Home Sweet Abou Roumaneh!

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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 Khalil al-Karim Street, just two minutes walk from our school. Eric and our new French friend Jeremie live above us on the fifth floor, and have the most incredible view from their huge balcony. They also have a set of stairs to the flat roof, where you can get a 360 degree view of the city. I'm hoping to get a video of it soon.

Our apartment is nice and big. It's long and thin, with a "WC" and kitchen at one end. This is followed by a long hallway. Our two, large bedrooms open off it on the left, and a bathroom (with just shower) on the right. At the end of the hall is the living room and dining room, and the door to our own big balcony. The decor is hilarious, with standouts being the over-the-top, tacky French style of the dining room, and Leah's bedroom, which looks *just* like a Barbie Dreamhouse.

We have also developed a strategy to keep track of the roaches we've seen, and to properly identify the catastrophic effect they've had on our coddled sense of what constitutes a scary bug. We're naming them like hurricanes! Alternating gender, Arabic or Hebrew names. So far we have weathered Hurricane Cockroach:

• Ali
  
• Bint Ali (lit. "daughter of Ali")
  
• Caliph 'Umar (homage to this formidable man )
  
• Daoud
  
• and just last night, caught crossing the living room floor, Elahe (no relation to our lovely friend by the same name, but we were stuck for a name and it made us giggle)
  

And without further ado, some pictures!

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Photos

Heart of the Neighbourhood
Looking north on Abou Roumaneh Street

View From Our Balcony
Mt, Qaysioun in the (not far) distance

Sparkly!
Leah and Eric look out over the city and the mountain

Twilight
Every green light is a mosque!

Main Hall
You can see the fridge is in the hall, NOT the kitchen!

Hanging Out on Erics Balcony
New friends!

More of the Neighbourhood
Looking south

And Again
Looking north

Street Scene
Just around the corner

The School Gate
With Maher at the front gate. Swanky.

IFPO
The "patio" at our school. It's lovely and green,

RIP Daoud
For you, Nadine

Dinner on the Balcony
Leah, scenery, and "cheese envelopes"

Talking Seriously on the Balcony
We are deep.

Comments

[Sam Wilson]

Looks Great!
Wow! The apartment looks nice! I had no idea what to expect, but I like it. Nice neighborhood as well.

[manisha]

it is comforting that your bed is just as messy in damascus george. nice pacs!

[Brigid]

Buggy
Nice bug. More bugs please....one named William and one named Brigid!

[William]

bugggggggggggggggggggggggg
nice bug. more bugs, more bugs....more bugs less people

[Brigid]

Bugs ' n' Gold
Any bugs wearing gold? If not more bugs less gold. Love Brigid

[William]

Cockroaches v. mosquitoes
Cockroaches hijack cars, mosquitoes do not. Mosquitoes suck your blood, cockroaches do not. So I conclude mosquitoes = vampire and cockroaches = criminals. Have the cockroaches hijacked your car yet? Cockroaches are probably worse for you, but mosquitoes are worse for me. they have bitten me on every part of my body (including my rear end). Love,William

[Devon]

Washer in the Kitchen
Seeing that your washing machine (or at least what looks like a washing machine) is in the kitchen brought back memories of my place in Peterborough. Heh. Those pictures are awesome. The number of mosques in that night picture is quite something. I suppose we don't really notice the number of churches in Canada though since we are used to them.