Where am I?
Not a bad question, judging from my presence on this blog.
The answer is, yes, I'm here, still in Syria and still doing just fine. Doing great in fact. I've been a good deal busier than I had been, and because of this I haven't gotten any posts done. There's a big fat one that I've been planning for weeks (i actually wrote an outline for it) about a lot of big ideas about how we experience other cultures -- but I don't know for sure when I'll get it finalized since in the immediate future I'm staying busy.
In terms of Syria in the international news, I have a few of my own observations on the whole Danish Cartoon Hoopla, but most of my experience here has been regular life: studying Arabic, teaching English at a school for blind kids!, and studying `oud as well. The most interesting (and most complicated) thing I continue to experience is my continued conversations with different kinds of Syrians. As I acquire a more and more detailed and complex idea of "what life is like here", the less and less I can imagine how I could ever put together an adequate answer to the question: "So, tell us, what is Syria like?"
All in all, life is good. I miss things about home after all these months, but I can already feel the end of my time here approaching -- and it's a little bit scary.
That's the report for now. I will do my utmost to have a good post or two coming up in the next few weeks.
Peace.
The answer is, yes, I'm here, still in Syria and still doing just fine. Doing great in fact. I've been a good deal busier than I had been, and because of this I haven't gotten any posts done. There's a big fat one that I've been planning for weeks (i actually wrote an outline for it) about a lot of big ideas about how we experience other cultures -- but I don't know for sure when I'll get it finalized since in the immediate future I'm staying busy.
In terms of Syria in the international news, I have a few of my own observations on the whole Danish Cartoon Hoopla, but most of my experience here has been regular life: studying Arabic, teaching English at a school for blind kids!, and studying `oud as well. The most interesting (and most complicated) thing I continue to experience is my continued conversations with different kinds of Syrians. As I acquire a more and more detailed and complex idea of "what life is like here", the less and less I can imagine how I could ever put together an adequate answer to the question: "So, tell us, what is Syria like?"
All in all, life is good. I miss things about home after all these months, but I can already feel the end of my time here approaching -- and it's a little bit scary.
That's the report for now. I will do my utmost to have a good post or two coming up in the next few weeks.
Peace.