the movies today - plus some pics from Damascus in Syria!

So I went to the movies today to see Sin City... it was the first distinctly Western thing I've done since coming here, but I needed the break. 4.5 hours of Arabic a day really starts weighing on you. I realized today that I now know why babies cry... it's because they can't understand what in the heck everybody else is saying, and have to spend all day learning it!

The movies in Beirut are mostly better than in the US - they're the same movies, but a ticket is only $5, the sodas and candies cost $1, and the seats are super plush, like armchairs. We were in a theater that could fit about 500, but only 15-20 people came to see the movie. The movies are also always at the same time no matter the day - 2:30, 5, 7:30 and 10... 8 different movies at each time! Now that I know about this place I'll probably catch some other American movies before I go home.

The one thing that's bad about the movies here is that they're subtitled in TWO languages (French and Arabic for an English-language movie) so the subtitles take up half the screen...

Anyway, here are some photos from Damascus. It's a beautiful city. Also, what's really good is, I finally broke through the network security so I can just upload pictures to the blog directly, which means the pictures won't cut out again. TO SEE A BIGGER PHOTO, CLICK ON THE SMALLER ONE.

First, here is a picture I took from a little alleyway in Damascus that we walked through to get dinner the first night we were there. A large portion of the city consists of houses surrounded by these tiny alleyways that predate cars. I got the impression that this is the style for most of the residential areas. Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, so that makes sense. It's very romantic/cozy too!


We also went to one of the Syrian government's official museums/souks, and part of it doubled as a propaganda center. This is a bust of one of the country's former leaders, I didn't ask which one:


And here is one of their retired MIG's. To the left you can see a planeclothes "officer" (read: government thug) with some sort of automatic weapon in his hand. Syria has many of these.


I have some cool videos too, which I will upload in my next installment :). Time to go work on some Arabic!

- Stephen