We just finished our first week of classes. The weekly schedule breaks down like this: we have four hours of class Sunday Wednesday and two hours on Thursday. Among them, we have 9 hours a week of 3ammiyya (spoken) and 7 hours of fuS7a (written), along with two hours of lit, in which we're reading a contemporary Syrian novel. Most Thursday afternoons, instead of class we will have conversation time or short trips to interesting sites around the city.
This past Thursday, however, we had the pleasure to get our AIDS and TB tests done. This meant a lot of bureaucracy, riding from one office to another, waiting around, and finally a small blood draw, which for me led to the predictable 15 minutes of fainting afterwards. All is well that ends well, though.
Thursday night, hoping to catch great cello music, me and friends head down to the Opera House only to buy tickets for what turned out to be a play :/ Luckily the tickets were only about $2 so we said screw it and went next door to the Higher Institute for Music for a classical guitar recital which was a blast.
Last night I decided that it would be fun to have a dinner party. This involved doing all the shopping for spices and everything in Arabic which was pretty exciting. Among the successes were managing to explain what cloves look like and then getting some cloves handed to me! Among the failures (maybe not a language-related one?) is that no one has ever heard of something like coconut milk here, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere, giving the sizable population of Malaysian (plus other) immigrants here.
No internet at home yet, which means no pictures for you all yet. Hope everyone is well in North America!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
First post!
For me, the Middle East basically started in Chicago. The Royal Jordanian flight was probably 1/2 Arabs speaking Arabic, another 1/4 Arab-Americans speaking English, and another 1/4 non Arabs. In Middle Eastern fashion we were first told we needed to get new boarding passes around 30 minutes before the flight was to take off. Of course, no one at the desk seemed too concerned about the time passing.
The 13 hour flight ended in a seven hour layover in Amman. After being denied to go to the gate because of how early I was and being worried that I would have to spend seven hours in the glorified livestock pens of immigration, I was able to get a transit visa to leave the airport and was put up in an airport hotel by Royal Jordanian. This included a chance to shower, and a free dinner. Thanks, RJ!
I arrived in Damascus early Sunday morning. After having been told by RJ in both Chicago and Amman that they weren't sure if my checked bags were on their way or not (?!), they came in good time in Damascus. A quick passage through immigration and customs, meeting up with other students, and a drive through the city to get everyone where they were going put me to bed by about 4 am!
It turns out that the 15 day visa is pretty standard (I had initially been a bit scared about it), and I already got a $30 piece of paper from the American Embassy which should get me my long-term residency permit...
What's on the horizon? Well, two different friends (who don't know each other!) have told me to meet a foreign oboist friend of theirs, I may have a way to teach English for pay, I bumped into a friend from Middlebury on the street who is working with the Iraqi Student Project and loves it, and CASA orientation is tomorrow.
I hope everyone is doing great in America and everywhere else, best wishes!
No pictures this time, my apologies.
The 13 hour flight ended in a seven hour layover in Amman. After being denied to go to the gate because of how early I was and being worried that I would have to spend seven hours in the glorified livestock pens of immigration, I was able to get a transit visa to leave the airport and was put up in an airport hotel by Royal Jordanian. This included a chance to shower, and a free dinner. Thanks, RJ!
I arrived in Damascus early Sunday morning. After having been told by RJ in both Chicago and Amman that they weren't sure if my checked bags were on their way or not (?!), they came in good time in Damascus. A quick passage through immigration and customs, meeting up with other students, and a drive through the city to get everyone where they were going put me to bed by about 4 am!
It turns out that the 15 day visa is pretty standard (I had initially been a bit scared about it), and I already got a $30 piece of paper from the American Embassy which should get me my long-term residency permit...
What's on the horizon? Well, two different friends (who don't know each other!) have told me to meet a foreign oboist friend of theirs, I may have a way to teach English for pay, I bumped into a friend from Middlebury on the street who is working with the Iraqi Student Project and loves it, and CASA orientation is tomorrow.
I hope everyone is doing great in America and everywhere else, best wishes!
No pictures this time, my apologies.
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