preparations

at the risk of sounding terribly cliche, i am on the road to damascus. syria was never a spectacle of wonder for me. while i was in jordan everyone was talking about how much they wanted to go to syria and i never really caught the bug. but now, over a year later, syria has come to represent so much.

trying to quell my expectations prior to my departure has been difficult. damascus is the oldest inhabited city in the world and was an important center of learning throughout the ages. then of course there are syrian people, which i believe to be some of the friendliest people on the earth! i know my time in damascus will be well spent, but i am trying to be careful not to enter with expectations of what it will be like.

i feel lucky to have jordan under my belt so that i can go into damascus more prepared. i feel more confident in my abilities to only speak in arabic to people, and to venture away from the westerners. i am now better able to live with a family. i know that i want to travel around and see the country, and spend much more time getting to know people and the language.
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the traditional word for the region of the Levant (syria, jordan, lebanon, palestine) prior to the modern nation-state is bilad assham which literally means countries of assham. people often refer to damascus (dimashq) and syria in general as assham.