Email and Syria

My email decided to stop working on Friday. I'm not completely sure why, but I don't think it's from my end. Pitt just updated its email services and they are having issues. Figures. Anyways, I just got back from Syria where we visited Damascus and Palmyra. Syria wasn't as bad as the average American would make it out to be. Damascus was very very interesting. We walked around Straight Street and visited the House of Ananias. Actually I just found an paragraph from Wikipedia which basically describes everything explored while in Damascus:

"Damascus has a wealth of historical sites dating back to many different periods of the city's history. Since the city has been built up with every passing occupation, it has become almost impossible to excavate all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to 8 feet below the modern level. The Citadel of Damascus is located in the northwest corner of the Old City. The street called straight (referred to in the conversion of St. Paul in Acts 9:11), also known as the Via Recta, was the decumanus (East-West main street) of Roman Damascus, and extended for over 1500 meters. Today, it consists of the street of Bab Sharqi and the Souk Medhat Pasha, a covered market. The Bab Sharqi street is filled with small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab Touma (St. Thomas's Gate). Souq Medhat Pasha is also a main market in Damascus and was named after Medhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Damascus who renovated the Souq. At the end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches the House of Ananias, an underground chapel that was the cellar of Ananias's house.

The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one of the largest mosques in the world, and one of the oldest sites of continuous prayer since the rise of Islam. A shrine in the mosque is said to contain the head of John the Baptist.

A heavily visited site is the tomb of Zaynab bint Ali. Hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims visit it every year.”

Then we made our way to Palmyra, an ancient city built in an oasis in the middle of the Syrian Desert. Our hotel was amazing. Pictures and words do not justify experiencing it in person, a truly exotic and surreal atmosphere. We were surrounded by ancient ruins and singing Bedouins while being served traditional Syrian cuisine.

On the way to Palmyra we took one of the main roads to Baghdad. I believe we were about 60km from Iraq and about 300km from Baghdad. The road we were on actually runs parallel to the Iraqi/Syrian oil pipeline which in now out of service thanks to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I found out that Syria is kinda pissed about since it costs them $2.7 billion a year in lost oil revenues.

Less than two weeks until I'm on my way home. I love it here but I miss everyone at home. Oh yeah, I haven't received my bag and I don't think I ever will. So, I might be doing a lot of shopping soon. From now on send all emails to:

I'll write again soon!

-Joe

It’s been awhile!

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything meaningful. I've been really busy! It seems like I have something to do or somewhere to go all the time. We've gone on a few tours around the safe parts of the country. The staff here is amazing and they look out for us, so we are always safe. Here are some interesting facts about Lebanon:

1. It's the only Middle Eastern country that doesn't have a desert.
   
2. The only country in the region, and I would imagine one of the only countries in the word, where you can go to the beach and drive an hour then go skiing.
   
3. Lebanon is home to the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Jebeil or as Americans would call it Byblos.
   
4. Some Lebanese considered themselves Phoenician rather than Arabic or Middle Eastern.
   
5. The Lebanese Police force is more like a military force and they are called The Internal Security Force. In fact, many small towns have their own militia in charge of security.
   

That's just a few of the many very interesting things I've learned about this country.

My language studies are coming along fairly well. I have an A+ average, but I'm not sure how long that will last. I have two classes: Classical Arabic and Lebanese Dialect. The latter of which I hate! It's extremely hard. Basically I'm learning two languages. Classic Arabic is the more important of the two and I spend a lot of time on it. It's the core class of the program; however, they fail to recognize that you can't learn a dialect until you learn the language. The best way to describe this would be to say that romance languages are like classical Arabic and Lebanese dialect is like French or Italian etc…They use similar alphabets and share some words but ultimately they are different languages. I wouldn't mind learning the dialect but teaching it to beginners is not the way to go about it.

This weekend I'm taking a trip to Istanbul to check out some old stuff...hahaha j/k That should be fun, especially since the little Arab I do know isn't going to be very helpful in Turkey.

This is how my name is written in Arabic. Remember you need to read it from the right to the left.

Well I have to attend a lecture on the Lebanese Civil War.

مساء الخير [Masa L Kheer] Good evening!

-Joe

Hey everyone!

 

I have a lot to type but I have to study so I'll post some stories later. I just wanted to let everyone know about Skype.com. It's an internet phone service that uses your PC (or MAC) to make phone calls to other skype users for free. I have it and will be signed on all the time so anyone can call me for free!! So go to their website and download it and you can give me a call (or I can call you). Its completely free unless you want to call regular phones or non skype users. When you are done installing just add me to your contacts. You can search using my email address or my user ID (joseph.m.konczyk). Ok, I have to go study!

P.S. I will be purchasing a cell phone tomorrow. The cell phone service here is pretty cheap and I believe all of my incoming calls are free (for me at least).

My First Beirut Blog!

Well I have arrived in Beirut!! Just about 25 hours after leaving Philadelphia International Airport. We were delayed about an hour leaving PHI because of storms. Finally, we were airborne! Upon arrival into UK airspace we had to circle over Heathrow, London for about an hour because of heavy traffic. There is only one way to describe Heathrow, HELL! Well, it wasn't that bad, but after 12 hours it sure seemed like it. I got about 3 hours of sleep on random benches. That damn airport is completely insane. At one point I had people completely surrounding me trying to sit in one of the six seats I occupied while trying to rest. I actually had someone sit on my feet… Brits, ha.

Anyways, while flying to Beirut we passed over France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The Lebanese International Airport was actually very nice, much better than Heathrow! We were picked up by Muhammad whom doesn't know how to stay in-between the lines. We passed by Hezbollah's compound and made our way up north into Beirut. I'm already picking up some Arabic--Shukran and Ahlan (Thank you and Hello, respectively). Hopefully, I will pick up much more. OH, BTW BRITISH AIRWAYS LOST HALF OF MY LUGGAGE!! However, I was told that this is normal… Apparently it's normal for Brits to F**K up. Pardon my French. Actually, if you know French you would get around fairly easily in Beirut because of post WWI French occupation of Lebanon. The common way of saying thank you is Merci.

This city is very unique. It's comparable to Philly in size and the people are amazing. So far all interactions with locals have been positive. I would say Beirut is somewhere between a modernized advanced city but still holds onto informal traditional ways of life. Basically you can walk past a KFC then run into a small family owned café where prices are negotiable. It reminds me of Messina, Italy ( I hope that doesn't offend anyone).

Well I have to go to sleep, It's about 1:55am here (6:55pm in Philly) and I'm still feeling the plane rides.

There will be more to come!

P.S. CNN reported people running through the streets lighting things on fire and stuff, well that isn't true at all. I'm beginning to question, much more than I already do, the legitimacy of CNN and other news sources. I guess they just want their advertisement monies.

-Joe