Half-way through hell-week

For some reason that I really don't care about, but am aware of, the mudir of our part of uni decided that we should end our courses one day earlier than planned. That brought with it that we had to go to school one a day that wasn't supposed to be a school day. That day happened to be last saturday and it was also our mid-course test so it didn't seem like the best idea in the world to skip it either...

I had planned to spend most every hour of last week studying. Mostly because that's what I usually do but also because of the exam. Then I hadn't really counted on the possibility of some old friend showing up from Sweden. He's here to study so I don't have to babysit him or anything but it's still way much more fun to hang out with Swedes than to study Arabic, then again most anything is more fun than studying Arabic...

Since we only had Friday off last week I didn't seem like such a great idea to do anything serious on Thursday night, the plan was just to have dinner with some people. Of course there was someone leaving and we had to say goodbye to him. Then no one really disliked the idea to go to this kind of nice beer garden right by bab sharqi. There aren't really that many places that serve beer outside around here. Just a beer or two is never that bad. So when the place closed two beers later the clock wasn't really that late so some German girl came with the proposal that maybe everyone should go on to some place that was open a bit later. Ok we said and then every plan to study seriously on Friday was lost since it's not allowed to leave Cave too early. Damn, damn, damn. But I did at least make it in time for the exam on Saturday morning. Thanks to a taxi I'd like to add.

WARNING Bragging ahead

If you believe everything that I wrote above (it's all true by the way) it might come as a bit of a shock that I had the best result in the test. That's just the way I am though.

Now I'm yet again pretending to study for my exam that I have next week. Pretending to study is the best way of studying I think. Maybe I did overdo my studying before because I really like to only study an extra two to three hours a day outside of school. I know It's not enough and I'll have to do something about it but this week I'm fine with it. It's a really long week to I'd like you to remember.

Don't cry for me Dr. Alban

I did actually only leave Damascus for a week but it had changed so much by the time I came back that i might as well have been away for a year. The first thing that I noticed was when I came back home to my house and some of the guys that used to live there no longer did so and that people that didn't use to live there now did.

Later at night, at Serai, it became even clearer that a lot of the foreigners that I used to hang out with had left, some poured alcohol in their honor. It was in the next couple of days that other changes became more evident. Like Inhouse, my little oasis of Western coffee in a desert of Arabic/Turkish tar. Over the time I've spent there I've gotten to know a lot of the other regulars that go there every day. I do, of course, go there to study but since the study area is non-smoking I have to go upstairs to smoke and always end up talking with someone.The good thing about that place is that it's one of the few places were people actually speak Arabic with me every now and then and not just insist on speaking English. After that I came back from Turkey the bunch of guys that i used to hang out with the most all were gone. Then i found out that some of them had left for Dubai and some others had started to hang out at Inhouse Meze to try to befriend some music-producers, still hoping for the big chance. Still it's Inhouse so it wasn't such a big problem but all together it really felt like coming back to another city for a while.

University these days is really a sad sight. Not too many new students and most of the old ones have left. People say that there'll be more students next month and that sounds reasonable. My class is still more or less the same people which is cool. The new level is the first one that might actually become interesting when you consider what we're reading this time around. They do have a huge problem when it comes to reading material at that place. I don't really know what to say about the new teacher but she's probably ok.


Yesterday was random Danish guy's birthday, as it was also Friday we decided to have it at Serai, why change a winning concept? For some reason i also ended up having to invite people to fill up his table. Considering the amount of people that left the in last two weeks it might have been hard but I did fairly ok. It was a nice mix of locals and expat-wannabees. Maybe he didn't knew too many of them but at least they came and Serai is always a good place to end week at. This week the DJ didn't do a "best of random Swedish dentist/"artist""-marathon, he just played one song this time. It might seem strange but that's not my fault...

Anonymous said

I got a comment on my last post. That almost never happens anymore so I was, of course, very happy about it, at least until I read it. Oh my God I say. It was so harsh that I feel compelled to comment on it. I could of course have just denied it but I'm not censoring anyone just because they're negative towards me. Red text is random anonymous person's.

I have read most of your essays,you know what?

Well thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog. It's always nice to hear that someone does.

,I think that you are so racist,cause when it comes to your foreigner friends you mention their names,and when it comes to Arabs you say "the Jordanian guy" for example.I think he deserves more than not mentioning his name.

Ok, comment noted. I do believe that I used the phrase "random Jordanian guy" and that only because that was just what he was. Neither me nor Jamie knew him from before and at least I'll never see him again. He was very nice though, and unlike you he did give me his name. That doesn't mean that I have to write it here though...

You also write that I mention the names of my foreigner friends. That is true to some extent. I've been very restrictive when it comes to writing names here and most of the times I don't. Even in my last post about the trip to Turkey only a few people are mentioned by name.

Its a shame you have been living in Syria for a couple of monthes and non of Syrian names was mentioned,its either cause you are isolated with no friends-then why did you come here-or you are too racist and you feel that Arabs are not worth mentioning.

You never considered the possibility that this has been done intentionally? It is in no way a matter of course that people want me to publish their names here. I'm not that adamant about not publishing foreigners names here and that's why I do that every now and then but only when it comes to close friends and only when I feel the need to do so.

When it comes to Arabs I'm even more restrictive and have a no name policy. Maybe that is a bit racist but I don't want to make anyone's life any harder than it already is.

So Anonymous. I hope that you in the future try other options than just screaming racism when you see something you don't understand at first. Thinking is a good thing, try that first, it does wonders all around the world every day.

And if you want to be taken seriously you might want to consider what tone you use when you write people and also not to sign comments as Anonymous.

What's the plan?

My last week has possibly been eventful enough to warrant a couple of entries here but time has confined me to this one entry. Last thursday was the goodbye party for a lot of my fellow foreign students. They're all gone now so let's not speak more about them... There were also three random Swedes at Cave that night. It felt kind of strange to not be the tallest guy in place but at least one of them lives here in Damascus so I might still get to speak Swedish every now and then. Good times since Annika was one of the people that left last week.

Friday was going to Turkey day. It will from now on always be a famous day in the chronicles of mankind. It was that kind of trip that didn't even start out well. First me and Jamie met up at Bab Touma to get a cab to Al-Medina Al-Jamaia. Think really old Russian student houses with squat toilets and no kitchens and you'll be pretty close to what it looks like. We chatted some hours away in Chaldesh's room before meeting up with Sonja and Dana at the local restaurant for a quick snack before leaving for the bus station. For the first time in the history of the Middle East a large group of people were actually heading out in good time. All we had to do was to convince some service-driver to drive us to the big bus-garage. that wasn't even close to a problem. Getting ten people and all they're luggage in to the car was a piece of cake for a practiced Tetris-player. The driver though was completely crazy and took us for a ride that most certainly should have ended with at least a carload of dead Turks. But we were lucky, or kind of, he drove around the city not knowing where we were going or listening to directions. That he admittedly couldn't read wasn't making things easier either. Good to know that you don't have to know that to get a driver's license in Syria, it explains a lot.

We were really lucky that we had a good marginal to reach the station because in the end we had less than ten minutes to spare. And the bad things had only just begun. The bus-ride to the Syrian border was mostly uneventful except for a random stop in the middle of nowhere with all the lights turned off. It's amazing how well a dark bus get lit up by camera-flashes. Good times indeed. The Syrian border was passed mostly without any difficulties, except for that the border guard guy didn't look for Suleiman's visa in his passport and just told him that he didn't have a valid visa and that he had to go back to Damascus to get one. It was all quickly resolved when someone opened the passport and showed him the visa. It was 2 am so it can be forgiven but we were a bit worried for a while. The shortest part of our journey should have been the distance between the Syrian border-station and the Turkish one, but then again, we didn't consider the possibility that it would be blocked by a million large trucks. Apparently goods traffic between Syria and Turkey isn't that important so the truck can just wait and wait and wait. It also meant that we had to wait and wait and wait in a yet again completely dark bus only illuminated by intermittent camera-flashes. Ah how fun it was. For some other unknown reason we had to keep our phones of during the trip. They apparently could disturb some equipment on the bus. Despite my three years working as a bus-mechanic I have no idea what that would be. My best guess is that the driver just liked to pretend he's a pilot. Some very funny conversations did occur during our extended stay in no-man's land. One of them between the driver and the guy who was afraid that there would be a jam at the passport-check when we were allowed through and that he should be allowed to walk there in stead. It went like this:

Man: There will be a jam tomorrow, let's walk there instead.
Driver: It's forbidden to walk here.
Man: But let's just go there now.
Driver: The road is blocked and it's forbidden to walk here. How are you going to get there?

It all turned out for the better when we just backed up and took a secret path around the place instead. Other good things include me not having to pay for the Turkish visa, neither did Sonja or Jamie. Jamie should have but that's a later thing. Good things doesn't include me bringing the good news of free visas to the five Italian girls on the bus because they got very upset with me when they all had to pay 15 dollars each. Don't blame the messenger I say.

We finally reached Antakya at about six am. Only eight hours after our departure from Damascus. I for one doesn't like long bus-rides but no one asked for my opinion on that matter. After all, it was up to me to go to Turkey or not. In Antakya we first went to a place by the sea for some morning tea before heading to Said Ali's grandparents house for breakfast. Four of the Italians were continuing to Istanbul later in the day so they just hung out with us until midday or so. We all agreed on that it was against human nature to go on a 15 hour bus-ride straight after our first ordeal, but those Italians were though enough to do it.

Crossing the border into Turkey made all the Turks forget their Arabic and since they don't speak English either communications became a bit of a hassle. So for the first day the non-Turks on the trip were always left a bit in the dark. I do know that it was decided that we should rent cars and go around Antakya looking at all the sights instead of sleeping. I might be of the opinion that people that hasn't slept for thirty hours shouldn't drive. But I was to tired to comment on it, I just went with the flow which took us to a very old church, a museum, a kebab-restaurant and a waterfall. It was all very appreciated. After driving around all day half of the group went to Chaldesh's relatives' house and the other half to Said Ali's mother's. His mother spoke German so mine and Sonja's secret language wasn't that secret anymore. Not that I speak German or anything but I can at least pretend to. Then we went back to his grandparent's house to sleep, or rather to hang out in the kitchen speaking Arabic. It does seem that everyone in the older generation in Antakya speaks Arabic, which is good since no one speaks English.

The next day we went to See Titus' Tunnel. It also meant taking a wrong turn somewhere ending up on the top of a mountain. It was a good and nice hike though. After that we went to Iskenderun, had kebab, ice-cream and bought some beers to bring to Chaldesh's summerhouse. It was a bit outside of Iskenderun in one of many summer settlements they have out there. We were so many people that it was good that his Aunt owns the house next to his. it was also nice that it was right next to the Sea.

After that not many things happened. We did a lot of swimming and beer-drinking. We also came up with a great way to drive Dana insane. Whenever the Turks conspired against us in Turkish we'd just turn to her and ask: "So Dana, what's the plan?" Americans are crazy. We also had a fair amount of kebabs over the days. At some point I asked one of the Turks if there existed any other kind of food in Turkey. I just got a sad stare as a reply and then the comment: "That's not kebab that's döner". If anyone knows the difference, please inform me.

We didn't really do that many more trips around the area. Just hanging around the sea and burning my poor body in to a smoldering heap red flesh was good enough for me though.

As we started out I had decided to go home last Wednesday but I ended up staying until yesterday, Friday. A week in Turkey was just what I needed.

So yesterday I and Jamie left Iskenderun heading for Damascus. The rest wanted to stay an extra day but I really wanted to do some studying today as well as say good bye to Maurice yesterday evening. Traveling with Jamie wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done though. Getting back to Antakya by micro was easy but it took much, much longer than we expected so we didn't have time to buy breakfast before getting the bus to Damascus. Yet again getting to the border wasn't a problem. Yet again the Turkish border was the problem. Apparently Jamie should have paid for his visa and that he hadn't was a big problem. When everyone else at the bus had sorted out all their issues at the border the clock was about 12.30 pm and then they told Jamie he had to wait till 2 pm to find out what he should pay.Counting doesn't seem to be the quickest thing in Turkey. I of course stayed with him but also did this random Jordanian guy that thought Jamie needed someone that spoke Turkish around. That was so nice we couldn't believe it.Then again that guy would amaze us many times over. So we got our bags and stuff of the bus and proceeded to wait at the passport-booth. There being no shade around didn't make it anymore fun to wait. At about half past one a police came out and told Jamie he could either pay 85 dollars or be banned from Turkey for five years. Since he didn't have any money there wasn't really much of an option now was there? Oh, think again, the Jordanian guy instantly offered to lend him the money. Who does that really? I would never do it. While they paid I ran to look for the bus and since there was a traffic jam yesterday too it had only moved about ten meters in that hour. We all felt better back on the bus. Especially after another Jordanian guy bought us lunch. Good thing since none of us had any Turkish money left. At about half past three we reached the Syrian border. One of the guys on the bus had ran ahead of us and handed in our passports so it was just to collect them on arrival. Not Jamie though. His visa extension wasn't valid for reentering Syria. Please pay another 52 dollars for a new visa. Guess what, the same Jordanian guy offered to pay that as well. The craziest thing about that was that he was going to Aleppo and not to Damascus so half an hour after the border he just got off and left us. Jamie did get his contact information first. Somethings you just have to pay.

We finally reached Damascus at 8 pm. A good ten and a half hours after leaving Iskenderun. Of course we were courted by cab drivers but when I told them that we live in Damascus and that we know the prices around here they lost all interest in us. Being cheap we got in to a service-taxi but got off in the wrong place. Not knowing where we were we stopped a cab and asked to go to Bab Touma by taximeter but the driver just shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't want any money for the ride. Never having heard that one before we just got in the cab wondering what it would end up costing us. At Bab Touma I asked him again what it costed and again he said it was free and "God be with you". It was indeed a strange journey.

I had about enough time to get home and notice that everyone had moved out and a lot of new people moved in while I was gone and have a shower before I had to go out again. The night at Serail was ok and I didn't get home until way to late. Damascus is a crazy town sometimes.

Now I can focus on my studies again, tomorrow is a new day and a new course and most certainly new people.