Keeping my cool

Ahhh the computer lab at school. Air conditioned, free, and I don't have to walk on the life-threatening streets of Damascus to get to it. Well, at least not if I come here right after class, which is only sometimes possible, and even then it closes at 2:30 in the afternoon, so I only get about an hour to use it when I do.

Today I don't feel like creative writing. Let's call it a holiday - this is approximately the midpoint of my stay here in Syria. I know, the story I've written has barely placed me in the town. Worry not, more tales are to come. The sad truth is that the classes are very intense and I often don't have time to do anything worth writing home about, let alone do the writing. On the other hand, I've been holding back a few stories for when I'm feeling nice and prolific. Today is not that day. Today I feel free form, today I liberate the delete key from the keyboard. Its not just me, some of my friends and I have been cracking under the heat en masse, passing through regular phases of irritable, frustrated, elated, content, and around again. Its not that classes are too difficult, or the unbearable heat, the frequent stomach ailments from foreign microcritters, the linguistic frustrations with the locals, or the sense that when you walk down the street you're playing Frogger with your life, but all these things together are sometimes very exhausting. This is balanced out by large amounts of coffee consumed at the one nearby cafe that has an air conditioner. And after a long day, if I'm really beat from it, there's a place down the street where I can have a 500ml beer for about a dollar.

Shouts out to all who have commented from various locales, like Sue from Mom's work, Jamil in France, Paul of the world-famous PK and J Show, 'free to be' up in Akron, Jessica the mailroom veteran, Dana out in CA (or do I sense another move? hmm) and of course my old pal anonymous - man, we go way back. Greets also to all the other family and friends reading out there. Also cheers to everyone back at The Library, you know who you are, and if you've forgotten, its time to go home. See you all in September.

Some people who don't know have asked for a little more explanation of who I am and why I am here, so here goes. I'm a student from The Ohio State University majoring in political science, Middle East studies, and Arabic. I'm here in Damascus for the summer taking intensive Arabic classes in the hope of rocketing my skills toward fluency. That, in fact, is going fairly well. I plan on going to grad school (somewhere) after this to study (something.) Its too hard to tell at this point. Someone asked if I was on any kind of special grant or something, but sadly no. I'm paying for this the same way I pay for all of school; student loans and academic scholarships. However, this summer is not too expensive, despite the costs of travel, because everything is so cheap here. Well, except for the air conditioned cafe, where an iced cappuccino costs 150 lira (about 3 dollars), but for that I get to spend 3 or 4 hours almost every day doing schoolwork while waiting for the temperature outside to drop down to the mid 90s.

Well, I'm off to the American embassy - I've got some elbows to rub.