Day 1. Awal Youm fi'l Yemen!

So after 29 hours on a plane/in transit, I am finally in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. When I got in last night, it was pouring rain, and it has been raining all day...I didn't realize I was coming to Yemen in the middle of a monsoon! I'm really glad I packed my rainboots and a raincoat, but I didn't bring an umbrella...not like it matters because everyone is soaked through in 5 minutes. Since it only rains about one month out of each year, Yemen doesn't have a drainage/sewer system...that means that roads become rivers and intersections become lakes. That means water up to your calves at any given point.
I wouldn't say I'm going through culture shock, and I never really had culture shock when I went to Jordan, but Yemen is very, very different than I expected. I feel as safe here as I feel in Marietta, Georgia. While I knew coming here that it wasn't full of terrorists and that I would probably never be in danger while here, it is still more relaxed than I expected. Everyone that I have talked to has joked about there being terrorists and they are saddened that Westerners are afraid to come to Yemen because they believe everything they see on the news. Of course there are places like Ma'rib or Sa'da in the North where I should not travel, but places like Sana'a and in the South and East are very safe and very welcoming.
So...I've been constantly busy since I've gotten here. There were 4 students from my program on the Germany-Yemen leg of my flight, and of course we had trouble with the visa guy at the airport because of 2 typos on photocopies of our visas. I happened to know the most Arabic out of the 5 of us, so that meant I got to deal with the guy. I'm actually surprised at how similar Yemeni and Jordanian Arabic is, considering how far apart they are (although one difference that is getting me in trouble is that "maashi means yes in Jordan, and no in Yemen, and I keep saying it) so I was able to communicate with the guy and convince him to let everyone in.
You can tell you are not in Jordan or Syria or anywhere else I have been in the Middle East immediately...it is a lot less built-up and developed than I expected. Roads, even in the middle of the capital city, are not really paved...they are dirt and rock, and strewn with more garbage than you can imagine. There aren't sidewalks, or stop signs, or traffic lights, or traffic circles or street signs...its just a maze of dirt paths...really. The houses are all gorgeous though...they look like decorated cakes. Every single one is white, with brown painted designs and carvings, and all of the windows are beautiful multi-colored stained glass.
The Yemeni people. Well, I've only been here a day and spoken with a few, but the dress code is AWESOME. In Jordan, only some among the older generation wore traditional dress...here, evvveryone is in traditional dress except for a very very few. All the men wear either a dish-dash (they call it something else here, but I forget) or pants with a wrap-around jacket. And they wear these big belts, which hold their awesome jambiyya (huge decorated dagger). There are differing degrees of headgear--kuffiyahs of every color, tied in every fashion, as well as prayer caps and a million other things. The rain is awesome because the men all roll up their pants of dish-dashes so that they are wearing short shorts and they walk around bare-footed. Women are noticeable by there not being any on the streets. The men are all over the place, in restaurants, on the street, in stores, but I've barely seen any women at all, and every single one of them has been completely covered in black.

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So I just got back from my first trip to the old market...this entire city makes the old parts of Amman and Damascus look brand new. In the "old" part of Sana'a, everything looks ancient. I couldnt really take any pictures because that part of the city was experiencing a blackout, which made walking on the old and wet cobblestones and no sidewalks a challenge. But the market was amazing. The only bad part is that they don't bargain very much here, so my skills won't be of much use. I did see about 20 things I want to buy, including amazing jambiyyas and the traditional shawls (which is an arabic word, by the way). I bought some mangoes, and I just finished eating one...the best, ripest, sweetest, cheapest mango i've ever had in my entire life.

Anyways, today I had my horrible Arabic placement exam, so tomorrow I find out what class I will be in and I have to start classes...ugh, 3 hours of Arabic tomorrow...i'm not excited!