Beginning my blog

Today I strolled into the Internet cafe and situated myself before an open computer. Clinging tendrils of smoke curled around me as more than 2/3 of the cafe puffed away on their imported Marlboros. I longed for the restaurants in Denver where smokers are not allowed to be within 25 feet of the building, much less butted up against me, straining my lungs with their fumes.

For the first time, I found myself able to log onto the blog I had created more than two months ago. Before, when I typed in my address, I brought up a screen that said, "Error! Access denied!" This afternoon, miraculously, I have been invited to reenter my domain.

And so I begin to recount my adventures. I have been in Damascus now more than three weeks, and in that time, I have survived 20 days in a 2-star hotel, meandered along the winding, crumbling streets of this ancient city, eaten in the looming courtyards of three-hundred-year-old homes reborn as restaurants as well as street stalls hawking savory shawarmas, found my footing at my new post, survived three infections (respiratory, gum, and gastrointestinal, respectively), stumbled upon a lovely apartment for rent and snapped it up, and recently began the process of settling into my new abode. My impressions of the city are that it is warm, welcoming, and relatively easy to get to know. For someone with no sense of direction, that is saying something. That of course doesn't mean that it hasn't taken me several attempts to locate my own apartment after viewing it twice before renting it. One night I circled a small intersection near a magazine stand before a young man with excellent English offered to take me to the cafe not far from my place. As it turns out, the cafe was just around the corner. (Those of you that know me are well acquainted with the fact that it takes me 2-3 years to get to know how to maneuver the streets of any city, and by that time, I'm ready to move on...)

I hope that I may now begin to post a few times a week, and once I figure out how to download pictures, I will give you a glimpse of the sights I have seen since my arrival.