Oddities: (a ton of) Pictures from Syria

You're the apple of my eye.

Front balcony

Views from the balcony onto a typical street in Damascus

Old mosque by our grandmother's place

Jabri House (our family's restaurant)

Beit Jabri (or Jabri house in english) from the second floor

Street in old Damascus (they're tiny!)

View from "my spot" on the back balcony. Sorry about the bars in the picture, they're an irritating "nice touch" to the cute balcony

My new car! I wish.

Typical apartment building. I actually got chewed out for taking this picture by the taxi driver and my mom because we were driving right by the president's house and apparently, you CANNOT take pictures by there or you'll have your bottom handed to you.

Me, Geoffrey, Ryan

Dinner with the Abrahams, really good family friends of ours. Geoffrey and Keenan (those are the boys) both go to A&M. Always fun!

Old ruin in Old Damascus... I'm so sorry I can't tell you more about it!

Little shop in Old Damascus. Cute, isn't it?

City in the mountain... Looks a little different than down the mountain

My uncle's "ranch". I loved going here because we're out away from the city, the weather and food's great, and of course, it's really fun to hang out with my family.

Really crappy picture, but look! It's green! Aaaaand, no camels :)

The youngest of the seven grandchildren, Jad. We mostly call him Jado though because he's so cute.

Typical. This is a hookah that my family owns. I'd be nervous to find out how many we own.

Typical breakfast with the fam. (I got a lot of "typical" pictures so I'll be using that word a lot)

Typical (told ya) dessert! They eat so healthy there and it's delicious. I love it

Ryan playing (probably unfairly) basketball with Fufi (Rafik is his real name. He's Jado's older brother) and Jad

I think it's beautiful there, no?

OH MY GOD SO TYPICAL. This is my uncle doing a strip tease for me and the camera... and everyone else at Fufi's birthday party. Much better than a clown, sure

Jado, Tamooh

Tamooh is closest to me in age (he's 16)... and closest to me in general. He's really smart, creative, funny and just a joy all around

All seven of us. If you look closely (hopefully you don't have to look too closely), you'll see that I'm the only girl and the oldest. I actually really like it that way

Jad, Omar, Fufi, Hamoodeh, Ryan, Tamooh, me

The seven lined up by age. We're actually at this Crusader castle on the top of this gorgeous mountain. It's fascinating to be in if you think about all of the emotions and thoughts that those walls saw.

Ryan, Hamoodeh

Hamoodeh is Tamooh's younger brother and the middle child of my aunt's 3 kids. He's Ryan's age and very different than Tamooh; he likes the bad-A image.

Hamoodeh, Khalto Roula (or, in english, Aunt Roula)

Tamooh

Omar, Ryan

Omar is the youngest of my aunt's 3. He is Fufi's age, 11, and one of the sweetest kids that I know. He and Ryan like beating each other up and the picture above is proof.