We ate at our neighbor's--parents plus 16, 18 year old girls and a 7 year old boy. We had a full fledged Syrian meal--tabouli, grape leaves w/ rice stuffed, cabbage rolls, kebob, okra in sauce, yogurt sauce, zucchini rolls, stuffed peppers, mixed cauliflower, walnuts, grapes, etc. in spicy sauce. The father speaks almost no English--but Kalud, 18 years old, translated for him. He welcomed us eagerly and was such a character. He told Claire and me that we should have beautiful daughters like ourselves that can marry his son. Then he was talking to his son in Arabic and his son stared at Claire and me and then pointed to me. Kalud said, " they like golden hair here, and blue eyes." Everyone kept reminding us that we were like part of their family. I talked to Kalud and Lena about marriage--apparently a man's mother looks for a woman, and will just approach her on the street and ask for her address and will call her mother and come over to eat and talk about it. Good manners are very important--women who talk to a lot of men and smile and flirt a lot are bad. This happened to Lena the other day, but her mother explained to the woman that Lena wants to go to university, not get married right away. Both of the girls feel this way. Then on TV there was a woman doing an Arabic dance--lots of hips--in front of a bunch of men and the girls explained to me (I asked) that it is ok to dance like that in front of men. I explained my surprise, considering the whole smile/talking to men is taboo. They said we were like their sisters when we left. Their dad was doing a few Arabic dance moves himself. He was the second person today to show an active concern in Americans' opinion of Syria.

I have been so impressed by the engaged answers, comments, questions from the audience. People debate, disagree--it is not as if we are bringing the right answer--goes along with CWC [Coe Writing Center] philosophy. Here's how we do it. How do you? Can we learn from each other--what can we take from Syrian university.

In St. Simeone

Beautiful--awe inspiring. Samer tried to lead us through it but Matthew and I escaped. As Matthew said, we only retain maybe 5 percent of the data he gives us. Plus I don't appreciate the facts--the vision of it is enough. Driving here we have seen so many olive orchards--the symmetrical rows remind me of a Grant Wood painting--round symmetry on formal background--warm shadows. Tried to capture it on film. I have grown so accustomed to men staring at me but today at St. Simeone was the worst, and I felt horribly uncomfortable. There was a group of kids--8-16? year olds. One of the older boys started taking pictures of me. At first when I realized what he was doing, and he was yelling hello! to get my attention, and telling me to smile--he had already taken 1 or 2 candids--so I looked at him, smiled for the photo, and walked away. Then he kept following me. With a group of 6? others and then he was trying to get near me to get a photo with me--so a few of his friends were pointing cameras at me and I started to feel very uncomfortable and to look away and say NO but they said " no-no " and kept following me and I felt panicky a little and was looking around for Matthew but I couldn't find him. Looking back I don't know why I felt so uncomfortable but I was on the verge of tears. Contrastingly, half an hour later when we were leaving, two girls approached me, asked if I was German and told me I was beautiful. Suddenly I was surrounded--encircled--by 20+ teenage Syrian girls, saying beautiful and smiling broadly at me and asking me simple questions and they were so sweet that I took a photo of them all and Oula--the one who asked for my address--told me that in Syria they say that beauty is 3/4 height. She was nearly as tall as I am. Two similar situations but I felt harassed panicky in one and flattered and nice in the other, just because boy vs girl groups. That's what I thought at first but then I realized it had more to do with the camera--this thing--this look--forced at me. Brings to mind Berger " Ways of Seeing?" When this boy was trying to get in a photo with me I felt so violated--get away!--and also like I couldn't escape. I had to keep moving so they didn't get a picture of me. Afterward I thought that I should just have acknowledged that they were fascinated with me because I am different and tried to let go of the feeling of being violated.

In Lattakia

Jennifer began the week by staying with a Christian family; the primary host was Rim, a young woman who had recently graduated from the university.
Last night we were watching TV and Chaka Khan " I feel for you " came on. Rim's mother asked, " There are a lot of Negroes in the U.S.? Causing problems, I think?" And her father said, " Drugs, shooting?" What do you say to this? I explained that I think that is the way the media portrays blacks. I said " I have friends at the university that are black," and she said, " Good ones, then." and I said I think they aren't any more generally bad then white people but that is how you see it on TV.

I went out to eat with 11 or 12? of Rim's friends. This was a fun time. We ate a lot of food of course. I sat smack dab in the middle of the table and not many of the people spoke English but it was a fun time. I learned some more Arabic words and had two marriage proposals from funny Syrian men! I felt like it was the first time I saw Syrian youth interacting similar to Americans. They were making crude and even sexual jokes. Their big amusement was to make feminine protection jokes every time someone said the word Always.

We are sitting in a cafe above the bus station in Damascus. We leave for Palmyra at 11 so we have some time to kill. I will try to sum up the past few days because I haven't written in a while. First I got the shaft from my host family! Tuesday night we had tea at Rim's and when we were there Rim took me aside and said Jennifer I am sorry to tell you this but my mother is having surgery tomorrow so you are going to another family--Nada. . . . She told me this at 7:30 and by 9 I was at my new home. Nada is 24 and a translator. She lives with her brother, 19, and parents. Has another brother--20?--studying in the Ukraine. Anyhow we had just eaten an enormous "tea" and I got there and they were ready to feed me again. I was so not hungry it was ridiculous. But I forced myself to eat and guess what! I got sick. Nada's family is Muslim--she loves to read and also studies French. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling sickly and she got up and made me tea and we talked about religion. She said, " I like Jesus Christ." It was clear she was very interested in Christianity and some of the teachings of Christ, which, ironically, was more than I ever felt from Rim. Back to her--first I totally suspect (esp. considering the outcome of the Aleppo home stays) that this was a creative tactic to get me out of the home. But I do not know what I might have been doing wrong. But it was a good experience to live in both a Muslim " Christian home. Rim had such a warped perception of America--she brought up the " Negro problem " again at tea and when the three of us politely explained how her perception was warped by media, she kind of backed down and pretended like she knew everything that we were saying already. Also she thought that all Americans, regardless of religion, were totally sexually free--and that all our parents did not care what we did. Also she was terribly surprised to learn that Americans actually went to Sunday School.

About the University at Lattakia--observing the faculty made me totally thankful for my Coe experience. In one session, we sat around in the head of the English dept's office with 5 students. One of the professors--the chair--spent a good time explaining how students today do not work as hard as she did when she was in school. This is in front of the students! Also one student mentioned that she felt like there was not enough interaction between students--this is after we mention our collaborative style. Then her professor interjects, that is your problem--what can we do about that--this is something only students can work on. Grrr! I later said something about how we can't discount the role faculty play in establishing the importance of peer interaction--that none of us would have ever begun to depend on and trust in the opinions of our peers if it hadn't been for certain professors who encouraged this.