THIS

project is officially over. It's sufficient to say that I lack the income, I lack the motivation, and it was a hare-brained idea in the first place. I hope to renew this project in some form or another, but I would suggest going to http://anekaantavaada.blogspot.com in the meantime.

Getting American Again Phase 1

So, part of becoming American again is appreciating America as much as I appreciate Syria. I trekked the hell out of Syria, and I've come to believe that Aleppo is my favorite city on Earth. Could this be true? Can I live in a country with tens of huge cities and my favorite is halfway across the world?

The reason for this is that I've never really gone anywhere. I've been to Cleveland a few times--most of the times when I was younger (Cleveland Indians and Browns games with my dad). I've been to Cincinnati a few times in the past couple of years, and I'm not too fond of it (though my favorite cafe in Ohio is there--but it's not good enough to make up for how inconveniently spread out the city is. Plus it gives off a vague vibe of being too close to Kentucky.)

I went to New York for a couple hours each going to and coming back from Syria. I had a very mixed experience, but I still intend to explore the city more and hopefully come to appreciate what it has to offer. I went to Pittsburgh once but didn't spend more than a day there--though my first impression was really good.

I grew up near Mansfield (which isn't much of a "big" city to speak of) and I've been living in Columbus for about four years. So I've been to all the big cities in Ohio, Pittsburgh, and New York for a few hours. From growing up in the Midwest, I have an automatic fondness for it, but I haven't even been to Chicago--The Big City of the Midwest. Is it any wonder that my favorite city is in Syria?

So phase 1 of getting American again is figuring out what exactly America is. I can't and haven't made judgments about American cities because I've never even been west of the border of Ohio and Indiana, and up until my trip to Syria, east of Pittsburgh. So part 1 of phase 1 is San Diego. I'm there from now until Monday morning. Updates are forthcoming.

P.S. Moscow and Las Vegas don't count, because I've only been in their airports and hovering above their cities.

P.P.S. Part 2 could be New Orleans in the spring, and Part 3 through X could be part of a train expedition over the summer.

P.P.P.S. I'm taking pictures but didn't bring my connector, so they won't be available until after I get back.

So obviously I've been back for a while.

Almost exactly two months ago, I arrived back in the US. Lots and lots of things happened since then that, if you only read this, you have no idea about. Oops. Guess you just have to know me.

Anyway, I hereby begin to fulfill my promise that I will do the exact same thing I did in Syria in the US. I'm going to upload pictures, write about what I'm doing, etc. for all my Syrian friends. As soon as I get my camera back from Alex.

Recap on the Last Few Days.

So, I last left off when we went to Lattakia, I suppose. Since then has been a little hectic, as we've been trying to find an apartment outside of the Old City (preferably as far from it as possible). We have succeeded in this, and our new apartment is much, much cheaper in a less expensive neighborhood. I have finished being tutored because it is too expensive, and I'm going to start tutoring for English soon to make some money. We have to be out of our apartment by the end of the month, but we can't move into our new one until the 5th of next month, so we're going to the Christian Villages of the north for a few days with Nebras, which is where his family is from. Then we're coming back and moving in (me, Leo, Alex, and Nebras).

In the meantime, we have:
- Attended and participated in a Syrian wedding
- Been fed so much food we want to die
- Seen more Christian stuff in Christian houses than any American house in existence
- Witnessed a sword fight/play/dance (captured on video for all to see later)
- Gotten drunk and stumbled valiantly through the Old City during the call to prayer
- Met some pretty rad people, Syrians and Iraqis and foreign students alike
- Discovered that everything costs half as much in the Old City if you have a Syrian with you
- Discovered that everything costs half as much in the Old City if you yell at them in Arabic enough
- Discovered that this doesn't always work
- Had "hello!" called out to us by little kids who wish to practice the one word in English they know
- Found out that there is indeed a Persian restaurant in Damascus
- Found out that the Persian restaurant is indeed closed
- Played Twisted Metal 2
- Honed our senses enough to be able to clap flies out of existence in the courtyard
- Observed that jeem is indeed an Arabic sun letter, contrary to our teaching (disregard this, non-Arabic students)
- Found loads of incredible Middle Eastern music, traditional and non-traditional
- Gotten straight-razor shaves from the barber down the street
- Run out of things to put on this list

To Lattakia, and the Mediterranean.

So we (me, Leo, Alex, and Alex's friend Clarissa) took a trip this weekend to Lattakia, which was a four and a half hour bus ride north of Damascus, past the mountains to the left and the desert to the right until you can go west to the coast, where it basically just looks like Ohio except there's a Mediterranean Sea with crabs and pelicans and stuff. We had a good time, made some friends (pictured), went to their chalet, and pretty much partied all afternoon. Multiple (more than six) cups of tea, five cups of coffee, two cups of Pepsi, two sandwiches, two hookahs, and three debke dances later, we finally made our way home, salty and tired.

Desert. This picture faces east through the broad part of Syria. On the left were big mountains that we were driving right next to but I wasn't on that side of the bus and on the way back it was night.



This is where we got lost in Ohio for a couple of hours.



Nice.



Hotel for the night. We got there late and went swimming the next morning. This is Alex and Clarissa, obviously.



Lattakia is nice. This is the view from our balcony that night.



On our way to the beach, we met these guys. I thought they were fake until one of them tried to bite me.



This is another one of those pictures that don't need a description, in my opinion.



Alex, contemplating? I think that's Italy in the distance (not really).



Relatively pointless picture.



Also relatively pointless except you can see a woman veiled in the beach with her naked toddler daughter. Talk about extremes.



We first meet The Dudes.



More of The Dudes. Note that these guys probably knew about three words in English put together. We left them very happy yet sad to leave, but also extremely exhausted mentally.



Yeah.



I have one video of us trying to debke, one of us successfully doing debke, and one of Waleed, the guy on the right in the first Dudes picture, waving his hands in the air with the hookah in his mouth yelling "Arabs, Arabs!" (in Arabic, obviously) to a song that he likes. You'll have to specially request those when I get back.

Music.

So there's a pretty good jazz scene here, and I recently managed to find some Lebanese hip-hop. First few tracks are jazz, first with Abado and Co., and then the amazing Lina Shamamian who is from Syria and is having a concert here soon. Then Aksser (I can loosely translate this Against the Grain), a rap group from Lebanon, a song from Rayess Bek, their frontman, and then another by Aksser. Enjoy.

Some Like It Hot.

So, it's pretty hot here. It's not humid at all, so it's really not that bad, but the sun is pretty brutal. Luckily they knew what they were doing when they built these houses, so the courtyards always have at least 1/4 in the shade during the middle part of the day, and they're nice and cool compared to outside the house doors during the morning and the evening. You can really feel the difference when you're walking down the alley to the house and then walk in the courtyard. You're still more or less outside, but it's much cooler. And we have seen people pouring water on the ground outside their shops and Alex eventually asked someone why, and they said it cools it down and creates a small breeze if you leave the door open. This is totally true, and we now throw water all over the place when it gets particularly hot.

How hot does it get exactly? Case in point: If you leave a lighter out in the sun, it'll explode after about an hour. This has happened before. And yesterday. Two lighters exploded yesterday, in fact.

Some pictures in the morning, bros just straight chillaxing. The Yemeni girl has been gone for the week so we can deveil and be cool.





I disappear. I'm not sure at all who took these pictures... I just found them on my camera.



A bottlecap with the same thing written on it is the prize for anyone who can guess what this bottle says.



Me in my room, in my basic Syrian outfit. I have to actually try to look cool here to appear normal. Where are all the slackers who don't bother to shave here? Just us Americans?