Ahlan wa sahlan fil Suwria!

You look like you speak English! What does 'skurmesches' mean?! This was roughly the first thing that came my way when I set foot on the streets of Damascus. The shopkeeper was reading a lonely planet about his own country. For a second, I wondered whether he would be offended when he would find out that the beloved travel guide describes the skirmishes at the Israeli - Syrian border. Upon explaining the word, he did not seem to care much and instead helped me on my quest for a Syrian SIM card. This proved especially hard since many shops are closed on Fridays. His son guided me across the old city and once again demonstrated that anything can be arranged with a bit of local knowledge.

The next challenge I had set myself was to get a much-needed haircut to trim the forest on my head some have already started to name 'Paul'. Choosing a hallaq at random and having looked up how to say 'not too short' beforehand, my head was pushed under an ordinary tap, I nearly drowned, but my hair has been cut better than ever. The guy even offered me coffee. Something you don't expect to get at a hairdresser in Utrecht if you pay him little over a euro!

Satisfied, I wandered around the old city some more, got lost, very lost, very very lost and asked for directions in MSA. This - as I have found out by now - obviously does not work. Having looked up the 'proper' dialect I found my way again, had a third fruit juice of the day and returned to what already feels like my place: a room in an old Damascene house near Bab Touma. Virtually the exact centre of the city, in the Christian quarter. The place is buzzing and the envy of my fellow students in a hotel further out in Jeramana.

Plan for tonight is to pick up Arash from the airport. We are embarking upon this adventure together, albeit he is on a different flight. Tomorrow, the course starts properly with a series of placement tests. In the afternoon the beginning is celebrated with a pool visit though, so that sounds very promising!

Maasalama,

Mark

P.s. I'll post some pictures of my surroundings if Arash did remember to bring his camera ;). My host family are amazing, they don't speak English let alone Dutch, but we get by on colonial French and Arabic rather well!

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