Nemo saltat sobrius

Unless he's Arab that is. But more on that a little bit later. Last week I wrote that I didn't like the sound volume at the club we went to so my plan was to just go to a pharmacy and buy some ear pluggs. But since this is Syria things are not always that easy. The first place I went to only had pluggs for swimming. I never even knew there were such a thing but apparantly they are very popular since the second, third, fourth and fifth pharmacies also only carried those. For being a desert people these guys really seem like they love their swimming. Not one to be easily discouraged I kept trying to find some. The good thing is that pharmacies are among the most common stores around here. There are three on my street alone, of course they didn't sell earpluggs but it's good that they're around. In the end I went to the extreme measure of asking a cab driver if it was possible to find ear pluggs anywhere in Syria. He told me that I had to go to a special "ear pharmacy". Since he was such a nice guy he not only offered to drive me there but he also waited for me (I was on my way home from the old city), of course with the taxameter running. And by the way, the "special pharmacy" didn't have any they either. It actually didn't seem to be special in anyway. But then again, what do I know, I'm not a cab driver... Friday finally came along and all the pharmacies seemed to be closed, just as all other shops in the city. But I did pass one that was open and they actually had a couple of pairs so I cleaned them out. All well that ends well, or what ever you say.

The entire weekend was very nice. On thursday evening Omar, the American bakistani, also known as The Blanket, Lawrence, a brittish medic in training, Werner, the Austrian banker and Annika, the only other Swede at uni all came to my house for dinner. It was very nice to eat some pasta for once. We also came to the conclusion that Lebanese wine is far superior to the Syrian ones. It was also very nice not to be forced to take a cab home in the middle of the night.

Back to friday. The big party day in Damascus. It is fully possible that it's really thursday that's the big party day but I wouldn't know anything about that. I spent the first half of the day studying, as I do most days. Then I went home to put in my contacts and get a nicer shirt (me, always the vain one) before heading back to the city. First I met up with Lawrence at his place and had some ciggaretts before heading out to meet Werner and Lorenzo, the Italian surgeon to go with them to the Hamam. We spent about an hour in that steaming place but I can really say that my back needed the massage. My bed and my pillows have a joint adventure to destroy my neck and my back, and they are succeeding...

After the hamam we went to the Seif and shitty cafe. It's a place that really lives up to it's name. If you'd enter that place hungry you'd starve to death before getting your food. It's the only place I've ever been to that need 45 minutes to make a sandwich... Having finally eat our food and smoked some water pipe me and Lawrence went to meet The Blanket outside Domino, that's the name of the club. We came at 11pm so we were quite early but it was ok anyway. Most people seemed to come at about twelve o'clock and by then the place was crowded. Other foreigners there included Noah, the American son of an episcopalian minister, Jonas, Annika and Alex, the colombian ex-street kid, with his gang of Italian women. The Italian girls are more of a concept than any particular people. They all move around in great hordes that roam the old city and other studentlike places. They don't speak any non-latin languages so all form of communication is impossible so no one really knows them. Except Alex that is. Later both Luke and not-Luke (Jeb) showed up. It's really impossible to tell them apart but then again all Wasps look the same.

I did notice some interesting stuff at the club; Arabs dance like they're mad, no matter how sober they are. Then again, even Arabs get so drunk that they try to throw up in secret behind a table. That just never works. They also make out in public when they're drunk. I'd never seen that before and I wouldn't have bet on it.

In the end Jonas got so drunk I had to help him home. It would have been very just if there had been a ferry to help him to but now I just had to get him to his house. That wasn't to much of a hazzle since he lives like 20 meters from me.

I haven't mentioned my computer yet. I called the place thursday and a woman told me that it was fixed but that she didn't know where it was, and then asked me to call back in ten minutes. When I called back an hour later another woman told me that the person in charge of my computer would come back on saturday but when I wasn't happy with that reply she refered me to another woman that told me that yes it was fixed but it didn't work and it would be really good if I called back on sunday instead. None of those answers made me very happy so I went there today and actually got to speak with the guy that was supposed to fix it but went to Dubai instead. He told me that the new hard drive probably was defect and that they'll try changing it again. So I'll know tomorrow. Nothing is ever easy around here...