On a Lighter Note

A)        The 60 year old, feisty Arab man at work was trying to get us to teach an extra 9 hours a week.  He was really pushing and pushing, even resorting to being disrespectful.  Like a boss, I handled his criticism with tact, threw it back at him in the form of wit, and managed to get him to agree to 4.5 hours (my original proposal).  While frustrating, I appreciated the experience of a tough negotiation, especially since I got my way ;)

B)        One thing I love most about Kurdistan is the frequency that I am playing sports.  For me, there is no greater feeling of contentment than being on a field/court playing a competitive sport.  It is the teamwork, competition, intense battles, and drive to win that fuel my fire.  I love it.  I need it.  Regardless of weather, they play soccer every week like clockwork.  Twice I a week I play with different teams and am potentially joining a third.  Next up is finding a day for basketball.  Coupled with my weekly workout routine at the gym, I may be in the best shape of my life. 

C)        When most people think of Iraq they think of camels, desert, and maybe Saddam’s mustache.  But there is so much more!  Especially here in Kurdistan!  I never expected to see much snow, but on a recent trip to Amedy, about 45 minutes north of Duhok, I was pleasantly surprised.  Snow was falling in droves.  Cars were sliding off the road.  Traffic was jammed up but people were stopping and playing in the snow.  

It felt like a winter wonderland in the Middle East.

             To add to the allure of the story, once we pulled off on a side street we had a beautiful view of the clear blue sky, rocky mountain above, and steep drop-off below.  It was the perfect place to pull out 3 pistols and start shooting at an OJ container.  BOSS.

      

It's Been a While

           When you settle into a routine it can be easy to forget about taking time to reflect.  I haven’t written for a few weeks because I have been preoccupied with lesson plans, correcting papers, and enjoying myself.  While things have certainly been going well, recent news warrants an indefinite time out. 

            I found out that my grandfather, 96 years young, is becoming feebler by the day.  He is currently in the hospital and the doctor has advised my stepfather, Dave, to start calling family members.  The situation is precarious and the outlook is bleak.  Whether the inevitable happens in an hour or in 6 months does not change the unfortunate fact that I will still be in Iraq as yet another family member passes away. 

            Upon my grandmother’s passing I felt that a small part of my life went missing.  Calling her every week was therapeutic for me and knowing that she supported my every decision gave me confidence.  Being away while it happened has been a catch-22.  I was able to avoid much of the grief and sadness that my family endured, probably making it slightly easier on me immediately after.  However, I don’t have much of anything in terms of closure and the same feelings I would have had to endure anyways are being drawn out slowly.  My response thus far has been to block out all negative emotions, but in times like this it is hard to keep them at bay.

            Papa has been a model of resiliency and toughness for some time now.  Legally blind and deaf, he has largely remained self-sufficient until age 96.  If that isn’t impressive enough, he was still quick witted when I came to Iraq and, if his body permitted, would probably still be working.  His passing will be less surprising than my grandmother’s given his age and deteriorating condition.  But that doesn’t make it any easier.  I spent a great deal of time with Papa while home and, over the past few years, have started to truly enjoy my time with him.  Whereas once I would mentally complain about having to take him to the store, I began to miss it once he lost the will to go.  I remember my father once telling me to spend as much time as possible with my grandparents because you never know when they will be gone.  I have done my best to take that advice to heart, although in hindsight I certainly wish I had done more. 

            Having endured one divorce directly and felt the lingering effects of another for my entire life, “fractured” seems to be an apt way of describing my family life.  While I would NEVER complain about my upbringing or anything that happened to me, this separation of my family has presented a unique set of challenges for me.  Individual relationships have always been fairly strong, and love and support were always in abundant supply.  However, the overall dynamic has always been fluid and partitioned.  While others in my family are well aware of my situation, it can feel alone in the sense that nobody can truly grasp all of what I am going through given the separateness of my family.  The situation with Goomey and now with Papa further illustrate this. 

            I have tried to be a constant link that somehow connects otherwise unconnected parts of my family together.  By piecing all parts and adjoining them together in my head, I could finally have the stability I have been looking for.  Being away as two family members, from different “families,” pass away has caused the foundation of all of this to tremble.   The web of my family members is under increasing pressure and I am a helpless bystander.  When I go home things will be vastly different than when I had left. 

I have no regrets about coming to Kurdistan as I knew these unfortunate events were a possibility.  Again, that doesn’t make them any easier as the added uncertainty of next year looms large.  There is plenty of time left to weigh and assess my options.  But one question being increasingly thrust to the forefront is whether I can continue to maintain outstretched arms, clinging to maintain my semblance of family while being away from home.  

Alas! The Weekend is Here!

           Although it was only four days of actual classes, I feel as if it has been an entire semester.  Political science courses have finally kicked off and are accompanied by basic-low intermediate level English. 

It certainly isn’t rocket science, but when trying to teach content to 40 freshman who can barely understand you the language barrier becomes quite formidable.  The upper echelon of the class could easily handle more advanced material, discussions, and assignments; however, the average student probably could not comprehend a news article, and the bottom 10% may not even know what day it is.  I am constantly dancing the fine line between teaching English and trying to delve into in-depth subject matter.  It is certainly more interesting than teaching grammar, much of which I admittedly do not know the proper names, but it is becoming a little more difficult.  This weekend looks promising as I aim to hammer out at least two weeks of solid lesson plans. 

Thus far the students are great.  Much like our previous ESL students, they are highly personable, eager to learn (at least on the surface), and are already complimenting our teaching style as far better than what they are accustomed to.  Their energy and appreciation is helping us as we simultaneously trudge through the dredges of the administrative ranks.  Our new boss seems to be a capable individual who is affable with a strong command of English.  But he too is hampered by an institution with numerous slow moving parts. 

At times it has felt as if we were being set up for failure, me in particular.  For English I am stuck in a room with no projector and a white board that should have been trashed long ago; in Terminology I was relegated to a room with 15 seats for 40 students.  After switching rooms I am now in a small lecture hall with a miniature white board and no tables, effectively eliminating the possibility of group work.  Our requests for materials have been submitted to the “Deanery,” an oddly named building where the nomenclature suggests deans are processed like yogurt, but I doubt we will receive our procurement request anytime soon. 

Another odd fact about working at this university is the institutionalizing of copyright infringement.  There is a dearth of publishers and bookstores that will actually mail hard copies to Iraq because they know exactly what will happen.  Copyright infringement is a norm and nearly every building on campus has a photocopy room.  It doesn’t particularly bother me that these publishers are losing out on money; printing a new edition every year for an inflated price is a sham anyway.  However, students should all have an actual copy of whatever book they are using and teachers should have access to the teacher’s materials.  These are only available through legitimate purchases.  I don’t see the situation improving because given the difficulties in receiving books, there is no other option but to copy the one book you do have! 

All in all, I am excited that the program has finally started.  For the next month or so we will only be teaching 11 hours per week, but once you add in grading the endless stream of papers in broken English, this easily gets up to around 20.  Still nothing to complain about, but teaching is more tiring than I thought, especially the late night grading and preparation.  I do have some trepidation for around one month from now when additional courses begin.  Teaching hours will jump to around 20 and overall hours will hit around 30.  Not the worst schedule in the world, but teaching from 10:30-2 and then having an awkwardly placed break until 4, then going until 7 makes for a long day…especially when teaching something that has come completely naturally to you for your entire life.  

Return Adventure

            In keeping with my previous posts about adventures coming to and fro Iraq, the trip back here was no different.  The flight seemed to be filled with an amicable group of people as I made 3 new acquaintances, one of which would prove incredibly helpful when I needed it.  At Arlanda Airport in Sweden I heard a man on the phone who was speaking Kurdish.  I noticed this and asked him if he was from Kurdistan; he just so happened to be from Erbil.  Oddly enough, he told me that he was in Sweden to see his girlfriend, but lived in Erbil with his family; he also said he had a girlfriend in China and he has to go there for work as he is based in Dubai.  Whether or not his story was true didn’t matter, I was entertained nonetheless by this Kurdish Don Juan.  He was incredibly pleasant, and once we left line and exchanged some friendly nods when we saw each other on the plane I thought that would be the end of it.  

            Then I met a few other people: one was a man studying for his Master’s degree in Finland.   He was originally from Tanzania and was wearing the conversation starting Obama ’08 hat that he got as a present.  He was interesting to talk to and quite friendly.  The woman sitting next to me on the plane was from Baghdad but immigrated to Sweden when things started to really look bleak in 2005.  Aside from an abnormally large amount of babies crying it was a normal flight where everything went smooth; my bag was even one of the first to come out off the conveyor belt.  I thought that my trip back would, for once, go entirely as planned.

            However, as I left the airport I had no texts or calls on my phone.  Everyone I asked for help with a ride or a place to stay may have responded, but evidently Korek phones do not store the messages if your phone is off.  If you don’t have your phone on and get them right then, you won’t get them at all.  So here I was in Erbil at 4am with no place to go.  In swoops Kurdish Don Juan.  He not only offers to help but says that I can stay at his house; just wanting to go home I express my interest in taking a cab.  I had no expectations for a cab to Duhok, a 2.5 hour ride, until at least 6:30am.  However, minutes within getting dropped off at the cab station I was all set to go home.  Although he charged me 5,000 IQD too much, abut $4, it was nearly 7am and I hadn’t slept in over 30 hours; I didn’t care.  After another random adventure, and being saved by Kurdish Don Juan, I was finally back in Duhok, capping an awesome two week European vacation.   

Tallinn, Estonia

            Before coming to Estonia I had no real information about the country.  I knew it was a former Soviet-bloc country so there would be a Russian influence, but that was about it.  That and in the 1992 movie “Encino Man” Pauly Shore’s character tells everyone that the caveman, played by Brendan Fraser, is actually an exchange student from Estonia.   

Activities

Once we arrived at the airport and caught a bus to Old Town that was pretty much the only time we used public transportation.  Old Town is for the most part closed off to cars and it is small enough so that you can primarily get around by foot.  Although Tallinn is a modern city by any means, Old Town is the main tourist attraction.  It is a cobblestone lined part of the city almost entirely surrounded by 15^th century castle walls.  Inside are numerous restaurants, shops, and stands.  On the outside of the walls are varying towers.  There is Fat Margaret’s tower which is the biggest, the Viru Gates, and Kiek in de koek (means peek into the kitchen).  Remarkably, although probably with some restoration, the wall and towers have preserved quite well. 

Inside the Old Town are a few other sites as well.  There is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a large Russian Orthodox cathedral; the Estonian Parliament building on Toompea Hill; a number of viewing platforms on the castle walls; Freedom Square commemorating Estonian independence; and the world’s oldest continually running pharmacy.  We had a tour guide to walk us through certain parts which was fun because he told us about all the legends and stories of the city.  He told us everything from how certain buildings were named to the Russians bombing the city in WWII. 

We also took a trip outside of Old Town to get a feel for the rest of more modern day Tallinn.  This was incredibly interesting because you have 15^th century remnants in one part of the city, Soviet-era factory buildings in another, and then modern architecture right next to it.  It really gave the city a cool vibe.  We also veered into a number of antique shops and a lot of the items in there were original Soviet era memorabilia: coins, medals, military uniforms, even passports.  It was pretty amazing to think that all of those things, probably meaningless 30 years ago, are now being sold to tourists. 

Food

            In Tallinn we were able to get a much better feel for traditional food.  Although Estonia recently went to the Euro, it was still pretty comparable to what you would pay in the US, sometimes even cheaper.  We were able to eat at what I thought were a lot of really nice restaurants for a good price.  Elk meat and boars meat were the more exotic things that we tried, and I have to say, I indulged with food and drink every single day.  The beer was dark and delicious, the portions were good, and the service was pleasant except for one robotic Russian girl.  Local bake shops and chocolate shops certainly had a spike in business during our trip; every day I would try a new treat and I was not disappointed. 

As we were in Tallinn on Christmas day we went into the Town Square where they had, along with a few reindeer, some traditional food and drink.  Sweden and Estonia have glogg, or hot wine, which to my surprise I really enjoyed.  They also had blood sausages which were tasty and some other snacks.  Their traditional pancakes, more like a thicker crepe filled with meat, were awesome as well.  If it were not for walking around every day I think I would have gained 5 pounds in a week.  What topped it off was seeing the movie “Puss n’ Boots” and them giving us free candy at the movie theater.  Can’t go wrong with that!  

Overall

The city of Tallinn was really quite charming.  It is a major tourist destination, but it seemed like it was mostly from other northern Europeans and Russians.  The city still seems relatively unknown to many people but I would highly recommend a visit.  It is easily accessible, provides glimpses into two different, major periods in history, and isn’t that costly.  It has a good overall atmosphere that is very welcoming.  Well worth the visit, and about 5-6 days here was just about perfect.  

Stockholm, Sweden

           Upon my arrival at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, Sweden two thoughts immediately crossed my mind: 1) I felt slightly strange being surrounded by so many white people as I have become accustomed to being the absolute minority, and 2) I am also used to being in the top 75% as far as height goes in Kurdistan, but the Swedish people are huge!  Blond hair and blue eyes abounded, and I saw numerous women who were as tall as or taller than me, and a number of men who were over 6’5.  It was actually quite comical!

            Rather than continuing this post in chronological fashion I will write some thoughts by category.  This will save time for me since I can’t remember every detail, and still provide the overall gist of the experience. 

Transportation

The Swedish airport is similar to most except that I didn’t have to wait around for very long.  It was also extremely easy to find public transportation and the fact that most people can communicate quite effectively in English made it easy to navigate.  There are buses, trams, trains, and a subway in Stockholm, most of which also has some kind of map in English.  If you are looking to buy tickets on a trip by trip basis it will be quite expensive, around $6 per trip; however, we bought a week long pass for about $47 which we utilized at least 3 times a day.  The system is very efficient and was always right on time; no matter where we wanted to go we were easily able to get there. 

Weather

            Evidently northern Europe is best traveled to in the summer as many things shut down for “wintry months.”  This was also true in Tallinn.  I was not surprised that certain boat lines were shut down due to ice, but some ordinary things like viewing towers I expected to stay open.   The overall weather in Sweden was cold, but not nearly as cold as I had prepared myself for.  I thought there would be snow aplenty and icy waters; numerous Swedes told us that this wasn’t even a real winter and it was the warmest in about 40 years.  There wasn’t any snow on the ground at all!  Considering we were in the city, and heavily reliant on public transportation, I wasn’t exactly distraught about the lack of snow, although the light rain did get annoying.  What was a semi-problem though was the darkness.  It seemed as if it didn’t get light out until past 8am and was already dark by 3pm!  Days were quite short and this limited the time frames for certain sight-seeing activities. 

Activities

            Stockholm is essentially composed of a number of different, small islands.  Some areas feel similar to New York where it is large, pricey, well-developed, and lined with high fashion stores.  Others are more down to Earth, residential, with a bit more greenery.  On quite a few occasions we just hopped on a random bus or subway just to see where the line took us.  We rode it right to the end, then turned around and came back.  It was an interesting way to see different parts of the city, and had the weather been nicer, we surely would have explored some more on foot. 

            A lot of the main attractions we only viewed from the outside given their price.  We had already spent a decent amount of money in Tallinn, and given the cost of everything in Stockholm we found it better to save some money by not going into all of the palaces.  However, we still saw the Royal Palace, Stadshuset (City Hall), and Drottningholm Palace.  The Palaces were similar to ones you would see at other locations in Europe so I wasn’t overly disappointed that we weren’t able to go in.  City Hall, where the Nobel Prize dinner is held, has a viewing tower but it was closed for the winter.  It was still cool to see all of them and gave us some places to walk around to, mainly around Gamla Stan and another trip to Drottningholm.    

            We did manage to a Swedish hockey game to watch AIK of the Elitserien, their professional hockey league.  We were sitting next to a German woman who we talked to quite a bit which was nice.  AIK won the game and I was really impressed with the atmosphere of the arena; although there were only about 6,000 people it was fairly loud and the hardcore fans were chanting for almost the entire game. 

            Another interesting attraction was the Vasa Museet, a museum which houses an old ship from 1628 that sunk in the harbor and was then pulled up, almost fully intact.  Just to see something from that long ago in such good condition was amazing.  On the same day we went to the Skansen Open Air museum which had a lot of old Swedish style buildings, a small zoo, and a lot of different areas to walk around. 

            On the last day before we left we also took a bus out to an island called Vaxholm.  In the summer it is supposedly a huge tourist destination, but it was quite dead at this time.  It felt like the Lakes Region of NH so I was particularly fond of this area.  It was peaceful and homey, offered beautiful views of the water, and was nice to walk around.  Most days in Sweden consisted of going to see an attraction, some random exploration of a different island, trying a new restaurant for lunch, then heading home for dinner where we proceeded to watch 2 movies in a row.  It was a good combination of exploration and relaxation. 

           

Food

Throughout the trip we found that most people can speak in English, yet there are still many menus that are only in Swedish.  By the end of the trip we figured out a key main phrases and that lunch was the best time we could eat out because of dagens lunch specials; it was basically half the price.  It seems like food in Sweden was either fast food or over $20 a plate for dinner.  There didn’t seem to be too much catered to the middle, a group we squarely fall in.  However, the lunch specials still provided us the opportunity to eat out. 

I can’t say that I got a real feel for traditional Swedish food while I was there.   Stockholm is a very international city so you can basically get anything you want; establishments that offer mostly traditional food are mainly frequented by tourists so you naturally have a premium in price.  The food was good, especially since it offered the exact kind of variety that Iraq lacks, however the prices were well above what I am used to, even in the US.  Beers were at least $7 each so that wasn’t even worth it. 

Overall

            In the time we were there I definitely had a great time.  I love randomly exploring new locations and getting a feel for another culture and way of life.  The trip was a nice blend of relaxing and going out, and I definitely saw some interesting things.  A week in Stockholm is probably more than you would need IF you have good weather and can pack a lot of things into one day.  It is a pricey city so that limits what you can do.  I would like to have gotten a greater feel for Swedish culture and try more foods, but I think that we would have to go to different cities to really get it.  Either way, it was definitely worth seeing and I am glad that I finally got a chance to go to Scandinavia. 

---More pictures are on my Facebook profile. This one to the left with the Patriots and Bruins logos was actually from a restaurant called O'Leary's! ---- 

The Adventure Begins

In Iraq there are certain things you come to expect: random power outages, incredible hospitality, people saying “hello” for a greeting and a farewell, etc.  I can now add that every time I need to travel to or from the country, I know I will end up having a random adventure.  My flight doesn’t leave until 4am, probably the most awkward time ever, so I decided to head to Erbil early and spend some time with a friend.  I took my usual shared taxi for 15,000 IQD (about $12) and was crammed into a car with two Turkish guys about my age, a slightly haughty, well-dressed man with a jovial personality, and a driver who had probably never actually learned how to drive.  The well-dressed man proceeded to tell me that he, “speaks Christian,” and since I was unable to communicate with the Turks, I was relegated to communicating in “Christian” with the louder gentleman. 

In between dozing off and waking up to cigarette smoke permeating the car, he managed to tell me that his brother lives in the US.  His brother lives in Detroit which prompted him to say, “America has no money, I make more than my brother.”  I was internally shaking my head and thinking if Detroit is a proxy for American then, yes, we are in trouble.  He continued his discussion about his personal wealth which immediately put me off.  I don’t need to hear about you making $10,000/month whether it is true or not.  Interrupting his pleasant but slightly discomfited statements was a text from my friend that I was going to visit.  

The text read, “Ryan, I’m going to the hospital,” and that was it.  After trying to get hold of her to no avail I had to think quickly because I was almost in Erbil with nowhere to go for the next 10+ hours.  I changed my original destination to the mall because I felt that this would at least provide a comfortable place to sit and relax.  Perhaps sensing some frustration in my voice, the “Christian” speaking man says, “We have coffee or tea, relax, then you go.”  Lacking any other options I decided to tag along. 

I wasn’t worried, knowing the nature of the people, but when he said that Baghdad was better than Duhok I thought he must be at least a little crazy.  We arrived at a relatively unassuming restaurant which looks like a hole in the wall type establishment from the outside.  Inside it turns out to be much bigger and actually has 4 floors.  I sat down for tea and then he tells me that he owns this place along with a hotel and two restaurants, one in Duhok.  Now his claim about making money at least seems partially founded in reality.  Conversation continues and then I say, in Kurdish, that I am hungry; he promptly calls a waiter to the table and gets me exactly what I want, even though it wasn’t on the menu. 

Up until this point it was just the two of us sitting at the table, but after I finished eating other people started to trickle in.  Every new customer came over to our table to sit down and chat with the owner, Same (pronounced like Sammy).  As people came to sit down I was transitioned from being a willing participant in the conversation to a helpless bystander as Same effortlessly switched between Arabic, Kurdish, and some Assyrian language, which I later deduced was what he meant by speaking “Christian.”  People come and go from the table: a brother and sister from Baghdad, an older gentleman from Mosul, and another Arabic couple in which Same described the female as, “Shakira.”  If Shakira was 80 pounds heavier, 20 years older, and Arabic, it would be spot on. 

For four hours I sat there as the steady rotation continued; in that time I was probably able to speak for a total of 20 minutes.  “Shakira” started to sing karaoke, but it was mostly uneventful.  Before I left I got his phone number and he told me that I didn’t have to pay for anything.  Perhaps I will go to his restaurant in Duhok to check it out.  And now here I am at the airport, primed to wait for another 4 hours.  What more randomness can happen before I finally embark on my journey to Sweden?  I did buy a salad and was served mustard as dressing…but I’ll chalk that up as another miscellaneous, “come to expect."