"He is the Tupac of Lebanon."

We have been eating like it's going out of style -- I'm thankful that we've been counteracting all of the food we've been inhaling with so much walking that my feet are passed the point of pain, or I'd have to preemptively buy some bigger pants.  And if there is a variety of cuisine that you can crave, Beirut will provide it for you-- there is nothing you can't find here.  So far we have had Italian, shwarma, Chicago-style pizza, Turkish, and traditional Lebanese all within a mile radius of one another.

The rest of the students living in our building have finally arrived (twelve in total), so last night we all went out to "Cafe Blanc",  a very modern restaurant with traditional Lebanese food on Hamra next to a place called "Deek Duke".  (I only mention Deek Duke because I've been walking by this place since we've been here and thought the name was funny, but only just now realized it translated to "one rooster, two roosters" - a play on "Bayt Beyut", apparently).  The food was amazing, and I was happy to see that the wait staff were more amused (rather than annoyed) as we tried to cram eleven doe-eyed Americans (in addition to our Japanese contingent) into one of the small booths outside.  I can't remember the name of what I ordered, but it resembled pre-assembled fajitas with potato wedges, labneh and pickles on the side, and it was quite "lazeez" (delicious).

Our third roommate finally arrived yesterday around 5AM-- she is lovely and shares a similar taste in music and love for The Office, so I think we're going to get along just fine.  Unfortunately she arrived to find her luggage had been lost-- furthermore, when she left the airport terminal the SINARC driver sent to pick her up was nowhere to be found.  This was my nightmare, and I'm highly impressed she made it to our apartment on her own.

After dinner, Leila's Lebanese friend all too generously took us (the three roommates) out to downtown Beirut with two of his friends.  I'm not sure how Ramadan affects the crowds on a Saturday night here, but we didn't go out until well passed midnight, and the streets were crowded with people.  We ended up at a bar called Gem, where we sat at a table in the back and talked over the loud American top 40 music pounding through the room.

A note on driving in Beirut: if your passengers don't feel as though they're about to die at any given moment, you're not doing it right.  When we arrived, we asked why you were allowed to drive through red lights, and the running joke has been that "it is not really a traffic law, it's a 'suggestion'."  Cars swerve around each other as if surrounded by invisible shields, and last minute decisions are not only common but expected.  On several occasions last night we pulled out in front of speeding cars hurtling in our direction, and expecting to be T-boned by oncoming traffic, we may have let out a few surprised screams.. to which our friend behind the wheel responded "you scared me!", which cracked us up... WE scared YOU?

There are many military checkpoints on the streets of Beirut, which made me a little nervous at first (especially when we drive up to the first of our evening and the driver says "aahh, lovely little checkpoint with a car full of American girls") but I've come to realize that unless you're "looking suspicious", they're really nothing more than a glorified speed bump (flanked by armed military men, granted, but nothing to be too alarmed by). 

The boys wanted to show us Raouche, so our night wound down at BayRock, a cafe on the Corniche facing the iconic rock formation.  There we drank a grape flavored Jallab that was mixed with nuts and raisins (which you picked out and ate with a spoon - found particularly around Ramdan) and ate hummus and a pastry who's name translated to "we will kiss you".  When we got back in the car to head home, we thought the clock had been set wrong-- surely it wasn't 4:00 AM?  Plenty of people were still milling about the streets near the sea, and although a little sleepy from the food, sleeping really didn't seem all that necessary.  Ahh, Beirut, I think I could get used to you.

I think I could get used to the Lebanese brand of sarcasm...  I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.  No real plans today, but there never really are (until classes start, of course)... I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, and still can't really believe I'm actually here.  I hope you're all well back home, and don't forget to let me know what YOU'RE up to... also, postcards and stamps are very cheap here, so get at me with some addresses.

And as promised, a few pictures.  I'm having some trouble formatting this right now, sorry it looks so janky.

Our lobby:

          

 I was so excited to find the sea that I took this horrible picture of it.

Found at the Co-Op... I hear they go well together.

Amazing food Leila and I cooked on our first day in the apartment... cous cous, hummus, labneh, and a shwarma spiced bean dish.  The hummus was actually terrible, to be honest, as it came from a can... people don't buy hummus here, they make it at home.  Also, I'm not a huge fan of labneh (a kind of yogurt/cheese), but she makes me eat it with every meal, so I guess it's growing on me.

 

The view from our apartment. Our chairs are Canadian?

 Lamb kebab from Instanbuli.

Raouche at night.

The spread at BayRock.

The pastries in the front are the "we will kiss you"s.










Raisins and pine nuts at the bottom of my drink:

A solid update.

My roommate and I met on the plane (under semi-interesting circumstances which I will omit for the sake of time).  She (Leila) is from Missouri, Iranian by descent, and of the take-everything-on-at-once variety (she will be attending classes at both LAU and AUB while in Lebanon).  We bonded instantly over the fact that we both happened to bring an obscene amount of crap, but were a little irked when we realized we'd actually packed nearly identically as well: same pharmacy of over the counter drugs and toiletries, same shampoo, even the exact same tooth brush in both brand, model and color.  We're also about the same size, shoes and all, thus doubling our wardrobe (which is fantastic, as Lebanese women are expected to dress, and consistently wearing the same crummy flip-flops instead of stilettos apparently makes you look like either tourist, peasant or both).  We've done some pretty serious pedestrian traveling since we've arrived (on the same flight from Chicago to Beirut).  I'm pretty sure we've walked the entire length of the district we live in at least twice now.  We also have been grocery shopping, and cooked some great food for lunch in our tiny kitchen yesterday.  Another perk: she has a friend here, and he very generously assisted us in getting cellphones immediately after landing, in addition to giving us a night tour of the city.

We are living in a two bedroom apartment in the same building as the rest of the SINARC crew (of which I have only met two others, thus far).  One of the bedrooms is a 'double', meaning someone will be joining us soon and sharing my room with me-- I've just gotten accustomed to the concept of having a roommate in general, thus I can't say that I'm entirely thrilled to be giving up my spacious private room just yet... but I'm sure I won't be so bitter once I meet her (inshallah).

In our apartment there is a night manager, Haytham, who watches the building from the first floor lobby throughout the night.  To be honest, I'm not actually sure if he's there ALL night, as I haven't yet taken the chance to test the theory... and furthermore, he is generally around in the morning drinking Arabic coffee ("ahwa arabia", in Lebanon) and is in and out during the day, leading me to wonder whe/if he sleeps.  Haytham and I have developed something of a rapport, partially because I'm an early riser in new  environments and also because I keep breaking things. Example: I somehow blew out the power in our apartment around 11:00 PM last night, just after I'd taken my leave from watching a Ramadan series from Syria (in which every male over the age of fifteen sported the most sinister looking mustache I'd ever seen) and smoking hookah with him and another fellow SINARC student in our lobby.  When I came down to tell him I had a "mooshkila kabeera" (big problem), he gave me a sarcastic "where do you think you're going?", assuming that I was off to explore Hamra alone at night.

The running joke since arriving is that everything that is broken in Lebanon will be fixed "tomorrow", and you're likely to hear the same the next day.  It began upon arrival with the elevator -- oh, yes, it's not working properly, but we will get it fixed tomorrow. Then yesterday afternoon the internet went out in the lobby:  tomorrow, we will fix it!  So, I've begun attaching the phrase to more minuscule problems, quick fixes like the dying batteries in the lobby TV remote, someone wanting you to get up off the couch and buzz them in the front door, or the fact that I can rarely puzzle together Haytham's thick Lebanese dialect:  "yalla- mumkin bokra" (sure, I don't understand you today, but maybe tomorrow!)

So far I don't have a single complaint to speak of.  Life in Beirut has been more comfortable than I could have ever anticipated-- all pre-traveling anxieties have completely disappeared.  Getting by in this city is easier than I ever could have imagined, everything always seems to fall right into place at exactly the right time.  Language-wise I've already learned a ton in the short time that I've been here, not just from being out and about, but also from the extensive collective knowledge and experiences of the other SINARC students (those that I have met so far).  I can only imagine how much I'll know by the end of this stay.

I'll try and post some pictures soon, and I hope you're all well back home.

yalla bye!

From Beirut with love.

I'm here... thus far everything has simultaneously exceeded expectations and blown my mind.  I'm currently at Costa Coffee in Hamra with my roommate, getting our internet fix... but will soon be off to grab some shwarma and continue exploring.  Depending on what kind of trouble we get into, I'll be writing a more comprehensive post about my most recent exploits tonight (inshallah).

BIG LOVE FROM THE MID EAST.

TUESDAY.

As promised, I've created a blog in order to semi-accurately document my adventures in Beirut, Lebanon over the next three months.

In less than two days, I head to PDX, hop on a plane to Chicago, then another to Jordan, and finally to Lebanon, where I'll be studying Arabic at the Lebanese American University.

Fact: I'm getting a bit nervous. Mainly I'm just afraid that my future roommate is going to be disgusted by how much crap I'm bringing. I've also been having a reoccurring dream about getting lost at Queen Alia International and missing my connecting flight. Hopefully neither of these fears will be realized, and you'll soon be hearing from me via my dorm room and not an airport lounge in Amman.

Stay tuned, friends!