في صنعاء

Ahalan wa sahalan!
I have finally reached Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. I left at 5:30 from Dullas airport after meeting another student in line. Johanna is from the DC area and actually worked at the Tombs before going to the University of Toronto. 8 hours (and 27 Dresses, The Bucket List, Fool's Gold, and Horton Hears a Who) later we arrived in Frankfurt and met several other students before hopping on Yemenia Airlines. A brief layover in Rome (asleep) and off we were over the Mediterranean. It was so incredibly blue, and the clouds were little popcorn clouds so low to the sea that it was almost impossible to tell if we were upside-down or right-side up. As night fell we were flying over the complete blackness of the Arabian Desert, but a fantastic lightning storm to the east lit up the clouds as if there was a strobe light going off within them. We landed in Sana'a (the smoothest landing I have ever felt, ever) and stood in line for visas for 45 minutes. It was here, in the immigration department of the airport, that I had my first culture shock.
There is no toilet paper.
Not only is there no toilet paper, the toilet is a hole in the floor.
I am all for experiencing new cultures - but this one almost broke me.
After collecting our baggage we headed out to experience first hand the chaos that is the Yemeni streets. There are no lines in the roads and therefore, apparently, no rules. Drivers use their horns in a way that would get you arrested for aggressive driving in the US. After stopping by at a streetside food vendor for a sausage-frenchfry-in-pita concoction we finally arrived at the Markez, the main building of the school where the classrooms and my dorm room are. My room is at the top of the building, on the 6th floor. I couldn't figure out why these six flights of stairs were so hard for me. Am I really that out of shape (possible), are my bags that heavy (also possible)? Wait, Sana'a is 7,220 feet above sea level. Yes! An excuse! And an opportunity for some high-altitude training. I have one roommate, a girl named Katie who is a graduate student at Columbia and really cool.
So finally at 0ne am we settled into bed - hot and stuffy because we couldn't figure out how to open the windows...ahhhh sleep at last.
3:50 am. The morning call to prayer.
3:50 am.
Until 4:50 am. I can see 21 minarets from my window, and each one was blasting the morning prayer. After I got over my frustration of only getting 3 hours of sleep in, I layed in bed listening to the voices (from the speaker systems in the minarets) playing over and over again and finally began to realize (though the toilet paper was the first step) what a different world I had stepped into.
The morning of the first day started at 6am, as our room with its huge windows faces east to the sun. Breakfast of beans, bread and honey, and tea. An orientation about the school including an opportunity to get a language buddy with YALI, the premier english school for Yemeni here.
Then testing to see what level you belong in (embarrassingly enough, I had not opened a book since the end of school). Theeeen a tour! The best part of the day, they took small groups of us around the city and into the Old City, which is still partially walled and is full of all kinds of different souqs (markets) of everything! Spices, clothing, dates, art, metalwork, jewelry, jambis - the traditional short curved sword that men wear around shoved into their belts like cowboys used to shove pistols into theirs. And the vendors know you're foreign so from every side you hear "Welcome to Yemen!" "Come here, come here my new friends!" "Hello, Hello" "Welcome" "Look at this" "For your family at home" (the guilt-trip one) "Welcome to Yemen" over and over again. The architecture is all so old and so amazing, I hope you can see it in the picture. We haggled over mangos in the souq before leaving and walking back to the Markez.
Classes start tomorrow and run from 8 am to 12 noon. And that's it for the day. Most of the shops are closed from 12:30 to 4 in the afternoon, which is when everyone sits around and chews Qat - a small leaf that acts as a stimulant drug. It's a huge part of the culture. Over 80% of the men chew qat and they stick it into one cheek like a chipmunk and then hang out or walk around and smile at you with this tennis ball of qat in their cheek.
But I do have some goals for the next couple of days - find a gym (although I could probably just run up and down the stairs a couple times, that finishes me off), buy some headscarves and learn how to wear them, and learn how to sleep through the morning pray Insha'Allah (God-willing).

Missing everyone at home. I'm here, I'm safe and sound, and I'm happy!
Katie