I’m sorry to have taken such a long time to write. Although it's very likelythat I can blame my horrible contact abilities for this coincidence, I thinkit's also because I don't quite know what to make of my experience so far. Soinstead of summing it up into some words that I’m sure give it no justice,I’ll just shed some light on a few stories me and my friends have experiencedthus far in the sunny city of Damascus.Today for instance:
I woke up at 3 this morning to take Sahhoor (the meal you eat before the sunrises during the fasting of Ramadan), but found myself too tired and nothungry, so I simply brushed my teeth and went back to bed. Hala, my housemother, was up eating in the kitchen when I arose, we said our good morningsin our groggy voices, and then I returned to sleep. You'd be amazed at howalive the city sounds at this time in the morning. I can hear the neighborsrousing and fussing around. I can hear some children that wake as well, andtheir discussions with their parents. I hear two azzan's from my room (azzan:call to prayer from the mosques). But I’ve quickly accustomed to the sounds,and on a regular basis, they don't wake me up. But yes, back to bed, only to wake up again at 7 in order to finish (or attemptto finish) the hwk that I had for class that started at 9. Did my hwk as best Icould, and then by 8 I started packing my bags to make the 9 minute walk toAllison's house just down the street. Lately I’ve been walking to her houseevery morning, as she's been fairly sick for the past week. We then walk downto the main street in our part of town, where we pick up a micro-bus, seatingup to 15 people, that takes us to the University. My favorite part about the"meecro" or the "serveece" as it's called in Ash-sham (Damascus) is the systemof payment. A ride, how-ever long, is only 5 leera (about 10 cents) and yousimply pay by sitting down and passing your money up through the bus up to thedriver. If you need change, the driver will pass it back, in perfect change,without fail, and the money is never dropped. I don't know why I was sosurprised by this system at first; perhaps, it's the trust that scared me.Firstly, the trust that someone would even pay in the first place, as it seemedeasy to slip into a micro and get away without paying, and secondly the trustinghands that carry the coins (the 5, 10, and 25 leeras are in coin form only). Ithought for sure that dropped money would be a constant problem, only leadingto awkward moments of bending down towards the grubby floor in a stuffed van ofmen and women actively avoiding eye-contact and yet involved intensely instaring at anyone they please. But I’m yet to see such a moment. No one'sdropped the ball on that one. But alas, Allison and I arrive at the gate to the university after a quick ridefilled with bumps, swerves, slams of brakes, and an ongoing musicalaccompaniment of car horns that I think even beats New York City. We cross thebusy highway via and underground tunnel, enter the university and meet lizz,owais, and his roomate eric (also American) at the steps of the building ourclasses are in about 10 minutes before the fun begins. Having not eaten muchthe day before because I was sick, and not slept very well, I’m exhausted,and it seems that we all our. We blame the food we had for Iftar for this, butit's probably really derived from a compilation of reasons: the last day ofclasses for the week, not sleeping well, being sick (thus too much sleep timespent in the WC), and of course, fasting. We head to class, which is brokeninto 4 50 minute sessions. I have to make a presentation/guide a classdiscussion for the last hour period and by the middle period break I’m indesperate need of a nap in order to even begin to think in Arabic in the least. I fall into a deep sleep for the 20 minute break, and awake revitalizedsomehow, and that pushes me through the last two periods. For my presentationI decided to bring up the topic of war and it's ethics... (I chose this topicbecause I knew it would spurn up debates between certain people in class, andthus lead away from the amount of time that I actually had to spend speaking ona subject that I wasn't interested in.... it worked, and all went well). Afterwards owais and I headed over to the Arabesk office, while lizz andAllison headed to lizz's. There was some paperwork that arabesk needed helpwith, so I accompanied owais to use the free internet at the office. Gettingto the office entailed once again getting on a 10 cent micro and getting offjust a short walk away from the office. On the way there we stopped at a bookshop we had spotted before. The stores that line the streets (like this bookshop) are always crowded little rooms, stuffed to the brim with whatever theysell, whether it be food, clothes, books, electronics, office supplies, sweets,etc. This stop I bought two books for $2 each. one was an English and Arabicversion of Emma in one, and the other was a Nageeb Mahfooz book "Morning of theRose". We'll see how those go. The Arabesk office was unusually packed. it's actually the second floor of atravel agency office, decorated very nicely with the Damascene artwork aroundthe ceiling in greens, reds, and golds. I sat down in the crowded room andwaited for the computer to get free, and wondered if the artwork in this officewas done by the same man I saw doing the same type of work in the handcraftsmarket just down the street a week ago. We make jokes with the people that wereresponsible for getting us settled in the beginning, their names Fadee andTasseer. Two nice guys about our age who work for arabesk, and alwaysjokesters. But time passes and the work gets done and I check my email. By thetime I finally get to my house after a short bus ride, it's already 4 o'clock,but I’m in desperate need of another nap. Hala is asleep in her room aswell, so I decide to lay down for a half-hour before I head out to Lizz's housewhere her house mother has invited us for Iftar (the meal for breaking thefast). After the nap I hop out to go catch the same bus I take to get to University,ride it a little further and get off in front of a hospital in the Mezzedistrict (Lizz's district). Although I could take a bus to get down to Lizz'shouse, it's only a 15 minute walk, and the traffic seems pretty bad, as well asthe busses crowded, so I decide to make the walk and see if there are any goodstores I should come back to where I can buy some sweets for Hala. I passplenty of stores, mostly for food and then nicer clothes. The Mezze districtis considered the more western and touristy district, where you'll find shopsthat are just as expensive as they are in America, as opposed to cheaper storesyou can find in my neighborhood. Nonetheless, it's a nice place to walk, andthe check out the different shops. I arrive at lizz's apt complex, where shelives on the top floor (8th) give her a ring and she opens the door for me. Itake the little 3 person elevator up to her house/apt. Lizz has definitely gotthe nicest place out of us all, and with an amazing view of damascus. Her housemother is in her 60's we think and a bit senile, but still fun to listen too.During ramadan, about all she's occupied herself with is praying, sleeping,cleaning the house, cooking, and then feeding raw chicken from her balcony allthe way to the stray cats that feast below. She demonstrated for me afterIftar last night, and it was quite a sight, about 1 second after hearing themeat flop of the ground about 10 cats pounce on the spot, running from alldifferent directions. It's a habit we all get a kick out of. (there are straycats everywhere). For dinner Madame Medany (Lizz's house mother) cooked an amazing meal offatoush, chicken, this thing called yateen, which is like a pepper stuffed withrice and meets, then the stable rice with peas and ground beef, and also meetstuffed eggplants (another staple), which were all amazing. Oh and there wasalso mushroom soup, dates, apricots, and of course, yogurt for the rice andbread (pita style). afterwards we had tea and a damascus ramadan treat that Iforget the name of, but which is fried bread with grape syrup stuff on it.delicious. it's so hard to not over stuff yourself at Iftar, not only becausethe food is so good, but because your stomach is so sensitive after fasting allday. It's even harder because they always cook more food than you eat, and putmore food on your plate than you could ever handle. Needless to say, I enjoyedthe Iftar. Afterwards we walked to a local "mall" in Mezze, called city mall, where youcan only find the upper class of Damascus shopping. we went because it's theonly place you can find a store anywhere near a supermarket by Americanstandards, and had more than three types of shampoo offered. We also boughtsome chocolates to test out the Syrian candies and sat in a little cafemunching on them and enjoying the taste of a sweet that is highly under-used inthe Middle East (chocolate).ok, and I’m just going to finish up quickly because I’ve taken too much timeof this and I’m losing focus. But all in all, Damascus is great. Everyday Itry to keep track of the new words I learn, or phrases, and speaking is comingeasier slowly but surely. I'm glad that I’m spending the whole year abroadthough because I’m finding more and more that this language, and it's manydifferent ways of expression are a bit overwhelming to think of capturing inany 3 month period. I don't feel like talking about 'cultural" differencesthat I’ve noticed since I’ve been here too much, because I feel like I’mstill just getting a sense of my own culture in this space, rather than reallyunderstanding the one that I’m faced with. hopefully I can write later aboutthat.I hope that you all are well. I know this email was bad, but it was all I cando. It's hard for me to focus on things here, perhaps it's the way of the citythat gets me all flustered.here's also a website with pcitures from my friend owais:http://community.middlebury.edu/~ogilani/i'll send more pictures when i get a better internet connection.love you all and miss you. send this to whoever you feel it would be appropriate.
zoe