The wheat harvest season is almost over. There is still a stream of trucks headed to the warehouse which stores Syria's one-year supply of wheat grains. And it seems that some of the wheat farms are now being replanted with a different kind of crop. The most obvious I could see is sunflower. And some of them is blooming brightly and cheerfully under the hot summer sun. They plant it for its seed - eaten like kuaci and also for oil.
Syria is a very seasonal country when it comes to agriculture. Fruits and vegetables are seasonal and different kinds are available at different times. When I first arrived, they had really huge cabbage (size bigger than a football). That soon went missing and spinach was aplenty in the market. Spinach did not last long as it is then the lettuce season. I have no idea what is next... It is the same for fruits. I've posted earlier about cherries being served in every house and office as it was the cherry season. And now the cherries are all missing as the Syrians await for the fig season. And by the way, what is fig fruit?
Update 2: About TV Shows
Have been following a show called "Fringe" on MBC Action. It is a sci-fi show about an FBI detective who "surrounds herself with a double-agent, a criminal and a lunatic" as she investigates various abnormal cases involving "fringe science" (cybernetics, rare diseases, teleportation, cryptids, transhumans and the likes). I didn't even know that "fringe science" is the term used to describe this kind of sciences. Not sure whether they screen this in Malaysia.but I thought it was quite an interesting series to watch and have been following it the past few weeks. Of course this is among other series like Simpsons, Frasier and occassionally Desperate Housewives. The AAB channel is also showing a Chinese series "Tang Dynasty". Sometimes, MBC Max or MBC Persia screen English-dubbed version of Stephen Chow movies which were absolutely ridiculous. Imagine Stephen Chow speaking English in Shaolin Soccer! And by the way, Syrians are great fans of Jackie Chan!
Update 3: About the Weekend
No plans for this Friday. The summer sun is getting stronger by the day and day is also getting longer. Sunrise is now before 5am and sunset is only by 8pm. Think the day time temperature is now about 38degC. Not exactly a nice season to do much travelling. Nevertheless I do have one more place on my list which I like to visit - Apamea, the Hellenistic/ Roman city famed for its Cardos Maximus (a long column-lined boulevard). Maybe I would visit it on another day. This would complete the list of places of interest for the time being. There are other places like the Dead Cities, Aleppo Citadel and the grand amphitheater of Bosra. But I doubt I'll have the time for those now as I expect my tenure in Syria will end in July. But then again, that is only a hope... There is a project meeting next week which hopefully will clear things up. Right now it is all a bit blurry for everyone. There has been quite a lot of upheavals and changes in the past weeks and things are getting abit messy.
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