Causing A Commotion

Clearly, whoever is coming into town is causing quite the ruckus. (“Could you describe the ruckus, Sir?”) There are even more police hanging out all over the place, and they’re not letting many cars come up our way, although we were able to get here. Fortunately. Have I mentioned that I work in a hospital? The term “hospital” is a little more loosely applied here than at home, but still. Heh. Kind of funny, in that funny/strange way. But all the police are definitely exercising their authority – sirens, and car horns, and shouting, oh my! Our driver went to get my new SIM card so that I can have a working mobile phone here in Yemen, and they wouldn’t even let him stay in the phone office long enough to be told the phone number. Seriously. He had to come back to the office with it, I had to load it into my phone, and then I had to call someone to figure out the number by whatever showed up on their caller ID. Goodness. Seems a bit much, if you ask me.

Our new digs are interesting. My room is gi-normous. Seriously. It’s about half the size of my apartment– maybe more. And I share that apartment with two adults and two cats. But this hotel isn’t actually “open”, we’re mostly here because TL mentioned our plight to a somewhat influential guy who managed to get us lodging there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite grateful, as the Sofitel was fully prepared to chuck us out on the street without a second thought, but there are a few peculiar things about being the only two guests. First of all, there are little things missing. Like hot water (oops – they forgot to turn it on) and a wastebasket of any kind. Second, when we went downstairs for breakfast this morning, since we were told that, just as at the Sofitel, breakfast would be included in our room rate, there was nothing there. The dining room was fully set up, but there was not a scrap of food to be found anywhere. Their response to TL’s “wha-da-fa?” reaction? “Well, there are only two of you here.” To which he said “So we are to be punished for being ejected from our last hotel and sent here? When you are sent to prison, they still feed you!” That had a car packed with breakfast goodies leaving the Sofitel for our mountaintop hideaway of sorts right quick. This place is also *high* up on Sabir Mountain. Way high up. We have to wind up a teeny 2-lane road chock-full o’ hairpin turns that has made my stomach lurch from time to time. It’s also quite windy up there – windy enough to send the chairs, tables, and umbrellas on the large patio right below my window ricocheting to and fro all night. Kind of freaked me out at first, until I figured out what it was, and then viewed the chaos in the morning. It all made more sense then.

You know what should have occurred to me, but didn’t? They don’t show CNN here (at least, not widely, although it did pop up at the Sofitel eventually – fuzzy, but still there) because it’s an American network. *duh* I should have thought of that.

Being here, in a place that’s just so dang old (and actually, having spent most of this year [!!!] in really old countries with rich histories) has reignited my history buff tendencies. I’ve always been a fan of history, but now I’m just so dang curious about what happened all around the world (including the US) to get us all where we are today. I’ll have to pick up a few books, maybe even some historical biographies, when I get home, and stop skating on my sketchy recollections of high school world history. Which are getting sketchier as I get older. And given that I’ll be…*gasp*…thirty in May, I need to supplement my teenage book learnin’. Hey – if I can re-learn French, I can definitely re-learn the Renaissance, the Crusades, the Enlightenment, the Boer Wars, and all that stuff. The trick is that whole “history is written by the winners – and usually white guys” thing, which can skew the tone of what you’re reading. I’d like to see what’s out there and check out some alternative view points while I’m doing it.

Raise your hand if you’re surprised to discover that I’m a nerd? Anyone? That’s what I thought. I’d like to consider it part of my charm. I’d like to…but I’m too much of a realist.

So, you know what’s funny? I just went to wash my hands, and now it feels like there’s only hot water. I am positively howling with laughter. Oh wait – no, that’s pain from scalding water.