http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Yemen en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:47:21 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:47:21 BST After narrowly escaping from the Palace Sayun Hotel we arrived in the capitol of the Hadrawmat province alMukallah. The only thing Eric and I had ever heard about Mukallah was that it smelled horrible because its main exports are fish and refrigeration is not very popular in Yemen. We stopped there just so that we could have a break between Sayun and Bir Ali so we weren't hoping for much http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-241757.html Back by popular demand and an end to laziness here is my first blog post of the new year. So so much has happened to me in the last 42 days that's what my blog counter tells me anyway. I'm going to try and back track a bit.So after I last posted we had a long long break from school and I decided to travel to East Yemen with some friends. The trip was absolutely amazing because I got to see http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-239773.html Ugh words are hard http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-228085.html AlHamduallah. See you later fat boy once I switch to a class devoid of retards and you move out I won't have to see you every fucking day. If I'm willing to invest some effort I might never have to see you again You can be right about everything all the time and I can have conversations instead of continuous debates with people.The only thing that makes me sad is that I won't be able to se http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-227778.html The trilateral root system and the ten verb patterns in Arabic are the coolest thing ever. It's like the language was explicitly designed to have defineate and consistent patterns for creating meaning. If you figure out the root of a word there's a simple system for transforming the root into any part of speech and you can create a very particular meaning with only one word whereas in English http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-227308.html Bombing of US Navy vessels kidnappings of foreign tourists tribal warfare including car bombings. This genre of headline had a lot of people asking why the hell are you going to Yemen I initially put these enquiries down to western ignorance to the everyday reality of this corner of the world. When residents of other Arab nations we have visited asked the same question I'll have to confess http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-226800.html The political situation in Yemen has been heating up over the past few weeks. There were sit ins and demonstrations in Aden recently because the citizens claim that South Yemen is being ignored by Sana'a and the North. Public school teachers in Sana'a have also been demonstrating because they say their are massive discrepancies in pay rate between teachers who do the same job and because they http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-226596.html The two most pressing issues in my life right nowWhat's my direction in lifeMan friend http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-225042.html There's an old joke among those who study Arabic as a second language. Every word in Arabic means what it refers to its opposite and camel. I didn't think it was that funny until tonight when I found out that at least the first part is true it remains to be seen about the camel part.I'm worried about how quickly time is passing I'll have been in Yemen 2 months by the end of the week and http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-224535.html Today Yemenis celebrate the departure of the British from Aden in 1962 with qat chewing chatting wiling away the afternoon and other activities that go on every other day of the year. This independence day one of three is mostly for South Yemen so there isn't anything particularily festive going on in the North today.I went to a Turkish bath for the first time yesterday. It looked kind of http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-224186.html I had plans to go out to eat but now I will continue.The title of my last post I was talking to my friend Cleo whose been in Yemen for over a year and she told me about what some of the Yemeni guards understand about sex. Apparently they think that on the night of your wedding you first take off your wifes niqab and hijab then start lightly stroking her hair. Then you sort of lightly tic http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-222149.html I had a whole lot of things I wanted to write about as well as a whole narrative but I think I'll just write about some random things.Last week I went to Aden for a vacation from Sana'a and school. Its a lot nicer than Sana'a because the people aren't so crazy and high strung also far less conservative. I walked on the beach a lot saw the cisterns chewed qat on Crater Island took knockoff http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-222105.html When people ask me what my favorite port was on my trip I answer without hesitation Yemen. There are several reasons that Yemen appealed to me. Firstly was the people. They were the most welcoming and warm people that I encountered in any port that we visited. They were helpful honest and genuine people who were truly happy to share their culture with me. I also loved the land and city http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sayun/blog-221846.html Yeah that's right I'm the shit. I just took a four day trip to Aden alone speaking Arabic on my own with no help and when I got back I found out that I straight up aced my final exam from last term and I got a 92 in class overall. That test was so so increadibly difficult that I think I'm going to post it on my wall since I don't have a refrigerator. The cherry on top came when my http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-220589.html David who commented on my last postI appreciate the intentions behind the words of warning that you put on my blog but the substance of your comment leaves something to be desired. First I was using hyperbole when I said that I was close to taking some guy into the bathroom the comment was reasonable because anyone who knows me knows that such a thing isn't in my character and that it was mo http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-216075.html My friend Marzuq just explained to me that Yemenis refer to their cigarette buts with the word 'Bush' as in George W.I've also been noticing that a lot of shopkeepers have portraits of Sadam Hussein on their walls. It sort of makes sense since Yemen was the only country to back Sadam during the first gulf war. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-215760.html Oh dear The last five days have been pretty ridiculous. I feel like I've learned a lot of good things about Yemen and also seen some of the nastier things. I also defaced an Ismali shrine inedvertantly.Well on Thursday my friend Ken and I went cloths shopping I needed a thoab and shal for the Hodeida wedding and he needed another mowaz and a suit jacket. All readily available in Sana'a. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-215331.html Hmmm hmmm hmmm. Well a lot has happened in the past week. I had to delete a post that I made about somebody here at the center. It was increadibly critical and borderline racist towards the French. Plus I kindof changed my mind about this person after I wrote it. She or he is actually a decent person though a few of the criticisms I made still stand just in a less inflamitory form.Thi http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-214234.html Yemen is a predominantley Muslim country in which the consumption of drugs particularly alchohal is strictly forbidden. So if you're a corrupt western youth in the capitol of this puritanical land where do you go to get your drink on To quote Obi Wan Kenobi the wretched hive of scum and villany that those in the know around here call The Russian Club.Since the day I arrived here I've been http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-212570.html Ugh it was bound to happen sometime and I guess I'm lucky that it was during a break from school but I've got the travelers diahrrea. The doctor at the travel clinic in Milwaukee called it Muhammad's revenge ass and the president of the school refered to it as the obligatory welcome present from Yemen. Anyway the last few days have been spent in bed although last night I did go with my f http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-212028.html God damn it If I want to have another glass of tea with my new friend Ali then you could just give me another glass you fucking bitch. Halass Fuck that son I'm learning here I even spoke to you in dialect you fucktard bastard.Aside from that crap I met Ali and Noram through my friend Chris. Like all the yemenis I've met so far accept the afore mocked shopkeeper they were very fr http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-211257.html Children in Yemen fucking love me. I just had a kid help me buy some sandals to go with my sweet new futah which makes me look like I'm from Taizz according to the tailor. This kid showed me around bab alYemen and helped me get a really good deal on my sandals. He said as you might expect is true that because I don't look Yemeni people will try to overcharge me. Later a whole crowd of http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-210464.html I just bought the most beautiful fut'ah and met this guy named Namil in the suq. I can't wait to wear it... http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-209890.html Yemen is the most real of any place of been. This could be why it seems so overwhelming the constellation of signs and ideas that I've been weened on has finally been rearranged into a world that doesn't make me think I'm looking at a photocopy of something I'd seen before. London meh. Amsterdam fake as fuck. Disney World well I don't know if its been real in the last San Francisco has b http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-209535.html Consistently I feel at a loss for the right words to describe this place. Yemen has almost nothing in common with any place I've ever been and as a consequence I'm like a newborn who awoke to his life as an adult. The only thing that come to mind when I try to think of encapsulating sentiments is a crude Yemen is fucking ballstothewall insane.Today was my first real day in Sana'a. I saw http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-209172.html We limp into Aden Yemen about 9 days after we left Egypt and I am very much looking forward to dry land and getting a full night's sleep the first since we leaving Egypt. My first impressions of Yemen are not positive...we arrive at 4pm to find that everything is closed due to ramadhan and it takes a few days to work out what the schedule is for opening...whenever one feels like on a day to day http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/blog-206661.html The next few days onboard pass fairly uneventfully except for the overwhelming heat and humidity. It sucks the life out of you suppresses the appetite ah well at least it's good for the waist... the temperature is topping 35 degrees celcius and 32 humidity the hatch in my cabin is as wide as it will go but still not a whiff of air. I didn't quite expect it to be this hot so now I am countin http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/blog-204345.html Happy to be in an Arab country again. Not just because now we can relax about taking care of our belongings or to be ripped off at everyday purchasing but is nice to feel in a familiar culture I'm surprised to notice how I missed the call to pray at 430 in the morning. After so long changing places every two or three days we needed some rest. Stop for a while in the same place have a bed a k http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-192646.html I have been the Fulla the local Barbie doll of my yemeni friends lately that liked to see me getting dressed in yemeni or arabic clothes just for the fun of it. I wish I could put pictures of some of the wonderful women I met here in Sana'a but it's been impossible to have their permission or their husbands for that matter. IMPOSSIBLE Even for the henna session I tried to take a picture of http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-183808.html