India, Turkey, to Syria

.............................................................Since I have written....Even in my previous entries I have forgotten to write things that I did, Ithink I will forget even more this time because it has taken me 2 weeks topost again. After I last wrote, I spent another 2 days in Goa, thentrained back to Mumbai and had a day there before a 4:40am flight. Goa isa really pretty place, an understandable flocking point for thousands ofEuropeans in the winter months. I met a few people there but mostly itwas calm and the beaches were empty, making for peaceful runs and somerelaxing sunsets. I got to see the fishing boats setting out in themorning and coming back in the evening. I was only there 2 full days, alot of people spend a month there. That happened a lot on this trip: thefirst people I met in Tokyo had been in Japan for a few months, mostpeople spend around a month in Mongolia because that amount of time isnecessary to see remote areas, the people I met in Hong Kong spent arounda week exploring the vast city, and India... In Mongolia I met a couplewho had spent 6 months there, a man who had spent 3 months there and inHong Kong a couple who had spent 4. All conceded that they had onlytraveled to part of the country and they needed to go back. My time inTurkey was also more hurried than the usual vacationer, and I did not seeany of the eastern half of the country.My time of travel certainly didnt allow me to say I saw all thosecountries but it did provide for a lot of introspection, opportunities tomeet lots of interesting people, and see places in the world where thingsappear so different yet are often so similar.From Mumbai I flew to Istanbul. I only spent a day there, going to someplaces I had missed when I was there a year and a half ago. Afterstudying in Cairo I flew home from Istanbul and had spent time there. Irevisited the Blue Mosque, but spent most of my time on the Asia side ofthe city exploring what the city looked like for residents. I took anovernight train to Ankara, getting in at 7am, and found a hotel. I walkedall day finding the tourist sites (Ataturk's mausoleum, Parliament, a bigpark, the Citadel, a large square memorializing falllen soldiers). Thenext day I woke up early and walked, eventually getting lost in anindustrial area of the north part of the city.i went from Ankara to Goreme, a small town in the Cappadocia region ofsouth central Turkey. it is famous for its 8th-11th century churchescarved into cliffs and funky rock formations. the rocks are called fairychimneys, which are pretty odd and are either phallic or minaret-like. iguess that provides an interesting dichotomy from which you can probe yoursubconscious. one might say that minarets are phallic by themselveshowever.i got in in the evening and watched the sunset from atop a hill with 3czechs and an austrian who were traveling together. one of the czechs wasfluent in czech, german, and english but the other two did not speakgerman. when these two wanted to communicate with the austrian they spokein english. i latched on with them and the next day we went exploring thevalleys where all the architecture is. i took a ton of pictures, its apretty amazing place. some of the caves are low to the ground but for themost part they are higher up, accessible only by climbing. i never fellbut had a few close calls and my arms are still pretty cut up.the region also makes wine and there were wild grapes and apple treeseverywhere. along with the fairy chimneys, the area's claim to fame isits underground cities. these were built as refuge by each town for wheninvading armies moved through the region on their way to bigger and richerprizes. they also came to be used when the area was converted tochristianity. until constantine converted they were persecuted and hidfrom the roman armies in the massive underground cities. the day afterexploring the valleys, the 5 of us rented a jeep to get to the otherplaces in cappadocia (pronounced cappadokya). the car ended up breakingdown and we had to push it quite aways but the day was nice. theunderground city we went to has 8 levels, so it goes a long ways down. the guide we had said up to 2000 families lived underground at one time. there were 4 air shafts and two entrances, all hidden at the time of itsconstruction.my favorite place was the large church at the bottom, maybe 500 squarefeet. probably about 80 feet underground. i sat there quite a whilethinking about how many people packed into this place and wondering whatthey prayed for if they prayed.i left late that night on a bus for antakya (the city formerly known asantioch), another important site for early christianity. nowadays thereisnt much there for history buffs, just a rock church and some romanmosaics. i didnt see either. again, i got in about 7am and found a hotelto take my stuff. i walked around the city all day watching people. imet a fervent turkish dallas cowboys fan who was very disappointed when itold him i dont care much about the NFL. i think he was glad to findsomeone who knew about it though. what an odd thing to encounter.from antakya i took a shared cab to aleppo in northern syria and then abus to damascus. i am now at my sister and brother in law's apartment. the first night i got here i went to a BBQ/party where I met a person inthe UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Administration, they deal exclusively withPalestinian refugees- in Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon). She gaveme the email of a woman who runs the volunteering and sounded veryoptimistic about my chances. I emailed this person the next morning andam still waiting to hear back- like a kid checking to see if its earlyenough to wake up the parents on christmas, i check my email 3 times aday. While waiting for that I have explored some of the city center aswell as the old city and sent my name in for a few other volunteer spotsthat i found on the internet. I am also looking at language courses andshould hear back from them soon.There seems to be a plethora of things I might be able to do but so farnone that I am asked to do. I should be more patient. Hopefully I willhear back soon from different things that will keep me more busy than Ilike.Now I am off to go and talk to the Red Crescent (like the Red Cross, butin Muslim areas) about volunteering for them. After that I will try andfind the campus of the Univ. of Damascus that houses the Arabic program. At my school in Cairo there were flyers of volunteer opportunities forinternational students, so maybe here too.I am going to post more often, hopefully I will have some exciting newssoon on my first day of work and such. An interesting note is that thissite is blocked for users in Syria. I can read my blog but not post onit. Thanks to the censors, my mom is doing the posting from emails I sendher. Thank you mom! Anyways, send me emails. Let me know what youre upto!................................