عيد‏ استقلال (Independence Day)

I can't really think of a better holiday than one that includes grilling, swimming, fireworks, being outdoors, and just chilling with friends and family. Accordingly, of all the holidays celebrated in America, July 4th has got to be my favorite. Living where I live, I was really concerned that I wasn't gonna get a proper July 4th this year. Thankfully I got a pretty good Middle Eastern approximation.

I will say this, when a bunch of Americans get it in their minds to throw a good holiday celebration you better believe you will get a good holiday celebration. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon (which are dirt cheap over here), fireworks, and lots of people (even one Briton). The only things missing were my family and friends from back home, and the swimming. But hey, this is the desert I wasn't expecting to be able to swim really.

Now back to the American determination thing. Being that there is a ready supply of fireworks available to be purchased throughout the year (locals set them off every night to celebrate anything and everything - mostly weddings) we decided to purchase us some fireworks and have a little show of our own. We would not be denied our fireworks show!

The ground team prepared to set off some electronically ignited fireworks in sequence.

While a friend and I sat on the roof waiting for our cue to launch the high flying aerial rockets.

The crowd gathered and waited for everything to go.

The ground crew lit their fireworks one by one, and then at the last second...

We started launching the rockets off the roof!

I must admit, I was pretty impressed with the size of the explosions we got from the rockets.

They were much better than I thought they would be.

Afterward, we came back down and lit what seemed like hundreds of sparklers for the kids.

Which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. I almost got burned once or twice by a runaway child with sparkler, but managed to escape unscathed hehe.

It really was a great night and I enjoyed the time I spent with my American friends. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from this culture and just do something completely American. Hope everyone back home had a great 4th of July!

A Full Moon

Hello all. I realize that it's been about three weeks since my last post. I've been busy doing things but oddly, I've not really had the opportunity to take a large amount of pictures. That said, I've got a neat few for today.

I've always been fascinated by low light, long exposure pictures. I had built up a fair amount of nighttime shots before the whole cat fiasco in which I lost all of my pictures. One night recently, I spent some time up on my roof. The moon was out and it was very pleasant outside. The view from my roof lends me a nice vantage of most of downtown.


One of the crazy things I noticed upon reviewing my pictures is just how much dust is in the air. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, what a clear night, this'll make for some good pictures." Yet, looking at the glowing halo around the brightly lit moon shows just how hazy it can be with the dust/sand being blown up. And like I said, this night was quite clear in comparison to other nights. What's crazy is that all those points of light probably only represent about 20% of the entire city.


From our apartment we can easily see the old Palace that rests atop a hill between two valleys. It's always quite impressive when it's lit up at night with the skyline behind it.


Here is a close up of the Palace with the city in the background. Sometimes when I'm out running late at night, I take a path that winds right by here and I just sit and take it in. It still amazes me that I actually live here.


This is a enlarged section of the town that was far off in the distance in the previous wider shots. If you click on it you should be able to see lots of little details.


Finally I end with a shot of the moon.

Nighttime here is really a wonderful thing. The temperature drops considerably from the daytime highs, and the people come out. Not that it's too terribly bad during the day (I think San Antonio is quite regularly much hotter in the day), but when you have no air conditioning, the nighttime temperature drop is a godsend when trying to sleep.

I'm sorry officer....I didn't know I couldn't do that.

I know, I didn't post once last week. Well, hopefully the lack of posting from last week will be made up by the blog entries I have for this week. I'll start us off with a somewhat crazy post for today.

Last Wednesday I was detained by the military. That’s right. It was the craziest thing. But I can’t just jump into it, I have to start earlier in the day. So….

I spent the majority of the day in a city about an hour away from where I live. I went with two other guys to visit some local Arab friends who live out in another city. The food and visiting with our friends went great and I hope to visit them again.

My two friends and I arrived back in our city a little before 8 PM. When we were dropped off I was only about a 30 minute walk from my house, and since the weather was nice and it was a pretty night I thought I would just walk home. Being that I like to take pictures, I immediately saw opportunities for a few cool night shots.

I walk for about 15 minutes, taking pictures of many random things, but mostly just the night life and traffic. I’m minding my own business just taking a picture when I hear someone yelling at me and coming towards me. At first I ignore it because there are lots of noises here that I just tend to ignore. Finally, I look up to see a guy decked out in military fatigues with a gun in hand standing over me. I knew instantly that this would be a long night.

This was the shot that got me detained.

He directs me to a little booth and I notice that I’m at the entrance of a military compound. (I felt so stupid for not noticing what I was standing by when I was taking the picture, but honestly I was just so focused on getting the shot that I failed to see the obvious. If I had noticed, I surely would’ve kept walking and not stopped to take a picture there.) At the booth I speak some Arabic, trying to explain that I was sorry and didn’t realize where I was. No dice. A higher ranking guy comes up and motions to me to follow him.

Somewhat nervous and a tad exasperated I follow. I try to explain to him that I will gladly show him the picture; that it was a simple shot of the traffic lights, and that I could just erase it and be on my way. He only responds, “No problem, do not worry.”

I’m taken inside and led to a room where ANOTHER higher ranking guy is sitting. There are military men of all types walking around. They motion for me to sit down. At this point I look around and take note of where I am. Imagine a dorm common room where people go to hang out and sit and watch TV. There are probably 6 people in the room including myself.

This is where the story becomes one of those “Shut up, did that really happen?” – stories. I sit down and am offered a glass of orange juice (which was amazing; it must’ve been fresh squeezed). It’s at this point that I start to think I don’t really have anything to fear, I mean I am sitting with a bunch of army guys who are lounging around watching soccer while I sip orange juice. Nevertheless, it took me some time to ease my fears. They begin to question me. I do my best to answer in my broken Arabic and this cuts a lot of the tension right away. They smile and laugh. I think they were pleased with my attempting to speak their language. Their English is rough, but good enough for me to get across who I am and what I was doing out on the street taking pictures.

(Cut to 45 minutes later) I am sitting at a table with one of the high ranking guys eating dinner and discussing life. I catch myself almost smiling at my change of fortune. After a while, they had realized that I was no threat and that I was genuinely just an American who liked to take pictures. That being sorted out, they became hospitable hosts welcoming me to their country.

The guy who I ate dinner with was extremely friendly and spoke good English. I became fast friends with him! After dinner, we sat back down and just hung out with 5 other army guys while they joked in Arabic and watched soccer. I even drank the Arabic coffee they put in front of me…. This was huge for me, I cannot stand even normal coffee and Arabic coffee nearly put me on my back, but somehow I got through it.

I finally muster the courage to ask if everything was okay. My new friend simply says “Yes, this is just friend time now.” I nearly laughed at the upfront way he said that. Apparently, I was just one of their group of friends hanging now. I asked if I could leave soon thereafter as it was getting late and I was told yes, they weren’t going to hold me. I was bid farewell with a smile from everyone in the room and then escorted out back to the street. I didn’t get home until well after 11, but at this point I was wired from all the caffeine. I still find it hard to believe that I had such good fortune. Not only was everything ok, but I was given the opportunity to make some great new contacts. Somebody up there must like me…. Haha.