Easter Weekend

I had a very nice Easter weekend. We had our Good Friday church service where we did a play. It wasn't intended to be funny, but with Megan and I as Judas and Peter and our friend, Sri, as our Indian Jesus, it amused the congregation. As soon as church was over, we headed out to Lebanon. We had a great time, mostly shopping and eating, and can't wait to go back.

Yesterday we had an Easter service, then went out to eat. The weather is nice and warm now, so we sat on the patio and enjoyed our lunch (almost smoke free). The waiter told us that he missed us, so either we don't go there enough now or we used to go there way too much!!

Only two weeks, and it's SPRING BREAK. We are heading to Jordan (again) and plan on camping in Wadi Rum and hitting the beach in Aqaba (the Red Sea). I plan on using as little brain power as possible.

Burnin' Down the House

Last night I was boiling some chicken to feed to my cats, but went to sleep and forgot about it. I woke up about 11:30 to find my entire house filled with smoke. It was so bad in the kitchen that I had to soak a towel with water and crawl in on my hands and knees. I blasted the exhaust fan and my ceiling fans, opened every door and window, and started waving the towel around like a crazy woman. Finally at 12:30 I figured I'd just let it air out naturally. I had to sleep on the floor of my bedroom next to the sliding glass door in order to avoid the terrible stench and to get fresh air. Luckily, my cats (who were locked in the kitchen) escaped to the garden, and seem to be doing OK. At first I couldn't find them, and I was pretty sure they'd died from the smoke.

This morning all the smoke had cleared, but my house smells like a tire factory. My clothes are tinged with that smell and I can't get the smell or taste to go away. I am lucky, however, that I did wake up. I could have easily died of smoke inhalation. Today I am asking the school to buy a smoke alarm (not a common thing in Syrian households), and I have a new appreciation for firefighters!!

High Tea

Megan, Lynn, Channin, Chereylene, Evelyn, and Sylvia enjoying high tea at the Four Seasons.

A Night With Mr. M

Last night, Nora, one of our parents here at DCS, invited a group of teachers to her friend's place for dinner and music. Her friend, "Mr. M" was being visited by his Italian, profession friend. As you can see by the picture, he has a beautiful house with his original artwork and floor to ceiling bookshelves. The food was fantastic (they served mashed potatoes!!) and Albert (the guy in the blue shirt) got out the guitar and played for us. We sang and drank wine until the wee hours, and are now all exhausted, hungover and trying to be nice to small children. It was a wonderful night, definitely worth the rough morning.

Say yes to Krak

I went on another embassy-sponsored trip this weekend. It would have been great except the bus was very bouncy and smelled of benzine and the road was very curvy. Add those all together, and you get a great case of motion sickness! I sat in the front seat with the garbage bin between my feet.

When I wasn't trying on the verge of vomiting, the trip was fun. The Krak de Chevalier is one of the world's best preserved Crusader castle. It was the headquarters of the Hopitallers.

Among it's many great structural features, it host one of the oldest indoor plumbing systems! I didn't try it out, but I have a good picture of Megan demonstrating how to use a squat toilet!! To save her a little dignity, I won't post that picture!Publish Post

We also made a quick trip to Ma'loula, a Christian village near Damascus. It is one of the few places where Aramaic is still spoken. That's the language Jesus spoke, if you didn't already know! A woman at the church said the Lord's Prayer to us in Aramaic, which was really cool. St. Sergus is one of the oldest churches in the world, and has been carbon-dated about to 295-325. Our stop there was very quick, so I plan on going back and spending more time.

Strange Comments

If you see strange comments on here, please don't click on them. It's just Spammers. I changed my settings, so hopefully this will help eliminate them!!