First few days….

The last thing I did before coming to this internet café was eat some type of taffy-ice-cream hybrid coated in crushed pistachio nuts.   I’d recommend it. 

I’ve already made friends (albeit a very odd relationship I can’t put my finger on) with a 38 year-old Syrian.  Yesterday, after spending many hours lounging around on the alley chairs, he helped me run some errands around town.   After this, he took me to his favorite tea house on a roof where a bunch of old men sit around and play backgammon all night.  We played a few games of chess over some heavily-sweetened tea and a hookah. My favorite part was when we walked arm-and-arm down the street together—something common for men to do here.   That’s right, not only is Syria a hot-bed for terrorism, but gays too.  Look out America!

Today I went out for a second try at finding the university.  Upon my success, I met an Australian guy who is applying for the same program.  We ended up spending the day walking around together since we both needed to  go and get our blood tested for AIDs before being admitted (interesting fact: according to the government, “there is no AIDs in Syria;” so if the test goes bad, at least I can make my claim as the first).  After this we walked around the old city of Damascus, stopping at juice bars and a very beautiful Mosque.  I’ll upload pictures ASAP, but for now, google image “bab toma.”  It is the Christian section of the old city—absolutely incredible.  It’s just a maze of thin streets/alleys with vines growing across the gaps, creating a green filter of sunlight/shade onto the winding streets.  The little kids run around “bop”ing each other on the heads with empty 2-liter water bottles.  Me and my Australian friend also fell victim at one point.  Just like the movies, they screamed “ALLAH AKBAR!! “ as they hit us (just kidding).  We were stopped several times by people in the streets wondering where we were from.  All of them told us how welcome we were in Syria and invited us to sit down with them.  At one point a girl yelled down from her window that we could live with her and her family (they had two rooms for rent).  I’m calling her mother later today to discuss a price.