weekly recap

I've been kind of slacking on my blog, but here's a weekly recap:

Saturday (13th) - went to the hammam, and felt nice and clean after returning from Jordan.

Sunday (14th) - first day of level four class at university (pre-intermediate). My teacher is great. He's funny, really good at explaining and reviewing things, and likes to talk about Syrian culture. After university, I visited my Syrian friend, Zilal, and helped her a little with her English studies.

Monday - After university, I went to Zilal's house again, and this time spent the night with her, which was an interesting experience. When I first arrived at her house, we talked and she helped me with my Arabic homework. In the evening we visited her friends' house. There are about twelve female students living in this house, and when I first arrived, we sat in a circle in the living room with all twelve of them just staring at me. They then proceed to tell me I'm beautiful, and they asked me to write what face wash and lotion I use. I enjoyed my tea while they all talked about me in colloquial. It was interesting to visit and see how they live, though I felt pretty uncomfortable. After leaving their house, Zilal took me to a famous restaurant where we enjoyed fruit salads. These fruit salads were delicious with strawberry, kiwi, pineapple, apple, banana, ice cream, whipped cream, sweet cheese, pistachio, and chocolate sprinkles. We then returned to Zilal's home and talked about religion and culture before heading to bed.

Tuesday - I ate breakfast with Zilal before heading to university. Then university, internet cafes, lunch, and studying.

Wednesday - I woke up with an upset stomach, so did not make it to university. Am Anas took care of me, telling me I was only allowed to drink tea and eat Kake (long biscuits eaten with tea). Later in the evening Am Anas's two sisters, brother, daughter, grandson, aunt, and cousin all visited our house, and the room was loud with different conversations until everyone left around 10pm. As there isn't much privacy in the Middle East, everyone in the room knew I had been sick in the morning, and probably knew everything that had entered and left my body the entire day. I did feel well taken care of by Am Anas.

Thursday - Teacher's Holiday! No school. I met Astrid in the morning, and we walked around Damascus before parting ways and then meeting up again in the evening.

Friday - day trip to Palmyra, or the city of palms. Palmyra has an impressive amount of ruins, with a huge temple, and a long colonnaded street. I met some new students with Arabesk, and we had a great time exploring the old city.

Saturday - I met friends and we took a taxi to Jebel Quassioun (mountain) and watched the sunset over Damascus (or really, over the mountains in the west). Damascus is huge, and it was really cool to see the whole city spread out in front of us.

Sunday (today) - I went with my host dad to his cousin's house for breakfast. After breakfast, we sipped matte with special matte straws, which is really good. We then visited Mohammed's friend's house, and I had an interesting conversation about Palestine with his friend over lunch.