a treat

November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada, but it is Pepero Day in Korea. I think I've posted about this a few times before. Pepero is basically thin cookie sticks dipped in chocolate. November 11th is Pepero Day because, well, 11/11 supposedly looks like Pepero sticks. How creative. Pepero characters. Pepero songs. Pepero animation.
This year my school was closed that week so I didn't get many of the chocolate dipped cookie sticks.
Almost a week later one of my students did give me some fancy (gourmet) ones.These ones were quite tasty!! :)
The card thing on top says: "Special Gift" "wish you eternal happiness and the bless of health~!!"

mask

With the swine flu getting more and more around, last week the school decided to bring in a new dress code - masks for everyone. All of the teachers and students must wear masks all day. Here are a few of my kids:[Justin][Brian][Ellen][maybe Thomas??? (one of the twins - forget which one was wearing the yellow mask that day. They keep changing day to day)]
It's a nice idea but doesn't really work. None of the kids wear them properly (most of the teachers as well) and many have stopped wearing them altogether. ALL of the kids keep touching their faces anyway, trying to sneak a nose pick here and there, taking the mask OFF to sneeze or cough, etc. Then they touch the tables, the classroom pencils and erasers and everything else. Many have them down just covering their mouth but not their nose, or just hanging on their chin. [In the pics of the kids above, I fixed their masks before taking the pics.]
Today I was watching my students. Only one had the mask covering her nose. The others had theirs down or rolled in a ball on the table. One kid had a pencil hanging from his nostril, another had a pencil in her mouth. Ugh. Also, while the kids are wearing masks during the day, during snack time and lunch time, the masks are put away and the kids are all sitting together at little tables, talking and breathing over each others' food and poking at each others' food at times.

What's the point???
As of this week I have stopped wearing one at all because it is impossible to teach phonics with a mask hiding my mouth and muffling the sound. You can't teach the proper way to make the 'th' sound without them seeing what I am doing, and without me seeing what they are doing to make the sound (there is nothing equivalent to the 'th' sound in Korean so it is sometimes difficult for them). They're quite uncomfortable anyway and make my face itchy.
Another thing the school has brought in is hand sanitizer. They have the kids using the stuff between classes. Well, the kids are getting used to using the hand sanitizer and some are getting obsessed with it. Apparently some of the other foreign teachers have seen some of the kids using sanitizer after going to the bathroom instead of washing their hands.
I think most of them will be getting immunized sometime the beginning of this month. See if they get rid of the masks then.

March 19th: Amman

I'm still trying to finish posting about my trip earlier in the year but it is very time consuming. I'm working on it!!!
The bus drop off in Amman was not at any sort of station. It was in some sort of alley behind a small building, in a dirt lot. Hmmm. Odd. I didn't have any problems, though. Got my bag, headed to the main street and hopped into a taxi. I gave the taxi a business card for the Palace Hotel (I got the card from some of the people I met in Syria). He seemed to know what it was and started going. But then he kept stopping to ask for directions. Along the way, he said 10JD. I said WHAT?? NO! Meter. He said okay, 5 JD. I said NO. He said 4 JD. I said NO, Meter. Finally he stopped. I didn't see the hotel. I asked and he said it was on the other side of the street, back a little bit. He had passed the walk that was near it and didn't want to go and turn around and go back to drop me off closer to the hotel. He refused, even though I had my big back and small bag to carry, not to mention a knee that didn't seem to want to work. I got out, got my bags and paid him. It was quite a bit more than the meter rate. If I had smaller change I would have given him only what the meter said, as he was being a jerk. He drove away, almost knocking me over. Ack. I should have taken down his lisence plate number but was too tired and just wanted to get to the hotel. It was more than a block back!!!! Argh.

I was at the hotel by about 10 AM.
In the hotel I guess I was lucky as they had a single room w/bathroom left for 18JD/night. I say lucky as everyone I saw coming in after was told it was full, including a girl that came in with a reservation - they said the thought it was for the next day. I think they called a couple of other hotels for her to help find her a room. My room was okay but not fantastic. It was actually a double room with a private bathroom/shower. It was room #104 but to get to the room I had to go up to the 4th floor (3 on the elevator numbers, as it is 3 up), across the hall, out the door, along a balcony and then in a door to a long hallway. I think there are only 3 rooms in the hall and mine was at the end. It was a fairly cold room. The heater was on the opposite side of the room from the beds, under a drafty window. I had to use the blankets from both beds to stay warm. The Palace Hotel is fairly well known as a back packer hotel/hostel. It had Internet (for a fee, of course) on 6 computers in the lounge type area, which was great. Saved having to search for a Net cafe. The hotel let me have breakfast for free that morning. :) A simple breakfast but good; fairly standard from what I had been having in the Middle East.
After eating I went out to wander around a bit. I found the King Hussein Mosque. I didn't go in, though. I went through the fruit & vegetable market behind it and went up the hill.It was opposite the citadel hill, and so I had a good view of the citadel.I started making my way back down the hill, along another route. At one point, a group of guys started following me and making strange noises and laughing. I knew they were watching me... and making the noises at me. No matter what country, men are still men. I walked past the Wild Jordan Cafe, which looked fairly interesting, and down to the bottom of the hill and found the amphitheater. It is HUGE!!!I walked up the stairs and looked around. It held up to 6000 spectators!!! It would have been amazing to see how it was when it was built and used. On either side of the amphitheater, inside, are two little museums: the Museum of Popular Tradition and the Museum of Folklore, with clothes and tools and such. Not bad.Next to the amphitheater is the Odeon, a small theater that seated up to 500 people.From what I have read it is still sometimes used. From there I took a taxi to go up to the Citadel. For some reason, it took a long time to get him to understand where I wanted to go. I even pointed and he gave me a blank look. Eventually, though, he figured it out and I made it there. There are several structures on the top of the mountain of the Citadel: the Temple of Hercules which was possibly made by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius:a 5 meter deep cistern: what remains of a Byzantine Church, the ruins of the Umayyad Palace:the palace entrance and the Ummayad Mosque. The difference between the old and the refurbished is so well defined![THIS link has a little map and information of these places.] The small Archaeological Museum has quite a bit to see including pottery covered skullsThe info card says:

Plastered Skulls
It is thought that skulls of ancestors were kept in
Plaster to be worshiped by their descendents
Found at Jericho
Neolithic

jar babiesThe info card says:

Child Burial
The burial of infants in jars was a common custom in
Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine. The jar was generally
placed under living room floor possibly to keep the
child within the family circle
Ghassul
Chalcolithic

Anthropoid coffins:The info card says:

ANTHROPOID COFFINS

The five anthropoid coffins on display were discovered in 1966 in the grounds of the Raghadan Palace in Amman among other archaeological finds in a cistern-like tomb. Made of baked clay, with crushed pieces of pottery used as grits, each of them has four handles that were used to transport them from their place of manufacture to their place of use. One of them has 16 handles at the back arranged in two rows, apparently serving to elevate the coffin when laid horizontally.
At the place where the head of the deceased would rest, a lid was cut out. the lug handles, one on the lid and one on the body of the coffin, were placed so as to fasten the lid to the body. On two of these lids, there are portraits of the deceased. Note the pointed noses, the small, elongated eyes and the eyebrows arranged in such a wasy as to connect up with the outline of the face. The ears are large and prominent, the lips small and straight and the beards of a pronounced length. Two of the coffins have arms placed on the sides of the body.
When discovered, it was found that each coffin contained two or three skeletons.
Very few sites have shown this type of burial practice in Jordan and Palestine. These include Sahab, south of Amman, and Lachish, Tell al-Far'ah, Besan and Deir al-Balah in Palestine. This burial practice was in use from the 13th to the 7th Century BC.

pottery bombs (maybe?):and other such interesting things. From the info card:

Architectural Relief

young woman wearing a laurel wreath holds a
mask of Pan, the herdsmend's god, or of a Satyr. She
may be Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, or be part
of a frieze in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine
Alternatively she may be the muse Thaleia holding
a mask of Pappos (father), as in the comedies of the
poet Menander which were the most popular on the
ancient stage at that time.
Nabataean, first half of 1st century A.D
Limestone, from Petra

From the Citadel, the view of Amman is amazing, including a great view of the Roman Theater in the distance. I took a back route down the hill using stairs on one side near the Temple of Hercules. The stairs took me to one of the roads that winds along the side of the hill, along which I found other stairs to other roads. The sights along the way were very interesting, with old and new intermixed. Some buildings were being destroyed or just deserted and falling down. When I was almost at the bottom, a guy approached me and wanted to talk. He seemed decent enough so I decided to let him join me. Ahmed, an electronics engineer, is learning English. We walked for a while and then sat in the forum (the area in front of the Amphitheater) to have some tea. Then, since I was hungry, he took me to Hashems, a very famous little restaurant that only serves felafels and side dishes. It is said to be one of the oldest restaurants in Amman. It was SO delicious!!! And cheap!!!! I was so full by the time I finished but only payed a little more than 1 JD. After eating, he took me to Jabra, a cafe, for some coffee. An interesting place with a good atmosphere. A bit smoky, though, since it is a sheesha cafe. After we finished our coffee, Ahmed wanted to show me his favorite street in Amman, a little street just off of Rainbow Street. The whole area there is very wealthy. A huge part of Rainbow Street has cobblestones. I think they are trying to make it back into something of what it once was. [Here is a blog post I found that shows Rainbow Street in some detail: 360East.]
Then it was back to the hotel for me. I was sitting at the computers working on a post and adding pics when all of a sudden something went wrong and the whole post went blank. ACK!!!!! So much time wasted!!! Back in my hotel room, I froze. The room was soooooooooo cold. The little heater was right under the windows, which were not well sealed and which seemed to suck out any heat coming off of the heater. I had the blankets from both beds in the room on top of me and was still a bit cold. Not cool.

Chuseok and Namsangol Hanok Village

October 4th, 2009
Since it was Chuseok I decided that I should do at least something Korean, as opposed to spending the entire weekend out all night and sleeping all day, which is what I did Thursday night, Friday night and part of Saturday night - not that that isn't a very Korean thing, as they seem to do that quite frequently, even on week nights (the drinking part, at least). So Sunday I got up at a fairly decent time and dragged my friend Revo to the Namsangol Hanok Village (남산골한옥마을), at the base of Namsan (san is mountain), near Chungmuro station. [hee hee. made him pose for me]The Namsan Hanok Village is comprised of 5 traditional Korean homes from the Joseon period that were moved there in 1998 when part of the army base was moved. [a kitchen][a kimchi hut - a kimchi pot is buried up to the lid and covered with this hut to keep it cooled]There are always traditional Korean activities to partake in but since it was Chuseok, there were even more. Revo wearing a Jige - a traditional Korean device for carrying things (wood, etc).A throwing game - throw a bean bag like thing through the hole.[making traditional Korean shoes/slippers]There were Korean crafts and games such as kite making, paper doll making (well, the painting part and giving them clothes, at least), fan painting, [Revo's fan][my fan :)]

mask making (using crepe paper on a pre-formed paper mask of varying designs such as traditional, cat, butterfly), and solpyeon (rice cake) making. [pounding the rice to make rice cake]There were plenty of other activities as well: trying on traditional clothes, ball tossing, and see-saw jumping (nolttwigi), which is typically a women's activity or sport. It is similar to the western see-saw only a bit longer and they stand on it rather than sitting, jumping in turn. The women literally fly and often do acrobatics while in the air. It is quite impressive, actually. Others are swinging (kunettwigi), which is also done standing up, spinning tops, arrow throwing, hoop rolling, demos of traditional Korean bow making and other such things.[kimchi etc pots and a persimmon tree][making dubu (tofu) I think]Of course, as well as the activities there are the homes to check out, some of which contain examples of the costumes that they wore.There are also traditional Korean characters to pose with. View of Namsan Tower from the Namsan Hanok Village:

swine flu, skirmishes with North Korea, etc...

So, my school has closed its doors until Friday. 3 days off mid week. I'm certainly not complaining.
I wonder though how affective this is. A couple of students got the flu and the result is the school closing. So what happens if a couple more students end up with the flu next week or the following week or such? Do we close the school again? Korea has free flu shots for school children (grade 1 and up, but not kindergarten age because it is not part of mandatory education) that will be given in public schools across the country. The parents can opt out of having their child immunized if they want. Any children younger than that can be taken to family doctors for their shots. Public school teachers are next on the list (or at the same time?) for the shots. Foreigners have to wait, or so I've been told. I figure all of the hagwons should provide shots for the teachers. Why not? We see just as many kids as the regular teachers!
In an attempt to make kids remember to wash their hands and be careful, I think some parents are telling their children that if you get the flu, you will definitely die. I've been told that by several students. Interesting. I then explain to the kids that no, getting the flu doesn't mean you will die. Some will just not understand my explanations, though, or accept them if they do, since it's all in English, a foreign language to them, and of course, if it contradicts what their mommy tells them, what are they to believe? I suppose they will learn soon enough since all of them will at some point encounter someone who has had it, or will catch it themselves.
Today there was a bit of a fight between North and South Korean ships to the west. Sounds almost the same as the one that happened my first year in Korea, in 2002. A North Korean ship crossed the Northern Limit Line, that is the internationally agreed upon demarcation line in the Yellow Sea. North Korea doesn't agree with NLL and so every now and then crosses it. The incident in 2002 was a bit more serious, though, as it involved 2 North Korean ships, one of which was on fire on its way back up, and a South Korean ship sank as it was being towed back to shore. Several South Koreans died during the skirmish. I didn't really hear much about it, though, other than the first couple of reports.
There have been other incidents as well.
I wonder how much attention this newest fight will get with all of the attention being put on the swine flu.

Cookie

Cookie from Laura J on Vimeo.

Cookie II from Laura J on Vimeo.

Chuseok

Last weekend was Chuseok (추석 /Korean Thanksgiving). Chuseok, which I have posted about before, though with pictures and not as much detail, is one of the most important holidays in Korea (along with Seolnal, the Lunar New Year) and is a 3 day holiday. The main day (the middle of the 3) is August 15th on the Lunar calendar so it changes every year. Unfortunately it fell on a weekend this year, which meant only a 3 day weekend rather than a 4 or 5 day weekend that it often is. For Chuseok, Koreans (especially children) often dress up in their Hanbok (한복/ traditional Korean clothing) and visiting family is the norm. Women aren't always fond of these holidays because they are required to cook so many things. A big Korean dinner is not a simple affair and can take days of preparation due to all of the side dishes and such. During Chuseok, children bow to their elders (well, more of a prostration with the forhead touching the hands on the floor) and often get money in return. One of the most common special foods for Chuseok is songpyeon (송편), a rice cake stuffed with a number of things from sugar, sesame seeds, chestnut, and other such things. For the occasion, Thursday at my kindy was 'Hanbok Day'. The kids dressed up in their Hanboks (which seem to be getting fancier every year) and got to do several Korean activities including making songpyeon and playing jegichagi, a simple game similar to a hackey sack. The game is generally played with 4 people, passing it around trying to keep it from touching the ground.For the kids, the thing is tied to a string to help them keep it from going everywhere.I had my 6 yr old students for 30 minutes that day (each class 30 minutes). We didn't know until pretty much the day before that it was even Hanbok Day and were not told that we were expected to teach the kids something Korean (without any info or help), I had them coloring some simple pages I found on the Net. The kids didn't mind!! Hanok - Korean traditional house with a persimmon tree [coloring page]Hanbok - Korean traditional clothing [coloring page]
I colored along with them and most of them were trying, at least partly, to copy what I was doing.
If I didn't have other work to do that day I would have more pictures of the things they did.
more to come about Chuseok...

tshirt

Today on a t-shirt:

DRINK
PEE
REPEAT

March 18th: Hama and bus to Amman [updated with pics and more; first posted 06-04-09]

I got up early to have breakfast and get ready to meet Alaa' for some shopping - I wanted to try to find a little backgammon game board that I had seen in Aleppo but didn't buy. Backgammon seems to be quite popular everywhere over here - in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, ... I talked to Abdullah about the bus to Amman. I had him book me a ticket on the midnight bus and then went out to meet Alaa'. He wasn't there!!! I waited for quite a while, but he didn't show up. So I went in to call him. He had gotten busy with some family things and couldn't come early. He said he'd come after a couple of hours so then I had time to wait. I sat behind the reception counter with Margo, an older Australian/Estonian woman who had also been staying at the hotel and was going to Amman on the afternoon bus. She had been sick in bed the past few days. Poor woman! Abdullah was there talking with us for a while. We had tea, and then he left. We were brought fresh strawberries and such. :) Nice. Eventually I saw Alaa' outside (they have security cameras - one of the sidewalk outside the door, one of the stairway, one of the salon, and one of the restaurant/dining room).
Alaa' and I wandered for quite a while. We checked out several shops but either they didn't have them or they were bad quality or they were charging way too much. Finally we found one that I liked, with mother of pearl inlay. I paid 500 Syrian pounds (about $10US?). We then went to see some of the (ناعورة) norias of Hama. I love them!!!The Norias are along the Orontes River of Hama and are very old and big.

The Noria Al-Muhammadiyya is supposedly the largest noria in the world, as well as one of the oldest. According to an info board near the noria, it is 21 meters in diameter (about 69 feet) and was built around 763 AH (1361 CE). We walked around quite a bit checking out the norias.I think that is the 3 norias. Most of them had no posters or info boards so I can't really label the pictures other than how many were at a specific spot if there were more than one. We tried to get down to the 4 norias from the back side but couldn't, so went to the 4 norias restaurant. I had lunch, but as usual, he wasn't hungry. Also, he had a stomach ache. He had a special kind of tea that is supposedly good for stomach problems. I took a small taste of it. YUCK!!! It kinda tasted like stomach acid!! It was lemon with cumin. Not something I would ever want to taste again. After I ate, he talked to the manager about going to see the norias. They said there was no separate entry, and there was a gate, but we could jump over the gate if we wanted to get closer to the norias. Funny. We did just that. Out the back door of the restaurant to their patio and then over the gate that separated the patio from the norias.I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but the water REALLY stinks. Near the hotel area, the water is actually bubbling (with noxious gas?) and has a thick iridescent film on it. DISGUSTING!! It smells like human waste among other things. At the norias, it smells like sulfur. It is amazing that anything can live in it!!! Near the 4 norias, there were frogs living in the water. We stopped for a while to toss tiny pebbles to try to make the frogs jump (not to hit them, so you know). I went back to my hotel to rest and get my things ready. I watched a movie (Shining Through) and took a bit of a nap before going to sit in the salon for a while, with Cookie sitting on my knee chewing my pen, and then sleeping on my foot. :) A little later, I went out to pay for my bus ticket. They said the bus was at 12:30AM. Then I went back to Alaa's restaurant to have tea and say bye. We had some tea and sat and talked for a while. Then he got busy for a moment. While he was up, a guy from the next table came over and asked me to join them. He was with his fiancee and her mother. I said okay, for a short time. He siad he is the mayor of a village to the east of Hama. I'm not sure if I believed him or not. He spoke English quite well. His fiancee also spoke some English. She just started studying English literature in university. She is only 18!!!! The guy looked around 28 or 30. He was looking at me and watching me in an odd way. When Alaa' returned, I went back to join him. I had a cappuccino and we chatted some more. When it was time for me to go, he said he would try to see me off at the bus station but would probably be too busy. No problem.
I went back to the hotel to check out and wait a bit until it was time to go to the bus station. I was a little late leaving the hotel because I didn't have enough Syrian money - I paid the hotel bill but also had to have enough to pay the departure tax, so I had to change some money. I finally left the hotel at around 12:15 and got to the bus station in less than 10 minutes. With only a short time before the bus was to leave (according to what I was told), I thought I was in a hurry. I went to the office there, and the guy told me to sit and wait. What? There was a bus at the station that was almost ready to pull out. The guy took my passport to write down my info, and then disappeared in the back to make some tea for himself!! I was thinking what the heck is he doing??? The bus was pulling out. I looked worried, as when he came out and looked at me he said to relax, because the bus wasn't there yet and wouldn't go until 1. Grrrr. After he got my info and I got my passport back, I went out to find some water and a snack, then went back to the office to read my book. I had just sat down and opened my book when I looked up to find Alaa' sitting beside me. He had rushed to get there and had though he would have missed me. His friend from the restaurant had driven him on his motorcycle. He then stayed until my bus came. We went and got a tea and a cheese (salty Arabic cheese) sandwich for me since I really hadn't had anything for dinner. We had just started to drink the tea when the bus came, about 15 minutes early. Well, I had to go. The busses here don't wait until the departure time. When the bus pulled in, a bunch of people all of a sudden appeared. I'm not sure where they were waiting. I was put in the front seat behind the driver. A young guy tried to sit next to me but the driver shooed him away and told him to find another seat. Yay!! I had the whole 2 seats to myself. Good thing, as the bus was very old and not very comfortable. There was almost no leg room, but with the 2 seats, I could stretch my legs out. It was around a 7 hour bus ride. We stopped a while before the border at a little place where everyone had to pay a departure tax of 500 Syrian Pounds. Then it was back on the bus for a while longer. I slept between stops. I wish I had some warning before the stops or had some instruction as to what was going on, as each time I woke up, I felt very disoriented, and every time there was a stop, I sort of just had to follow everyone and figure out on my own what had to be done. First, there was the departure area where I had to go in and get a departure stamp. For some reason, the guy stood there looking at my passport for about 5 minutes before even starting to put it into the computer and stamp it. Not sure why. Then I sat on the bus for about 20 minutes waiting... not sure what for. After that, it was a short drive to the Jordanian immigration/entry section. First thing, all bags had to be taken off of the bus and out of the baggage storage to be opened and quickly inspected, and then put back on the bus. Then I had to go around to another building for the immigration procedures. I went to the VISA counter, where I was told to go to the immigration counter first. At the immigration counter, the guy looked at my passport, and told me to go to the VISA counter. That little look at the passport was apparently an important part of the procedure. I had to then run outside to another building to change money to pay for the VISA. Then it was no problem. I got the little VISA stamp and had the immigration guy stamp the arrival stamp and off I went back to find the bus (it moved to part in front of a little store). We waited there for almost half an hour!!! I guess it was breakfast time?? I wasn't yet hungry. I just wanted to sleep. After that there were no more stops until we reached Amman. Where we were dropped off was not at any bus station but just behind some building. Odd. I went out and quickly found a taxi to take me to the hotel I had chosen - the Palace Hotel. The driver took a while to understand the little map on the back of the business card I had. Then he didn't even drop me off near the hotel, but rather about a block past it on the other side. ARGH!! He didn't want to turn around to go back. Then he wouldn't give me all of my change. I didn't think he deserved a tip but he tipped himself with my money. GRRRRR.

March 17th: Aleppo and back to Hama [updated with pics and more; first posted 03-04-09]

After getting ready in the morning, we checked out and I left my bags at reception so we could go out and see things in Aleppo.We went to the Citadel... but it was closed. :( It is closed Tuesdays.I was hungry so we sat at a nearby cafe so I could eat. Too much food, for too much money. You couldn't order a set. Everything is separate. I had a fried egg, yogurt (which they completely covered in olive oil), a cheese thing that was similar to a quesadilla only with a salty arabic cheese that was quite rubbery, and a tea. They brought olives on the side. It certainly wasn't worth 300 Syrian Pounds (only I was eating, as Alaa' wasn't hungry). Oh well. I was too hungry to wait. Then we walked through some of the old souqs. So nice. Like elsewhere, the souqs are in old caravanserais. Unfortunately not much was open, even at 10 AM. Because it was Tuesday??? In our wandering, we found the Medicine and Science Museum in Bimaristan (hospital/house of patients) Argun. It was a hospital and madhouse/asylum from the 14th until the 20th century, with a part for dangerous patients. Some of the rooms had displays showing the tools and such used. Some looked a bit scary!We tried to get into a nearby madrasa but it was closed... also because it was Tuesday. :(
We went to the Aleppo Museum. It TOO was closed. Tuesdays... why is everything there closed Tuesdays??? Why did Tuesday just happen to be the day that I spent in Aleppo??? ARGH!!We did manage to go to the Great Mosque of Aleppo. It is similar to the mosque in Damascus but of a smaller scale. Still very nice. Like at the one in Damascus, I had to wear a grey hooded robe (though this one really didn't fit very well and with my bag underneath it looked even stranger).[I love taking pics of the minarets of mosques. It's always so easy to get a beautiful shot.]My knee had started hurting several days before and was really getting bad. Not a good thing. I decided I should go back to Hama for a little rest (since the hotel there, the Riad, was so great and welcoming). We went back to the hotel and then went to the bus station to get tickets. We didn't have long to wait. I had to go to the bathroom and wouldn't be able to wait the whole bus trip so I left my bags with Alaa' and went on a search for it. I walked into the main part of the station where all of the offices are. I asked a guy where the bathroom was. He had no idea what I was saying. I asked for the WC. He still didn't understand. I asked for the toilets. He seemed to understand and said "Ah! Follow me!" He took me to one of the offices and tried to sell me bus tickets to some city I didn't know the name of. Argh!! All they want to do is sell bus tickets for the company they work for. That is how they make their money. I said no. Another guy in the office asked what I needed. I said I had to go to the bathroom. He said "Ah." and looked at the other guy, shook his head and said to follow him. This guy actually did understand. By the time I was finished it was time for the bus to go. Alaa' came to find me as the bus was in a different spot. Also, we had to go to the police office to get my ticket signed. Even though the ticket office took had my name and passport info, for some reason the police had to authorize it. They are very protective of the foreigners in Syria.
On the way home, Alaa' was amused by my paper folding. I have a habit of making things (paper cranes, paper boxes, paper stars, etc) with even little bits of paper (like gum wrappers and such). Once in Hama, I went to my hotel. I had a great welcome. The guy at the counter had a surprised look on his face and said to go take my bags off and relax for a bit. He called Abdullah who immediately came down and said I was just on time and had to follow him upstairs. He had made a large lunch for a couple of his friends and wanted me to join. They had finished the fish (which is fine by me since I don't eat fish), but there was still plenty of the rest of the dishes left (salad, fuul, eggplant, cauliflower, etc) that he had made from scratch. He said he sometimes likes to cook. It was all so delicious!!!Back in the salon to relax and write in my journal, Cookie was back on my knee. So cute.
At around 8 I went out for some dinner. I went to the restaurant that Alaa' works in. He is something like an accountant/cashier/manager. All he does is sign the receipts and later on balances the cash and receipts. Because of that, he could sit and talk. We had tea (or I had tea and he had the Turkish coffee that he seems to be addicted to). I then had dinner... chicken on rice with salad and fries (a bit of a bigger meal that what is on the menu) and a Nescafe with milk afterwards. When it was time for me to go, Alaa' refused to let me pay for my meal. :)

March 15th & 16th: Hama, new friends and Lattakia [updated with pics and more; first posted 03-04-09]

Oh, I forgot to mention that while I was downstairs writing, Abdullah made me share his dinner - a burger (half) and some fries. Tasted great, but I ate too much that day. :S
I got up at 8 to get ready and have breakfast. After finishing my small breakfast, I went to my room to pack up my stuff as my plan was to leave around lunch time for Lattakia. While there, Abdullah called me to say I had to join him in the salon as he was having his breakfast of fuul (beans) and bread and such. He said I was in Syria and had to try the Syrian bean dish. Okay then. I had a second breakfast. It was so good!!! Once again I was eating too much. Ugh. Oh well. It was a good chance to try different things. After eating I went out to wander around Hamah, as I had yet to really do that. I went to the Azem Palace museum. It is small but nice. A man there sort of took me around and opened some doors for me. Even outside he kept saying photos were not allowed (there were only signs inside the rooms saying no photos). He would say no photos, then look around as if trying to be sneaky, and then say I could take a photo. He was actually telling me to take photos of certain things in some of the rooms, which I had no interest in taking photos of. Sort of like 'ooh! a window! picture okay!' I said no thanks and then he said no photos but okay for me to take photos. After a while it got kinda annoying but whatever. In the end, he was asking for a tip since he was letting me take pictures when he wasn't supposed to. It was all in order to get money, of course, which I knew right from the start. That seems to be the way it is everywhere over here. After I saw all there was to see in the museum, I wandered over to the nearest norias (water wheels). The water wheels in Hamah are amazing. There are so many of them!!! 17, to be exact, including the largest waterwheel in the world. They are very old, dating back to the Byzantine time, though of the course the wooden parts have been replaced fairly regularly to keep them running. Too bad I didn't get to see them actually moving (though it seems they can be VERY noisy!A street in the old quarter near the Azem Palace.While I was there taking pictures, a guy nearby asked if I wanted him to take a picture for me so that I could be in a picture. He seemed quite sincere (I always use my intuition and it has served me quite well), so I said okay. He kinda looks like Andrew McCarthy. Every time I looked at him it reminded me of the movies Pretty in Pink and Mannequin and I kind of laughed to myself. I walked with Alaa' for a while talking about all sorts of things - Syria, work, travel, etc. He spoke some English but not a lot. He took me to the big Hama Museum. It is big on the outside, but there is not much there to see. Then we went for coffee. I said I was going to Lattakia and he decided, if it was okay with me, he would join me to sort of show me around. He was enjoying my company. He called his co-worker/friend to get him to cover for work the next day (only one of them really has to be there at a time).
I went back to my hotel to check out and he went home to change and then picked me up at the hotel. We went to the bus station to get tickets, but the soonest bus was sold out and the next one was several hours away. So we decided to take a micro bus. Well, the micro bus that was there was already full and was just pulling out so we had to wait for the next one to fill up. They said maybe 30 minutes. That turned into a couple of hours. We were talking to 2 girls on the bus infront of us (we had the whole back seat because of my bag - I had to pay for the extra seat, which is really not much). They were both students, taking nursing in Lattakia. One of them, Fihal, had to go to the hospital by 5 to work. Eventually, after the bus was still not full, we all paid a little extra to make them go. Fihal was late for work as we didn't arrive until after 5. On the way, Rasha, the other girl, made arrangements for us to stay in a beach house (which they kept calling a chalet), as she knew someone that had one. It was fantastic and relaxing. The beach house was large, with 2 bedrooms (with 5 beds), a large living room with a view of the sea, and good sized kitchen (all on the 2nd floor). The Mediterranean Sea is beautiful! The next day we wandered along the shore and I got my feet wet. I can't go to the sea and not at least get my feet into it. ;) After talking a while, Alaa' decided he wanted to go to Aleppo, too. He lived in Aleppo for several years when he went to university, and wanted to show me around. Okay then. After leaving the beach house, we went to the train station to get tickets and leave my bags at the cafeteria (thank goodness they will store bags, as I didn't want to have to carry them around or sit there and wait the whole time). We had several hours to wander. We went along the corniche and down the steep side to the water's edge. So nice. The color of the water there was amazing!! I made Ali follow me and climb up a huge rock/hill, all vocanic rock, I think. On top, it was very windy. Though it was cold, it was very refreshing and the view was great. After sitting there for a while, we tried to get a hold of the girls again, but they were both busy. Rasha was on her way back to Hama already. Oh well.
On the way down the rock, Alaa' noticed that the heel of his shoe had at some point, fallen off. So our next activity was finding a cobbler to fix his shoe. As we searched, we stopped for a felafel sandwich for lunch... SO good. It took a while, but eventually we found a shoe repair shop in the downtown area. The place was literally a crack in the wall. The width of the room was only slightly wider than the guy's shoulders!! It was interesting watching him work. He did a great job of giving Alaa' two new heels. It only cost 50 Syrian pounds, which is about $1. The train to Aleppo was so nice. A lot of space, a smooth ride, and fairly fast. Definitely better than a bus ride! In Aleppo, we caught a taxi to the hotel that I had sort of picked out from my Lonely Planet Guide. It was absolutely horrible!!!! It smelled so bad, the paint was chipped and peeling off the walls. When they opened the door to a room to show it to me, all sorts of dust came flying off the walls. Yuck!!! We were out of there fairly quickly. Around the corner we found another hotel. It wasn't great but was much better than the other one, and cheaper. My room was very large, with my own bathroom/shower and heating. Alaa's room was nice but smaller, and no bathroom. He had to use the shared bathroom and shower with other rooms. Of course, his was cheaper.
For dinner, Alaa' took me to his favorite pizza place in Aleppo, a little place near the university called Mister Taster. The pizzas we had were sort of sampler pizzas with 3 kinds on one - 1/3rd mushroom, 1/3rd sausage/meat, and 1/3rd spicy chicken. It was delicious. Much better than I had expected.
I am still unable to upload any pictures. :( For some reason the computers here won't recognize my camera. I guess you'll just have to wait.

March 14th: More Crusader Castles! [updated with pics and more. first posted 02/04/09]

I went on another trip arranged by the Riad Hotel. This one was to Qala'at Salah ad-Din (Saladin's Castle) and Qala'at al-Marqab. There were two others on the tour with me - Paolo from Italy and Mariko from Japan. Paolo has been studying for a month in Damascus. An interesting option if I decided I want to learn more Arabic. :) It is around 300Euros for a 1 month course, with home stay at around 200Euros for the month. Not bad.

It took a while to arrive at our first castle of the day. Qala'at al-Marqab, meaning 'Castle of the Watchtower', is built on an extinct volcano and is unique in that it is built using black basalt, making the whole castle black. It was originally built in 1062 by the Arabs and then sold to the Byzantines and added to. The Crusaders held the fort until Sultan Qala’un (of Egypt) won it in battle. Such an amazing place!!! The views of the Mediterranean sea and the surrounding countryside are fantastic. It took a long time to wander. The only bad thing about the day was the weather. It was SO windy. You could literally lean into the wind and not fall over. Especially in a few places around the castle that became pretty much wind tunnels. Going up on top of the walls and roofs was a bit scary. It felt like the wind was going to pick me up and carry me away. At one point going through the castle, we some how got separated. It is like a maze in there!!! I was glad I remembered to bring my flashlight! :) To one side of the castle are the remains of the village. Very nice. Unfortunately, I found that after being separated and the other two I was with didn't see that part. I'm not even sure where they disappeared to. I think they went around the outside of the wall. The village was so peaceful, though kinda sad. There were no people anywhere. I think we might have been the only tourists there at the time!!! The only others were the guards at the front entrance. Can't complain. I love not having to wait for people to move out of the way of my pictures. :) After a few hours of wandering it was time to move onto the next destination, Qala'at Salah ad-Din. We stopped at the opposite side of the valley at a little restaurant (with the most flamboyant waiter I've ever come across) for lunch and to take some pictures. We then spent a few hours wandering about the castle. Saladin's castle was originally built by the Phoenecians and then lost to Alexander the Great around 334 B.C. There is an ineteresting story as to how he did it. The Byzantines then took control in the 10th century A.D. In the 12th century, it fell into the hands of the Crusaders. Right from the beginning, the castle was continuously added to and improved, mostly by the Crusaders, so the structures in some places look quite different from others. In July 1188, Salah ad-Din/Saladin and his army then took the castle.Fantastic!! Built a top a ridge with very deep ravines on either side, it would not have been an easy castle to reach or attack!! Once again, I was thankful for remembering to bring my flashlight!! :)These giant rock balls were all over (that's my foot for a bit of size comparison). From the catapults, I assume? The view out the windows (looking down) was breathtaking and frightening (a tad high up for my liking). Along one side, because there was no ravine, they made one! It is about 28 meters deep. Imagine how long this would have taken to carve by hand!!!A pillar was left in the middle to support a bridge that could be raised or lowered. For some reason, there are several donkeys wandering around the area. Guess there is not exit for them to sneak out! Sometimes the stairs going up or down to places are rather worn and crumbly and quite scary. This set was very steep and narrow, as you can see - I have Paolo in front of me to show how narrow they are. Had to keep one hand on the wall to keep balance the entire way down. Yes, scary, probably a bit dangerous, but... my sense of adventure takes over. ;) I LOVE EXPLORING!!!Peace!! Part of a fountain.A skylight!More donkeys!! :) making a friend. :)The white one wasn't as friendly and ran as soon as we got near. Can you see it (in the photo above)???There is only one road in to get to the castle. It goes switchback down the other side of the ravine and up this side to reach the front entrance.View of the rest of the castle grounds.Some of the rocks used for the castles have fossils in them. Very cool.Looking up!!This sort of shows how deep the hand cut ravine is. That is the bridge pillar in the middle.Back in Hama I went for dinner with Mariko, back to Aspasia. I was very happy with their shish taouk (unlike my reaction to the other dish I had tried there). Once again I got free dessert. Just like last time, it was freshly made, only this time with chocolate ice-cream instead of vanilla. :)Back at the hotel it was time for me to update my journal. While writing, I had Cookie, Abdul's little bird, sitting on me. For some reason, she seemed to like me (or maybe it was just my pen she liked?). She slept on the tip of my shoe, climbed up my leg, sat on my knee chewing my pen, etc. A few times, I put her off, and she came right back. Funny. Cute. She doesn't like being touched, though. Abdul said she is still fairly new and has only ever gone on his knee!! The first time she went on my knee, she flew there from her cage (only a couple of feet away).

Anyway... I'm in Dahab now and it is getting late. I need to get up early tomorrow as I will start my diving course at 10 (and have to eat and do a few other things before then).

March 13th: Day trip to Dead Cities and Apamea [updated with pics and more; first posted 30/03/09]

My ride was a 1952 Pontiac. Nice.First stop was the mosaic floor of (the church) Tayibat Al-Imam, which is one of the most important and intact mosaics in Syria. It is huge!!!The next stop was the mosaic museum. Syria has some amazing mosaics!!! They are made using tiny square shaped stones of different colors. Some have such amazing details! The museum is in an old Caravanserai. The first dead city I went to is Serjilla. It was quite eerie with the wind blowing across the moors and only a few people - all of whom were Syrians, mostly children. Wandering about the ruins was very interesting.I was amused by the children... though maybe not as much as they were amused by me!! It started out with one boy following me, then one by one more joined. They were polite, and would try their best not to be infront of me, or where I was taking pictures. One girl wanted a picture with me on her cellphone. By the time I finished my walk around the dead city, I had about a dozen kids following me. The first boy disappeared at one point and returned with a small turtle. Not sure where that came from. A couple of the girls kept asking my name and how are you, and saying nice to meet you. I think that is all they knew. Cute. The only picture I have of them is near the end when I turned around to take a picture of the dead city as a whole and they were all right there behind me.Next I went to the dead city of Al Bara. I only got to see a few things at this one as it seems to be a bit more spread out and is now all orchards. Al Bara is, I think, the most extensive of the dead cities. I saw 2 pyramid tombs (one big, one small) and one monastery. For some reason, the driver didn't want me to wander about any more of it. :( The area was amazing. As we drove, the landscape kept changing. In some areas, there were little red poppies everywhere. Very cool. Apamea (pronounced Afamea) was great. The ruins stretch along 1.8 km. When I arrived, another vehicle arrived. I was invited to join Dave and his guide (Farid?) on their walk through the area. Dave is traveling with the guide (and has traveled with the same guide in other countries at other times, including Turkey and Iran). I can't imagine how much a guide like that would cost!!

The Main Street
The main street stretched from north to south is about 2 km. Fifteen minor roads divided it from east to west. Huge columns 10 meters high lined the street on either side, each column was three meters distance from the other, followed by the shadowy porticoes and decorated also with columns having different carvines (spiral, square and circluar). Their crowns were decoreted with Hellenistic art. The columns which lined the two sides of the street number 1200. They were ornamented with beautiful squares.
[from a board at the entrance]

Here you can see some of the pipes of the aqueduct leading into resevoirs.The pillar in the middle of the road is sort of a roundabout/traffic circle. It is one of the main intersections of the road. That was the most informative tour I've ever been on!!! The things that Farid pointed out were fantastic, and some very interesting (the female - center of the floral decoration at top of pillar and male - many pillars later on the top genitalia up on the pillars, for example). Things that most people would never notice. The aqueduct systems there are very cool to see. Many things are still being uncovered and discovered in Apamea. a citadel/castle in the distance. You can see clothes lines hung up along the tops of the walls. Many Syrians have made home out of the remaining structures of this citadel. I think that would be a cool place to grow up (in a way). The Apamea Museum in the town nearby is small but nice. It is in an old caravanserai (as are the souqs everywhere here). On one side of the walk way through the building, there is a place to tie the animals, with a place for camp with a chimney opposite that. The museum is mostly just mosaics (with a few other artifacts thrown in here and there) from the surrounding areas. The man at the museum (said he was the curator/caretaker) explained that this would have contained the bones of a saint. They would put oil in a top hole and it would go through the bones and drip out of a little spout on the side. The holy oil was used to make a cross on the forehead and for other uses as well. The sign says, "A Holy Crave - In ts covering a hole to put in oil and mix with the bones of the sant and go out from sideway a holy oil. Its date 483A.D. From Hawarty"After the museum we stopped at an amphitheater. It is huge, but mostly crumbled and buried.
My day tour was supposed to include the Sheizar Citadel (castle) but didn't!!! My driver was going to turn in to it, but didn't and said it was closed. What??? He could have at least stopped outsided and I could have checked some of it out, even if it was just from the outside. I was quite angry, actually. The trip was not cheap since I was the only one. If I had known I wouldn't have been able to see everything, I would have waited and gone the next day (leaving earlier). GRRRR. The driver didn't even stop at any point for me to get lunch. By the time I got back to the hotel at around 4 I was starving (I had been told that I would get back after sunset in order to see everything). I went for a walk with Gilles, a fellow traveler staying at the hotel (met him on the trip to Krad des Chevaliers the previous day) for some chicken shawarma. We sat in the nearby park to eat and watch people go by. It is surprising how many fair skinned/haired Syrians there are. There were many very blond kids. Then we walked up to the Citadel. Not much up there. Pretty much just a park. The citadel/castle that used to be there was completely destroyed in earthquakes. A lot of it was either carried away to be used in construction elsewhere, or buried. There was, of course, a nice view of the entire city though. As usual I had people watching me, often saying hi. Funny. Back at the hotel, I sat in the salon to write in my journal. An older Jordanian man was staying at the hotel as well, and ever evening he was sitting in the salon to have tea. Sometimes he would talk to me a little bit, and I noticed him always watching me. Didn't bother me... maybe because I'm so used to being watched?? He came and sat next to me to talk. He said he was in Syria becasue of some problems. His wife was Syrian, and she had gone to Syria to visit her family. Only a couple days after she went, he got a phone call and had to rush to her side. Something to do with hitting her head. She was in a coma, and died shortly after. Very sad. That happened only a month ago and there are problems to do with money that are keeping hgim in Syria. As he talked to me, the man started crying. He asked if I'd have tea with him, but I was on my way out with Gilles and Nanci (another fellow traveler at the hotel) for dinner. We went to the Le Jardin Restaurant (belonging to the Cham hotel chain). It was okay but not as nice as I had thought it would be. I had shish taouk (always a safe option) and tea.