Another Trip

I went on another trip this past weekend. 2 nights and 3 days. It was fun. I was able to see some amazingly beautiful parts of this country. So green and striking. You'd just never imagine parts of the Arabian Peninsula being so green and fertile. We left Thursday morning, bright and early, and went first to Rada, about 150 km south of Sana'a. We had lunch in there and visited a beautiful mosque. The mosque was said to have been built around 500 years ago. I of course left my camera in the van at this point and have no pictures.

Then we checked into our hotel and I took a short nap before going to the natural hammam. There is a volcano in this city so the hammam was completely heated by the volcano. It was the hottest water I have ever been in in my life. It burned to just have your feet in it but if you completely submerged yourself it really wasn't too bad. After the hammam, we hiked up the volcano. At this point I had my camera so here are some pictures from that.

This is what the inside of the volcano looked like. Yay.
Here is a view of the volcano we climbed.

These two are views from the top of the volcano.



The next day we drove to Ibb. We walked around the cities and had lunch there. Then we went to Ta'iz, which was my favorite part of the trip. Here are some pictures of the beautiful landscape between Ibb and Ta'iz.


You can see people working in the field in this picture.

In Ta'iz we visited al Qahirah, which I believe is an old citadel and governor's palace which sits on top of a mountain 450 meters above the city center. The sun was setting when we were up there, which made it twice as beautiful and very difficult for me to stop taking pictures.


If you look closely you can see a heard of camels making their way down this steep steep mountain.




Then the next day, Saturday, we got up early and had breakfast and then toured around the old city and the palace of the Imam. While on our walking tour I found 200 rial on the ground. Woo me! That's about the eqivilent of $1 in the States but it bought me an ice cream and a water bottle. Your money goes a bit further here in Yemen then in the States. After we left Ta'iz we drove up the mountains, past all these little 'villages' until we got to the top of the mountain. We were at an elevation of about 3300 meters. Very high and extremely beautiful. So of course I took many pictures.

It's just so beautiful

Most all the agriculture/farming in Yemen is done on these terraces cut into the sides of the mountains. These terraces have been carved out over thousands of years. It's just so amazing/beautiful.



The mom really wanted us to take pictures with her kids, but she refused to be photographed herself.



So that was my three day weekend. It was nice to be able to get out of Sana'a and see some more of Yemen. I almost forgot one of the best parts of this trip! In Yemen there are all these check points along the roads and foreigners traveling have to have permissions to pass. So at one of our first check points the guards there decided that we shouldn't be traveling without security, so they insisted on escorting us (they must of been really bored). The best part is that from where we were stopped waiting for them to escort us we could see all the guys in the car combing their hair and 'primping' for us. We all got a good laugh out of that. They escorted us all day until about dinner time and then went home. The next morning though, they were back and stayed with us until about 4pm. That was the end of them. How bored must you be to want to just drive around, following these foreigners around. One or two of them even climbed the volcano with us. So unnecessary.

Really High

Salt Lake City's altitude is 4,226 feet.
Denver (the Mile High City)'s altitude is 5,280 feet.
Sana'a, Yemen's altitude is 7,220 feet. 2,220 meters That's really high.

I was looking up altitude sickness and they said that it usually doesn't cause people many problems until 2,400 meters. Well, that's really close. Some of the symptoms which I have felt have been lack of appetite, fatigue, light-headedness, shortness of breath, and drowsiness. They all come in waves, but they are getting shorter and further apart. However, I do live on the 5th floor of an elevator-less building, so some of those "symptoms" may never really go away.

School's been going good and I've been able to see some more of the city. Today we went to Al-Bait Al-Sanani (The Sanani House). It's this replica of what a traditional Yemeni house looks like. It is even more clear to me now that EVERY house in Yemen is about 4 stories high, narrow, and have no elevators. But the views from the top are amazing. I still just cannot get over the beauty of this city. The architecture just blows my mind every time I get another chance to be on a rooftop. Here are some more pictures of this amazing city.





Here are some pictures from the Sanani House we visited today. Every house here has a 'mufraj' which is sort of just a living room. They have cushions on the floor against the wall for people to sit on. This is where the entertaining, sheesha smoking (water pipe) and qat chewing is often done. It is usually the top floor of the house and is also usually the most decorated and it also usually has those beautiful stained glass windows. I vowed today to one day have my very own mufraj. Also there's a picture of my teacher and another teacher showing us some typical weapons found in any house. Don't worry, they're not trying to kill Americans.

Manakha

Yesterday, Friday (the same as the Western Sunday), I went on a school sponsored trip to Manakha. Manakha is about 90 km west of Sana'a in the Herraz Mountains. This region is apparently famous for its coffee, qat and the landscape. The landscape was fantastic. On the way there we even drove past the tallest mountain in the Arabian Peninsula. This area is also the ancestral home of the Ismailies. They're a Shia'a sect of Islam which still has a holy site in the area. We had a traditional Yemeni lunch and watched some more dancing. The dancing was really quite fantastic, and fun.





Here's some pictures of the town of Manakha.




The boy with the blue-ish white shirt in the middle is this kid who followed me around the entire time we were there. He kept trying to sell me with purple scarf. Whenever someone else would try to talk to me he would grab my hand and tell the other guys to 'shut up'. He kept saying that we were now friends and when we were walking on rocks and stuff he would say "nice and slow". He was really cute but he was also just working. He was just trying to get me to buy from his family's shop.

Sana'a Sana'a Sana'a

It's been a few days since I've updated so I feel there's some catching up in order. School's been going great. They actually know how to teach Arabic here. The text books used back in the States are Awful. Why in the world would you teach words like United Nations, the same and literature in the first chapter; translation, specializing and admissions in the second chapter; Family words aren't introduced until the third chapter and words related to your house (like room, bathroom, and kitchen) don't show up until chapter 14. It's just a poorly written book for teaching anyone how to speak Arabic. Instead it teaches you Arabic grammar. Grammar that native speakers with college degrees don't even fully comprehend. Anyway, the point is, I'm liking learning here A LOT more then I did back in Utah or even Egypt. Don't get me wrong, I still love Egypt I just feel that the teaching here is better. I'd love to stay longer, I'd learn so much more. I just can't afford it right now. Blah.

So class has been good and the city has been fun and I've been getting to know some other people here too. My roommate is from England and is currently living in Tel Aviv getting her Masters. Her name is Shoshana and she's pretty nice. There are very few Americans at this school. In my class of 6 students I am one of 2 Americans. The others are from England, Italy, Germany and Poland. There are other people here from Armenia, France, Norway, Greece, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and Spain. I think that's it, mostly Europeans.

On Wednesday the school had a welcome bar b que. The food was ok. I wasn't sure about the "hot dogs" or hamburger patties but the chicken looked good so I ate that. Then some people started to dance. Just so you know, you have not lived until you've seen a Yemeni do the Electric Slide. This is a video of two of the teachers dancing for us the way Yemeni dance. My teacher is the one with the tan coat on. (FYI: it may be kind of boring)


Here are a couple of pictures I took in a few blocks from where I live on Wednesday night when it was raining. I think I looks beautiful with the rain.



Then on Thursday I finally had a day to sleep in. YAYYY!!!! Thursday in Yemen (and most of the Middle East) are what Saturdays are to the rest of the world. Friday is the Muslim holy day, Sunday to us. So on Thursday I slept in and then went to lunch with a group of people. The restaurant was this hole in the wall that had great food. There were about 6 tables in there and we took up 2. It was SOOOO hot inside there. They had no air conditioning, just like everywhere else I've been in Yemen and the food was prepared right there over open flames. Also, the gas line was quite visible and ran right in between the guests and the cooks. Safety is a word I feel is synonymous with Yemen. After lunch I came back to the Center and did some laundry. Lucky us, we have working washing machines here and clothes lines. There was also a Quat Chew on Thursday. Quat is this leaf that EVERYONE in Yemen chews. After hours of chewing it you're supposed to get something similar to a caffeine high, by higher. Apparently it wakes you up and makes you more alert. I tasted it once and that was enough for me.

Saturday evening I went walking around Old Sana'a with Guilia (Italy) and Alexander (Germany) and got dinner. Old Sana'a is amazing! I just cannot say anything else about it. We were walking around I just felt like I had been transported back in time. I can imagine what life was like there 1000 years ago there. Old Sana'a was all built before the 11th Century and it has been inhabited for over 2500 years. It's just a remarkable, humbling place to be. It's also an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here's some pictures I took that night, (the quality is only so-so).



And here's a couple pictures of the outside of Old Sana'a during the daytime.

Pictures

Here's some pictures of the view outside my bedroom windows (yes I did say windows. As in the plural of window. When I lived in the basement there was one window and it was in the bathroom). There are also a couple of my room. My favorite thing so far about Yemen is the architecture. Most of the buildings all have stained glass windows on the top floor windows. Fortunately for me, I also have them in my room and they're in all the class rooms at school. If there anything greater in the world then red, blue, green and yellow stained glass windows who cares! Also, I looked out the window today while in class and I saw the mountains in the background. It made my heart sing. If you look closely at the pictures you can see them too. They just make me feel like I'm back in Salt Lake studying Arabic again. Ok, here you go with the pictures.




Can you see the mountains in the background behind all the buildings? Apparently Utah really isn't the only place on Earth with Mountains. Go Figure.


I get to sleep every night with stained glass windows watching over me. How romantic.

Arriving

So I'm finally in Yemen after hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of planes, airports and layovers. The trip started out Friday morning in Salt Lake. My plane left at 9:55 am, which isn't that early it's just that I only got roughly 4 hours of sleep the night before. Then I flew to New York and had a two hour lay over there. Then I was off to Frankfurt Germany for another 2 hour layover. And then to Yemen. That totals roughly 25 hours of travel and 4+ hours of layovers. I arrived in Sana'a, Yemen at about 9:30 pm on Saturday and didn't get to bed for about another 3 hours. I then woke up the next morning at 6 am. Needless to say, I'm extremely tired and my sleep schedule is completely out of whack. P.S. It's 9 hours ahead of Utah here.

I woke up about an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. Fun. It's just so loud here. I forgot that it was like this in Egypt too. America is such a quiet place in comparison. Granted, I'm in a big city here and not the suburbs, but still you have no idea how much constant noise there is here. People talk much louder then Americans, they honk their horns every 5-10 seconds just for kicks, they never seem to go to sleep, and the Call To Prayer is LOUD and 5 times a day. I believe it woke me up between 4 and 5 am yesterday morning. I'm going to learn to accept that this is going to happen daily.

This morning we had an orientation and then we took our placement tests. I feel like I've forgotten EVERYTHING I once knew. That's a bit frustrating. After I was done with that is was 11:30 and I had a city tour scheduled for 1pm. I thought a one hour nap sounded perfect. And I was, except for the fact that it meant missing lunch, which I didn't realized until 1pm when lunch was over and the tour started. Joyous. Anyway, I obviously survived and went on the walking tour of Sana'a. It's such an amazing city. Beautiful and poverty stricken all in one. We walked past a camel mill. There was this camel walking around in circles grinding Sesame seeds for oil. The camel was blind folded and just kept going. We walked through the Souq where I saw frankincense and myrrh. There were so many spices there too. We went to the roof of this hotel and got an amazing view of the entire city. Then we had this amazing tea. I'm not a tea drinking (duh) but I figured it was part of the cultural experience of being here in Yemen and everyone else in the group wanted to try it. The place where we went is run by this one guy who individually makes every cup of tea. He adds sweetened condensed milk to it. My dislike for tea and milk is greatly outweighed by my love of sugar. It was delicious.

When we got back to the Center I got my laptop set up for the wireless internet and then went to dinner with Ross (from Ireland) and one of the daytime security guards here at the center. We had chicken, foul, bread, french fries, this salad stuff and sodas for 600 rials total. That's roughly $3 in the states. I love how cheap everything is here.

I went to bed last night at about 9pm because I was soooooo tired (justifiably so) and then woke up at about 1:30 am. The power was out. Which is common in the MIddle East. It happened frequently in Egypt also. Typically it occurs in the middle of the night when you're sleeping, however I'm not sleeping now, I'm awake blogging. Good thing my laptop was fully charged.

Here are some pictures from the hotel of Sana'a.

Getting Ready

The day is coming up so quickly. I'm leaving for Yemen on Friday morning! I'm very excited to be there but I'm getting nervous about my current Arabic abilities. I have totally been slacking off and not studying AT ALL. It's just really really important that I pass this class, my degree depends on it. I am also not looking forward to the painfully long plane ride ahead of me. If I have it calculated correctly, from the time I leave Salt Lake until I land in Sana'a Yemen, it will be 26 hours, with 21 of those hours actually spend flying. Not a particular experience I'm looking forward to. The flight bad is a bit worse, long lay-overs. However, I'm counting on Yemen being great enough to defuse any traveling annoyances.