From Beirut to Damascus, Part 1: Crossing back into Syria from Lebanon
The shortage of new blog posts recently has been due to the absolute craziness that was Level 4 Arabic at Damascus University, partly because of the curriculum itself but mostly because of the psycho teacher who I will publicly shame here on this very blog in the near future. Jennifer and I have passed four straight levels at the university and as far as we know, we’re the only ones who even attempted to do this — at least from the group of students who began with Level 1 back in November like us.
The day after our final exam we traveled to Lebanon for a much needed break. Indeed, this past week spent in and around Beirut was just the beginning of a month-long break we’ve decided take from formal Arabic classes, before starting back up with Level 5 in May.
Today is going to be interesting travelling back into Syria from Lebanon. While we have iqama (residency permits) valid for the next 2 months, our multiple-entry visas expired last month. This means we’ll have to try to buy new entry visas at the land border. Our new friends at the Maktab al-Hijrah (Immigration Office) told us on multiple occasions that it will be “no problem” for Jennifer, as a Spaniard, to buy a visa at the border. For me, though, as an American, they said it was ”mumkin (possible)…. probably mumkin.” Oh dear.
Thing is, we have all the necessary documents and evidence showing that we a) are students, b) are not journalists, and c) have both the right and means to live in Syria. Thus while I don’t foresee any problems with either of us getting back into the country, Syria, as I’ve written before, is an inexact country, and nothing ever goes exactly to plan. The internet is full of conflicting accounts of the actual process, and people we’ve spoken to in Syria have different opinions as well. Some say the delay at the border could be as long as 6 hours while we wait for permission from Damascus to grant us the visas. Others say there will be no delay at all, it’ll just be very expensive. Others still say the border guards aren’t allowed to grant entry visas to any foreigners, period — and yet, sometimes they do it anyway, sometimes, maybe. Mumkin.
So here we go! We’re leaving Beirut in about an hour via taxi. No idea how long it will take us at the border but there are 3 possible outcomes:
- We make it to Damascus and my next blog post will include an account of what the process and experience was like;
- We get turned away and I’ll write next from Beirut, describing what happened and what our plan is; or
- We get stuck at the border… this is a very bad, but highly unlikely outcome
Wish us luck.
