Souk Hamidiyah (Hamidiyah Market)

This is one of the more famous markets of Damascus. Its probably the oldest and its the one that that the family of the Holy Prophet was dragged through after the event of Karbala in 61 AH. In recent years a tin roof has been constructed over the souk. The holes in the roof are a result of French bombings and celebratory shootings during weddings!You an get practically anything you want in this souk. As well as the regular stalls, there is a whole host of people selling from tables and the floor.
(Excuse the quality of the photos... the husband was making me walk quickly!)

Belly dancing outfits...

Tacky dolls....

Children's clothes....

A new watch....


A funky vegetable peeler...

Or perhaps some new underware?

LOL

Habil (Abel)

Habil, son of Adam, is buried just outside Damascus. The Qur'anic story is quite similar to the Biblical one. Qabil (Cain) was jealous of his brother and killed him. The event took place in a cave in Mount Qaasiyoon. Because it was the first murder on earth, the mountain was so appalled by what Qabil had done that it wanted to crush itself down on Qabil and kill him too. But that wouldhave meant the end ofthe human race, so an angel was sent down to hold up the roof of the cave.
After Qabil had killed his brother, he wasn't quite sure what to do with the body. After all no one had died before. So God sent down 2 crows. Both crows fought, resulting in one killing the other. The alive crow dug a small grave in which he buried the other crow, ths showing Qabil what to do with his brother's body.

Habil's grave is huge! And its quite a distance from Mount Qaasiyoon, which means that Qabil would have walked around with his brother's body for quite a while before realising what he had to do.

Syria

After a busy few months jetsetting and working, we finally reached our next new chapter - our move to Syria to learn Arabic. We arrived in Damascus in the middle of the summer season. People from neighbouring gulf states come to Syria in the summer as its the coolest Middle Eastern country - the days are about 35 degrees and the nights are pleasant. Well, that's usually. This year the days were over 45 degrees and the nights felt just as hot!
Within a week we were fortunate to have found an apartment to rent 500m away from the shrine of Sayyidda Zainab (the grand daughter of the Holy Prophet). Being summer season, the shrine, like the rest of the city is crowded, and most days I would have to go to the mosque an hour and a half before prayer time just to secure a spot near a fan!


Blogspot is blocked in Syria, along with Facebook and a whole other range of sites. Blogs have been used in the past to critisice the government - a crime that is punishable by imprisonment. So while I've written this blog in Syria, I won't be uploading it until I get to London. So if anyone has any ideas on how I can update the blog while I'm in Syria, please post a comment!

The other issue is that we dont have internet at home. Its quite hard to foreigners to get internet, so that means that we'll just be regulars at the local internet cafe. So don't expect regular updates!

Syrian School

I've been watching the Syrian School BBC serial in preparation for our move to Syria. One of scenes showed a family watching a news flash about a footballer being offered xxx million to transfer to another team. The young teenager made a comment about how life in Europe is easy and how Europeans have everything they need and they don't have to worry about the future.

I'd just like to say that life is difficult in the East and the West. One is faced with uncertainities in whichever part of the world you live in. The grass always seems greener on the other side. My advise would be to make the most of the life you have now.

Notebook Messages

Notebooks have random messages in English. Some of them make no sense at all - like this one on my Farsi note book.

Update...

Its been ages since I've last blogged!

Since my last post, I've been travelling around the world and am currently spending some time with my family in London.

I'm hoping to use this time to upload the pics from Qum which the internet in Iran didn't allow me to!

Meanwhile, here's a Farsi clip from youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SqaD2wPhm0&feature=related

Crisps/Chips

Iranians seem to have a love affair with junk food. There really doesn't seem to be a concept of healthy snacks - everything is crisps or cakes (and the cakes are really nasty and dry)

In most of the supermarkets I've been too (and when I say 'supermarket' I mean the little corner stores), there is at least one wall filled with crisps. You get all kinds of flavours and shapes here. Infact, one of my relatives loved the crisps here so much that she took 2 boxes back to Canada with her!

I'm strictly a Walkers (Lays) girl. If it isn't salt and vinegar Walkers, don't bother offering it to me. Although I am finding a suitable alternative here... Cheetoz lemon flavour are not bad. Sounds gross, but they are really tangy.... a bit like chilli and lemon, but without the chilli. The other alternative is to buy plain crisps and sprinkle chilli powder on them. In fact I have a salt shaker just for chilli powder!