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Published: June 30th 2008
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It’s amazing how quickly you can settle into a place. The language barrier is huge but we are managing. This is a place where “eh” means yes, “la” means no and a written 7 means 6!!! We have even had our first
emergency Arabic lesson which was, shall we say, interesting!!
Work wise it’s been a bit of a culture shock. We last taught in Argentina back in December so being back in the classroom was a little strange at first. We soon got used to it and are fully into the swing of teaching a full 24 or so hours a week. With the paperwork and planning it works out to about a 35 hour week but the offices are air conditioned so the 41 degrees of sunshine outside isn’t really affecting us.
It’s been great shopping on the local markets for fruit and vegetables, and Russ has made friends with the local beef and chicken butcher. We have even been out to a modern shopping centre. The supermarket was like going to Tesco Extra!! They even have Patak’s curry sauces, but at a price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the moment our days off are Friday and Saturday. We decided
to stay in Damascus for our first weekend and spent some time exploring the old city. As Friday is the Muslim holy day, most things were closed. That meant we mostly saw parts of the old Christian quarter where shops close on a Sunday. It’s a colourful place where watermelon sellers drag their wares through the streets on horse and cart, Iraqi kids beg for money and the sound of the muezzin drowns out the drone of the road works.
Being Friday we were unable to visit the Great Mosque so we’ll have to fit that in another time. Walking around the outside was interesting and we bought some amazing blackberry juice from a vendor. We also had a good look at the restored citadel, another place we’ll be going into soon.
Coffee shops abound and many 18th and 19th century Arab houses have been converted in courtyard restaurants. It’s going to be great finding out which are our favourites! Closer to our flat is the
Journalists Club where we are yet to knowingly meet a journalist. Everyone is really friendly though and it was packed when we went there to watch the football.
On Friday evening
we took a taxi out to Jebel Qassioun, the brown dusty hill which overlooks the city. The view was truly breathtaking and the sight of the city lights gradually emerging at dusk was awesome. It’s just a shame that the owner of the café we had a drink in tried to rip us off. That’s the first time we’ve had a bad experience and we ended up slamming some money down on his table and walking away. We paid twice what we expected for two drinks, but a quarter of what he wanted from us. Needless to say we’ll not be giving him any custom again!
So, as you can see, we are having a wonderful time. Come to Syria, it’s beautiful!!!
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Ronnie
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Dusk over Damascus
What a beautiful picture! Glad you guys are having fun.