Some of you may have heard or have been following the news about the anti-government uprising and the very violent crackdown that has cost the lives of thousands of civilians and destruction throughout Syria. It has been exactly a year since this uprising began and with a seemingly no end to it, as the international community is reluctant to get involved or do something about, and only respond with ineffective disapproval and sanctions. Also, the fact that Russia, China, and Iran is supporting Syria, has made it more difficult for outside involvement of the situation.
Despite risking my life, I returned to Syria in December shortly after completing my Art Bachelor's degree at a small liberal arts college in western North Carolina, USA.
I had a feeling it would be the last time I would visit my home in Damascus. My parents and younger brother were still living there. Shortly thereafter in January, my father lost his job as director of an American language center (a position he had for 20 years) after the American Embassy, that worked in cooperation with his workplace, shut it down due to safety concerns of the escalating situation in Syria. A few weeks later, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus soon followed in closing down.
Soon, my mother sold our apartment home, where we lived for 15 years, and were given 2-3 months to vacate the premises.
Yesterday, me and my family were evacuated from Syria, and are now staying over temporarily at a relatives apartment in Florida, while we plan try to find a place to rent.
It has been a very heartbreaking and depressing experience for us, to have to leave our home in Damascus (a city where we lived for 20 years) and try to temporarily live in an unfamiliar place in Florida, with no more income. At least we are safe from the danger in Syria, but still, leaving home in never easy.
Fortunately, for us while we were in Damascus, the area where we were living in was away from the danger other than a few occasions of hearing shootings going off in the distance. But we know that the inner part of Damascus, which has avoided most of the chaos, could eventually get more dangerous.
Until now, I have kept silent about the political situation in Syria, and some of you might have been wondering what are my thoughts about this. Even though I am out of Syria, I am still reluctant to express my opinions about the government there, because I still have Syrian relatives there who I could be putting their lives in danger if the Intelligence spies on what I post online. They monitor everyone there, and it's no joke how people are punished for the slightest criticism of the government. There's no freedom of expression what so ever.
All I can say is that I wish a solution would be found to stop the endless violence and destruction there. I am very saddened to see Syria, a country with a rich history and culture that had been peaceful for many years, turn into a war zone.
At this point, I do not know if I will ever see Syria again. Maybe if things ever calm down eventually, I may be able to visit again. But for now, the future looks very bleak and uncertain. I can only hope the country won't be completely destroyed by the time the dust settles.
While I will miss many things about Syria and my memories there, especially in Damascus, one of the things that I will miss is all the interesting cars there. The mixture of old and new cars is like no other country that I have seen. I can only hope many of the older interesting cars (including that gold VW K70 that ingo wanted me to find but was unsuccessful after many attempts
) won't be victim of destruction, although I have seen images of mostly newer cars getting caught in the destruction. But of course, I am more concerned about the loss of innocent human lives there than cars. 
Even though I am going through a rough time in my life now and have been feeling depressed about leaving home and the situation in Syria, I will still somehow and hopefully, find a way to continue contributing to IMCDB. I just hope life will get better for me and my family for the time being.
And now to finally wrap up this long post. As the title of the post says, I bid a sad farewell to Syria.
Despite risking my life, I returned to Syria in December shortly after completing my Art Bachelor's degree at a small liberal arts college in western North Carolina, USA.
I had a feeling it would be the last time I would visit my home in Damascus. My parents and younger brother were still living there. Shortly thereafter in January, my father lost his job as director of an American language center (a position he had for 20 years) after the American Embassy, that worked in cooperation with his workplace, shut it down due to safety concerns of the escalating situation in Syria. A few weeks later, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus soon followed in closing down.
Soon, my mother sold our apartment home, where we lived for 15 years, and were given 2-3 months to vacate the premises.
Yesterday, me and my family were evacuated from Syria, and are now staying over temporarily at a relatives apartment in Florida, while we plan try to find a place to rent.
It has been a very heartbreaking and depressing experience for us, to have to leave our home in Damascus (a city where we lived for 20 years) and try to temporarily live in an unfamiliar place in Florida, with no more income. At least we are safe from the danger in Syria, but still, leaving home in never easy.
Fortunately, for us while we were in Damascus, the area where we were living in was away from the danger other than a few occasions of hearing shootings going off in the distance. But we know that the inner part of Damascus, which has avoided most of the chaos, could eventually get more dangerous.
Until now, I have kept silent about the political situation in Syria, and some of you might have been wondering what are my thoughts about this. Even though I am out of Syria, I am still reluctant to express my opinions about the government there, because I still have Syrian relatives there who I could be putting their lives in danger if the Intelligence spies on what I post online. They monitor everyone there, and it's no joke how people are punished for the slightest criticism of the government. There's no freedom of expression what so ever.
All I can say is that I wish a solution would be found to stop the endless violence and destruction there. I am very saddened to see Syria, a country with a rich history and culture that had been peaceful for many years, turn into a war zone.
At this point, I do not know if I will ever see Syria again. Maybe if things ever calm down eventually, I may be able to visit again. But for now, the future looks very bleak and uncertain. I can only hope the country won't be completely destroyed by the time the dust settles.
While I will miss many things about Syria and my memories there, especially in Damascus, one of the things that I will miss is all the interesting cars there. The mixture of old and new cars is like no other country that I have seen. I can only hope many of the older interesting cars (including that gold VW K70 that ingo wanted me to find but was unsuccessful after many attempts
) won't be victim of destruction, although I have seen images of mostly newer cars getting caught in the destruction. But of course, I am more concerned about the loss of innocent human lives there than cars. Even though I am going through a rough time in my life now and have been feeling depressed about leaving home and the situation in Syria, I will still somehow and hopefully, find a way to continue contributing to IMCDB. I just hope life will get better for me and my family for the time being.
And now to finally wrap up this long post. As the title of the post says, I bid a sad farewell to Syria.
