IAD - VIE - DAM

I arrived at the airport about 4:00pm to wait in a looong line. While I was waiting, I had someone watch my stuff while I tried to go exchange money. I waited through 3 people to be told that they don't exchange Syrian money. Not only do they not exchange, it was humourous the the accountant that I asked!

Back in line, I finally got up to the booth to check in my bag and it was 3.4 kilograms over. Fine with me, put the extra payment on my credit card. The Austrian Airlines lady I was working with was blonde and very nice. She kept trying to help me by suggesting I put my stuff in another bag. I was very nice back to her telling her that I didn't have another one and that I'd just put the balance on my card. She kept on being very nice and printed my boarding passes then walked me to the end of the counter where another austrian lady would also try to assist. The 2nd one helped me by telling me that she could make my second bag free. I also told her that I didn't have another bag that I wanted to move stuff to. They said that I didn't have to pay the extra $165 because I could rearrange my things to make it no extra cost. The first lady and the second lady began to put their heads to gether to help me figure out this dilemna. The second lady said, "I have a box in the back" and I said, "I don't need a box, I don't want to carry another bag."

She came back with a box, she explained how I would take somethings out of my suitcase and put them in this box, then no extra cost would be accrued. I went to the end of the counter where there was space and began working, intermittently the box would be weighed to see if there was enough in it to satisfy these austrian women adamant about me NOT paying the extra weight fee.

All was good, I had a box and a bag for checked luggage.


My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:40 and the plane was loaded at 5:42. We got in line for take-off and left the US at 6:18. I was surprised we were so close to on-time!!

The seats were colored grass green with alternating red and white head rests. The flight crew was dressed in fire engine red dresses, stockings and red shoes! The announcements were in several different languages. I thought I was hearing Turkish, but it turns out it was that Austrian language, German; "Tesekular" turned out to be "dankeshoen"

On the first flight, the seats were arranged 2-3-2 and I was in A next to the "Nice Window." The woman next to me lasted about an hour, then she moved to separate her kids who were sitting in C and E. I didn't sleep much on the flight, but I got to lay down in the two seater. No issues at all. I was surprised it went so smoothly.

In Vienna, I went through a mini-customs where they combed everyone's passport on each page (probably for palestine or israel stamps). We got on the plane and I sat next to someone who spoke a little turkish, a little spanish, but was fluent in arabic and french and nothing in English. We shared my ipod arabic pronunciations and became friends, her name was Emilie. She was an older lady, grandma age.

Stepping off the plane in Damascus was not like stepping off in just another European country. Men were in long white robes and women were in black. (This turns out not to be the case in the city, just the airport). And I wasn't really uncomfortable there, but I was close to it. Thank goodness for my turkey trip's comfort level around people who stared, not out of dislike, but out of curiosity at me.

The people are friendly so far, they're also stand-offish, which is fine because we're all new to each other. Again, like in Istanbul, there is a lot of English, but unlike Turkey, I'm thankful they speak English. I haven't quite gotten to wrap my head around much of anything in the arabic language.

I was surprised flying in to the city how Desert-y it looked. It's hot (not surprising) and my apartment was hot when i first got there.

However, it's a 3 bedroom apartment with a small-to-US-standards kitchen, but fine for an apartment, a huge US refrigerator, a clothes washer, a microwave and an oven, which is designed like a microwave, in that it sits on the counter as a separate unit.

I have not even begun to portray how different Damascus is from anything I've ever experienced or seen as far as the sights, but I do not feel nervous walking alone. iIn my one day here, I've been with people from the school and they've walked me around so I've been shown sort of how to get along.

I have a phone that I can't call internationally from, but my apartment phone number is 963-11-332-0568. There's no answering machine so let it ring for a long time and a 7 hour-ahead time difference.

I don't know what street I live on, they're not labeled so much. Apparently, you don't navigate by the same standards or address the same way.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! You are my support network!

Kathleen Rich