Mercedes and Goats.

"Last Post Published on Oct. 28, 2009":  so reads my blog homepage when I signed in.  Gosh it's been a long time since I've posted anything.  Life has gotten busy, but I suppose that's always the way it is.  At the promptings of several friends, I will attempt to make regular posts again.

I noticed something the other day and thought it would make good blog fodder.  The lines between foreign and familiar for me here have dissolved into one another.  Let me explain what I mean by sharing the story which really made me start thinking about this.

I was walking through a neighborhood in a very nice part of town the other day.  Home to large houses, nice to extremely expensive cars, and families probably more well off than I'm used to even in the States.  I walked around a corner to see a Bedouin and his herd of goats walking through someone's yard.  Many of the goats were chomping away at grass, bushes, and anything they could find.  The man was dressed in typical rural-like garb.  I can remember a time when this would've made me think something was odd with this situation.  But somehow over the past year and a half the site of goats being herded next Mercedes and through yards became normal.

This part of the world is so mixed with parts of the old with the new.  So much so that I've managed to compile both old and new into the same working concept in my mind.  Mercedes and goats.  It's just the way it is here.  And it made me realize, this is normal everyday life for me.

No longer is it odd to walk through a neighborhood hung with streamers and full of Arabic graffiti.

No longer is it odd to go for a run and hear shouts in Arabic as the children chase after me.

No longer is it odd to see cats scatter out of trashcans as I throw out garbage.

No longer is it odd to see the dome and minaret of a mosque when I go to the park.

No longer is it odd to see drivers stick their hand out in order to "push" their way through traffic.

No longer is it odd to hear the call to prayer when I'm sitting and reading.

No longer is it a new experience to see a pink and purple sunset over the desert... though it does still amaze me.

No longer is this just some place I live, but it is now my home.  A part of me.  The people.  The food.  The culture.  The language.  The things I love.  The things that I don't love.  The things I still don't understand, but accept because that's the way it is - like Mercedes and Goats.  Who knew?

Louvre Panoramic

This is a the panoramic picture of the Louvre that I was trying to post yesterday. If you click on you click on the picture it'll open a somewhat larger version.  I'll have more panoramics up in the future.

France - Part the Second

In addition to spending a half day at the Louvre, we spent a day or so just walking around seeing the city and sights. There is much to see and we had precious little time. The first thing on our list was to go to the Eiffel Tower.


As will become a theme in future posts, there were many monuments/sights that I wasn't too excited about seeing. I wasn't against seeing them, but they just seemed overly-touristy. The Eiffel Tower was one of them. However, it kinda blew me away. It is a very visible part of the city even from far away. But it's very physically imposing up close. Much more impressive than I anticipated.


We managed to find one of the "bagillion" tourists walking by to take a family picture for us. Ended up being a pretty good group picture.


Near the tower there is a little park where a lot of people just kinda hang out. This is a candid shot of my mom in said park.


The other main thing I really wanted to do while in Paris was walk the Champs-Elysées. It starts at the Louvre and ends at the Arc de Triomphe. So we went back to the Louvre (it was the only place we could find with open parking) and walked from the Louvre to the Arc. Here's my mother and I standing in front of the iconic Louvre pyramid.


This is what the first part of the walk down the Champs-Elysées looks like. It was really beautiful and full of runners. I really wished that I could have had a nice run through the park. My parents are wearing jackets here because it was already chilly in the beginning of September.


View from the park looking down toward the Arc.


My parents and I got a kick out of this statue since it looks like he's covering his head in shame from the bird nestled cozily on his head.


Getting closer to the Arc. It was pretty amazing to walk this strip of road when you think about the amazing history that had past through this one street. I had to brave the traffic to get this shot.


Here I am in front of the Arc de Triomphe.


Very wide shot of the front of the Arc de Triomphe. Very neat.


Bonus Picture: This is a picture of the single smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in. It was a "budget" hotel room in Paris that we stayed at one night. It was good for sleeping in and nothing else. Thankfully that's all we needed it for. I got the top bunk.

I wanted to include a panoramic of the front of the Louvre with this post, but I can't get photoshop to do the layering properly. If I get it working, I'll post it later.

Europe in Pictures - Louvre

So, here I am. I'm finally back and ready to post pictures on my blog from the trip. I've been back in the Middle East for nearly a month, but I've been hesitant to post on my blog. Partly because I have so many pictures from the trip that it's kinda daunting to try to decide where to start. I took over 2000 pictures, so I'll do my best to only put up the best. That said, be prepared for many, many pictures over the next few weeks.

Today's group shows the first day or so in Paris. My parents and I started with the Louvre and spent half the day there. Here we go:

This first picture comes from the first night in Paris. We decided to drive around the city just to check it out. We get lost. Alot. But the experience was good. We found this cathedral and just walked around this section of the city for a while. This was the first picture I took of the trip.



The next day, we went to the Louvre. More than anything else, I really wanted to see the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Luckily for us it was literally the first thing we stumbled upon. Entirely by accident. It was impressive.



The first thing you notice about the Louvre is its immense size. It's intimidating from the outside, but the inside even more so. There's so much are to look at inside that it's hard to know where to begin. This is one section of one floor of one hall of one of the buildings. Crazy, I know.




One of the coolest pieces I saw in the Louvre was actually a double sided painting. It depicted David cutting off Goliath's head after defeating him. If you looked at one side you saw the front angle; if you looked at the reverse side you saw the back angle. Very neat.


We found the Mona Lisa room. But honestly, it was the painting on the opposite wall which really amazed me. I mean look at just how big this painting is! It was gigantic and incredibly detailed.



We also saw alot of sculpture. And I do mean alot. Just look at how full this room is. It was just one room. My dad loved the sculpture whereas I more preferred the paintings.



This is my mom "admiring" what I think is one of the Code of Hammurabi pillars. I can't remember. (I actually think she was yawning, but I like to think she was so amazed that her jaw is dropping.)

Very Big Head. Need I say more?


This statue of a naked green man killing a nasty snake was interesting. Don't you think?



Here I am posing near the Egyptian art section.



While in the Egypt section we had to check out a tomb that had been transported in entirety from Egypt to the Louvre. It was very neat. Here you can see my parents pretending to be mummies.



The last picture is the of Venus DeMilo. This statue is probably one of the most if not the famous statue in the Louvre. It didn't fail to impress. I can't even imagine making something like this out of something like play doh, let alone solid stone.

So that's it for today. More to come.

Break

Hello Everyone,

I am sorry for the lack of posting. Life has been crazy here with Ramadan, school and work. I have some interesting stories to share, but those will have to wait as I am leaving tomorrow for vacation. I am meeting my parents in Paris and from there we are touring all the way down to Rome for about 2 weeks. So this blogging hiatus will continue, but hopefully when I return I will have tons of pictures and stories to share. See you soon.

Andrew

A Week in a Village

A little over a month ago, I had the opportunity to help put on an English camp in a small village about 2.5 hours from where I live. I lived in this village for a week with a local family. They spoke nearly no English, and their Arabic took some getting used to. Despite that, I had a wonderful time talking with, sharing with, and getting to know these people.

Getting to know some of the kids we would be teaching English to.

The family that hosted me were so generous and welcoming. I could tell that at first they were a little wary of a strange American, but after only a few days we were laughing and talking like good friends. The family consisted of the father and mother with two older sons who were high school age and a single daughter about middle school age.

The father of the family insisted that I try on his kuffiyah (red head wrap) and take a picture with him.

The class I taught was the introductory level students. They'd had very little to no English exposure prior to our lessons. I was very fortunate to be able to speak to the kids in Arabic. Some of the teachers had no prior Arabic experience. The progress was slow going, but they did learn some English. It reminded me alot of my initial Arabic studies.

This is me with the class of kids I taught.

This is a picture of my roommate seeking respite from the sun in the shadows of the school building. It was very hot in the village compared to the city.

The old Bedouin influences were everywhere and much of the village relied on farming for income. I was amazed at the amount of green "things" to be seen. Living in the city, there isn't nearly as much vegetation. It was so good to see something vibrantly green and growing.

Many days after we finished our work teaching English, my roommate and I along with the local youth would walk and just admire the village and scenery. It was quite beautiful.

This is a picture of me in the middle of a watermelon field with the two older sons from the family I stayed with in the village.


In addition to the watermelons they grow wheat, tomatoes, and several other produce.


When we walked by one of the wheat fields one of the boys showed me how to pick the heads of grain, rub them in my hand and eat the grain. I thought of a very specific story when I was doing this...

I have alot more photos of the village and students to share. Those will be forthcoming soon...

Desert Road Trip

Silhouette of my roommate against the desert sunset.

A while back I went on a road trip. You might ask, "Where to?" To which I would say, "No where in particular." My roommate and I had rented a car in order to do a few things around the city, and so when we ended up with a free weekend with a car we knew we had to go somewhere. I had heard that along the desert highways which stretch the vast emptiness of sand and rock there were some desert castles to be seen.

So with no real destination really in mind, we headed out. We drove towards a "Nature Preserve" that ended up being less than impressive. However, along the way we did happen upon a few of the desert castles, all of which were relatively unpopulated. That said, we did make friends with the Bedouin man sitting in a tent outside one of the castles, and he then offered to show us inside the castle.

The castle itself was pretty impressive; bigger than I'd expected. Especially considering it's out in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

As we were walking up to the castle we were talking with him as best we could in his Bedouin Arabic. My roommate, making conversation said, "How are you?" and he replied "Better than you!" and immediately burst into laughter. Apparently this is an Arabic joke that we'd never heard before. (We've since used it, and gotten mixed results; some people laugh, some people get kinda put off.)

Getting a friendly High Five on the way in when we when found out that he was doing "better than us".

Inside the castle were mostly just empty stone rooms. We walked up some stairs, and the whole place was mighty impressive to be in and check out. I didn't get too many good pictures of the inner parts though.

Admiring a thousand year old plus stone doorway. It was crazy how well the castle was preserved for being built in the 8th cent AD.

Our little Bedouin tour guide (he was really tiny!) was very knowledgeable about the history of the place. Every room we stopped in he had an interesting fact to tell us. For example: there were something like 60 rooms in the castle, but only 1 "toilet." And even that was a hole cut into the stone floor. That's alot of guests for one bathroom....

A view of the inner courtyard. I know, I'm "haram" wearing shorts and all, but we were on a road trip and I figured I could wear them stealthily.

After all was said and done, we walked back towards his tent. He invited us in for tea, but we were quickly losing the daylight that we had left and we wanted to get back on the road as quickly as possible. Getting turned around in the desert at night would've been not too fun. We thanked him and tipped him (dunno if he expected that or not), and said our goodbyes.

Walking back towards his tent. Desert in every direction.

We did several more hours of driving that day, and we didn't get home until very late that night. On the way back home, we passed through an outskirt "suburb" on the edge of the capital city that we live in. In that smaller little outskirt city there was this huge mosque. It looked brand new, and it was very pretty lit up in the dark of the night.

I love seeing the various mosque styles the world over.

We had a great time driving and discovering some new areas that we'd never been to before. We saw a lot of the desert that most people don't normally venture out into. I definitely want to return to explore the many other areas of the desert that I've yet to see.