I coulda' been there!

If any of my friends and readers have been watching the news the past week, you would've seen the ex-PM of Lebannon bombed by an unknown source. On a side note, that bombing was about two hundreed yards from where we were staying in Beirut. We even joked about being blown up at the Mc Donalds down the street. I guess they have more to worry about than we do these days if they are getting hit and not us. There is a lot of rumbling in the media about Syria, and I must say that the bombing was most deffinitely not done with Syrian backing or knowledge. They had nothing to gain and everything to lose. The intelligence head lost his job over it, and now it looks as though Syria is going to pull it's troops out for situational damage control. I gauruntee that Syria doesn't want to pull troops and she deffinitely didn't want Hariri gone - he was one of the few that had a good dialogue with Damascus. Politics aside, it is wierd to think I could have been blown up in Beirut had my timing been wrong. I guess it really can happen anywhere these days. It just happened in Tel Aviv yesterday by an unknown source that doesn't want peace between Israel and Lebannon. It happens in the US by militants and crazies, in Europe and Asia by "terrorists"; hell gangers shoot each other up daily!

On a lighter note my week was same as ever. I have been holding parent meetings for the past two weeks, and most of my parents have come. Parents of the most behaviorally challenged boys have been grateful, say they have seen improvement, and wish me to continue whatever I can do to reign-in their wild children. Some of the parents think their child is a misunderstood angel unable to commit any classroom crimes. Some don't know what there kids do, and a few didn't come at all. Mostly I feel I am doing the right thing with these kids trying to teach them to work more independently and understand classroom behavior. I guess teaching the rich anywhere will come with its unique challenges.

The funny thing about these kids is they act the same as inner-city kids. They have no idea about boundries and are very self serving. I guess there isn't much difference between having poor parents that set no boundaries, and rich parents that do the same. All I have learned from this experience is children need boundries, rules, and guidence to go along with the fun, love and affection a parent can give. If you are just a friend to your child your aren't teaching them anything. Kids don't need "yes-men" the need parents! Also, my experience has solidified my view that Middle School teachers have the hardest jobs. I think High School is easy, and Elementary School is challenging and fun, but Middle School kids are little shits. They are hormonal cesspools, and have enough intelligence to be annoyingly defiant. I feel for every Middle School teacher in the world. Good luck to all of you!

I had an interesting time with my friend Hratch two nights ago. He took me to what he thought was a "Jazz Concert" that turned out to be "Elevator music from Hell!" It featured three of the most talented musicians in town, maybe the country (two of whom I have met), and two other random people that sang wanna-be love songs, and had cheesy dancing and video footage in the background. It was so 'high school film project' I wanted to puke. They had nice voices but I could have played the piano, guitar, or drums for every piece. Those guys must have owed someone a favor 'cause it was really demeaning for them to be there...and you could see it on their faces. They looked sooooo bored. At one point one of the guys we were sitting with was yelling and cheering for the drummer on the bongos who was literally just tapping out a 4/4 beat. Everyone started laughing - I think everyone else came expecting jazz as well. Needless to say we left before intermission ever came. I wanted JAZZ!

Chris came back from London last night. It was nice to have him back. I have been so bored the past two weeks without anyone to have an intelligent conversation. I have read, planned for school, cleaned the house, daydreamed, slept, eaten out, daydreamed, slept, bought stuff, slept, graded homework, daydreamed. I have been REALLY bored. Since he came back last night we have gotten back into the daily rountine of watching world news, talking politics, listening to music and playing guitars. I love you man...

Well not much else to write for this week. I think next week we are going to Damascus so I can get some nice gifts to bring home. I have decided to come home for Anthony and Alexis' wedding. I should be back around the 23rd of March. Actually I am going to find the tickets in a few minutes. I look forward to seeing all my friends and bringing you gifts from the Levant. Let me know if you want anything special!

Only 132 more days to go...

I apologize to my friends and family for not being more diligent about writing for my blog. I realized the other day that I don't get in the internet cafe enough, and spend so much time replying to, and writing emails, that I am spent by the time I get around to blogging. My new plan is to blog only one or two days a week, and reply to email the other one or two days a week. Sound good?

My most recent interesting adventure involved a last minute decision trip to Antakya (Antioch for you Romans) Turkey. It was down to the wire between Damascus and Antakya, and when it came down to it, we just felt like giong somewhere new! Originally we planned to take the bus, but unfortunately we discovered it most buses leave for there at five in the morning. We DID find another one after asking around, but it was giong to take and hour...then two...then the driver didn't feel like going anymore. So hell bent on going to Turkey (we had our visas and wanted to use them)we hired a car. It's not like it sounds. Our "hired car" was basically a run down old taxi with five hundred pounds of shit tied to the roof and five guys stuffed inside. FUN! After stopping every five minutes, oh and paying twelve dollars for the entire door-to-door trip, we wound up at the border. By this time it was pouring rain and we were on a pilgrimage to the right place to purchase another visa. To my suprise my three month visa was only twenty bucks. I had heard horror stories of hundred dollar visas.

Wet, bored, and visa'd, we stuffed back into the car for another hour plus of bumpy, horrible driving. We arrived in Antakya around nine or so and it took us a while to find a cheap enough pension to suit our budget. We settled on the eleven dollar a night place. It took another hour to decompress from the car-ride and check out what was on local Turkish TV (really bad action movies - almost comical). Our main goal of this last minute trip was to drink a beer in a pub. With some walking around we found some food. And just down the street was our nice little pub. Mission accomplished. "Houston, we have beers!"

On the second day we slept in and planned a whole lot of nothing for the day. We wandered into some place and had some pastry/pretzle type thingies and coffee. We crossed the river into the other side of the town where Chris emailed his girlfriend a great postcard of Attaturk. There not kidding when they say his picture is everywhere. ITS EVERYWHERE! Especially on the new money. Those of you that are economically savvy enough know that Turkey just lost a few zeros off their currency - six to be exact. I have a nice old Turkish Million Dollar Bill. Its fun.

After wandering around a quaint city center we ran into some Americans trying to take a picture on a bridge. I didn't even notice them; Chris spotted them in fact. He offered to take their picture and that struck up the "what are YOU doing here" conversation. I should really tell people I am a world renowned pet psychiatrist researching affects of global warming on animal behaviors. I love messing with people. They were Christian travelers leading a group of less traveled Christian travelers (never) through Europe and Turkey. Mostly home schooled and voted for Bush; you know the type. The best part was when we met up with some of them for some food (Chris and I were very interested in their opinions) and we met a girl from California who said she never realized that things could be so different in the world. That she just watched the news in the US cause there was no other news. How funny is that? Chris and I moaned for hours about how nobody knows how to look for information anymore. One TV channel and call it good! Anyway, they weren't having beers with us again later that evening, eventhough we did run into them randomly at a pizza place. I was helping Chris study for his interview and there they were. They were nice, and we enjoyed the western company.

That afternoon we wandered around trying to get a feel for the place but the center of town is more historic and full of Bazaars. We found an archealogical museum that didn't have anything inside, and a couple of statues. We made plans to go see St. John's Grotto the next morning if it wasn't raining, but we didn't make the trip. After staying up and drinking beer, again, we slept in and missed our bus home. Actually we didn't know what time it left so when we arrived at the station it was gone and there wasn't another one until tomorrow. We thought about going to the grotto but we decided we would come back and wanted to get home in time to relax and prepare for school the next day.

Shortly thereafter we found two decent cars to take us to Aleppo for a slightly higher rate than what we had coming, but we didn't really care. Like all things you can only barter so much but then you are eventually arguing over a dollar. Screw it! The rides only took about two and a half hours. At least mine did. Chris' car had a couple of guys from Angolia(?) and the border guys wouldn't let them through. I got into town and he was still at the border. It didn't matter really since my car was driving over hell's half acre looking for the other passenger's home. After that...my driver didn't know where he was, OR how to get me home. By time I got home Chris was only fifteen minutes behind me. The funny thing about the distance is that it is only about sixty miles from Aleppo to Antakya. On average a bus trip from Aleppo to Antakya takes about four hours. YAWN! And if I haven't said it before I will say it again...people here can't drive for anything. I think that is half the problem. The other half is the border crossing. Turkey has what people want and they really scrutinize everything at the border coming from Syria. From Turkey they let the door hit you in the ass on the way out - they could care less if you go to Syria. They sure hawk-eye you when you are coming from Syria.

Syria has a bad rap. Since Harari was blown up the other day everyone in the US have jumped on Syria. Are you kidding me. They can't even clean up trash...you think they can organize a sectacular hit on one of their only allies in Lebanon. It's all hype. The only thing that will be accomplished is Syria's ties with Iran will grow stronger. If the US wants Syria to play ball western-style the last thing they need is to encourage them to buddy up to Iran. Just another excuse for war.

Anyway, things are no different here than before. Everyone was really shocked here as soon as they heard what happened. It was on the radio instantly. Al-Jazeera pinned it on some radical Saudi group but I don't know if that will make western press. The most depressing thing about being here is having to see the misinformation people have about each other. US about them, and them about us. I am glad I am here to see what REALLY goes on and talk to people about true feelings. Like I've said I guess all I can do is be me and hope I am a good representation of my country and what it means to be human.

MMmmmmmm beer. I have an Egyptian brew calling me from the fridge. Hope all is well in Brigadoon.