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Friday, 1 October
8am: Run on Mountain Kassioun
To get to the place on the mountain, there’s a road leading up it, and it’s not a particularly high mountain, but it would’ve been my workout to climb it. I’ve only ever attended this run 2 or 3 times.
I could take a taxi up there, but I try to catch a ride with someone who to passes through Sahade Umayeen (Umayeen circle) to take me up in a car. The first time, I rode with Logann, we got to the top of the mountain and met up with another runner, Susan Lester and a guy called Khalil. We were debating on going or waiting to see if anyone else was coming. Khalil said on his way up, he saw someone jogging up the hill and he didn’t know if it was someone coming to join us or just someone else. We decided to wait. About 5 minutes later, Mimi, showed up. She had run from home, up the mountain road and all its steep glory.
In general, for women, it’s a good idea not to be alone when we run because sometimes men will come to harass beyond the simple cat-call.
The run itself was hot. The sun was out and it was baking us slowly. About a half mile into the run, there’s a steep climb, and it’s about 200 meters (or is my mind inflating it, I don’t know) and it is tough. Around the back side of the mountain, there are rolling graduations and declines. The whole route is just over 5K, but it is a tough run! It definitely was a challenge for me because I had not been running or exercising regularly for a while.
The second time I went, I got a ride with Josh and invited my friend Mahmoud up there or I may have ridden with mahmoud one time, I don’t remember, but it’s not important.
9:30 Coffee and Simpsons with Josh
After this particular run on 1 October, I went to get REAL brewed coffee with Josh after the run and veg on the couch for a while. We went to Moka and more to get this wonderful coffee and it was liquid gold. Then we retired to the couches in my living room and chilled out in the air conditioning and relaxed after our hot run. The Simpsons were on, but we did a lot of talking.
We must’ve sat there for 3 hours or so, but the Simpsons just kept coming on! It must’ve been a Simpson’s marathon or something. The Simpsons are one of those shows that you just can’t tear yourself away from. As soon as one episode ends, it’s already showing the title page for the next one to start, so it catches you in a loop and you can’t turn it off!
3:00pm Trip to "Target"
In September, I had seen an advertisement for a Target here in Damascus; a real Target, with the bull’s-eye symbol and everything. I had seen it several times too while driving past the shopping center. It became one of my goals to go to this place to check it out. Josh was in favor of accompanying me on this adventure, and so we took his car that afternoon.
As we pulled in to the shopping center (after having to drive another 2 miles to the end of the median, take an exit ramp, take an entrance ramp, and drive another 2 miles to get to where we could turn into the place) and parked in this open area we just assumed was for parking, I could see the name of the store more clearly. The whole shopping center was called 9-1-1 and underneath the numbers are the words “nine-eleven.” This sign was not trying to be political, but just catchy. However, was interesting because of the political-ness that “nine-eleven” now conjures up in the typical American’s mind when Arabs are mentioned. I don’t think too much of it, but enjoy the twisted-ness of their intended catchiness and the humor that I get from seeing this place innocently named this emotionally, grandiose title.
Anyway, so we get in there, and no lights are on. This does not necessarily mean a store is closed, it could simply mean that the power is off, or they have turned off the lights to keep it cool inside. As we go in further, we do see lights upstairs, so we go to explore. As we approach the escalator, it turns on and we ascend. One of the great energy-saving devices used outside of the U.S. I have found are motion-sensors. Lights, escalators, fans, heat, air, turn on when there is movement, and save power when there is none. Upstairs, there is a grocery store, we pick up a few things, then in the deli area (here is always Arabically difficult because it’s not Englicized) I try to find this cheese: Gouda. I say the name to the guy, and he says, no, we don’t have it. Ok, fine. We look through the selections to see what else there is that I could get instead. Josh can read Arabic because he has been taking private tutor lessons. So, he finds a cheese called Koota (Arabic letter-roman letter translation) and so we point out this is the one we want. So 200g of this and done.
We pay and as we go to leave, we try to take our bags out of the shopping cart and the workers show us how to put the shopping cart on the cart’s escalator. (See below)
7:00pm Cranium Party at Anthony's Place
we had a "Cranium" party at Anthony's house. We played a the board game which was a combination of acting and puppeteering your partner, humming songs for recognition. It was fun.
