Hi everybody! We're so sorry for the long delay in updating, but we've been getting our travel on and so internet has been few and far between. Last weekend we went to Palmyra and hung out with some Bedouins and their camels. Last week we finished the Arabic course and ran wild through the souq and restaurants and up Mount Qaysioun to watch the sunset. Then we celebrated our new freedom from Arabic lessons by jumping on a bus with some friends and heading for Hama, where a driver in a 1950s Pontiac took us roaring along the sides of the [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Abou Roumaneh in Damascus, an officially swankier part of town! So, we finally started class, and a grueling week later are slowly recovering. The classes are 5 hours a day, 8:30-2 (with a 30 min snack break), five different subjects every day. These range from Grammar to Dialect, Conversation to Modern and Classical Literature, Social Studies, History, Media... on and on, and all in Arabic. It's reasonably intense. We're meeting lots of new people, though, and excitingly getting settled in to our very own apartment! Leah and I are in the fourth floor of a building on Khal [View Full Entry]

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So, continuing the game of catch-up, here's a little bit about our home for the first week: "The Damascus Hostel". First of all, the owners and staff are pretty much the nicest people ever. Even though our flight was 1.5 hours late, Johnny was still standing patiently at the baggage claim door when we finally straggled through. I think we were told "welcome, welcome" almost 20 times on the 20 minute drive in from the airport. Then, we discovered that the hostel is literally perched on top of the ancient city wall, and they pulled our bags stra [View Full Entry]

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We're here, we're safe, some photos for you all! Day 1 - Visiting the Umayyad Mosque, about a few yards of the Souq Hamadiye, walking back to the hostel, getting lost, and watching the twilight fall from our balcony. [View Full Entry]

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We're packed, we're ready, we're leaving TOMORROW! At 1pm tomorrow (June 22), Leah and I will be racing, split-screen style, toward the Philadelphia and Toronto airports, respectively. We'll see each other about 10 hours later in the PARIS airport, squealing with excitement. Within a few hours, we'll be giggling in the back row of the Air France flight to Damascus. We'll be met by adorable Raymond, owner of the Damascus Hostel , and hopefully be woken up at 5:30am by the call to prayer blasting from the mosques of the Old City. I can NOT wait, [View Full Entry]

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Two dorky girls who love to study? Check. Two dummies who know surprisingly little about where they're going (given the fact they've been studying the region for three years)? Check. Nothing left to do but pack next week, resulting in much worrying about prices, jails, destinations, visas, politics, the heat, clothing, Arabic, the heat, classes, transport, apartments, the heat, and did we mention THE HEAT? Check. Results in? A geeky guidebook frenzy. Meet the guidebooks, coming to you from Kingston, ON and Baltimore, MD: JORDAN AND LEAH ARE GOING TO SYRIA! (almost rhymes) [View Full Entry]

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