happy gurney

Dear all-

I'm once again having a hard time thinking of what to write, because there seems to be so much that I should talk about, and yet that doesn't come to my mind when I think of writing to friends and family. For that reason, I’m just going to write a simple update on the events that have happened since I’ve written last, and will leave the creative inspiration for later.

So I'll begin with my 9 day break that I had between my first month of intensive Arabic classes, during which my three friends and I (Allison, Lizz, and Owais) went to Istanbul, Turkey. It was an amazing trip. The first night we were there we broke fast (it was still Ramadan then) with one of our teachers from Middlebury at his house. He, his family, and his house, were probably the cutest thing we had seen in forever, so we loved spending the evening with them, dining on some amazing home cooked Turkish food (which actually ended up being the highlight of the food in Turkey because we essentially didn't eat any other good food for the rest of the trip), and playing with their two young boys. Our teacher had also given us a small tour of the University that he teaches at before we broke fast, in which we met a famous Calligrapher who had actually given an exhibition in America...and guess what a small world moment could have happened when it so turns out that the exhibition was at Duke my freshmen year, and i saw it when i was there. crazy.
But yes, for the next 5-6 days, we explored practically every corner of Istanbul, rain or shine, tired or not. I think it's safe for me to say that we all fell in love with the city, and i definitely believe it's the most beautiful city i've ever been two. It was quite funny because as soon as we arrived we were asking ourselves why we were studying Arabic instead of Turkish, and on the day we were leaving i sincerely didn't want to go back to Damascus. I'm not sure if it was because of the feeling of being closer to a "developed country" or "western culture," or perhaps just a break from the stresses of Damascus, but I was taken away. we also got to celebrate the 3 days of Eid Al-Fitr there (i.e. the end of Ramadan= eating during the day) so that was also a nice touch.

So when we returned to Damascus I think we still have a few days before classes started up again at the University, in which I’m sure i slept more than necessary. And then began a much more intense month, that has finally come to an end just a few days ago. So with Ramadan over, and moving up to the "Advanced" level of the program here, my schedule got changed around a bit. I now meet with my Tutor (not with the university) every morning at 7:10 until 8:40) where we focus on reading or talking. And despite the early hour (she's a half hour trip from my house) i do tend to enjoy getting the day started early (unless of course i end up getting only a few hours of sleep because of it...which happened often this month). My favorite part though is that we sit and drink a hot cup of coffee together before starting the work, which always warms me back up from the chilly walk from the bus stop to her house.
Afterwards i walk to school (20 minutes), which starts at 9. Being in a new class we had two new teachers this time: one woman, very sweet but liked to talk too much, who taught us Literature, Newspapers, and Speaking, and then a Man, who i turned out to not like that much at all, who taught us "politics", which turned out to be more like "let's discuss everything that's wrong in terms of politics and use America as the best example of all these problems, despite the fact that i "believe" that America's not the only problem." He also happened to be the fasted speaking Arab i've ever met, refused to slow down, and also refused to let others speak, and if we didn't understand something that he considered simple, would simple repeat the phrase "you all are in the Advanced class now, you are supposed to know this." At this, I of course became upset by the end of the month, which i think he began to sense by my constant outbursts to try and prove him wrong...which eventually lead to him nicknaming me "qunbula" which means "bomb" in Arabic (not translated into the American slang "the bomb" but rather the actual machine that explodes and kills people). This class lasted for 4 hours three days of the week, and for 5 hours two days of the week.
after class we would usually go get some grub, or take care of business in terms of travel agencies, copying papers, and everyday needs. More than often i would return home pretty late, only then to be too tired to start my hwk, which often led to me sleeping and then waking up at odd hours in the morning like 3 or 4 to start my hwk before i headed off to my tutor. On the weekends, of course we were off and running though because of our new found "energy" after Ramadan. the first weekend we spent Friday going to a small village close to the Lebanon Border with some of our friends from the company that we are using to arrange our housing (Arabesk). We spent the whole day just eating and talking from a house that had a wonderful view of the mountains and village below. And even though we arrived home late, in celebration of Lizz's 21st birthday that had pasted in Istanbul, we took up our friend Lena's offer to head out to a British party in Bab Touma (one of the parts of the old city, almost completely Christian, and where nearly every foreigner lives). It was quite odd as we entered, because of the first time I was surrounded by only Brits or American's and despite the Traditional Arabic house, I felt as if I was back in the culture of American drinking parties (except of course upper class British style). We didn't stay long. When I finally got home I was utterly exhausted, having gotten up early on the day I have claimed as "catch-up sleep day", so I decided to skip the trip on Saturday to "Chac De Chevalier" (spelling) so to rest and do hwk.
The next weekend we went to Palmyra on Saturday I believe, which was extremely beautiful. I road my first camel, and won my first race in a game of "don't touch the ground by jumping from historic ruin to fake new historic ruin". It was nice to get some fresh air from the middle of the desert.
The next weekend we went to Aleppo, which was too short a trip, and I was too sick to enjoy it. Essentially Aleppo is a nicer version of Damascus, with nicer people (especially the women), more souq's (cheaper also), and more old city to explore. we headed up on Friday morning, stayed in a nice little hotel, ate in the restaurant that allegedly made the largest Fatoush salad ever (the picture of this was quite funny) as well as houses the largest kebab skewer (about 6 feet long I think), and explored the old castle that rests on a huge hill in the center of the city. I definitely would like to return to do some more cite seeing as well as get into the souq's to get some good bargains.
We finished up this last month of classes on Thanksgiving with the final exam. But no worries, we thoroughly enjoyed our own version of Thanksgiving here. After the test we managed to scramble up as much Thanksgiving food as possible which ended up being mashed potatoes: reg and sweet...although sweet potatoes here are different from ours... some sautéed veggies, 3 roasted chickens, apple sauce, and some friend apple cobblers like thing that was amazingly scrumptious. Perhaps best of all is that in the end as we sat down to eat, it truly felt a bit like a real Thanksgiving, as we all shared something we were thankful for and explained to our French and Chadanian friends what the holiday was all about.
Then I returned home, and as any good way to inaugurate the break we now have between our last month of studies and our final one coming up, I slept from midnight to sunset the next day. The past few days I’ve been exploring the old city and the markets, looking for bargains on gifts and such. Yesterday I went on a little tour with David (the French roommate of owais's) looking at some old traditional arabic houses in the old city. It's really quite amazing how you can walk down these streets so easily and completely miss the hidden treasures that lie hidden in the walls.
So that's about it for update...nothing exciting I’m sorry. Lizz and I had also tried to start teaching English at one of the Palestinian camps a few weeks ago, but the library that was setting it up never called us back, and we were simply too busy to remember or to set up another appointment. Who knows.
I hope all are well, and that the Thanksgiving holiday was one to remember. I miss all. and to my friends at Duke, why the hell have we already lost a basketball game... it's not even December yet. I’m glad I’m missing out on this season i guess.

lots of love,
Zoë

oh, and highlight of the past few days: seeing a bus that had "Happy Gurney!" written on the two sides in huge green letters with a nice little 80's flair of yellow squiggle in every letter. The mistake is easily explained by the tendency of some Arabic dialects (mainly the Egyptian one) to switch the "jah" sound with a "gah" sound... because most of these busses have "happy journey/jurny/jerny/jorny/jorney" written on them. But i think this one took the cake. my gurney is quite fine thank you.