The Blog and the Shower

CASA ended last week.  We had a party and somebody brought a cake with our photo on it:

We lit the candles and everyone decided it would be ironic and funny if we celebrated our lack of American nationalism and Amerian funding by singing patriotic songs, most of which I barely knew the words to.  It was neat repeat of one of the more awkward moments of my birthday party, in which the Americans found the irony of singing the national anthem quite hilarious, while the Europeans and Syrians didn’t find it remotely amusing but tried to be excessively polite about it anyhow.

One of our teachers asked us to go around the room and report moments that we’d never forget from the past year.  I said I’d always remember M going up to the bored employee puffing coolly on a cigarette at the Department of Passports and Immigration, then shouting in his face, “Smoking is prohibited!”  R said she’d never forget how good I was at acting like a prostitute, as my entire class discovered when we staged an inpromptu rendition of Sa’dallah Wannous’s “A Day From Our Time” and my portrayal of the pimp/whore was said to be especially convincing.

Joking aside, it’s hard to express how grateful I am to have had this chance to study in Damascus, in this program in particular.  While each semester presented its own challenges, I couldn’t have asked for more dedicated teachers, or more wonderful and thought-provoking classmates, from whom I learned just as much as I did from any professor or text.  Additionally, I couldn’t have asked for more enjoyable or complicated city to spend a year in.   The continuation of CASA as a program in Damascus has recently been called into question for reasons of internal politics and minute power struggles, but I’m happy to report that it’ll be held for at least another year so that a new group of Casawiin can enjoy the same chances that my friends and I have; hopefully, it’ll continue for many more to come.