The Fulbright conference finished yesterday. That is the purpose of my being in Tunisia, to go to this conference of Middle East and North Africa Fulbrighters (with flight and hotel paid for by Fulbright, naturally and awesomely). I saw this and thought, "Well the conference will be bullshit, but hey! free trip to Tunis!"
It was not bullshit. I was actually amazing. Meeting the other Fulbrighters in other countries, mostly Jordan and Egypt but also the UAE, Bahrain, Tunis, and even Israel. The rest of us had no idea Israel was coming, and there was a collective "what?" going through the room when they were introduced, except for the PhD student studying the Palestinian national movement of the 1930s. People were saying they should go to Europe, but it actually turned out to be very interesting talking to them.
Most people were not at all pretentious, despite many having reasons to be, as their projects and previous work are amazing. The conversations! Oh, the conversations! It makes me miss college and having these intellectual discussions. Wow. These people are so cool. I felt happily inadequate compared to many of them, but others shared my same feelings.
There's more, but I have to go enjoy Tunis.
Showing posts with label Fulbright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fulbright. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Going to Tunis!
I'm leaving tomorrow for a Fulbright enrichment seminar in Tunis. Very excited to have both my Shami Arabic and atrophied French be almost no use at all!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Even More Syria to Love
I applied for, and received an extension on my grant! Now, at the least, I will be here until December 2008. Kick-ass!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Danger Danger Danger
I finally got to go back to class today after two days of Fulbright orientation. There's 10 of us here, some doing research, all but one with Language grants, though many are doing straight language training for their Fulbright grant as well. Two more will be joining us much later in the year.
We had briefings with the economic officer about sanctions, with the consular officer about how doing drugs will get you thrown into a pit and kicked for 14 years without your family knowing where you are, with the security officer about how terrorism, like last year's attack on the US Embassy here, or regional conflict is a very real possibility and to keep alert, and with the medical officer on how to boil everything before you eat it and soak it in chlorine and you know what why don't you just ship in all your food from Sweden. She also warned us that the sun is stronger than we might think and that we should consider investing in some sunscreen, especially as some of you (motion in my direction) are quite fair. That was the first day.
On the second we got to hear the political officer sigh and explain "the United State's official position" on everything. He didn't have any info to tell us (swearing his own ignorance) on the Syrian nukes? that's blowing up the news here. Every one here I've talked to laughs at the idea of Syria pursuing nuclear technology. Why North Korea anyway when Iran is so much closer? The US hasn't corroborated what the Israelis are saying. Could this turn into a conflict? The political officer said we have no idea, but we hope not. He also ventured that the Syrian-US relationship is more tense that it has been at any point in the past couple of years. Hopefully that won't mess up my getting an iqama! But meeting the political officer once again gave me pause about a possible career at DOS. He seemed so disheartened, schilling the same lines about US policy in the region, most of which he didn't seem to believe. Fun.
The other news is that Syria will be invited to the November peace conference. Will they RSVP? Speaking of respondez-vousing, I'm going to an iftar at the ambassador's residence tonight - there is no ambassador, but the charge d'affaires will be there, taking questions from those gathered, about any old thing.
We had briefings with the economic officer about sanctions, with the consular officer about how doing drugs will get you thrown into a pit and kicked for 14 years without your family knowing where you are, with the security officer about how terrorism, like last year's attack on the US Embassy here, or regional conflict is a very real possibility and to keep alert, and with the medical officer on how to boil everything before you eat it and soak it in chlorine and you know what why don't you just ship in all your food from Sweden. She also warned us that the sun is stronger than we might think and that we should consider investing in some sunscreen, especially as some of you (motion in my direction) are quite fair. That was the first day.
On the second we got to hear the political officer sigh and explain "the United State's official position" on everything. He didn't have any info to tell us (swearing his own ignorance) on the Syrian nukes? that's blowing up the news here. Every one here I've talked to laughs at the idea of Syria pursuing nuclear technology. Why North Korea anyway when Iran is so much closer? The US hasn't corroborated what the Israelis are saying. Could this turn into a conflict? The political officer said we have no idea, but we hope not. He also ventured that the Syrian-US relationship is more tense that it has been at any point in the past couple of years. Hopefully that won't mess up my getting an iqama! But meeting the political officer once again gave me pause about a possible career at DOS. He seemed so disheartened, schilling the same lines about US policy in the region, most of which he didn't seem to believe. Fun.
The other news is that Syria will be invited to the November peace conference. Will they RSVP? Speaking of respondez-vousing, I'm going to an iftar at the ambassador's residence tonight - there is no ambassador, but the charge d'affaires will be there, taking questions from those gathered, about any old thing.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Damascus: City of Freaks
So it's been quite an eventful weekend. I turned down a date with a friend (because "I'm just not ready to date now") on Thursday evening and on Friday evening the whole family and a few of the girls went up into the mountains to have iftar with some of Um Zahir's family. They were up in a village in the mountains about 30 minutes away. The family was happy because they had two engaged girls, sixteen and fourteen. "Do you think that's young?" we foreigners were asked, and replied in the affirmative. "It's common in ar-reef (the country)". The "older" one is getting married not long after Ramadan, the younger one in about a year. We oohed and ahhed over the pictures from their engagement parties, but the older one had about 30 professional pictures, with classic wedding and senior pic poses, in which she had professional hair and makeup and a massive dress. The younger one had 3 dark, crappy pictures. We're not sure why the disparity. Both girls are cute, and their finances are, um, less so. They're both marrying cousins.
Back at home, we the foreign girls sat around talking about how young these girls are. Huda, Zahir's wife, is only 24 and has two kids, 6 and 4. She was engaged at 16, married at 17, gave birth at 18. Mindy has a theory that marrying cousins has caused a great rift between the attractive and nonattractive. "In America, most people are in the middle, from the top side of average to not that attractive, but still not horrible. Here is seems like people are either gorgeous or hideous."
"Plus, have you notices all the congenital diseases people have, or how many deformitites? You see lots of albinos, people with club feet, humps on their back..." She continued to list types, including types of short people "... some are perfectly proportioned, some have long arms, some have short legs, some have big heads. And this one time I was at Dar Musa (a Christian monastary) talking to this monk you was young and looked normal, but then I looked down at his feet and he had a sixth toe growing out the top of his little toe." Lindsey burst out: "You make it sound like Damascus is a city of freaks!" which is just a hilarious mental image. See the postcards: Visit Damascus, City of Freaks.
The Fulbright orientation starts tomorrow and I'm not very happy because it means I have to miss two full days of class! That's eight hours, and the midterm at the end of this week. And soon I promise to write about the shit that's been going down here: nuclear Syria? and bombs in Beirut.
Back at home, we the foreign girls sat around talking about how young these girls are. Huda, Zahir's wife, is only 24 and has two kids, 6 and 4. She was engaged at 16, married at 17, gave birth at 18. Mindy has a theory that marrying cousins has caused a great rift between the attractive and nonattractive. "In America, most people are in the middle, from the top side of average to not that attractive, but still not horrible. Here is seems like people are either gorgeous or hideous."
"Plus, have you notices all the congenital diseases people have, or how many deformitites? You see lots of albinos, people with club feet, humps on their back..." She continued to list types, including types of short people "... some are perfectly proportioned, some have long arms, some have short legs, some have big heads. And this one time I was at Dar Musa (a Christian monastary) talking to this monk you was young and looked normal, but then I looked down at his feet and he had a sixth toe growing out the top of his little toe." Lindsey burst out: "You make it sound like Damascus is a city of freaks!" which is just a hilarious mental image. See the postcards: Visit Damascus, City of Freaks.
The Fulbright orientation starts tomorrow and I'm not very happy because it means I have to miss two full days of class! That's eight hours, and the midterm at the end of this week. And soon I promise to write about the shit that's been going down here: nuclear Syria? and bombs in Beirut.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Reservations
I don't think the American Embassy is very happy with me. They offer to pick Fulbrighters up from the airport, a service of which I plan to make use. They also offer to book a few nights in the Sultan Hotel for us, a service I declined. I'll be staying at al-Haramein, I told them (much cheaper). Then I packed and went to California and didn't go on the Internet for a few days.
Pandemonium! Well, not really. The woman at the embassy had sent me emails making sure I had reserved at al-Haramein because it's very busy now and lots of hotels are all booked up, then emailed my contact at IIE who emailed me asking the same thing. I told them no, told her she could go ahead and book me Sultan, to which she replied that Sultan is full!!! Holy crap!
I'm not very worried. Last time I went to Syria I rolled up in a bus and had no trouble finding a room. If al-Haramein is full I'll go next door. If that's full, go to another hostel. I'll find a bed. But apparently the embassy does not find this comforting, so I'm trying to call ahead and reserve.
So close to Thursday. Packing is a bitch.
Pandemonium! Well, not really. The woman at the embassy had sent me emails making sure I had reserved at al-Haramein because it's very busy now and lots of hotels are all booked up, then emailed my contact at IIE who emailed me asking the same thing. I told them no, told her she could go ahead and book me Sultan, to which she replied that Sultan is full!!! Holy crap!
I'm not very worried. Last time I went to Syria I rolled up in a bus and had no trouble finding a room. If al-Haramein is full I'll go next door. If that's full, go to another hostel. I'll find a bed. But apparently the embassy does not find this comforting, so I'm trying to call ahead and reserve.
So close to Thursday. Packing is a bitch.
Monday, August 6, 2007
One Month!
In exactly one month I will be getting on a plane to go to Syria! I won't actually arrive in Syria until the next day, but still. I gotta get some shit done first.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Everyone Sucks at Arabic
I met with another woman who's going to Syria in the fall on a Fulbright. She covers the U.N. for al-Jazeera. Her Arabic is thus a trillion times better than mine, but she's going to Syria for straight language training. She wants to be able to do live reporting.
She didn't start Arabic until after college. Morocco, Middlebury, IFEAD in Damascus (I didn't get in), and School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London later and she's working for al-Jazeera. "Oh, I work in it but I'm not very good at Arabic."
Right.
It seems everyone who studies Arabic protests how crappy they are. In my case it is warranted, particularly with formal Arabic. I can shoot the shit in Arabic, I traveled using Arabic almost exclusively last time I was in Syria, but give me a page or two and read and I think "Shit that's long... I wonder if Ruby's new video is up on youtube." Start talking to me about subjects off my general repitoire and I will smile and nod, uncomprehending. So my own evaluation that my Arabic is shitty is quite apt.
Will I ever be fluent in Arabic? Two years in and it doesn't look promising. Of course, after a year in Syria going to school and living with a family I might feel differently. I miss French. I want to learn Spanish.
She didn't start Arabic until after college. Morocco, Middlebury, IFEAD in Damascus (I didn't get in), and School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London later and she's working for al-Jazeera. "Oh, I work in it but I'm not very good at Arabic."
Right.
It seems everyone who studies Arabic protests how crappy they are. In my case it is warranted, particularly with formal Arabic. I can shoot the shit in Arabic, I traveled using Arabic almost exclusively last time I was in Syria, but give me a page or two and read and I think "Shit that's long... I wonder if Ruby's new video is up on youtube." Start talking to me about subjects off my general repitoire and I will smile and nod, uncomprehending. So my own evaluation that my Arabic is shitty is quite apt.
Will I ever be fluent in Arabic? Two years in and it doesn't look promising. Of course, after a year in Syria going to school and living with a family I might feel differently. I miss French. I want to learn Spanish.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Time Travel Made Possible!
Oh, current and future scholars and students, though university bureaucracy seems like a paperwork and voicemail hydra, a labyrinth without David Bowie, or a brick wall painted with the blood of those who have smashed their heads against it, it can be mastered. I have done two supposedly impossible things at once - successfully navigated NYU bureaucracy and traveled through time. And how? Perserverence, grace, and NYU's insatiable hunger to have students with scholarships to point at.
This last year of school, I knew one thing: I wanted to go back to the Middle East. Syria was chosen for several reasons, chief among them cheapness. The goal became to have someone else pay for my going to Syria, with the fallback of fucking my loans and paying with my savings. I applied to two scholarship programs: NSEP Boren, which required me to still be a matriculated student, and Fulbright, which required me to have a B.A. No problem. If I got the former, I would just stay in school and spend senior year in Syria. If the latter, I would graduate a year early.
I got both, though I found out about NSEP Boren in early May, and Fulbright just a few weeks ago. So I had not graduated - again, no prob. I declined the Boren and put in to graduate at the end of the summer.
Problem. NYU's fall graduation is September 24th - after I need to be in Syria. Fulbright won't give me anything until they have final transcript stating that I have my B.A. in hand. Thursday of last week I made a few frantic emails and calls to the program director of Africa and the Middle East, the Dean's Office at my college, the registrar's office, and the advising office. The Dean was going to write a personal letter to Fulbright for me explaining the situation, because I was told back when I decided not to graduate in May that it would be, without a doubt, absolutely impossible to have a May graduation date after May.
"We can't go back in time," the advisor joked. Really?
They have gone back in time - for me. Friday apparently the dean, the registrar, and an advisor got together and decided to bend the laws of time and space and graduate me back in May 2007. I fucking rock. Happy graduation to me. Even without commencement, a speaker, a gown or tassle, I think I'll live.
It can be done! It can even be made to do the impossible. Though I think it helps if you win a national scholarship. Shit man, Fulbright is only free slurpees and a happy ending from fulfilling every my every need.
This last year of school, I knew one thing: I wanted to go back to the Middle East. Syria was chosen for several reasons, chief among them cheapness. The goal became to have someone else pay for my going to Syria, with the fallback of fucking my loans and paying with my savings. I applied to two scholarship programs: NSEP Boren, which required me to still be a matriculated student, and Fulbright, which required me to have a B.A. No problem. If I got the former, I would just stay in school and spend senior year in Syria. If the latter, I would graduate a year early.
I got both, though I found out about NSEP Boren in early May, and Fulbright just a few weeks ago. So I had not graduated - again, no prob. I declined the Boren and put in to graduate at the end of the summer.
Problem. NYU's fall graduation is September 24th - after I need to be in Syria. Fulbright won't give me anything until they have final transcript stating that I have my B.A. in hand. Thursday of last week I made a few frantic emails and calls to the program director of Africa and the Middle East, the Dean's Office at my college, the registrar's office, and the advising office. The Dean was going to write a personal letter to Fulbright for me explaining the situation, because I was told back when I decided not to graduate in May that it would be, without a doubt, absolutely impossible to have a May graduation date after May.
"We can't go back in time," the advisor joked. Really?
They have gone back in time - for me. Friday apparently the dean, the registrar, and an advisor got together and decided to bend the laws of time and space and graduate me back in May 2007. I fucking rock. Happy graduation to me. Even without commencement, a speaker, a gown or tassle, I think I'll live.
It can be done! It can even be made to do the impossible. Though I think it helps if you win a national scholarship. Shit man, Fulbright is only free slurpees and a happy ending from fulfilling every my every need.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Mo' Syria
I was notified today that I get a three-month language training grant, in addition to the nine-month research grant. A true year in Syria - 12 glorious months, and at first I have no responsibilities other than chatting up strangers, learning better curse words than are currently at my disposal, scandelizing the unfortunate family I rent a room from, and going to class. I have to be in-country, at my first day of class within 90 days, which is a perfect timeline. Just enough time to finish my summer internship, go to a friend's wedding, and perhaps even throw a bone to the 'rents and go back to Michigan before taking off.
Things are going so well I can't believe it. I feel so incredibly lucky that this shit I put together haphazardly (job, graduating, scholarship) is all working out - and perfectly. Now all I have to do is get the UNFPA on board with my project (a task whose deadline has now been extended three months). And get the visa.
How exactly does this Fulbright work once I'm there? Does any one check up on my research? Guide me, mentor me, etc? What do I do with the research when I'm done? No one's actually explained these details to me- I guess I'll see.
Things are going so well I can't believe it. I feel so incredibly lucky that this shit I put together haphazardly (job, graduating, scholarship) is all working out - and perfectly. Now all I have to do is get the UNFPA on board with my project (a task whose deadline has now been extended three months). And get the visa.
How exactly does this Fulbright work once I'm there? Does any one check up on my research? Guide me, mentor me, etc? What do I do with the research when I'm done? No one's actually explained these details to me- I guess I'll see.
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