Syrian Roadtrip

One of our day trips was to both Krak des Chevaliers and Palmyra, which, if you'll look at a map of Syria, aren't exactly next door. In fact, they're in completely opposite directions from Damascus. One of Tyler's friends was kind enough to drive us to both places in the same day, making it one of the most memorable days of my time in Syria.

Palmyra, the site of some beautiful Roman ruins, was the first Roman ruins site I'd ever been to! All those years of studying Latin, but I'd never traveled to see anywhere in the former Roman Empire. Seeing Palmyra was an amazing experience for me, then. The ruins were amazingly gorgeous - I couldn't stop running back and forth, taking a million pictures.

Below are some pictures from Palmyra.







The Krak Des Chevaliers is a Crusader castle, and apparently one of the best preserved in the world. I know I'm getting spoiled - after Palmyra and the Krak and the other beautiful places we went, I'm afraid no other classical ruins will be able to compare.

Below are some pictures of Krak:
















The last picture is of Tyler, his friend Mohammed (who did all the driving,) another friend Matthias, and I. I have my hood up, as it was extremely cold at the castle. Very windswept, as castles should be, I suppose.

Act III: Damascus

Before I continue writing about my travels, I have a message for all of you reading my blog: Chinese people are friendly, and would love to welcome you to their country. Haha, this message comes from my students. Each week in my writing class I have them do a free-writing on a random topic. Last week I asked them what story about China they would tell the world if they were an international reporter. I received lots of different responses, but the most common was some way of conveying that China and Chinese people are friendly and would love to be your friend. From my experience, this is quite true. Although, as I will soon explain, Syrians certainly give them a run for their money in the "friendliest people" competition.





Last I wrote of my travels, I shared some of my experiences in Beirut with Tyler. About 5 days into my time in Beirut, he finished his exams so we went to visit his friends in Syria. Tyler studied in Damascus for about 8 months, so he has good friends there that he visits often. This was when I discovered "Syria fun!", as his friends liked to say. There were varying degrees of English skill among his friends - I didn't speak a word of Arabic - so communication was difficult but amusing.


We did a lot of walking around Damascus, ate the most life-changingly delicious falafel (whose very existence, in my opinion, leaves no excuse not to be a vegetarian. You can, in fact, give up meat and still eat well,) and, well, ate some more. There is something very important you should know about Arab hospitality: it's marvelous. And not only that, but it involves feeding one's guests. A lot. I very much liked this brand of hospitality...


We did do some sight-seeing though, including the famous Umayyad Mosque. It's one of the holiest mosques in Islam, and it (supposedly) contains the head of John the Baptist. The mosque was beautiful, with amazing gold mosaics.







Also, as you can see in the pictures below, the floor is made of smooth marble. Lots of children played in the courtyard, sliding around on their socks. It made for good people watching.





We also went to a mountain overlooking Damascus to see the city lit up at night (where the fuzzy picture at the beginning comes from.) Tyler's friends, being the exceedingly friendly and hospitable people they are, insisted on driving us around to see various sights around Damascus and Syria. I'll share some more of those adventures soon.

I also got to couchsurf again! I can't say enough positive things about couchsurfing. Check it out!

Conclusion: Ignore the hoopla about "rogue states" and go visit Syria: home of fantastic falafel and the friendliest people on the planet. (Don't tell the Chinese.)

We Interrupt This Broadcast

I just got back from Shanghai, for the billionth time. I call it my second home in China, and not in jest. I met two friends from UNC there, one who lives in Shanghai and the other who flew in from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We had a FANTASTIC time, despite the horrible weather (cold and rainy.) Among the many adventures we had: the Shanghai Literary Festival to hear Junot Diaz give a talk, the Shanghai Museum to see some incredible pottery (my weakness,) and a Southern restaurant for some great biscuits and blueberry pie. I kid you not- biscuits in China!

My schedule this semester is beyond wonderful - I only have class Wednesday-Friday, so I can easily travel on the weekends. My friends in Shanghai are going to grow sick of me before I even get the chance to actually move there.

Right now though, I'm back home in Quanzhou, planning classes and trying to stay warm. It was incredibly warm and humid until a few days ago, when the temperature dropped, and I started piling on the layers. I look like the Michelin Man as I putter around my apartment, but at least I'm warm.

Look for more posts from my travels soon!

Why I Like Wearing the Veil

Like any mosque, women must veil their head to go inside. At the Hariri Mosque - as the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque is called by most people - I was given a full length robe and veil to wear. And, simply put, I liked it.

In Islam, the veil is called the "hijab." Outside of Iran and Saudi Arabia, women are not required to wear the veil. However, a woman's choice to wear the hijab has become rather controversial in some areas. The most well-known example lately has been France's banning of the veil in public schools.

Many people see a woman wearing the veil and think she must be oppressed, by the men in her life, or her culture, or her religion. While this is the case sometimes, it's also certainly not true for all veiled woman. Many women choose to wear the veil as an independent, personal choice. It might be to honor her religion, to force people in society to interact with her on the basis of her personality and intellect instead of appearance, as an affirmation of her identity, or other reasons.

Why do I like it? It makes me feel comfortable and secure. I am stared at each and every day wherever I go here in China, and often judged (positively, I must admit,) purely on the basis of my skin and hair color. When I wore the veil in the mosques in Lebanon and Syria, limiting the ability of people to judge me based on my appearance was very attractive. It's not that I'm considering wearing it in my daily life, but that I appreciate the experience.




Besides, the concept of covering one's head has appeared in different cultures and religions all over the world:










For more on the veil, read one woman's explanation of her decision to wear the veil here.

Act II: Beirut

"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. "

-Khalil Gibran




I flew into Beirut on Jan. 23 to visit my friend Tyler who is doing graduate school at the American University of Beirut. Fortuitously, he had break at the same time, but it didn't start until a few days after I arrived. It gave me time to get over the jet lag and explore a bit on my own though. We left for Damascus soon after he finished his exams, but not before seeing some sights around the town.



Beirut is an amazing city. It was engulfed in a civil war as recently as 1990, in addition to the war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, but the city has bounced back to become a bustling, cosmopolitan city and all-together wonderful place to visit. Great restaurants, shopping, and beautiful sights to see. And incredibly fashionable people! I felt like such a bum there. Lebanese people seem to dress up to the nines just to go out for coffee.

Even now, as the city thrives in many ways, one can see bullet holes and shelled out buildings around the city. There are also policy check points on many roads, and occasional tanks maintaining a presence in the city, as a preventative measure. It doesn't faze anyone in Beirut, much like the frequent power outages. Having much more to do with Lebanese politics than a direct result of the civil war, power outages are extremely common. There are rolling blackouts, three hours every day at a shifting time, so most people have generators.




The gorgeous Pigeon Rocks (above) are within walking distance of Tyler's apartment - lucky!




They're even more beautiful at sunset.






The Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque (pictured below) was built by the late Lebanese Prime Minster Rafik Hariri. Haririr was assassinated in 2005, before the mosque opened. It's a beautiful building, and its striking blue dome was the first thing I saw as we drove through the city center the first time.











For more information on Lebanon's civil war, I recommend Robert Fisk's Pity the Nation. I managed to read a little more than half while I was visiting Tyler, and it was well worth the effort.

道县

"What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?"
-Marcus Tullius Cicero






First stop: Daoxian to visit my friend Jason. He's a teacher there, of course Teaching is far and away the main occupation for foreigners living in China, from my experience.

I'd already been to Daoxian for October break. A dumpy small town it may be, but I like it nonetheless. It's friendly, and easy. No extensive bus system to navigate (there were two routes? I think,) no place to spend lots of money (see: Shanghai,) and, in my case, no responsibilities. It was a great place to unwind after the stress of exam week. (Did you know exams are just as much work for teachers as students? Yikes, did I learn that quickly...)

Of course, all this means that one would go stir crazy living there, but for two weeks it was just fine for me. There's a video game arcade, skating rink, and stores with cheap distractions to buy - my darts skills are much improved after nights of practice. We also discovered that a rice cooker is excellent for making mulled wine, the perfect drink on frigid nights with less than optimum heating indoors.

Small town China is very different from living in a "big" city. Dirt roads, people wearing pajamas as daily clothing, no one who speaks English, and lots of families with 2 children. (Since Daoxian's residents are considered rural residents, they're allowed to have a second child if their first child is a girl, and minorities are generally allowed to have unlimited children. I don't know how big the minority population is, but there are definitely some in the area.)

I had lots of time on my hands while Jason taught, so besides working on my Chinese and reading some old New Yorkers my cousin Amanda brought from the States, I practiced taking pictures with my new camera. A few of the results are below:






I don't know what they were playing, but it looked really neat. They ended up with a sort of mosaic on the pavement in the end.







The coal truck.




(Note that one dart is actually stuck in the other. If you play enough, I think it's bound to happen, and we definitely played enough.)

The 705 Reunion Tour

"So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be."
-Alfred Lord Tennyson


6 and a half weeks, 8 different beds, and over 1000 pictures later, I have finally returned home! This February 14 was Chinese New Year, and the break between semesters for a Chinese university for the holiday is unimaginably long. It's been forever since I've posted, but I've got lots to share. Right now: what I call my 705 Reunion Tour.




My last semester at UNC, I lived with three of my friends in the loveliest house in Carrboro (705 Davie, hence the title.) It was the loveliest house not only because it had a front porch, a piano, and bookshelves spilling over with books, but because it was occupied by the loveliest people. My friends Jason, Tyler, and Zach lived with me there (plus a constant stream of welcome houseguests,) and life was good. Very good. So much so that I miss living there and my friends.

Therefore, given that I had almost 2 months of break(!), I took the opportunity to see my former housemates, now scattered all over the world. Jason lives in China too - Hunan province, actually. I visited him for October break, and if you look carefully, is in pictures as far back as my time at Xiamen University, where we studied abroad together. Tyler is doing a program in Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Beirut (Lebanon,) and Zach is working for a doctor's office in Hawaii.

I know - Hawaii! Sadly, I did not get the chance to visit Hawaii.... yet. The trip worked out like this: I spent two weeks in Daoxian, a small town in Hunan province where Jason was teaching last semester. Then off to Beirut to visit Tyler for almost 3 weeks, and back to China, where Zach flew in to Shanghai to meet Jason and I for a week of shenanigans. (Not really, but Shanghai shenanigans has a nice alliterative quality.)

I have, therefore, a bazillion pictures and stories to share. Watch for frequent blog updates!