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Went to my first class yesterday, my second today. Adel is a very patient man and I can tell he likeds to teach Arabic. I can also tell that we will be covering a lot of info. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are spent on the alphabet, we get to words after that. Yup, three days to learn the letters and how to write them. It really isn’t as hard as it sounds, most people are intimidated by Arabic because it has a different alphabet, but it’s pretty straight forward. WIth a little hard work and a lot of studying, I wil have it licked in three days. It’s nothing to be intimidated by. Learning new sounds to make with you rmouth and throat and a new grammer, that’s something to be intimidated by…

Met a nice, little old man yesterday. He stopped me on the street and asked if I had ever been to Tuscon… He brought out a bunch of papers reliving his glory days in America. He worked with some schols over there to coordinate teaching on agriculture or something like that. He wanted me to explain how a class grading system worked from a syllabus he had, and then he brought out a small English textbook. He had a few questions. Let me tell you, it has been forever since I thought about the past perfect tense, but I muddled through somehow. He told me that he would bring me some books to help me learn Arabic,pretty nice of him! I gotta say, the locals, by and large, are a friendly lot. I’ve gotten a few dirty looks, but mostly it has been positive.

I tried to post yesterday, but the internet just was not cooperating. I managed to get 3 or 4 pictures of my room up on my flickr account, but the damn thing refuses to load any more. I’m trying again but getting the same results. It’s the more interesting pictures that won’t load of course. I’m trying, honest!

Met Sophia at school today. She’s an American and it came as a bit of a shock to talk to a woman in a full hjab, let alone a woman at all. She wasn’t veiled, but was wearing the traditional black, formless drape that is so common. It was indeed strange…

Anyway, I’m calling it a night, I will try to load more pictures someother time. I’ve had it with the internet tonight.

Isaac

Two days ago I came home after a succesful trip to the souk and decided to do some reaading. It was around 5 or 6 and I became pretty drowsy. I figured, “What the hell, I can take a nap if I want to.” I woke up around 11:30 that night. I knew that if I got up then I would be totally screwed, so I stayed in bed… for 12 hours total. Felt pretty refreshed after that. I do think it got me out of my jeg lagged state, but what a waste of a day…

Isaac

Friday is the sabbath around here, so I was awoken with an exta special long call to prayer. There were also a seemingly random series of other things blasted out of the loudspeakers at different parts of the day. The weird thing was that the different mosques did this at verey different times. That makes sleep rather difficult. At least when they all start at the same time they all end at the same time too:-)

Went out and got my first breakfast. It was an egg on a really thin (tortilla like) bread. It was pretty good and cost all of 25 cents. Finished it off with my now usual Limon drink. That brought the total to 35 cents, not bad! I was just foraging for lunch and I think I got ripped off at another juice stand. I got an orange (fresh squeezed) and instead of the 30 riayl total I was expecting, he said it was 200! Granted, that’s still just 1 dollar, but he refused to budge. Haggling is expected at most places, but I could tell he was in no mood for it. He did say that the Limon is only 30, so either the orange really was 200, or maybe he just doesn’t like westerners…

Lunch is proving tricker than breakfast. The breakfast guy only made one thing, so it was easy to order. All the places that I can find for lunch serve different stuff. The trick is that there are rarely menus posted, even if there were, I would have trouble figuring out how to get it. I’ll figure something out.

Most of the internet cafes appear to be closed on fridays, but I managed to find this one. It is much slower though. I was thinking about posting a few pictures, but with a line this slow, it would be pure toture. It’ll have to wait until the next time. Luca (a fellow Apple user) says that there is an authorized Apple dealer in the city, I’m hoping that they will be able to tell me a place that I can use my laptop instead of these sub-optimal machines I’m finding at the cafes…

The weather here is gorgous! It is between the mid to high 70’s during the day and the mid to high 40’s at night. In the summer it is supposed to go to the mid 80’s during the day and down to the low 50’s at night. It’s like that all year round with some brief rains in the spring. Love it love it love it! The air is really dry, it’s actually a lot like southern Utah as far as the climate goes.

As I was wondering down one of the main drags around here, I was caught off guard by several “Good Morning!” and “Hello!” from the locals. I kind of stand out in the crowd. Not only am I the only white guiy around, but I’m at least a head taller than the vast majority of people here. Still, most people seem pretty friendly, and surpringly low key in the markets. I have only had the hard sell put on me once so far, and by a 12 year old at that! The markets are going to take some getting used to, it’s a little different than going down to Giant, that’s for sure.

The drivers here are completely insane. They weave in and out of the traffic and pedestrians like they were in a video game. The only ones crazier than the drivers are the pedestrians of course. We have to watch our backs and pick our spots carefully in order to cross the street. Even in the narrowest passages, the cars and motorcycles zoom up and down them, the walkers better get out of the way! It is every man for himself on the roads, there are no traffic lights that I can see and the roads vary from pretty good asphalt to a rocky, clear area that can be traversed if necessary. All the streets in the old city are made up of an interesting cobblestone type of construction. I’ll post pictures soon!

I’ll be back in a day or two to post some more. In the meantime I’m going to try to get a skype account so that I can talk to people for a reasonable amount of money. I’m also going to try to set up somew regular time that I’ll be on the computer so that people can IM with mew if they’d like. I’ll talk more soon!

Isaac

I had envisioned quite a few possibilities for my first night in Yemen, most of which revolved around me hanging out in my room wondering what to do. Luca and Christopher invited me out instead and we did something that I never thought that I would do in Yemen at all, let alone my first night… we went bowling.

No, I couldn’t believe it either. It surprised me, but I jumped at the chance to hang out and meet people. The ally is at a place called “Fun CIty”, it’s got a bunch of fair type rides, some fast food, and a bowling alley/pool place. Games were $1.50 each, that included the shoes. We met up with some of Luca’s friends from the Italian embassy and a Palestinian doctor and his two sisters. Just before we started, one of the Italian guys offhandly said “Oh, all Americans are good at bowling…”

And just like that, the weight of a nation was on my shoulders:-) I rose to the occasion by soundly beating them in the first game. I bowled a little over a hundred, which is really good for me. Afterwards, we went looking for food. It was kind of late so we had some problems. Ended up at the “Funny Bunny”. I was still full from the meal I had earlier, so I didn’t get much. I did have what was the first of what will be many Limon juice drinks… I collapsed into bed around 12:30 and slept until the call to prayer at 5AM.

I gotta say that our local Muezzin could use some lessons. The one in Dubai was really good, the call was beautiful and really had a beckoning feel to it. The one closest to me sounds much more like “DO IT NOW!” He has no range and very little inflection, but oh well. All of the mosques call at the same time, so it is a cacophonous way to start the day, but it is an effective alarm clock. It didn’t keep me from going back to sleep though…

Isaac

I arrived around 9AM local time and was a little frazzled. I had only had catnaps for the past 36 hours or so. I was met at the airport, took my stuff to my room, met the director of the school and took care of money stuff. Then I was taken out to see parts of the town and to get tsomething to eat. I can only describe the experience as

Total
Sensory
Overload

Seriously, it was like being in a dream. The lack of sleep didn’t help. In fact, when I was in the Dubai airport trying not to fall asleep, my brain turned all of the announcments that were being done in Arabic into English words. They didn’t make any sense, “Robin airport selfish green rock food…” Anyway, walking through the streets was overwhelming. Totally unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells (as well as some I knew unfortunetly) just about made everything impossible to process. But 10 hours of sleep and some really cool housemates have helped quite a bit.

First impressions of the place are a mixed bag. The air is clean, but thin. I think it is one of the reasons I feel so run down, it is certainly the reason I get so winded walking around and going up stairs etc. Someone told me that we are at 2300 feet or so in elevation. It certainly feels like it.

This place is poor, no really, it is. There’s poor and then there’s Poor with a capital “P”. It has all the hallmarks of a poor place, lots of used stuff for sale, stuff that would be thrown out in the US as junk has some value here. Interestingly, despite the poverty, everyone says that “street crime” is very rare. I attribute this both to the conservative Muslim nature of the place as well as the lack of illegal drug use (which I guess gets back to the first point). There is a wildly popular legal drug here called Qat (or Khat) that is used by about 85% of the people here. Many people are spending up to 50 or 60 percent of their daily earnings on the stuff. It has become quite an economic issue, but it has not lead to any crime.

The food is good, and cheap. One of my favorite things so far is the juice stands. I have fallen in love with a drink that they call “Limon juice”, I’m pretty sure that it is mostly limes with a little sugar added. I can get a decent glass of the stuff fresh squeezed (literally right in front of me) for 30 riayls, or around 15 cents US. My first meal was with one of the administrators of the school. It was a roast chicken, rice (with some other rice like/pasta like stuff), a cucumber/onion/tomato minced salad, a “Canada Dry” cola, and two different dips. I only tried the spinach one, it was good but had the consistancy of snot. So I stuck to the main dishes. Everything was eaten with the fingers except the rice. We got a spoon for that and the salad. Very tasty stuff, the entire meal ran 2000 riayls (10$) for the two of us.

Honestly, when I was walking through the streets for the first time, a bit of panic set in, it was so different. A little sleep and two really cool housemates have gotten me over that inital feeling. Christopher is from Germany and Luca is from Italy. Both have been here for a little while and know the ropes. They have also both travelled quite a bit more than I have. Anyway, they are showing me around and telling me where everything is. We went out last night (see my next post) and had a lot of fun.

Still to do:
Buy phone
Call the guys I had been in contact with before I got here
Buy plane ticket to Malta
Buy a bunch of little things that I forgot and/or didn’t realize I’d need.

Now that I know where the internet cafe is, I hope to post regularly. Pictures will come soon, I still feel a little odd about taking pictures, I feel too conspicious right now. If all goes well I’ll have some pictures of my room up soon.

Isaac

Just bought a coke here at the Dubai airport and it has the “old” pull tab type of opening. I remember those things from back in the late 70s. That brought back some memories… I’ve decided not to sleep tonight, I’m to worried about missing my flight in the morning. Hence the coke and the candy bar. I’m hoping the caffeine and sugar will do the trick.

A few more thoughts about this place before may battery runs out… First of all, the are hardly any laptops even though the entire airport seems to be a wifi hotspot. It certainly isn’t a money thing, you should see what some people are buying in the duty free shops! The whole laptop thing apparently hasn’t sunk into this culture yet. I’m already feeling safe here. There isn’t a security guard in sight despite all of the fancy stores in the duty free zone. I am sitting across from the restrooms (where there are both types of toilets Allah be praised!:-)and everyone drops off their luggage/shopping bags on the benches outside and then walks in. They just leave them there! That’s a bit of a turnaround from the DC and NYC environments I’ve been in. It really does seem that no one considers crime to be an issue, and it’s really nice! There are many more south asians here than I had anticipated. Lots of Indians and what look to be Indonesians. Emerites gave me a free meal here at the airport since I have such a long lay over. If I were in first class, they would have given me a room with my own bathroom. Anyway, it was basically an Indian version of a buffateria. Being a hungry American with little real knowledge of Indian food, it tasted just fine to me. I haven’t seen anything here that I would consider “Middle East” cuisine, but then again I haven’t left the airport. Not going to either. I’m too worried about getting through customs, having to carry my bag around, and getting back to do that. Maybe some other time when I have some money to spend:-) Whoops! My battery is dying fast. Maybe I should get one of those power adaptors and poach an outlet somewhere….

Isaac

Got in with no problems. Actually, the whole trip has gone really, really smoothly so far. I think that part of it is that I am flying on “off” days and the airports aren’t so busy. Flight took off and got in right on time. The piolet said that it was “a little warm at 30 degrees celcius.” My rough conversion puts that at around 2000 degrees farenheight. It sure does seem like it coming from NYC and dressed in jeans, a wool sweater, and a light jacket. Those are all of the cool weather clothes that I brought. I knew I would need them in NYC and they wouldn’t actually fit into my luggage, so i wore them over. Can’t wait to pack that sweater until I go to Malta..Anyway, I’ve wandered around a little and I’m trying to decide if I want to get a hotel room or not. I’m willing to bet that I can’t afford one here, but I am beat, really need a shower, and the prospect of sleeping in the airport doesn’t really appeal. It is quite a bit better here than any other terminal I’ve ever been in, they have nice chez lounges availible in “quiet lounges” to sleep. Despite that, I do see quite a few people stretched out on the floor… wonder what that’s all about. I’ve also come face to face with my first “foreign” concept, the squat toilet. It’s amazing how intimidating it is when you first open a stall and see one… Anyway, I think I’ll wander around a little, maybe buy a new shirt (this one is a little grungy now) and settle in for a nap in the lounge. Not sure when I’ll be able to post from Sana’a, but I will as soon as I can!

Isaac

OK, for the record, Emerites Airlines rocks. Not only was everyone very friendly, did their job, and had decent food (really!), but they had this nifty entertainment doohicky at every seat. You could pull up dozens of movies, games, and lots and lots of music. They had a pretty good selection too. I listened to “Remain in Light”, “Dolittle,” “London Calling,” “A Love Supreme,” “Let it Bleed,” “Raising Hell,” “Blonde on Blonde,” and many other single songs too. It made for a rather pleasant trip. I managed to doze off a couple of times. It felt like it was only 15-20 minutes each time, but I actually killed about 4 hours of the flight sleeping.

That brings me to Isaac’s method of avoiding Jet lag. Here’s the drill… Sleep really late the day of your (evening flight). My flight left at 11PM and got into Dubai around 8PM the next day. Try to sleep as little as possible on the flight and then go to bed at a normal hour in your new place. Hopefully that’s all it takes, I’ll let you know how it turns out:-)

Isaac

It was great. Saw Jen for the first time in probably 10 years. Dean and I couldn’t remember the last time we got together, so it has probably been quite some time as well. Other than catching up with those two, I saw Grand Central Station, walked down broadway to Times square, saw the southern end of central park, the west village, had to learn the subway system (or at least art of it) rather quickly. I was told to take the 7 train into a station in Queens from Times Square. Problem was that on sunday the 7 was shut down between Tomes Square and the Queensbourough station. It was fun in a way… Anyway, I liked it more than I thought I would, I’m glad I went but mostly to see my friends:-)

Isaac

…or how to apply the concept of a sunk cost into Isaac’s world. I’m in the process of packing and I have finally figured out how many bags I would have to take in order to take everything I want. I believe that it would take 4 bags (plus my carry on) in order to do it. Here’s the problem, I’m allowed 2 bags for free, each extra bag would cost an extra $135 each way. Hmm, that’s a total of $540. Ouch. On the other hand, if I don’t take any film equipment, I could bring the total down to two bags.

But I spent all that money on equipment and film! Surely I should take that stuff. Well, I’d like to, but not for $540. After I calmed down I realized that whatever money I’ve spent on film and equipment is gone (for the time being), I need to deal with the situation right now. I do have a digital camera. It’s true I don’t think that the results are as nice as the film cameras, but to be honest I haven’t been Mr. serious photographer in some time. So I’m going all digital, leaving the picture taking as it should be, the snapshot. I will also be doing video, so I think I will be more than enough to keep me busy. That extra $540 buys me a month+ extra in Yemen and/or some really nice times in Malta. Not bad for some equipment I’m not sure I’d use much anyway…

Jenny, you interested in a WHOLE LOT of film and maybe the use of a medium format camera? Email me and it can be arranged, doesn’t look like I’ll be using it after all…

Isaac