Eid Mubarak!!!

salaams to all, ok... again must start off the blog with many apologies... lol.. we really try hard to come and update our blog periodically, but sometimes, manytimes, it becomes a very difficult process... lol... last time we came with the intention to update it, however, checking our email took up the whole hour... so here we are again, with a 2nd attempt... but keep up the faith and please keep checking... you're the reason we write... but good news, they should have internet access soon at our school (sounds funny doesnt it, but lest you forget we are in a 3rd world country :)), but one connection, so we will have to share it with the other couple, but really, it doesnt matter... it will be good to go online more often, meaning... yup you guessed it, more updates on our blog!!!

so the holy month of Ramadhan is now over, meaning we can eat again..lol. jk, so eid mubarak to all of you.... the month of ramadhan was definitely different here, but in many ways it was the same... i really thought coming here i would get a new sense of spirituality that was really lacking in my life, being in a muslim country, around shia's would raise my level of spirituality, but guess what, that did not happpen. my level of spirituality has unfortunately been stagnat... lol... not really funny, but kind off... so that means that the enviroment doesnt really play that big of a role... sure it does a little, but spirituality comes from within, and it looks like i need to step up my game... pray :) but in many ways, it was fantastic.. walking on the streets at 1 in the morning, still packed with people, people eating and drinking (juice and milkshakes :))... we found a great falafel place which charges 15 syrian pounds... about $.33 (cents) and it filled me up good... and this great juice place across the haram that has vimto juice (fresh) for 25 syrian pounds ($.50) amazing, we eat comfortably sometimes for less then a dollar.. lol... sometimes...lol.

the day of eid was great tho... the feeling on the day of eid, at the eid prayers, made up for the fact that the month of ramadhan wasnt how i expected it... please dont get me wrong, we are having a great time here, just not what i expected. however eid prayers was amazing... the entire hall was packed, and when i say packed, i mean packed... it took me 5 minutes of walking and stepping on people before someone moved a little and i squeezed in.. great guy for doing that... the person reciting the duas had an amazing voice and the whole gathering was reciting with him... imagine a few thousand people chanting together... just great!!!! then afterwards, we went to Safir hotel for a nice western breakfast with omelettes and potatoes, beef and chicken... Alhamd, really nice... that day we spent a little (lot) more then $1.00..lol.. but definitely worth it... Tho the day was great, it was a little sad cause we dont have any family of friends here... but the other couple is alone too, so we had dinner and went out afterwards...

Funny thing happened when we went for our prayers... to get into the mosque, you give you slippers to someone to keep, and he gives you a token back so you can pick it up... however, i know this guy so i dont usually take a number... so i gave my shoes to him, his name is Ebrahim by the way, very nice guy.... but this day there was shoes all over the place, as i mentioned it was packed with people... so after it was over, i went out to get my shoes, and he handed me a pair of shoes, but they werent mine..so in broked arabic i told him that these werent mine and he looked around, and was really apologetic about giving my shoes away... so on the day of eid, i got a gift as well, a new pair of shoes...lol... so someone is damascus is wearing my shoes and i am wearing his.. atleast none of us are barefoot..alhamd... :)

so as we mentioned before, school is going well, we are getting into some slightly harder arabic material, so really need to focus, but ALhamd, its alot of fun... al-aan, nahnu natakalam qalil, insha-allah iltimase-dua, wa ba'da ithnan au thalatha shahr, nahnu saufanatakallam arabiya jayid... not sure at all about grammar....

k, take care and will write more later.... take care!!!!