TravelChick

Smoke This

Two nights ago I went out to dinner with some friends for a good friend's birthday. We went to Ararat, a Chinese restaurant in the Old City. Yes, this is Syria. It used to be an Armenian restaurant and I guess when ownership changed and it became a Chinese restaurant they decided to keep the name. Just as there's something odd about seeing a McDonald's in a 600 year old building in Germany (go to Celle), there's something strange about seeing a Chinese restaurant in a wobbly alley in the Old City in Damascus.

The interesting part about this story is not the Chinese restaurant, though. The interesting part is the smoke. I've lived here for seven months now and this, combined with my previous 13 odd months in London, has somewhat acclimatized me to smoke. To give you an idea of what smoking means here, Syria is a place where my teacher made us have a discussion about the pros and cons of smoking for your health. Cigarettes cost about a dollar a pack here and you can smoke everywhere: schools, restaurants, and hospitals. Yes, hospitals.

I'm a strict non-smoker, I've never smoked, I never will. I've learned to deal with people smoking, which is fine. Though I don't smoke and really don't like smoke wafting around my face, people have a right to smoke.

At this restaurant, though, something was wrong with the ventilation and my eyes were burning from the smoke. I mean hurting so much that I was not only tearing up but I could barely open my eyes. And everyone except for me and one friend smoked, in shifts, it seemed. I asked if people could stop smoking because my eyes were really hurting and apologized profusely and one of my friends actually got annoyed with me for asking him to stop smoking. Another friend suggested that perhaps I sit at another table or go outside.

Had it not been my friend's birthday, I would have gotten up and walked out. I couldn't believe that my friends were being so obnoxious. It's not as if I was asking them to stop smoking just because I don't like smoke; the smoke was actually burning my eyes. I understand that smoking is an addiction but I don't feel that asking someone to stop smoking for an hour is a huge imposition.

Although I like Syria, the fact that there's far less smoke in the US is one reason why I will be glad to go back there. I like non-smoking sections in restaurants, I like that you can't smoke in bars in California and New York, I like that you can't smoke in hospitals. And as much as life in Syria can be nice, the ever-present smoke is awful.

posted by Travel Chick @ 6:11 PM