My personal truth about the infamous Secret Police

Well I suppose I should explain a little more about how I came to be in Syria to begin with and what I have been doing there, and how I survived without being arrested because it is the biggest risk, paranoid as they are about foreigners. I was recruited to Damascus to teach English, from London where I am from and I stayed there for two years. The organisation I was working for catered for the rich and famous and important. It was there that I met the wealthy friends I speak of in my posts and many influential people in government and in the secret police, which are the most important of all. Soon, I couldn't go anywhere in Syria without being recognised! I was a young (or so they thought), single, independent girl (still am! LOL) and don't look too bad for a thirty year old (double LOL) and I guess mixed with the fact I was a foreigner, I was a source of intrigue for a Syrian guy. In other words they thought I might sleep with them. Travelling to Palmyra during my holidays, crossing at the border into Lebanon on weekends, random people and security would say aren't you so and so from so and so, and I would say 'yes' and go red in front of these supposedly 'menacing' guys in leather jackets. Personally, I never had a problem with the police. In fact I have come away with the opposite feeling than you may have heard before. I felt protected. I knew that they were watching my every move on my way home from work most nights. I knew they wouldn't let anything happen to me. Maybe you will be quite shocked at me saying that. However, I still have the number of the chief of police in my phone after he personally gave it to me because I had a run in with a couple of weirdos. During my interview, when the chief took my version of events down, he turned and said "Syria is very safe. It is a safe country". If anything bad ever happened to a foreigner out there at that time (2009) when they catch that guy, they will lock him up and throw away the key. They don't want to discourage tourism from their country anymore than any other country would. Yes, as a foreigner you are being watched constantly. But, it was also, in my opinion, one of the places where I felt safest. Even when I returned in September 2012, at the airport, even though I was the only foreigner in the entire place, the security guy stamped my passport, smiled at me and said "welcome in Syria"!!! I mention some influential people I knew, not to show off :D but because they were how I got around the country so freely. At one point, at the beginning of this year, a good friend of mine was best friends with the head of the ministry of interior. When I worried about renewing my Visa to stay longer, he dragged me there, sweating in fear, only for the guy to say "visa??? you don't need a visa! If you get stopped at a checkpoint, just call me!!" (the checkpoints which were set up by the army, asked people for ID). My Syrian friends were horrified and in the end he called his friend, the general, who worked at the immigration office, to stamp my passport. As I said, I roamed freely around Damascus, even up until I left to return to England in May this year. Getting takeaway cocktails with my friends in plastic cups and driving around until 4am just chilling out. I travelled to Sednaya in a bus alone and everyone thought I was mad. They all thought I was strange because I wasn't afraid. But I guess I just feel differently about life than they do. I don't really believe in death because I think I live on in my spirit. I took my spiritual beliefs everywhere with me on this journey and I wouldn't have gotten through without them.