extracurricular activities
After a couple weeks of scouting swimming pools, I've bought a monthly membership at the Tishereen Sports Complex. ("Tishereen" is Arabic for "October" and is used EVERYWHERE to commemorate Syria's sort-of success in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.) The complex has a lovely Olympic-sized indoor pool with women's hours 3 mornings a week. The hours are punishing (6:30-8:00) as is the long-course set up, but I assume I'll adjust to both.
Although the turn-out is decent, I'm by far the fastest swimmer there and a bit worried about accidentally plowing people down, especially since the water is pretty cloudy. Which contributed to an interesting incident today. A bunch of women were gathered at one end of my lane, so I stopped to find out what was going on. I quickly saw that one of the women was missing her 2 front teeth. Gesturning ensued, with the other women pointing first at the older woman's mouth and then towards my feet.
I immediately jumped to the logical--and horrifying--conclusion: I had kicked out the lady's teeth! Confusion and terror in equal parts: "What do they do to attack-swimmers??" / "But I didn't feel any impact!!" As I was about to start profusely apologizing and begging not to be ejected from the pool/country, I suddenly realized what was actually going on: the woman's false teeth had fallen out and everyone was requesting that I--the only one with goggles--reclaim them from the pool floor.
Relieved, if slightly grossed out, I dove for the wayward teeth and returned them to their owner, to general gratitude.
The funnier thing about this episode is that I KNOW the woman. We met at--of all things--the theater club at the University. (No, I'm not in the play; it's in English, but also in September.) After the auditions, she invited me over to her house and we spent an hour chatting over lemonade.
There may be "typical" days in Damascus, but they don't seem to happen to me.
Although the turn-out is decent, I'm by far the fastest swimmer there and a bit worried about accidentally plowing people down, especially since the water is pretty cloudy. Which contributed to an interesting incident today. A bunch of women were gathered at one end of my lane, so I stopped to find out what was going on. I quickly saw that one of the women was missing her 2 front teeth. Gesturning ensued, with the other women pointing first at the older woman's mouth and then towards my feet.
I immediately jumped to the logical--and horrifying--conclusion: I had kicked out the lady's teeth! Confusion and terror in equal parts: "What do they do to attack-swimmers??" / "But I didn't feel any impact!!" As I was about to start profusely apologizing and begging not to be ejected from the pool/country, I suddenly realized what was actually going on: the woman's false teeth had fallen out and everyone was requesting that I--the only one with goggles--reclaim them from the pool floor.
Relieved, if slightly grossed out, I dove for the wayward teeth and returned them to their owner, to general gratitude.
The funnier thing about this episode is that I KNOW the woman. We met at--of all things--the theater club at the University. (No, I'm not in the play; it's in English, but also in September.) After the auditions, she invited me over to her house and we spent an hour chatting over lemonade.
There may be "typical" days in Damascus, but they don't seem to happen to me.
posted by Emily at 4:38 PM
2 Comments:
girl... i know what time you normally get up in the mornings... and I know that 6:30 isn't that much earlier.
keep kicking out those teeth though. that's what I count on you for.
Em,
I am thoroughly enjoying the blogs. So is everyone else here at Allstate! You provide our lunchtime reading. I will have Robert forward some pics of the wedding - missed you there. See you in September - wait - isn't that a song....
Love, Toni
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