So apparently there’s just a bit of snow in Europe right now. Unless BBC news, photos on facebook and people sending me news from home are all collaborating in an elaborate plan to make me regret my decision not to come home for Christmas and enjoy a proper winter wonderland. First few days of December in Syria and the temperature was still reaching 25 degrees Celsius and we could sit and sunbathe on the front steps of the university during our breaks! Not bad. It is definitely cold at night now though, the blankets are out, portable heaters are on and people are even wearing coats out in the evening! I woke up this morning to the first proper rain we’ve had since I’ve been here! It rained for about 15 minutes one day back in October but that’s been all. It didn’t last long this morning either, less than an hour, but it was overcast and windy the rest of the day. Apparently winter just arrived in Syria. Fingers crossed that it will go back to being sunny and warm during the day time though. So, enough about the weather, wow, I really am British.
I’m still living in the same house and decided against moving at all in the end. I did view some apartments outside the old city with my Norwegian housemate Maria but she is applying for a job in Lebanon so would move there in January if she’s successful and once we persuaded our landlord to put a roof over our central courtyard/lounge and provide us with lots of heaters our house has become fairly snug. The location is actually really good here too and although living in the old city leads to high levels of tourist hatred and an amazing ability to weave in between irritatingly slow crowds of people it’s not worth the hassle of moving for my last month and a half here.
During our last week’s holiday in November three other Durham students and I did decide to go to Jordan in the end. For the first few days there we based ourselves in Amman. Although Amman is definitely the hilliest city I have ever been to it boasts very little in the way of exciting attractions and is a fairly boring place to be for more than a couple of days. It is a good base to travel to the Dead Sea and Jerash from and these were both definitely worth a visit. The weather in Jordan was definitely hotter than in Syria and going to the Dead Sea felt like being at a luxury beach resort for the day! The Dead Sea lies on Jordan’s western border so the bank on the other side is Israel/Palestine. If you want to swim in the Dead Sea you have to pay to enter a private beach where there’s also a swimming pool, restaurant, lots of palm trees etc etc.
Although it was odd to be in such a touristy place it was actually really nice to be able to swim and sunbathe in a bikini and this not be seen as completely scandalous or “haram”. After “swimming” in the Dead Sea (you really can’t swim you have to float, if you try and swim your feet go up in the air your face plunges into the water and you get a face full of horribly salty water that burns your eyes! And if you have any cuts…unlucky!) and plastering ourselves in mud from the shallows (which you can buy for a ridiculous price from the gift shop and is supposed to do wonders for the skin) we spent the rest of the day lazing around the pool.
Although it was odd to be in such a touristy place it was actually really nice to be able to swim and sunbathe in a bikini and this not be seen as completely scandalous or “haram”. After “swimming” in the Dead Sea (you really can’t swim you have to float, if you try and swim your feet go up in the air your face plunges into the water and you get a face full of horribly salty water that burns your eyes! And if you have any cuts…unlucky!) and plastering ourselves in mud from the shallows (which you can buy for a ridiculous price from the gift shop and is supposed to do wonders for the skin) we spent the rest of the day lazing around the pool.
The next day we visited Jerash where there are pretty extensive remains of a Roman City – column lined roads, temple, amphitheatre, and a chariot racing arena.
The amphitheatre isn’t as impressive as the one in Bosra and having not visited Palmyra yet I can’t compare it to that but it’s Jordan’s third tourist attraction after Petra and Wadi Rum. Next we traveled to the very south of Jordan to Aqaba. I liked Aqaba, it’s right on the coast by the Red Sea, there’s lots of diving and snorkeling , the weather is fantastic, it’s very open with broad palm tree lined streets and beaches and the fish and sea food there is amazing! It was particularly busy when we were there because it was Eid Al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, and also Hajj so there were many Muslims passing through on their way from Egypt to Saudi. On the afternoon we arrived we thought we’d go down to the beach for a swim thinking it would be fairly touristy here like at the Dead Sea. However, we found ourselves to be the only foreigners on the beach even though it was packed with people camping out and having bbq’s for Eid. Every female there was fully covered and in hijab, even those swimming in the sea, so we decided it was safer just to paddle. To the astonishment and hilarity of everyone in our vicinity though, Jen and David decided that actually they did want to go swimming and due to Jen’s lack of appropriate swimming attire she just went in fully clothed. This was all fine until they came out and clingy, slightly see through clothes meant that they were attracting quite a large amount of attention and we had to make a quick exit back to the hotel! Nice sunset though.
The amphitheatre isn’t as impressive as the one in Bosra and having not visited Palmyra yet I can’t compare it to that but it’s Jordan’s third tourist attraction after Petra and Wadi Rum. Next we traveled to the very south of Jordan to Aqaba. I liked Aqaba, it’s right on the coast by the Red Sea, there’s lots of diving and snorkeling , the weather is fantastic, it’s very open with broad palm tree lined streets and beaches and the fish and sea food there is amazing! It was particularly busy when we were there because it was Eid Al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, and also Hajj so there were many Muslims passing through on their way from Egypt to Saudi. On the afternoon we arrived we thought we’d go down to the beach for a swim thinking it would be fairly touristy here like at the Dead Sea. However, we found ourselves to be the only foreigners on the beach even though it was packed with people camping out and having bbq’s for Eid. Every female there was fully covered and in hijab, even those swimming in the sea, so we decided it was safer just to paddle. To the astonishment and hilarity of everyone in our vicinity though, Jen and David decided that actually they did want to go swimming and due to Jen’s lack of appropriate swimming attire she just went in fully clothed. This was all fine until they came out and clingy, slightly see through clothes meant that they were attracting quite a large amount of attention and we had to make a quick exit back to the hotel! Nice sunset though.
The last two days of our trip were spent in Wadi Rum and this was definitely the highlight for me. We got a jeep tour with some other travelers so arrived early in the morning, had a day driving around the desert and then camped with Bedouins for the night before returning to Aqaba the next day. Wadi Rum has some seriously impressive scenery…it’s not just sand. There are huge rocky cliffs that rear up overhead and carve chunks out of the sky. Some are close together so form narrow little gorges and if you clamber up you find natural springs tucked away or ancient carvings on the stone. The sand plains seem to stretch on forever and are dotted with scruffy, stunted little trees and the scribble lines of many criss-crossing jeep tracks.
Our Bedouin jeep drivers (who can’t have been much older than 15 and had to hot wire the jeep every time they wanted to start the engine but nevertheless had some serious skill at driving in soft sand) would stop at places of interest for us to have a wander round or go for a climb for a fantastic view over the desert. We also stopped at the remains of Lawrence of Arabia’s house and I have a new found respect for him and his army surviving out there for so long on such fugal rations.
Our Bedouin jeep drivers (who can’t have been much older than 15 and had to hot wire the jeep every time they wanted to start the engine but nevertheless had some serious skill at driving in soft sand) would stop at places of interest for us to have a wander round or go for a climb for a fantastic view over the desert. We also stopped at the remains of Lawrence of Arabia’s house and I have a new found respect for him and his army surviving out there for so long on such fugal rations.
We reached camp just in time for sunset and were served very sweet hot tea (the best I’ve had so far in the Middle East) as we sat and watched the sun sink behind the distant mountain range on the horizon. The warm orange blaze give way to a peaceful world bathed in bright moonlight from a cloudless, star scattered sky. It was stunning.
Everyone gathered for dinner in the large main tent and sat on cushions around a blazing fire drinking yet more tea. The food was fantastic; chicken, lamb meatballs, rice, potatoes, lentils, salads, yogurt… it probably doesn’t sound that great but it was so tasty! Then there was music and some singing and everyone round sat around the fire chatting. The Bedouins were so friendly and hospitable and have a great sense of humour! They were constantly playing practical jokes and during the musical entertainment I’m pretty sure a group of them just made up a completely random song that some of the other travelers were lapping up as ancient, traditional Bedouin music! It caused quite a lot of hilarity amongst them anyway. Honestly I was so unbelievably tempted to forget about uni in Damascus and just stay with the Bedouins, help out and learn Arabic by living with them. Maybe one day I’ll go back and stay for longer.
Everyone gathered for dinner in the large main tent and sat on cushions around a blazing fire drinking yet more tea. The food was fantastic; chicken, lamb meatballs, rice, potatoes, lentils, salads, yogurt… it probably doesn’t sound that great but it was so tasty! Then there was music and some singing and everyone round sat around the fire chatting. The Bedouins were so friendly and hospitable and have a great sense of humour! They were constantly playing practical jokes and during the musical entertainment I’m pretty sure a group of them just made up a completely random song that some of the other travelers were lapping up as ancient, traditional Bedouin music! It caused quite a lot of hilarity amongst them anyway. Honestly I was so unbelievably tempted to forget about uni in Damascus and just stay with the Bedouins, help out and learn Arabic by living with them. Maybe one day I’ll go back and stay for longer.
We journeyed all the way from Wadi Rum to Damascus the following day which took about 10 hours but other than having a completely crazy taxi driver from Amman to Damascus went very smoothly. He seemed to enjoy the fact that we spoke Arabic and told every single checkpoint/border guard that we were students from Damascus who spoke better Arabic than him! After we crossed the border into Syria he turned the music up loud and invited us to sing along. After we told him David was a very famous dancer in Britain (it was funny at the time) the party really got going and he cracked out a pack of Heineken! We each took the can he offered us not so much because we wanted to drink it but because we didn’t want him to drink so many! We still had about an hour and a half’s drive to reach Damascus and if you’ve ever seen what the traffic is like in the Middle East…well. By the time we arrived in Damascus (thankfully in one piece) he’d consumed three cans and was definitely somewhat merry!
So back to Damascus news. The last two and a half weeks of uni have been ok, everything’s winding down a bit because we finish term for Christmas on Thursday and we had a few days which definitely involved more break time than actual teaching! I appear to be managing to fill my new found free time no problem (or perhaps just frittering it away because I don’t feel like I’m doing as much as before). I’ve got two girls I meet up with for conversation practice. Both are Syrian students but they’re very different. Enas is from Suweida, outside of Damascus and is Druze but she is studying translation at the same university as me. She lives with other Syrian students in an old, slightly run down house not far from me which I love hanging out in. Their lounge area is basically an art studio full of old sculptures and drawings and the walls are covered in scribbles. They’re all very arty and liberal and very different to anyone else I’ve met here. It’s really interesting to chat to them but they appear to have a lot of problems getting work and the girls are discriminated against quite a bit. The other girl Diala is from a fairly wealthy, strict Muslim family here in Damascus and studies English literature, again at the same uni as me. She lives at home with her family. It’s just coincidence that they are both at the same uni as me, I didn’t meet them there. Enas I met in Mar Musa and Diala I met on top of Jebel Kasioun one evening when we went up there. I love how easy it is to just chat to and make friends with strangers here! Unfortunately both of them seem to prefer talking English to letting me talk Arabic but I’m going to insist on speaking more Arabic.
I don’t do salsa anymore, my course finished and I decided not to do the next one because I’m going traveling for a bit again before Christmas and then have visitors over Christmas and New Year so would have to miss a lot of classes. It’s strange to think that England will be extremely Christmassy now. The Christian quarter of the old city will apparently get decked out for Christmas and some of the shops there now have some tacky decorations in. I managed to find fairy lights and an advent calendar for my room! But it would be very easy to forget here that Christmas is just around the corner.
A few days ago we decided to cook a traditional Christmas dinner for the Syrian family that some of the girls I know from my course live with. They live just round the corner from me and I’m there so often I’ve become an honourary member of the house. The immediate family ended up inviting their extended family and friends so I think there were at least 25 people there in the end! We had roast chicken, roast potatoes, mashed potato and carrot, roasted pupkin an oninons, stuffing, gravy, warm and spiced apple juice, apple pie and custard, cookies, decorated ginger bread biscuits – including a Christmas tree and snow scene – chocolate brownies and chocolate money! It was an absolute mission to prepare but was really fun and I think the family enjoyed it. There are a lot more leaving/Christmas dinners and parties happening this weekend amongst the students when term finishes and most people go home for Christmas but I shall miss most of these because I’m leaving for Northern Iraq on Thursday night after uni for a few days. There’s a small group of us staying here during the holiday though and my dad and brother are coming to visit late on the 21st so lots of Christmassy things will be in order then I think.
Well I think that’s definitely enough of a blog entry for one day. Can you tell I’m supposed to be revising for my exam on Thursday?! Oh and Happy New Year! It’s a national holiday today because it’s the Islamic New Year. Congrats if you got to the end…serves all of you who were pestering me for a blog update right! Oh and Happy (belated) 21st Birthday to Josie Mill – I promised you a shout out and here it is!
Oh and just incase I don’t get round to another entry before Christmas (very likely if I’m honest) then Merry Christmas to everyone!
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