First Day in Yemen

After a god-awfully long journey which kicked the pants off of last summer's trip to Egypt in terms of length and torture, I'm finally experiencing Sana'a. I wouldn't say I'm well-rested, as jet lag definitely has its grip on me, but at least I got to sleep horizontally for a few hours last night.

Now to the interesting part: the first thought after crossing the plane's exit door threshold was the smell; I'd forgotten what it smelled like to be in a foreign country. I'm sure each place has its own aroma, and Sana'a certainly demonstrated that. It didn't stink or anything, it was just an olfactory-punch reminder of where I was. I eventually got into the terminal, and the first time I spoke Arabic the guy said "you're accent...it is Egyptian." Hehe. Shows I learned something last summer. Then he said I must learn the Yemeni one. Of course.

After an hour's sparring with Arab bureaucracy, we were finally cleared to leave the terminal. We had our driver, a student who is also kinda the greeter girl, and another new student from Italy, crammed in a 4 runner. It's safe to say I've missed riding with Arabs, the driver wasted no time in having a near-collision with a car that made the dumbfounding decision to stop in the middle of a near empty street.

I didn't realize how much I'd missed being in a foreign environment. The monotonous plane ride was an experience that could be likened to torture, at least to those like myself who can't sit still for very long, so I became rather dull to everything. As soon as we hit the road and took everything in my senses finally came alive and I had a new lease on life.

Sana'a itself is very Arab. Now I know why most Egyptians don't consider themselves Arab; at this point, I'm inclined to agree with them. The early morning call to prayer was cool since I hadn't heard that in awhile, and it quickly reminded me of my first night in Egypt. This time around, I feel much more experienced about things and can't wait to dive in head first guns blazing. Speaking of guns, my roommate swears he heard an AK peel off a 5-round burst last night. I didn't hear it, but it supposedly came right when the calls to prayer started. Yemenis are known for using their weapons for celebration, so I'm sure that's what it was. Regardless, that's something I never heard in Egypt and a reminder to the different environment I'm in.

We eat breakfast in 10 minutes, so I have to wrap this up. We're gonna be given a tour of the Old City today; hopefully I can get a few pics up.

It's really good to be back in the saddle again.