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Day 2 in Syria: This morning I woke up slightly startled to find myself in a hostel in Syria .. the disorientation only lasted a few moments but it was pretty funny nonetheless. .. After a very lazy morning Chivon finally woke up and we went downstairs to find some breakfast. One of the things we noticed right away was that the non-Muslim population must be larger than in Jordan because Ramadan didn’t seem to be held as well as back home. We went outside and sat at a table outside our cute hostel on a picturesque street with vines twisting between the two buildings creating a beautiful canopy of greenery as people began opening their small shops up and down the alley. Not thinking at all – we started eating our breakfast of heated flatbread, cheese and juice .. about halfway through our meal the call to prayer sounded and we both looked at each other with the realization that we had committed the most culturally-insensitive faux pas of our lives … eating/drinking in public during the last day of Ramadan. We felt about 2inches when we also realized that everyone on the street had noticed our meal. Anyways after recovering from the embarassment we created we ventured back into the Old City to this small museum that had been closed yesterday. It housed Arabic Calligraphy which is absolutely gorgeous. We’re both taking Islamic Civ. and inside the museum was a huge scroll sent from some early Shi’a leaders revoking the first three caliphs and instating Ali as the only true caliph to that point in history … anyways I figure most people reading this are like “huh?!” cuz Islamic history isn’t very well known in the states – but its really interesting stuff and its the reason Islam divided into the two largest sects of Shi’a & Sunni. Anyways back to the point…. right there in the museum was a historical document talking about the very thing we were studying. Amazing! Afterwards we headed over the Azem’s Palace which was really beautiful too .. and then finally we headed toward the National Museum. This place is truly spectacular – the left side is for the Roman ruins and the right side to the Islamic ruins. It was pretty halarious because on the left side the ruins were just kinda scattered around without explanation .. they weren’t in glass cases or anything .. and then on the right side everything was carefully displayed, marked and stored properly. The realization of just how many artifacts are laying around throughout the country was astounding. Towards the end of our walk through the enormous labyrinth of a museum the curator came up to us and escorted us to his prized possession .. something we had almost overlooked entirely .. a tiny piece of very well preserved clay with markings all over it …. the first known alphabet ever discovered – the markings … yah.. thats cuniform. lol =) This seriously is the cradle of civilization in every since of the word. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Palmyra, which is apparently one of the greatest sites to see on the planet …. I’ll let ya know if it lives up to its reputation. One last funny story from today …. we were looking for the immigration office to get a visa extension that’d allow us to come back during winter break if we wanted to visit again. Anyways the guards were so excited to see us (of course, two American girls) .. they led us up to the top floor of some fairly sketchy building with tiny offices at desks from the 40′s manned by uniformed soldiers … we got to the office we apparently were supposed to go to and ended up having to sit and chat for 20-30mins about life in the states through a mix of broken English/Arabic… because of that we have a meeting tonight to get an extension…It was halarious … it totally represented the way things work here – business is never just business .. you have to become friends or else they just shut you out. In a way its a nice change from the faceless, shallow encounters you experience whenever doing anything like shopping, business, etc in the states. Talk to ya all again soon. =)
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As expected .. Arafat died yesterday. As soon as it was announced Israel sealed off the West Bank, only granting passage through to Jerusalem. After several discussions with lots of different people who know more than Chivon and I .. we opted to not go. Looking back I’m sure it was the right, although difficult decision. However ….. right now I’m typing from Damascus, Syria!
Right as we decided not to go we started planning a new trip and about an hour later we were off in a service (shared taxi) to the border of Syria. It can be a pretty tricky border from what I’ve heard .. and since neither of us had visas (which you’re required to get in the states for $100) we weren’t sure what our odds would be of getting in. Of course after several painfully unorganized lines and 2 checkpoints later we were officially out of Jordan in “no mans land” right at the Syrian border. Sadly, the guy gave us dirty looks and started explaining that we didn’t have visas, yadda yadda yadda.
There had been unsubstantiated rumors flying around about so-and-so’s cousin’s friend’s daughter who got a visa at the border.. all the guide books and websites say its virtually impossible. So.. the immigration official kept our passports and was like “I’ll send a telegram to Damascus and see what I can do, but I can’t promise you anything and it’ll take awhile”. Thankfully there was a brand new duty-free zone not far away with great toilets and a nice cafe – two hours later one of the waiters came up to us and said “You have to go back to immigration because theres a Jordanian guard waiting to speak with you two.” … totally bewildered at how they found us we wandered back over to the crowded office to find that the officer had not even sent the telegram yet because he needed to question us first.
After we got through all his questions he told us it’d be about 4-5hrs so we went back to the duty-free zone and checked into the hotel there – which by the way we’re probably the only people who’ve ever stayed there .. I mean seriously, who gets lodging at the border? lol …
The hotel was reallly nice .. and for $15US it was well worth the new beds and nice TV. (Just for info: we arrived at the border at 6pm) … and at 3:30am our hotel phone rings … they had heard back from the Damascus office and had given approval for them to give us visas! It was seriously soooo amazing …. so we walked back over to the office and went from window to window collecting the necessary stamps, etc and we danced back to our hotel room with our sweet lookin Syrian visas. =)
It was seriously the biggest and most halarious fiasco ever.. but we proved the urban legend that if you out-wait the gov’t they will grant you visas! =)
This morning Chivon and I woke up and bargained our way onto a van, and then a bus .. and somehow made it to this hostel in Damascus that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guidebook on the Middle East. Its a really nice place – apparently the “most popular hostel location in Damascus” which I believe.
We wondered around the Old City today … its magnificant! The streets are so tiny and wind all over the place with suqs (markets) on every corner. The ancient ruins connect with modern buildings .. making nearly everything worthy of a picture.
We also visited the most famous mosque ever built .. it used to be a cathedral .. and in the 700s it was renovated and turned into a mosque. Its absolutely gorgeous and ENORMOUS! We were there during the 3rd prayer of the day and I got to video some of it which is really cool. =)
The people here are incredibly friendly.. and they’re so suprised that we both speak some Arabic .. almost every woman who hears us turns to have a conversation with us and learn what we’re doing in the region.
Anyways its going to be a fantastic adventure and I’m really glad to be here! I’ll keep y’all posted as always =)
So tomorrow looks like it might be a holiday. Everyones been talking about how Arafat is going to die as soon as the Israelis/Palestinians settled on a burial location – and word on the street is that they have.. so it’ll be any moment now.
Tomorrow evening I’m going with friends to Jerusalem for Eid (Islamic holiday ending Ramadan). I’ll be there for the weekend and will be coming back probably Tuesday sometime. It’s not really very far (40miles) but it takes quite awhile to get through all the checkpoints, especially since Arafat’s death will cause the Israeli’s to come out in full force.. It’s too bad really because we’d planned on going to Ramallah, which I think is basically impossible to get in/out of because of the situation (in case you’re unfamiliar with the details: Ramallah is Arafat’s headquarters). Located only 7km (10miles) north of Jerusalem it takes like 2-4hrs to cross all the Israeli checkpoints – amazing huh?!? Anyways I’m not sure where we’ll go .. it totally depends on the vibe in the West Bank.. so we’ll likely just hang out in Jerusalem and maybe head over to Tel Aviv or someplace in Israel if things get heated.
It’s my first time over there so its realllly exciting – and of course a bit unnerving. Sometimes I feel like I’m becoming so desensitized to the violence thats so close because life just goes on despite it all. Coming from the states where war is something that happens far away its still such a weird concept to remember that people all around me are in Jordan as a result of the very real and close ongoing conflicts happening in their homelands.
Theres something very mystical about Jerusalem .. all the events that have taken place there make for a very romanticized image… and from what I hear from others – it actually lives up to its idealized version of “the holy land.” I seriously can’t wait to go and see the different places.. of particular interest to me is the vea del arosa (street Jesus carried his cross along), al Massjid al Aqsaa (Dome of the Rock) & the wailing wall – all the typical tourist traps representing the home of three of the world’s faiths. I think we’re planning to stay in East Jerusalem though (the Muslim quarter) which will be easier to get around using Arabic and it’ll prob have a more familiar feel coming from here.
Anyways I need to go now – I’m having dinner over at Carrie’s .. her host parents have been trying to get me to come over for ages now. =) I can’t wait to write from a cafe IN Jerusalem! … til then ….. Ma’salaama
This last week was a strange one. We ended up not having class on Wednesday because it was a national holiday due to the death of the president of the UAE.
An interesting thing happened yesterday. My friend Chivon and I went to the embassy in order to apply for our second passports. Since we’re planning to travel to Ramallah next Thursday for Eid we wanted to try and use a second passport to make traveling to Syria & Lebanon easier (neither country will allow you to enter if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport).
After about two hours we finally saw the consulate and she approved our request and we’ll hopefully have it in time to go. Since we had gone to the embassy instead of going to class we decided to just miss the last hour and break the fast and get some lunch. Since virtually every shop is closed during the day in Ramadan we had to settle for Burger King. Since it was in Swefiah (a ritzy district in Amman) they allowed us to eat there if we went upstairs (most places that are open don’t allow you to eat there).
We went upstairs and were feeling really bad for breaking the fast so early and having to hide the fact that we were eating – we felt like we were rebelling or doing something wrong yano.. but when we got upstairs there were probably 10+ Muslims hanging out smoking, eating, drinking, etc. Chivon and I just looked at each other in shock. It’s like we know that not every single person is fasting, but its SO taboo .. and there they were … girls veiled and clearly not fasting. Chivon turned to me and was like “I’m so over feeling guilty.” lol … I just started laughing.
Today was pretty low key. This evening I had planned on going to this new restaurant called Marshmellow (they have these little table centers where you can roast marshmellows – hence the name). =) It’s supposed to be pretty sweet. Unfortunately, it doesn’t start until 8:30pm and after a talk with Nisreen I opted to stay home. I know she tries not to hold it against me for going out late with friends or anything, but she can’t help it to a certain extent. Tonight she said, “I know that you’re American and are used to spending more time with your friends than with your family .. but I’d never let my daughter be with her friends as much as you are.” That was a pretty big reality check for me. I definitely have made lots of compromises by living with a host family and have adapted to the new environment, etc … but its sometimes frustrating because I don’t even stay out late very often. Like tonight I had asked if I could go from 8-11pm .. but coming home at 11pm was just too late for my family to accept without a male escorting me.
It’s hard for me to suck up my pride and just accept things without a fight. Tonight Nisreen told me to just go out and I could stay the night at one of the girls’ houses .. but I felt like maybe I should just stay here .. I’m not sure why, because it’ll come up again .. but I figure I should just pick and choose my battles. It would’ve been nice to get out of the house, but not if its going to affect my reputation. Being here makes me think MUCH more about what people think/say .. thats for sure.
So the election is over and Dubya won. Last night I stayed up all night and bounced between the Embassy’s election party and the tv at the boys’ apartment that everyone was at. All night anti-Bush sentiments were felt quite strongly .. and this morning as things became clearer that Bush would take Ohio people started getting pretty angry. In fact - if riots break out here I would not be surprised at all. People are shocked that he got re-elected because of the mess in Iraq.
I love politics. I know not many people really do – but I get glued to the news when stuff like this is on. It just fascinates me to watch the campaigns try and spin everything in their favor, and see how the different networks portray the results.
A few stats from cnn.com …
- Bush took more popular votes than any previous president
- first election since 1988 that the winner recieved the majority of the popular vote
- approximately 60% of eligible voters turned out (over 120 million)
- only 17% of the total voters were in my age bracket .. the exact number as in 2000
- issue that got many swing votes in favor of Bush: moral/ethical issues
….. I only hope that he is able to bring the country together a bit more this time around
It’s November! What a crazy thing. I think maybe its the fact that its always sunny out, but it just doesn’t feel like November at all.
A few days ago I called Jamie’s cell phone and got to talk to him and to Sarah which was sooo nice. Everyone here has begun fighting the home sickness – I hadn’t felt it for quite awhile until I talked to them on the phone … since then its come in waves. Last week I was talkin to Christi and she said, ”When we’re here we say we miss home.. and when we’re in the states we say we miss home… home is just always wherever we’re not.” It totally makes sense to me because I can’t imagine not being here, yet at times I can’t imagine not being in Oregon.. it’s a strange thing really. I’m learning a lot about myself and how to cope with all the little things I usually don’t have to deal with “back home”.
I feel like I’ve hit that plateau in school where ya don’t want to go anymore and I have to force myself every morning to wake up… every semester I go through a few weeks where its like this, so its nothing new.. I just have to get through it. Once I get to school I enjoy it because I’m constantly learning new & useful things (particularly in Arabic of course)… its just a matter of making myself get to bed and get up on time at this point.
Tomorrow is the election! Its so surreal … for the first time I realize how true it is that we are the world’s superpower – on every TV/radio station they’re constantly giving updates on the U.S. election. People here realize how much what happens across the world directly affects them – whereas we don’t really feel that way towards anyone else. I am gaining a more global perspective on U.S. politics and learning how other parts of the world precieve our government and its system.
