Here's a cross section of daily life

2 week reflection:

Weather – First of all, yes, it’s hot during the day, it is super incredibly hot (~ 42C). It can be unbearably hot until you suck it up and ‘just get used to it.’ You know how it feels when you take a cake or a casserole out of the oven, the heat hits your face and it mildly chokes you because it’s so hot and dry? It kind of feels hot like that. That’s a given every single day and I really try not to complain about that anymore except I know the Arabic word for it, so I like to practice.
10:30/11:00pm, I feel like it starts to cool off. The morning I got up at 6am, I was blown away about how cool it was! It was like it was fall. It is a little humid in the morning; it must be the residual heat sucking the moisture from whatever still has some overnight.
My goal is to get my sleep schedule adjusted so that I can work out in the morning. My goal is to start getting up at 6am and do my thing, then go to work, and have free time in the afternoon then, go to sleep at a decent time (9:00-:30 pm-ish)
Houses/apartments – The windows are made out of a glass is something like a two-way mirror to let some light in, but to keep the heat out. In the US, houses have shutters for decoration around the windows. In Syria, the houses have these dark shades built onto the outside of all the windows that extend out to be like a low awning or can be closed to keep out ALL light. I have these on my apartment, on pretty much every window. My house is a dark cave in the middle of the day.

Water – 6:00am ~ 12:00pm the city water is and it flows through the faucet and fills up the tanks on the top of the buildings. From noon through the afternoon, the tanks on top heat up from the sun’s heat. The afternoon and night’s water is supplied by the tanks. I have not turned on my water heater yet. If I was going to shower in the morning, I would have to turn it on because the water would be ice cold! But alas, the water for my evening shower is warm enough to steam up the mirrors. (Maybe that helps
Toilets – Apparently the plumbing/pipes or something is so old that no paper can go down. All toilets have a trashcan next to them and instead of putting the paper in the water, you put it in the bin. Easy enough to do, but it takes a little bit to break the old habit. Most toilets have a half flush and a full flush button depending on what you have put inside.

Bodies – #1) Everyone sweats. It’s normal to have sweaty pits, sweaty face, back, chest, and wet shirt accordingly. It’s not ‘gross’ because everyone has it. #2) We’re in the desert and it doesn’t rain so there’s lots of dust. Dirt-type dust and open shoes such as flip-flops and sandals are wonderful for creating dirty feet. All of our feet are black, it’s ok, normal and that’s just how it is. This may we why it’s considered rude for your soles to face someone. #3) Because it is so dry, a lot of people are having congestion, allergies and we’re all having problems with dry skin. I feel it inside my nose mostly. It’s difficult to keep up with hydration because no matter where you are, the air sucks the moisture out of you. I have not seen any humidifiers, but I would be interested if they are available. I started putting Vaseline inside my nostrils because I’ve had a couple light nosebleeds in the morning when I blew my nose after sleeping.


Walking – We walk everywhere but if we don’t want to walk, it’s super cheap to take a taxi. Around the town, a 50 – 75 pound ride is normal, which is $1 - $1.50.

Neighborhood – We live in such a posh section of town probably on account of all the embassies. I pass 3 embassies on the way to work each day: Embassy of Mauritainia, Ireland Consulate, and Embassy of Finland. The school backs up to Qatar and United Arab Emirates which is across the street from India embassy. I live in great location for security. I pass 3 embassies, but I don’t know how many security officers. There are lots of layers of police EVERYWHERE. There are the regular ones with the uniforms, then there are the ones that sit in the booths only sometimes with some type of uniform, but always with a gun. There’s the school’s security who sit in the air-lock type security entrance and then there are undercover ones who pose as street vendors.

Some women from the school claimed to have been followed. I have not been and I think it’s because I am not friendly to people on the street and I don’t want to bring extra attention to myself. I don’t smile or make eye contact at anyone until I know the person, even though they all look/stare/watch me. I have met and introduced myself to some of the shop owners so they know who I am, what I do and so if I need to go to them for any kind of help, I can.

I haven’t officially counted the dentists and oral surgeons on my 2 block to work, but I would estimate about 7, including a doctor from Iowa. Hair salons seem to be a thing too, because there are about 4 of them; 5 internet cafés, 1 chocolate bar, a Turkish restaurant (they do not speak Turkish and nothing in it is Turkish except for its name), 2 little grocery stores, 8 UN SUVs, a Paris Hilton Hand Bag store, several shoe stores and a DVD store.


Shopping – There are lots of stores on the sidewalks mixed in with restaurants. I have not quite gotten the hang of the store hours because they change for Ramadan. When I have found the stores open and I’m clothes shopping, the sales people are adamant about helping me find my size. When I go to try on clothes, they take the hangers for me. Why they do this, I don’t know because this means that I just drop the new clothes on the floor. Since they take the hangers, there’s nothing to hang up, so there aren’t usually hooks in the stall. This is frustrating to me, so when they take the hangers out, I ask if I can have them back. I’ve gotten some odd looks, but I just don’t get the hangers thing yet.

The major places to shop are #1) Shalaan Street – just a short walk from the school; #2) Cham Center – a real live legit shopping mall, so much like every other that you forget what country you’re in; #3) Town Center – This is like a shopping mall with a Super walmart; #4) Target – Yep, the real target. I have not been to this one as of yet. I heard it’s 24 hours, but then I don’t know about Ramadan. I go the phone number off a advertisement, so I’ll give them a call and hope they speak English.

Beauty – I wanted to get my eyebrows done because I forgot to bring tweezers, but I know I have them in my shipment. On my way to work one day, I stopped by all 4 stores to see if they did eyebrows and I had success at the last one. They have a guy, hasan or hussain, who does it. They put me in a regular barber shop kind of chair and laid me back; there was not a head rest, but the back was high enough. He began with a string technique where he holds one end of thread in his teeth, and makes a loop around his thumb and forefingers on both hands and wound it very tightly and used it like scissors. It was mildly painful; I think it may have been pulling hairs out instead of snipping them. When I was finished, he asked me if I wanted him to do my mustache. (I didn’t know I had one). I asked him “Do I need it?” He said, “Schwaye” which means a little. So I let him. He went back to using the string technique. This was not mild pain, it was excruciating pain. He asked me to stick my tongue under my lip so it was stretched out, but I could not keep it poked out due to the pain. I had to take several breaks to make it through that one. I may go somewhere else next time because if I go back to that guy, I may want anesthesia next time. It was fun because it was a rush!


Eating – Advice says don’t drink water from the tap the first 4-6 months. Not because it’s dirty, but because it’s Syrian and there are different bacteria in the water to which my body isn’t accustomed. Too much too soon could start to get to me. Eating food already introduces a bit of foreign things to me, but the amount of water I drink would no doubt saturate my body with Syrianness.

Syrian Stomach – It can consist of simply diarrhea but sometimes with vomiting. EVERYONE gets it so everyone has their own story; here’s mine. August 10th, I met Syria. I accidently woke up early one morning at 6:00am. I started out on a run, which turned into a walk and happened upon an American friend (from the school) randomly on the street. I had a bit of rumbling in my tummy, then throughout the day it shifted lower and lower. By 2:30pm, I was running for home and spent some time. I slept from 3:00 to 7:00 when I met up with some friends for dinner. I didn’t eat much, but what I did eat was a mistake. After dinner, I couldn’t get home fast enough; it was the longest walk ever. A couple times I had to bend over and hold my knees just because it hurt to be upright. My head hurt, my insides hurt, I was nauseous and clenching for my dear white shorts’s life. I spent that evening in the bathroom on the pot with a bowl in my lap. I vomited a couple times and moaned/whimpered through the night.

In the morning, I was feeling less sick, but not normal. I was drinking water and diet 7up when it hit me and I was back in the bathroom with my bowl in lap. That afternoon, I forced myself out of bed to go to the school because I wanted to get the 3G Syriatel gadget which would give me internet at home. I had that slow, crouched over walk that you use when you have to function and your body isn’t quite ready to be upright.

I got to school just barely for the 2:30 appointment; I had been very open about not feeling well, so friends were taking care of me. I went and saw Nurse Julie who told me that if it continues more than 24 hours to then take something. I was at the 24 hour mark and not sure if I was recovering or in the calm eye of the storm because I had nothing in my digestive tract either way. She prescribed Enterofuryl, an intestinal antiseptic, and De-Vomit. 3G internet guy showed up at 3:30, I got the 3G internet stick and then went to the pharmacy and went home and back to bed. I was so hungry that I ate some cereal and took my devomit and went to bed. The drugs kicked in and the next day I was totally fine, as long as I didn’t run, or jostle around my insides, the day after that I felt normal.

Arabic – Turkish
I found myself feeling very stubborn about learning Arabic, and I couldn’t remember the words and I felt discouraged because I had just put all this effort towards learning Turkish and now I have to start all over again when I just felt I was getting to the point where I was really learning fast. I haven’t found anyone who speaks Turkish here or any similarities in Arabic. What helped me get into Arabic, was that it was a much more versatile language than Turkish which was confined to primarily Turkey. Arabic is a much more widespread thing even if dialects differ.

In an effort to make myself stop being so stubborn and get over my little pity party, I’m using Turkish to help me with Arabic. I have the Turkish word on one side of the flash card and Arabic on the other.


Taxi – It is the law to wear a seatbelt if you ride in the front seat. All front seats of taxis have belts. The backseats do not have belts. If a woman rides in the front seat of a taxi, then it is viewed as a come-on to the driver. I feel a paradoxal pull here (is that the word I’m looking for?) I want to wear a seatbelt, so I would prefer to sit up front. However, I don’t want to come-on to the driver, so I should sit in the back. With this traffic, I feel like I would prefer the seatbelt. Sometimes in the back, you can find the shoulder harness, but no clicker to secure it on the hips. I wrap the shoulder thing around my torso and I get it as low as I can because if we are in an accident, at least my body will stay inside the car and not be catapulted into the street. (Can you tell my mom is a nurse?)