The Countdown begins....

Almost a Week Away!

I just got home from Connecticut today and it struck me that I will be on a plan destined (eventually) for Yemen in almost one week. Up until this point the trip had seemed distant, almost as if it wasn't going to actually happen at all. Now that I have all of the little stuff out of the way (getting my passport, visa,plane tickets, immunization,etc.) and am beginning to think about what to pack, the nerves are starting to set in a bit.

My main reason for keeping this blog is so that I can hopefully keep a large amount of my you guys (friends and family) updated so that I don't leave anyone out of the loop. I'm not sure how often I will be able to update this, so I apologize ahead of time if there is a large gap between posts. I can assure you it will be because of a lack of internet access or time constraints.

Details of My Trip

I will be leaving on February, 6th (Tuesday) at 7:35pm from Philadelphia. My flight will go from Philly to Wash DC, then off to Frankfurt, Germany. From there I will fly down to Cairo, Egypt and finally after almost 24 hours I will hopefully arrive in Sana'a and be picked up someone from the school (CALES-Center for Arabic Language and Eastern Studies). Overall, as noted in the title of my blog, I will be in Yemen for 86 days, during which I will most likely spend most of my time studying.

The work week in Sana'a goes from Wednesday-Sunday, so during those days I will have four hours of private instruction, one on one with my language instructor. There are two places I could possibly be staying: 1) in a residence hall next to the school or 2) in the school, on a floor above the classrooms which have rooms. I will have a single room, so I don't have to worry about a rude roommate. In my residence hall there will also be a washer and dryer (big plus) and a community kitchen because we are on are own for food.

As of right now I've had current contact with two people over there; Tim a student from Southern Ct, who is studying Arabic there for the year and Jameel, the person who has been coordinating my stay at the school. So I will definitely need to get out and try to make some friends among my fellow students and around town or else it will be a lonely stay.

Info about Sana'a

Well, where I am going is Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. Yemen is south of Saudi Arabia, at the Southwestern tip of the Arabian peninsula. It borders the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the South and the Red Sea to the West. Its other neighbor is the country of Oman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Yemen-map.gif

As for Sana'a, it is in the mountains, at a height altitude of roughly 8,000ft. The population is around 2mil people and it is divided in between an inner, historical "Old City" and then the new city which was built around it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sana I will be located in the Old City. The capital is about 95%Muslim, with a pretty clean split down the middle between Sunnis and Zaidis, a sect of Shiites. The nation overall is quite poor, with one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. I read that the average yearly income is about $880. Therefore, my living expenses should be quite cheap, even though I will have to pay for all my food. On average, I've been told by the school that it will my daily living cost for food and other necessities will be around $3-$5. Tim told me that a drink at a restaurant usually costs 10-20cents, and meals are around $1-2. The currency is called the rial, and the conversion rate is 150 rials to the dollar. The food seems to be pretty simple and there isn't much variety, so I will hopefully find some staple foods I like when I arrive and stick with the throughout my stay.

The time difference between the East Coast and Sana'a is 8 hours, so the first few days should be quite interesting while I try to get over the jet lag. Plus people arise early for 5am prayers, so I may have to change my schedule up a bit and teach myself to become an early (VERY EARLY) riser.

As for customs, Sana'a is a pretty traditional Islamic city. As for myself, I am required to wear pants in public and my info from the school says I would most likely be given a hard time if I had long hair or wore jewelry. As for women, dress is more traditional, consisting usually of a free flowing, loose top and skirt, that cover the whole body and a veil for the head. Social contact between men and women in public is looked down upon so it looks like I won't be conversing with many Yemeni women (That makes Jenna happy!). As for other customs, I have to use my right hand to eat because the left is used for "going to the bathroom". You shouldn't show the soles of your feet when sitting. And a few other things I can't think of right now.

By this point I figure I've lost everybody in my ramblings about the country and customs so I'll stop for now. Hopefully this has provided a solid background about Yemen so I won't have to rewrite all of this when I arrive.