Posts
Monday, March 7th -
I went swimming today during the "women only" pool hours in Olympia pool. It's women only because outside of the 'women only' area, they are covered. Today, a woman was praying in a wet swimsuit. Her prayer coverings were moist and she had her prayer mat and everything. It was interesting and nice to see someone praying at this indoor pool place; only in the middle east.
Thursday, March 10 -
Last night I met my friend Christine down at Bab Tooma at 4:30. She had two friends with her Milo and Mararr (?) Their names didn't really stick with me.
We started walking, it was cold and rainy. (about 40 degrees F and Sprinkly rainy). She told me in English we were going to go eat soup, I said that would be fine, let's go. The restaurant we wanted to go to was too full, so we went to walk a little bit, on our walk. There were many food stands/markets/holes in the wall. One of the friends, wanted a croissant and asked me if i wanted one too, I said I did because I wanted to try it the 'syrian way'.
It was wonderful fluffy bread in a croissant. I had the choice between Chocolate and Cheese. (In syria, the universal sign for cheese is black sesame seeds on top ) I wanted the Jibney (cheese). We walked down a little more and christine got a "Zelabia." I don't know what this is in english and I had left my camera in my friend's car the night before, so i couldn't photograph it. It is basically fried dough, but it's hard, like solid all the way through, and it's glazed with a sugar liquid. Next time I see one, I'll take photo and post it.
Walking and munching, we stopped by a store with stuffed plush animals. Smurfs and a sponge bob. We originally stopped because Christine didn't know what Sponge Bob was, but then I asked the name of "Smurfs" in arabic and there are just some words in arabic that I just cannot hang on to. This was one of them, I must've asked 8 different times what the creature was called. As I write this, I'm asking my Arabic friend because whatever the word was just makes me laugh. I'll have to edit the post when I find out what it was.
On our way back to the restaurant to have this soup, I tried to talk to someone on the phone, but it was during the call to prayer and I was next to a JamaA (Mosque) and apparently my friend was next to a mosque too because we could not hear each other over the calling. A problem you'd only have in a muslim country :)
We walked a bit and then headed back to the restaurant. It was about 6:30 at this time, there was finally a place for us to sit. It advertised Macaroni and cheese, and other american stereo-typical comfort food. The restaurant was called "Grape Leaves." I wished I had my camera because we ordered 3 things, Lentil Soup; Harraq B'Usbu'o (which means, The Burned Finger"): lentils with pastry, lemon and olive oil served with coriander, garlic and pita croutons; and Shakria which was meat with onions cooked in yogurt and served with rice. I didn't have a favorite because they were all wonderful.
In the restaurant, we started talking about putting an Arabic dictionary on my mobile phone. Milo knew how to do it, and Christine’s dad owned an internet café, so we went and downloaded a dictionary from the net on to a computer, and then turned on Bluetooth and installed it on my mobile. I don’t quite understand how it all came together, but it worked after I did just what they said.
The dictionary is alright, it’s not great, it doesn’t have common words in there like, “messy” or “parents” “mature” or “independent” or “dependant.” I'm going to try to get a different one, more comprehensive.
After all that, we grabbed a Servise bus to go to Jaramana to meet Christine's family. She was joking with me about being scared of buses because last time we were together, I told her I’d rather take a taxi than a bus because I was scared of buses. I am scared of buses mainly because I can’t read Arabic fast enough, or understand all the words if someone were to talk to me. I'm scared because of several reasons: the language barrier in speaking and reading, the streets are unnamed, I'm unfamiliar with the town, so I don’t know when to get off, and I'm a wimp. Ok, maybe someday, I’ll see about riding the bus…
Anyway, we got to Jaramana, hopped out and went to her house. I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad, so I asked if I could use hers. She showed me to her Arabic squat toilet. I've never been scared of these, mostly because I know I can’t get lost in there (yes, most of my fears come from the possibility I might get myself in trouble, in a place that I don’t belong, or something of the sort).
Regardless, I don’t exactly know why the toilets are in the shape they’re in. I find it much less ‘splashy’ if I use it backwards. The way that you’re supposed to face just splashes it right back up to you. I prefer to turn around and put it right into the hole where it won’t splash on my feet. Maybe if you grow up with the things, your parents teach you what all the gadgets in there are for, but if you’re an adult, you just have to guess. There’s always a hose in there to wash the contents down, but there’s sometimes a little canister to help it along. There’s also a trash can in there if TP happens to be offered (which it is not always).
After this, I met her sister and brother. Her mom was sick and I already knew her dad from the internet café. Christine and her friends are in Scouts, so we went to the scouts place, like a little office area in the basement of a building. She told me we were going to play trumpets. We kind of did... I’ve learned that trumpets in Arabic means a lot of blats, scattered blasty sound, and very messy notes. It wasn’t that the people who I’ve heard play trumpet are beginners, but it is that the sound is horrible. There is no quality to the sound, it was a little loud, but mostly raunchy (not in a good way) so I was forced to cover my ears.
Friday, March 11, 2011 – I went to church today. Blah blah blah, Then he talked about Lent and the food I am supposed to give up, so I decided that I should get unaddicted to chocolate. Ok, that’s set. Then this week I was supposed to add a bad habit to break. I don’t know what this is, so I’ll have to ask my friends. After we were dismissed, I chatted with some people, and there were some snacks in the back. I grabbed a brownie and I had eaten it before I realized what I had just done. Well, that was pointless. Anyway, I focused my thoughts then on to finding and eliminating my bad habit, at least for lent.
When I got home, I went to visit Lauren to make plans for our trip to Cyprus. We bought PLane tickets and reserved a hotel. Those are the important things, after that, we're just going to read our "Eyewitness Travel" books on Cyprus. (We couldn't find lonely planet or rough guide)
Sunday, March 13 -
I need to go get pages put into my passport because I need a 3 month multiple entry/exit visa so that I can get in and out of Syria as many times as I want. Especially gonig to Cyprus on Spring Break!
To do this, I have to make an appointment online. I opened up the website and tried to book an appointment, but there was NO APPOINTMENTS available, not this month, not next month not at all. It looks as though they simply have not opened up availability. I emailed Khalid, who takes care of all of this visa/resident card/legal/passport stuff. He emailed me back and said, “Kaaaaaaaaat, you have to go online. They won’t take a phone appointment; you have to make the appointment online.” As I was writing him back, I checked the website just one…more…time. A 9:30 apointment on 15 March 15, 2011 just appeared. I booked it fr me.
I filled out the forms online and printed them. Khalid arranged a driver, Hamza, to take me up to the Embassy.
Wednesday, March 15 -
As we drove up, there was a line of about 5 people. I got a little nervous because they were all Syrian.
I got out of the car and was going hesitantly to that entrance and Hamza said, “just go up to him and tell him you are an American citizen.”
I went up to him and said, “I am an American citizen” He smiled at me and said “ahalan wa sahalan” I was shocked. He was being very pleasant and also still asking me to stand in line. I don’t know if the other people had an appointment or not, but I stood in line. Then, I remembered my Embassy ID. I took it out, walked to the front of the line and showed him. He said, “Oh why didn’t you show me, I thought you were just a regular citizen” So he asked the guy working the door if I could come in and the guy said not yet. I had to wait 5 minutes, then he metal-detected me with the wand.
Once I got inside, they asked me to put all my things through the security and I said, “Me? Really?” then as I handed him my bag, he saw my embassy Badge and said, “No, you don’t have to…”
So I went up the stairs and took a left into the waiting room. Inside the waiting room, there were probably 60 chairs and only 7 available ones. I was going to sit down, but there were LED crawlers saying, “Now serving 201 at Window 09” and then there were several windows numbered 1-12. I asked in Arabic to several of the people there, “Wain Rockem,” Where’s the number? They pointed and I asked a woman at an unoccupied window. Then in English, the window lady was able to tell me “outside of the door you came in.” So, I had to go back out of the huge security door I had just come through.
There was a dispenser, with three buttons: 1 – Immigrant Services 2 – Entry Visas for Foreigners 3 – American Citizen Services. I got my number printed out and went back to the waiting room. Since I had come out of the security door, it had locked behind me, so the guards had to unlock it for me. I went back inside to the waiting room and sat down. It was only about 4 minutes that I waited until they called my number.
I went into a booth like I was visiting a prisoner. I sat in a chair, the door was closed behind me, there was a counter with very thick glass, and a microphone that I was supposed to speak into and it also projected his voice so that I could hear through the glass.
I went up to the window and I had all my paperwork ready, "What do you want?"
"All of that" he said. I slid my appointment form along with my Visa Pages Application under the window.
He tried to talk me out of getting the pages and getting a new passport since mine expires in just over 2 years. $82 for pages, and $120 for a new passport. He explained that it takes 8-15 days Insha Allah for the new passport to be made. (Insha Allah = if God wills it to be done on time, then it will be, but if God does not will it, you will not have it in time for your trip in 15 days.) I settled on getting pages. I thought I could pay with check, but turns out I cannot. Luckily I had enough Syrian Lira to pay with.
I finished business with this guy, I left the room and went to wait for the cashier to call me to pay. I paid him in syrian lira, the change he gave me was 64 syrian lira, Here in Syria, there's nothing less than 5 lira, so this 4 thing was interesting. I showed my students the 2 pound coins later and they said, "Ms. Rich, you may have gotten ripped off. No one is going to let you spend these coins in their store." They may be right. I can just keep them as rare-coins.
I got back to school at 10:00, 15 minutes before my class ended in which I had a substitute. I decided to not go to it and drink tea with the guards for a few minutes.
All was well, I had one last class at the end of the day, which was a wonderful class. I do love all my classes, they all have their own personalities.
