(And we didn't even have her pose for this!)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Syrian Weight-loss Program!
I promise you, it’s better than Weight Watchers : ) Well, we’re back from our big road-trip, three days early actually due to the miserable fact that we ALL got sick! Driving back to Amman, we were so homesick, it was quite pathetic. Just dreaming of Monterey or Minnesota or anywhere other than the Mid East for that matter! However, now that we’re feeling better (except for poor K) our spirits have improved enough that I can actually bring myself to look back on our latest adventure. I guess we should be thankful, this is the first time any of us has been sick here (6 mos. now!) and at least all we had to do was drive home!
Syria definitely was a country full of surprises for me since I had absolutely NO idea what to expect. (Certainly didn’t expect to see a million and one pictures of their President EVERYWHERE). It’s difficult to get a visa so we don’t know too many people who have gone and thus, not much advice beforehand. We ran into a little trouble trying to cross the border (as we expected- it’s always something) but thankfully, met a couple of Canadian diplomats who helped us along. They also gave us some advice such as – watch what we eat (oh if only we had listened to that one!) and to expect the Syrian intelligence to search our hotel rooms (we’re not sure if they ever did, the first couple of days we tried to set little traps to see if someone went thru our stuff but later we just forgot and since we weren’t carrying any national secrets we found it amusing!)
Driving into Damascus that first day was crazy- not as bad as Cairo crazy- but crazy! Somehow, we found our hotel, parked the car and decided to use taxis in the city from then on. I just can’t properly explain trying to navigate around donkeys, herds of sheep, kids riding bicycles, families of five on a motorbike (babies too), crazy buses etc. all on their interstates! J called it Insanity! I’m still thanking God that we made it back safely! The first thing we did was check out the Old City in Damascus, which I loved. The rest of the city is terribly unscenic but not the Old City, it was full of character and the houses all had the most wonderful doors on them. I could have walked those alleyways for days. And the smells! It was fantastic, the spices, fresh bread, soaps, fruit stands and bbq’s all combined to make for a brilliant feast for your senses. We walked and walked and it was great, no tourists in sight (unlike the Old City in Jerusalem) and the people were constantly welcoming us, excited when we told them that we were from America. We must have heard “Ahlen Wahsahlen” or Hello, Welcome in Arabic a hundred times. They were the nicest people for sure.
The first real surprise about the country came when we wandered into the Christian quarter of the city. Since there is a lot of Christian history in the country I wondered how that would be presented, knowing only that Syria is governed by a very hardlined, Islamic party I was careful not to bring anything with that might seem too “Christian” because we didn’t want any trouble. Well lo and behold, we were happy to find that Damascus has a thriving Christian community! Crosses were everywhere and the Christians we talked to (all Orthodox I believe) said that they are treated very well in Syria- they have a good relationship with the Govt. and it’s not like Egypt, Iraq etc. where Christians are being persecuted. We enjoyed visiting the city gate where Paul supposedly escaped from his captors by being lowered down in a basket. We also visited the Umayyad Mosque, for us, visiting the Mosque meant that K got to get out of her stroller and run around and play with the other kids. We actually made a point to return to the Mosque so she could play some more. This is where John the Baptist head is said to be buried and they have a big shrine around it that everyone goes up to and prays at. They made me wear a coat and cover my head.
The next day we visited their National Museum and also their War museum, which was rather entertaining; it was a gift to the Syrians from the North Koreans to commemorate their Oct. 1973 war against Israel for the Golan Heights. Although they lost the war, they supposedly got their “dignity” back because they refer to it as the war of reclaimation. Given that J and I enjoy military history, we actually had a good time at the museum, despite its obvious propaganda usage. Heck that made it even more fun, I love to hear a story from all perspectives after all! Later, we shopped some, their bazaar was HUGE and not touristy. People really shop there for their daily needs (before Walmart comes in anyways) and Straight Street (which is mentioned in the Bible) also had many interesting shops. We planned more shopping at the end of our trip but didn’t get a chance given the sickness, so we’ll be going back to Damascus end of July because of all things, I forgot to buy my magnet! : )
We spent the following night in Hama, which I detail in the photos below and then the next two nights in Aleppo. On the way to Aleppo, we got terribly lost. There is no tourist infrastructure in Syria (and no Western fast food places either which really stinks on a road trip!) and our maps were old and all said different things so navigating there meant asking people which road to take (the one place where having an Arabic speaker is essential). Long story short, we found ourselves driving in BFS, which, I promise you is worse than BFE!! Somehow, by the grace of God we eventually made it to our hotel in Aleppo. We were so rattled from the trip getting there that we checked in and went to lunch in the hotel, downed a bottle of wine between the two of us and the entire family took an afternoon nap lasting 3 ½ hours. A family record for sure. It will go down as one of the best times of the whole trip! Can you tell I wasn’t impressed with Aleppo? Two days there wandering around the city (not much to say) we decided to leave a day early because we were bored of it. The only good thing is it had the 2nd best hotel in Syria. This is important because there are really only 2 or 3 good hotels in the entire country! A five star there means 3 in the states (if you’re lucky that is!)
On our way to the Coast, we took a couple of detours to see the Dead Cities and a Castle, neat to see but such a major pain getting there (again, no maps or signs) we decided that surely we are now ready for Amazing Race! On the Med coast, we stayed in Lattakia. The Med coast in Syria can best be described as the difference between Western and Eastern Europe (okay, 15 years ago) Well, we were in Eastern Europe. Actually, there were a lot of Russians at the “resort” we checked into, and them, combined with the BIRKinis made for fun people watching. But, the hotel stunk and other than the good beer we weren’t too impressed with Syria’s resort city. To be fair, we didn’t see much. That night K got ill, J (who had been ill already for a couple of days) and I (who was about to be ill) decided we could think of nothing better than just returning to Damascus and cutting the other coastal town from our agenda (plus we weren’t expecting much hotel wise there!) So the next morning we awoke and got out of there as fast as we could, racing for either Damascus or home. Of course, given that we were in a huge hurry, we were pulled over by the cops for running a light! I almost threw up just to get us out of there, thankfully, the cops let us go rather quickly and we were on our way. Just one stop to see the best crusader castle along the way (J enjoyed it anyway) and that last hour to Dam. was pretty awful with a sick family and stressful driving.
We checked into the hotel at 2pm and K and I didn’t get out of bed until 7am the next day. It was one of the most miserable nights of my life, compounded by the fact that we didn’t know what was wrong with us and couldn’t count on the medical care there to say the least. We did make a couple of calls to our ped. in Amman so that helped some but we all just felt miserable. When K’s fever spiked we just prayed and prayed to get thru the night so we could get home. Awoke the next day feeling better and were home by noon, stopping for McD’s along the way because we had been craving Big Macs! I honestly can’t remember the last place I’ve traveled where there wasn’t some sort of western food chain of sorts. J and I have done road trips in several countries by now but we both agree, Syria is by far the most challenging!
K’s lab work has come back negative now so although she is still mending we are thankful it does not seem to be anything serious. It felt like I was finally going thru one of the Initiations to Motherhood that I've been dreading- when you're sick but you have to take care of someone else instead, yuck! We’ve been racking our brains trying to think of what we ate but can only think of one thing, Mint Lemonades! They are my obsession here and I drink them everywhere so I’m guessing there was bad water in the ice or something. We surely should have known better. I definitely considered never traveling again after our family sickness but slowly, with the gift of time, I am agreeing to our next family adventure although with some apprehension. Thankfully, we could each afford to drop a few pounds! : )
Syria definitely was a country full of surprises for me since I had absolutely NO idea what to expect. (Certainly didn’t expect to see a million and one pictures of their President EVERYWHERE). It’s difficult to get a visa so we don’t know too many people who have gone and thus, not much advice beforehand. We ran into a little trouble trying to cross the border (as we expected- it’s always something) but thankfully, met a couple of Canadian diplomats who helped us along. They also gave us some advice such as – watch what we eat (oh if only we had listened to that one!) and to expect the Syrian intelligence to search our hotel rooms (we’re not sure if they ever did, the first couple of days we tried to set little traps to see if someone went thru our stuff but later we just forgot and since we weren’t carrying any national secrets we found it amusing!)
Driving into Damascus that first day was crazy- not as bad as Cairo crazy- but crazy! Somehow, we found our hotel, parked the car and decided to use taxis in the city from then on. I just can’t properly explain trying to navigate around donkeys, herds of sheep, kids riding bicycles, families of five on a motorbike (babies too), crazy buses etc. all on their interstates! J called it Insanity! I’m still thanking God that we made it back safely! The first thing we did was check out the Old City in Damascus, which I loved. The rest of the city is terribly unscenic but not the Old City, it was full of character and the houses all had the most wonderful doors on them. I could have walked those alleyways for days. And the smells! It was fantastic, the spices, fresh bread, soaps, fruit stands and bbq’s all combined to make for a brilliant feast for your senses. We walked and walked and it was great, no tourists in sight (unlike the Old City in Jerusalem) and the people were constantly welcoming us, excited when we told them that we were from America. We must have heard “Ahlen Wahsahlen” or Hello, Welcome in Arabic a hundred times. They were the nicest people for sure.
The first real surprise about the country came when we wandered into the Christian quarter of the city. Since there is a lot of Christian history in the country I wondered how that would be presented, knowing only that Syria is governed by a very hardlined, Islamic party I was careful not to bring anything with that might seem too “Christian” because we didn’t want any trouble. Well lo and behold, we were happy to find that Damascus has a thriving Christian community! Crosses were everywhere and the Christians we talked to (all Orthodox I believe) said that they are treated very well in Syria- they have a good relationship with the Govt. and it’s not like Egypt, Iraq etc. where Christians are being persecuted. We enjoyed visiting the city gate where Paul supposedly escaped from his captors by being lowered down in a basket. We also visited the Umayyad Mosque, for us, visiting the Mosque meant that K got to get out of her stroller and run around and play with the other kids. We actually made a point to return to the Mosque so she could play some more. This is where John the Baptist head is said to be buried and they have a big shrine around it that everyone goes up to and prays at. They made me wear a coat and cover my head.
The next day we visited their National Museum and also their War museum, which was rather entertaining; it was a gift to the Syrians from the North Koreans to commemorate their Oct. 1973 war against Israel for the Golan Heights. Although they lost the war, they supposedly got their “dignity” back because they refer to it as the war of reclaimation. Given that J and I enjoy military history, we actually had a good time at the museum, despite its obvious propaganda usage. Heck that made it even more fun, I love to hear a story from all perspectives after all! Later, we shopped some, their bazaar was HUGE and not touristy. People really shop there for their daily needs (before Walmart comes in anyways) and Straight Street (which is mentioned in the Bible) also had many interesting shops. We planned more shopping at the end of our trip but didn’t get a chance given the sickness, so we’ll be going back to Damascus end of July because of all things, I forgot to buy my magnet! : )
We spent the following night in Hama, which I detail in the photos below and then the next two nights in Aleppo. On the way to Aleppo, we got terribly lost. There is no tourist infrastructure in Syria (and no Western fast food places either which really stinks on a road trip!) and our maps were old and all said different things so navigating there meant asking people which road to take (the one place where having an Arabic speaker is essential). Long story short, we found ourselves driving in BFS, which, I promise you is worse than BFE!! Somehow, by the grace of God we eventually made it to our hotel in Aleppo. We were so rattled from the trip getting there that we checked in and went to lunch in the hotel, downed a bottle of wine between the two of us and the entire family took an afternoon nap lasting 3 ½ hours. A family record for sure. It will go down as one of the best times of the whole trip! Can you tell I wasn’t impressed with Aleppo? Two days there wandering around the city (not much to say) we decided to leave a day early because we were bored of it. The only good thing is it had the 2nd best hotel in Syria. This is important because there are really only 2 or 3 good hotels in the entire country! A five star there means 3 in the states (if you’re lucky that is!)
On our way to the Coast, we took a couple of detours to see the Dead Cities and a Castle, neat to see but such a major pain getting there (again, no maps or signs) we decided that surely we are now ready for Amazing Race! On the Med coast, we stayed in Lattakia. The Med coast in Syria can best be described as the difference between Western and Eastern Europe (okay, 15 years ago) Well, we were in Eastern Europe. Actually, there were a lot of Russians at the “resort” we checked into, and them, combined with the BIRKinis made for fun people watching. But, the hotel stunk and other than the good beer we weren’t too impressed with Syria’s resort city. To be fair, we didn’t see much. That night K got ill, J (who had been ill already for a couple of days) and I (who was about to be ill) decided we could think of nothing better than just returning to Damascus and cutting the other coastal town from our agenda (plus we weren’t expecting much hotel wise there!) So the next morning we awoke and got out of there as fast as we could, racing for either Damascus or home. Of course, given that we were in a huge hurry, we were pulled over by the cops for running a light! I almost threw up just to get us out of there, thankfully, the cops let us go rather quickly and we were on our way. Just one stop to see the best crusader castle along the way (J enjoyed it anyway) and that last hour to Dam. was pretty awful with a sick family and stressful driving.
We checked into the hotel at 2pm and K and I didn’t get out of bed until 7am the next day. It was one of the most miserable nights of my life, compounded by the fact that we didn’t know what was wrong with us and couldn’t count on the medical care there to say the least. We did make a couple of calls to our ped. in Amman so that helped some but we all just felt miserable. When K’s fever spiked we just prayed and prayed to get thru the night so we could get home. Awoke the next day feeling better and were home by noon, stopping for McD’s along the way because we had been craving Big Macs! I honestly can’t remember the last place I’ve traveled where there wasn’t some sort of western food chain of sorts. J and I have done road trips in several countries by now but we both agree, Syria is by far the most challenging!
K’s lab work has come back negative now so although she is still mending we are thankful it does not seem to be anything serious. It felt like I was finally going thru one of the Initiations to Motherhood that I've been dreading- when you're sick but you have to take care of someone else instead, yuck! We’ve been racking our brains trying to think of what we ate but can only think of one thing, Mint Lemonades! They are my obsession here and I drink them everywhere so I’m guessing there was bad water in the ice or something. We surely should have known better. I definitely considered never traveling again after our family sickness but slowly, with the gift of time, I am agreeing to our next family adventure although with some apprehension. Thankfully, we could each afford to drop a few pounds! : )
Visiting the Dead Cities
Another one of our wild goose chases was to visit the Dead Cities. After searching and searching for them (no signs or good maps) we got some boys on a motorcycle to lead us to them. Very neat- like seeing an old, old ghost town. No one knows yet why they were abandoned. K had fun playing there too.
Krak Des Chevaliers
This is likely the best preserved of all the crusader castles in the Mid East and it really was an amazing site. Unfortunately we didn't get a good fam photo in front of it because K and I were too sick to get out of the car. J loved exploring it though and I talked to a man that grew up across the street. He told me he spent his childhood days playing in that castle and I had to agree with him that I couldn't imagine a better place to play. Dad, we were thinking of you the whole time!
Qala'at Salah ad-Din
Syria is known for it's Crusader castles and J enjoyed getting to see them up close.
The fam in front of the Citadel
The Citadel in Aleppo was the only really impressive thing to see there, in my humble opinion of course! It was massive and still very much intact.
Looking out on Aleppo
Whenever we could we ate at rooftop restaurants which had beautiful views of the city (much, much prettier at sunset with the minerets lit up, otherwise a very ugly place in our opinion)
Inside the Hive
It was nice and cool, they had electricity with a fan and tv running. The older ladies brought us tea and the kids offered us oats of some sort. They had photos on the wall of the cleric from Hezbollah but we enjoyed them none the less :) btw, we saw many Hezbollah photos in Syria taped to cars etc., a shame- they otherwise would have seemed so nice!
Beehive Houses
On our way to Aleppo, we made a detour to visit the Beehive houses. Not quite sure the background on them, just know that they have been there-and continuously inhabited- for hundreds of year. The kids greeted us excitedly and then invited us into their hive for tea.
Scenic view from our (ghost) hotel in Hama
I thought this was one of the more picturesque views we've had, unfortunately the town was nothing like the picture. It was the eeriest place I've been, J said it was like an episode out of the Twilight Zone. We were followed everywhere we went, mostly from harmless kids who just annoyed us and when it was time for dinner we couldn't find a restaurant anywhere!!! We drove all over and ended up having to skip dinner because everything was closed. To the town's credit, they did have a massacre there 25 years ago where up to 25,000 people were killed by the govt. as punishment for their uprising.
Although the Lonely Planet usually gets it right, they were wrong on this one, it was not a good place to spend the night. They were right in calling our hotel a "mausoleum" however (it was the only near decent place to stay in the town). The hotel was huge but we felt like the only people staying there so it kind of freaked us out! It was absolutely deserted (I told the front desk that I hoped they had at least given us the best room!) Later that night we ran into three American guys who were also staying there- and they thought they were the only guests. That did help me sleep a little better though.
The Norias in Hama
In front of the obligatory photo op in Hama, one of the strangest places I've ever visited! What amused me the most was right after we took this photo, a man walked by with his three wives, I wish I could have taken a picture- it was the most stereo- typical thing I've seen, man walking in front, three wives (totally covered) following behind with children. In Hama I saw more women with black fabric covering their ENTIRE face than I've seen anywhere, for the life of me I don't know how they could see a thing!
Maalula
When we left Damascus our first stop was to this village because it is one of only three villages in Syria that still speak in the language of Jesus, Aramaic. It is a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew and slowing dying out, unfortunately because it's one of the world’s oldest languages. At this stop we ran into a group of Iranian tourist who were just wonderful to us, when they heard that we were American they got excited and ALL wanted their photograph with us so we had to stand there while they took turns coming up for a picture. (Is this how a celebrity feels?) Iranians are sometimes demonized in our press but this was one more example of how the people and their rulers are not the same.
Syrian-North Korean Alliance
This is a painting of the two countries former leaders, taken at the October War museum, sponsored by the NK's. We got a lifetimes worth of propaganda there!
Dinner time
We also found the best restaurants anywhere to be in Syria- although by the end of the trip we were SO SICK of kabobs! It's going to take me a long time to want one again.
Break time
Walking around the Old City of Damascus wore us out but we loved stopping by this place for their slushies- just like a DQ Mister Misty, yum!
Bye Bye Birdie
Outside of the Mosque they have this place to feed the birds, K LOVED running around trying to catch them. She really wasn't supposed to be in there but because she was so cute and had everyone watching her they let her. This made me think of you Janners, you would have hated it! :)
Picture time
She was also hounded for photos everywhere we went, here she is at the Mosque handling it like a pro! She thinks the camera is called "cheese" and it's just too cute to correct her so when she asks to hold it she always says "cheese please"!
Our little diplomat
K made so many friends at the Mosque, I just kept thinking that despite the fact that our countries are "enemies" these kids just love eachother, if only we could leave our negotiations up to them! World Peace :))
Umayyad Mosque
This is Islam's 4th holiest site. I was just excited to be there because I remember watching Diane Sawyer reporting from there last fall, although she got to wear a much prettier abaya than mine, talk about a pain to wear- the hood kept falling down and I would get naughty looks from people ;) We all had to walk around barefoot which made me concerned about catching some sort of foot fungus, haha but we really enjoyed our time there. K just ran around and around....
St. Paul's Chapel
Damascus is full of Christian history so this is K and I posing near the basket (guessing not the real basket :) that Paul was lowered from to escape the angry Jews in 2 Corinthians.
No need to pack the toys!
People often ask me if we pack many toys for K when we travel but we learned after the first trip that she is more than content with the hotel phone, remote, and her most favorite, the mini-bar! Just don't ask me how many times we get charged for "missing items"...
Friday, June 6, 2008
Road trip: Syria
Tonight we are packing to leave for Syria and preparing for a 12-day road trip around the country (actually, J is packing and I am procrastinating). I am really looking forward to it but also trying not to get too excited just in case we have some drama trying to cross the borders. I have heard all sorts of stories about this and given our luck, I am half expecting it! We do have the visas but just because you have a visa doesn’t necessarily mean you can get in. We’ll try to keep you posted once we actually cross the border if we have Inet access. The shopping in Syria is supposed to be amazing so we’re leaving a lot of room in our car for souvenirs (as usual, that’s what I look forward to the most!). Also, two of the oldest cities on earth are there, Damascus and Aleppo so that should be interesting from a history standpoint. And yes, Syria is one of the five countries on that famous Gov’t “List” we are always hearing about! Overall, I want to have an open mind and learn as much as I can about this fascinating country- I don’t know a whole lot about it yet but I’m sure we’ll come away with a new perspective on the region. I hear the people are exceptionally kind. There is a lot happening there now with a possible peace deal with Israel being attempted and nuclear inspectors paying a visit.
We had a good, busy week doing lots of fun stuff with other toddlers. I’m sure the socialization is good for K since she spends a lot of time alone with me in the house. She has really changed since turning 19mos, I always said she was an easy kid but now she keeps me on my toes. I am beginning to understand what all of you have been warning me about for so long, the “get into EVERYTHING” phase. It just makes me so tired. Not to mention she went from needing 15 hrs of sleep to 13 in a matter of a week, I just wasn’t quite prepared for that : ) Gone are my days of sleeping in until 8 or 9! J was away for a few nights and I kept thinking about all of my military friends who spend 15 mos. alone with their children as single moms. It must be SO hard. I send all of you a big hug and wish I could treat you to a pedicure or something – although you deserve much, much more. I’m sure I’ll be writing soon about how she took the fish out of the bowl and ate it, LOL.
Then we had some minor drama- as I was taking her out this week and putting her in our HOT car (it felt at least 100 degrees outside) I threw the car keys on my seat like usual, shut her door and walked around to get in the driver’s seat when I heard the car lock. I couldn’t believe it! We have a new security system in and apparently, it automatically locks the doors after a minute or so. Thank God, I had my cell still in my pocket but I panicked and grabbed a tool from our garden so I could break the window and get her out. Too many stories engrained in my mind of kids dying in hot cars. Thankfully, I got a hold of our wonderful mechanic first, who was at our house in 8 min. with three guys who were able to get her out within another 5 min. She was so good the entire time- hot I could tell but never cried. When we pulled her out, she was covered in sweat. I think I would have broken the window if it took a minute longer. The mechanic was so nice, he didn’t even charge us. Boy did I learn my lesson with our new alarm.
Talked to my friend in Cali the other day, gas is $4.15/gallon there at the cheapest place.
We decided to do the math and see what we were paying here (they sell it in liters) and we are paying #3.68/gallon, not much less. It would be hard to get rid of the SUV now but downsizing sure is tempting isn’t it?
On a less depressing note, I am really proud of J this week because he graduated 3rd in his class (a percentage pt. away from 1st)! I don’t know how he managed given that the class was entirely in Arabic. He spent the first week thinking he was going to flunk out and then he rocked it. Way to go J! He also made some nice friends who keep texting him saying, “I miss u”. The guys here are SO funny; these messages crack me up because most guys in the States wouldn’t send such messages to other men. Not surprising given that public affection between men and women is rare (I’ve never even seen two people holding hands!) public displays of affection among men is very common and exaggerated. Well, that’s all for now! Wish you all a great couple of weeks, off to pack....
We had a good, busy week doing lots of fun stuff with other toddlers. I’m sure the socialization is good for K since she spends a lot of time alone with me in the house. She has really changed since turning 19mos, I always said she was an easy kid but now she keeps me on my toes. I am beginning to understand what all of you have been warning me about for so long, the “get into EVERYTHING” phase. It just makes me so tired. Not to mention she went from needing 15 hrs of sleep to 13 in a matter of a week, I just wasn’t quite prepared for that : ) Gone are my days of sleeping in until 8 or 9! J was away for a few nights and I kept thinking about all of my military friends who spend 15 mos. alone with their children as single moms. It must be SO hard. I send all of you a big hug and wish I could treat you to a pedicure or something – although you deserve much, much more. I’m sure I’ll be writing soon about how she took the fish out of the bowl and ate it, LOL.
Then we had some minor drama- as I was taking her out this week and putting her in our HOT car (it felt at least 100 degrees outside) I threw the car keys on my seat like usual, shut her door and walked around to get in the driver’s seat when I heard the car lock. I couldn’t believe it! We have a new security system in and apparently, it automatically locks the doors after a minute or so. Thank God, I had my cell still in my pocket but I panicked and grabbed a tool from our garden so I could break the window and get her out. Too many stories engrained in my mind of kids dying in hot cars. Thankfully, I got a hold of our wonderful mechanic first, who was at our house in 8 min. with three guys who were able to get her out within another 5 min. She was so good the entire time- hot I could tell but never cried. When we pulled her out, she was covered in sweat. I think I would have broken the window if it took a minute longer. The mechanic was so nice, he didn’t even charge us. Boy did I learn my lesson with our new alarm.
Talked to my friend in Cali the other day, gas is $4.15/gallon there at the cheapest place.
We decided to do the math and see what we were paying here (they sell it in liters) and we are paying #3.68/gallon, not much less. It would be hard to get rid of the SUV now but downsizing sure is tempting isn’t it?
On a less depressing note, I am really proud of J this week because he graduated 3rd in his class (a percentage pt. away from 1st)! I don’t know how he managed given that the class was entirely in Arabic. He spent the first week thinking he was going to flunk out and then he rocked it. Way to go J! He also made some nice friends who keep texting him saying, “I miss u”. The guys here are SO funny; these messages crack me up because most guys in the States wouldn’t send such messages to other men. Not surprising given that public affection between men and women is rare (I’ve never even seen two people holding hands!) public displays of affection among men is very common and exaggerated. Well, that’s all for now! Wish you all a great couple of weeks, off to pack....
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Lunch, local style!
Yesterday one of J's friends invited us to his house for lunch. It was quite the experience for us. Starting with the AK-47 gun fire that scared the HECK out of me when I was entering their house. Turns out the neighbor is getting married and that's how they celebrate such events here. Celebratory gun fire is actually illeagal (a taxi driver was recently accidentally shot while driving thru a neighborhood) but I don't think many people care about this law. The meal was delicious and we were so happy to see spoons so we didn't have to use our hands. No one spoke much English but it was heartwarming to relate with another mother, nursing her newborn, the way only mothers can relate- despite the language barrier. I got a kick out of watching her care for her tiny baby and seeing the cultural diferences such as putting yogurt on the pacifier to encourage sucking. K adored holding the baby too and I realized, she is def NOT a baby anymore :( The families were so kind to us, they showed us around their town which included a spot in the woods where they picnic every fri. (J and I were amazed to see SO MUCH trash everywhere, although the land itself was pretty in the States you would have thought it was a garbage dump since apparently, no one cleans up after their picnics). We also went to a stream where the women were dipping their feet and washing their clothes. I just can't get enough of watching women in other cultures live their daily routines, so fascinating! We are sure spoiled in the US! It was pretty hot so I couldn't help but wonder how they managed wearing the long, black abayas and head coverings all of the time. We ended the day at the home of the wife's family. The men sat outside and drank coffee and K and I sat inside with the women (since they were uncovered). She has eight sisters and they all treated us like we were visiting royalty. Poor K though, she had gotten really tired after a long visit and wanted to rest but they insisted that she entertain them all by dancing (even going so far as to turn on dance music on TV). She was not in the mood for entertaining but they did do a little dancing for us, funny!
Jerusalem Snapshots!
The first is a pic of the girls at the Jordan border BEFORE all of the drama on the Israeli side when we were all still happy campers. The next is one of my favorite pics ever, K on a camel with the Old City of Jerusalem in the background. She is OBSESSED with camels (or Jamels as we say in Arabic). Lucky for her, she gets to see them all over the place. We even count them as we're driving along the road.
Also, a photo of all of us at our favorite place in the Old City, the Western Wall. This is such a powerful place! Lastly, a shot of K pretending to be Liam Neeson at the end of the movie.
My beautiful girl!
K loved relaxing in Aqaba and couldn't get enough of the water, even some dips in the Red Sea. She is quite a seasoned traveler now and knows that the first thing we do in a new hotel room is jump on the bed!
Mukawir
On one of our side trips we visited Mukawir, location of Herods castle where John the Baptist was beheaded. It was an amazing site, I'm told that it looks like a mini-Masada. We found the place completely empty and we enjoyed the steep hike to the top, overlooking the Dead Sea and Israel on the other side. The really cool part was that there were caves everywhere, it would have been so neat to do some excavations there. I imagine that it looked just like Qumran (directly across the Sea) where the Dead Sea Scrolls were accidentally found by a shepard boy.
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