living room" is an open air courtyard and it's awesome
-this blog will not be nearly as in depth as the one from cairo, if you read that one. i don't really have as much time to write, and there isn't nearly as much to tell yet, though that may change
-the traffic here is almost as nuts as cairo...though they actually obey traffic lights here (amazing)...also, ryan, fuad and i were pulled over in fuad's car the other day cuz ryan didn't have seatbelt on (neither did i)...no big deal...except the cop that pulled us over was ON FOOT. hard to explain, but we didn't get a ticket, though our pride was dented from being stopped by a cop without a vehicle
-there certainly aren't as many things to take pictures of here, so there may only be a few pictures posted during these next weeks. sorry
-i hope you're all doing well and i hope to hear from you all/see you all at the end of july
fii aman Allah,
todd
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