Bucureşti

(This is Bucarest in Romanian language)

One more day of going around the city. I had the feeling of missing arabic language, may be because I'm not having time seems a couple of month for writings and readings... I've got one book from Abdel Rahim Mounif, hope I'll finish it during this trip. Yesterday evening I was writing my diary in french as I used to do then I switched into arabic, feeling sad because I just realized that the first reason of my choice to live in Syria (as getting more and more closer to the language) is may be not anymore fulfil thanks to teaching french and speaking more in french than arabic. If I was writing this post only six month ago, I would say that learning arabic is hard and long but you will succeed... I'm not anymore convinced: Not of course for the daily life and any kind of talks in dialects but about classical arabic! Why? May be because my brains are already too old for memorizing all the words and language structures? Cause I feel that I'll never be on 'intimacy' with the language. May be it is because my culture is too far from the middle east culture and after going around the mediterranean regions for so many years*, I may finally found out that it is not possible to integrate all the cultures and be a member of each society? Not even if I am open-mind and enough adaptable to live among many different society? May this all life-long feeling of being always ready to listen and understand all human kind have been only a fantasy? Did I was only feeling what I wanted to think instead of really analyse what I was expecting to fulfil? Is all this was only confident autosuggestion to be straight right in a clear and realistic path? Is the use of foreign languages only acting in an other language instead of living on it as a native speaker? I feel a kind of vacuum, it is may be just because I let my minds going as far as my look is watching at this romanian capital through the filter of my missed arabic mindless feeling? Not sure, but this melancholic introspection is great to be instinctively done during this 'detachment from the daily life' trip even if it could be distructive, disrupting the path of my thoughts and ambitions? Arabic was not only a 'project', a language to speak in but also a new way of expression, a other kind of opportunity to understand the others and put myself into some contribution of the middle east social life? Is this impossible? Do I have to follow all the rules of the eastern life to be able of being a part of it? Do I have to marry somebody to feel I 'married the language' as I felt this intimacy in olther languages?

I had the feeling now of not loosing a religion I never had but may be loosing a bit of myself, I desire it but I'm not convinced that it is going to be productive. As usual, I would forget all of these thoughts when I'll return to my regular syrian life. It is may be just a kind of self brain-washing, a necessary reload into myself?

Let's see if I have more expectancy in the streets of Bucarest.

I'm walking to the north, I want to have a look on the lakes I saw on the city map.

*may be somthing like 7 years?

Jordan

Only one objective for this first 2 days (29th and 30th of April 08) trip to Jordan: PETRA. This is a wonderful place but you have to get to the site at the opening time (6 a.m.) if you want to enjoy the real Petra, I mean without all the stupid tourists (the worst type I saw in my life: they did not have any respect for the beauty of the place, they don’t care about the country – I don’t understand when people walk half naked in the middle of a desert? Are we in a Mediterranean club? – and there are extremely noisy for a natural place like Petra).

What about Jordanians? so short time to make a point of view! But I felt a stronger ‘desert’ temperament, at least from the appearance. Accent is deeper and people seems to be more stressed (time is money; our taxi driver was kissing money when I gave him back some too much change by mistake). I had a different feeling with Bedouins, they seems to me quiet as the desert. About the language, I did not have any specific problem to understand Jordanians, the dialect is the ‘chamy*’ one with a deeper accent and some different expressions. Bedouins from Petra have a different dialect than people I met in Amman. I was just a bit sad when I notice that the Bedouins prefer to speak to me in English with a perfect American accent than listening to my Fushra**. But it is also true that they speak a hardly understandable Arabic for a novice in dialects like me…

In 1985, Petra was inscribed on the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Inscription on this list confirms the exceptional universal value of a cultural or natural site that deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity. Petra, as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom, thrived as an important trading post on the international Spice Route, serving a crossroad between Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria-Phoenicia, India, China and the Mediterranean Basin. Nestled within intricate geological formations of mountains and gorges are the impressive tombs that the Nabataean carved out of the sandstone rock faces. Nabataean, Romans and Byzantines built the city of Petra from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. Whilst the architectural façades of the tombs are a harmonious blend of ancient Assyrian, Egyptian, Hellenistic and Roman styles, archaeological excavations in Petra have brought to light that the city itself survived well into the Byzantine period.

*From Cham: approx. between Palestine and Iraq, with south Syria and north Jordan.
**classic Arabic

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Tahdiid moustawa

Level test on Tuesday 16th october was not so great...everybody felt that it was too difficult!
But it is quite normal : they give us the hardest test just to be able to make easily the groups of students in the 8 levels from beginner to advanced.
No surprises, I get the results and I will be in 2nd level as I expected.
Classes will begin on Sunday 21th october.