Fun With Locals
I found out pretty quickly that I was in for quite a ride when we got off the plane in Syria. We landed in Damascus at around 11:30 PM their time. After 12 hours on the plane (ten in the air, two sitting on the tarmat at JFK (not to self - AVOID JFK if at all possible in the future)), a couple of us gals decided to try to find a bathroom in the airport as the ones on the plane had turned into swamps. Finally finding a "Dub-C" (WC or Water Closet is the term most often used in the Middle East) we were met with a little oposition at first. There was an older Syrian woman attending the bathroom/guarding the door. She only spoke Arabic, and it seemed at first like she wasn't havin' it. But, she ended up coming around and letting us in.
One of the other ladies I was with went first, leaving me and a friend alone with the Bathroom Lady (BL). At this point, BL came up to me and began to speak to me in Arabic while making hand gestures at the same time. For the first few minutes I had no idea what she was trying to say. Then I figured it out that she thought that certain features of my anatomy were very attractive - specifically my face, eyes and chest. Awesome.
After we had all finished in the dub-c, we tried to leave. Let me clarify: the other girls were able to leave while I was less successful. BL grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go! After a minute or so, she finally released me, which is a good thing because I don't think it would look the best if the first thing I did in a foreign culture was push one of their old ladies down while trying to get away from her. Thus began the love affair that Syria seemed to have for me.
The next morning, our group went over to the Damascus History Museum. After that, we went shopping at a local market. The local television news station also happened to be there and as soon as they saw us, wanted to film us for the news. I did a spot for one of the local glass shops with one of our guys. We were supposed to be walking along, notice this shop and go in and look around in awe. This would help the owner drum up business. Needless to say, I'm expecting a call from the Oscar people any day now.
That being done, the head news anchor guy wanted to do an interview with me because "the entire crew thinks you're very beautiful" (I'm not making this up). I was supposed to stand in front of the camera and say what I thought about Damascus, both the good and the bad. Being my very first day in Damascus, it wasn't the easiest question to answer. But, I battled through. Afterwards, I was chatting with said head news guy and he actually asked me if I wanted his phone number "just in case you have some time to get together and have coffee or tea". I tried to back out gracefully saying that my group and I had a pretty tight schedule. Some of the guys in my group thought I should have taken the guy's number anyway, but come on! I'm not one to lead some short, middle-aged Syrian news anchor on. That's just not how I roll.
Believe it or not, my time in Syria pretty much went on like that. I've never had so many strangers walk up to me to tell my how beautiful I was. Not used to so much attention, it was kind of unnerving. But, if I ever want to be a movie star, I know where I'm heading. What can I say - Syria loves Laura!
More tales of unexpected events to come.
One of the other ladies I was with went first, leaving me and a friend alone with the Bathroom Lady (BL). At this point, BL came up to me and began to speak to me in Arabic while making hand gestures at the same time. For the first few minutes I had no idea what she was trying to say. Then I figured it out that she thought that certain features of my anatomy were very attractive - specifically my face, eyes and chest. Awesome.
After we had all finished in the dub-c, we tried to leave. Let me clarify: the other girls were able to leave while I was less successful. BL grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go! After a minute or so, she finally released me, which is a good thing because I don't think it would look the best if the first thing I did in a foreign culture was push one of their old ladies down while trying to get away from her. Thus began the love affair that Syria seemed to have for me.
The next morning, our group went over to the Damascus History Museum. After that, we went shopping at a local market. The local television news station also happened to be there and as soon as they saw us, wanted to film us for the news. I did a spot for one of the local glass shops with one of our guys. We were supposed to be walking along, notice this shop and go in and look around in awe. This would help the owner drum up business. Needless to say, I'm expecting a call from the Oscar people any day now.
That being done, the head news anchor guy wanted to do an interview with me because "the entire crew thinks you're very beautiful" (I'm not making this up). I was supposed to stand in front of the camera and say what I thought about Damascus, both the good and the bad. Being my very first day in Damascus, it wasn't the easiest question to answer. But, I battled through. Afterwards, I was chatting with said head news guy and he actually asked me if I wanted his phone number "just in case you have some time to get together and have coffee or tea". I tried to back out gracefully saying that my group and I had a pretty tight schedule. Some of the guys in my group thought I should have taken the guy's number anyway, but come on! I'm not one to lead some short, middle-aged Syrian news anchor on. That's just not how I roll.
Believe it or not, my time in Syria pretty much went on like that. I've never had so many strangers walk up to me to tell my how beautiful I was. Not used to so much attention, it was kind of unnerving. But, if I ever want to be a movie star, I know where I'm heading. What can I say - Syria loves Laura!
More tales of unexpected events to come.
posted by Laura Ibsen @ 4:05 PM
2 Comments:
At 6:12 AM, July 11, 2007,
Molly Slovnik said…
I agree laurita, avoid JFK. I got stuck there too.
At 4:58 PM, July 11, 2007,
Laura Ibsen said…
We got stuck in CTR: cooperative threat reduction. We sat in a holding area for a long time and then when it was finally my turn to talk to the hired gun there, he almost didn't let me go becuase "You work at one church but you're on a trip with another one? There are too many churches in America!"
Ok...
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