I decided to take it easy my last full day in Beirut. I got to sleep in for the first time in a while and it was fantastic. I spent most of the morning alternately reading and puttering around packing.
In the afternoon Claire and I went two artisinats, Arisinat Sidani and Amir, where I spent almost all my remaining cash. I finally bought myself a nice set of worry beads. Worry beads, also called tasbih, are often used in prayer and are used in meditative contemplation and to count the 99 beautiful names of God. Sometimes they are also something of a status symbol and are often seen being carried around by men. I had gotten three ceramic tasbih earlier in my trip as I hadn’t found a nice one that I found affordable. Unfortunately I realized later that those tasbih didn’t have the correct number of beads, which is 33 or 99. All three had too many. Today I found one with 33 beads made out of semi-semi-precious stones for about 20,000LL (~$14) and so I got it. I completely understand why people carry these around, there’s something magnetic about its smoothness and the clicking of the beads that makes you want to touch it all the time.
On the way back to AUB I got my last Bliss House ice cream and a mana’eesh for a very early dinner. I still have a fair amount of food in my room that I need to get rid of before I leave tomorrow morning so I’ll just eat that if I get hungry.
Spent the evening packing, cleaning my room and going over the details of travel for tomorrow. Homeward!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Beirut Day 45 – August 7, 2009
Graduation was at 9 this morning and went well. Some of the other classes had things to present such as a video in the style of American Idol and one class sang a song by the well-known and beloved Lebanese singer Fairouz accompanied by one of their teachers on the viola and two other students on piano and guitar. Then each class was called up and given their certificates and an AUB mug. After the ceremony there was a brunch provided by the program on the upper level of the cafeteria and most of my class sat together. Suleiman, Sarah, Jessica and I lingered and talked to our teacher Hussein and then made plans to meet later.
Afterward I went to the AUB bookstore to buy some t-shirts and was actually able to exchange the mug I’d gotten at graduation for one of the same type but in a color I liked better. Then I went back to my room to relax and read some.
I met Sarah and Jessica at the Concorde movie theatre where we were going to meet Hussein to see The Hangover. We sat in Dunkin Donuts for a while since the movie started later than we originally thought. The movie was entertaining and once again my eye kept being drawn to the French subtitles even though the movie was in English and my English is, of course, infinitely better than my French.
We started walking back to AUB since Hussein had to go to the teacher’s dinner at 7, but ‘walking back to AUB’ turned into ‘sitting at a café for almost 2 hours chatting’ which was really nice. We ranged over a variety of topics and there was also a lot of humor and laughing involved. I think it’s a good ending to the program.
Afterward I went to the AUB bookstore to buy some t-shirts and was actually able to exchange the mug I’d gotten at graduation for one of the same type but in a color I liked better. Then I went back to my room to relax and read some.
I met Sarah and Jessica at the Concorde movie theatre where we were going to meet Hussein to see The Hangover. We sat in Dunkin Donuts for a while since the movie started later than we originally thought. The movie was entertaining and once again my eye kept being drawn to the French subtitles even though the movie was in English and my English is, of course, infinitely better than my French.
We started walking back to AUB since Hussein had to go to the teacher’s dinner at 7, but ‘walking back to AUB’ turned into ‘sitting at a café for almost 2 hours chatting’ which was really nice. We ranged over a variety of topics and there was also a lot of humor and laughing involved. I think it’s a good ending to the program.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Beirut Day 44 – August 6, 2009
I got up a bit early this morning to try and finish studying for the exam. The exam started at 9 and was a bit shorter than I expected and I finished at 11 or so. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. The reading was, amusingly, about Facebook, although I’m not sure I understood everything it said. I didn’t have a problem with the writing section as far as I know and I think I did alright with the grammar section. Overall I think I did okay. Not fantastic, just okay. The girl I consider the best in the class got like a 26.5/30 points so I am hoping for a solid B. I’ll find out tomorrow when we get our certificates.
After the exam all of us students and Hussein were to meet for lunch at Olio. Hussein was going to meet us there since he and Sara had to turn in the grades by 1. Unfortunately he correctly heard the name but incorrectly heard the place it was near. He didn’t have any of our cellphone numbers and waited 50 minutes near the wrong place without asking anyone for directions before we called him to find out where he was. He did eventually join us and lunch was made more fun although unfortunately all of us didn’t get to spend that much time with him, but we will see him tomorrow at the ‘graduation’ ceremony.
After lunch Suleiman and I went to this nearby artisinat that Sarah had recommended to us. It sold what are basically souvenirs that are incredibly characteristic of the region (as well as amusing things like ties with the flag of Lebanon and shot glasses) and not overpriced. The workmanship on some of the wooden items there was really good. After that Rob and I walked downtown to go to Virgin Mobile since he wanted to find some things. The sun was incredibly strong today and I hope I am not sunburned.
After that I went to my room and slept for a while and then got take-away from Zaatar W Zeit. Even though the work for the program is completely over my brain is trained to want to be doing Arabic homework at this time of night and consequently it keeps telling me I should be conjugating verbs or using these words in a story.
After the exam all of us students and Hussein were to meet for lunch at Olio. Hussein was going to meet us there since he and Sara had to turn in the grades by 1. Unfortunately he correctly heard the name but incorrectly heard the place it was near. He didn’t have any of our cellphone numbers and waited 50 minutes near the wrong place without asking anyone for directions before we called him to find out where he was. He did eventually join us and lunch was made more fun although unfortunately all of us didn’t get to spend that much time with him, but we will see him tomorrow at the ‘graduation’ ceremony.
After lunch Suleiman and I went to this nearby artisinat that Sarah had recommended to us. It sold what are basically souvenirs that are incredibly characteristic of the region (as well as amusing things like ties with the flag of Lebanon and shot glasses) and not overpriced. The workmanship on some of the wooden items there was really good. After that Rob and I walked downtown to go to Virgin Mobile since he wanted to find some things. The sun was incredibly strong today and I hope I am not sunburned.
After that I went to my room and slept for a while and then got take-away from Zaatar W Zeit. Even though the work for the program is completely over my brain is trained to want to be doing Arabic homework at this time of night and consequently it keeps telling me I should be conjugating verbs or using these words in a story.
Beirut Day 43 – August 5, 2009
Yesterday was the oral exam for my dialect class. I had no problems except when I forgot the word for “yesterday”. I have known that word for three years (since it is the same in Egyptian dialect) and it just absolutely left my brain.
In the morning section of Arabic class we did a vocabulary review and in the afternoon a massive grammar review where once again Hussein’s explanations shined a bright light on the sometimes difficult grammatical explanations in the textbook. After we finished the grammar review we watched a video by this famous Syrian actor whose name escapes me. Every summer he apparently puts on a performance with comedy sketches and the like. This video was from about twelve years ago and involved him reciting an English poem but using Arabic vowels and poetic meter. It is a bit difficult to explain why that is fantastic but Arabic poetic meter is incredibly strict and difficult to master but this man used it perfectly. The beginning part of it can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDYMmaNXH4. It is a bit difficult to train your ear, but most of it is in fact in English. The first line is “Friend walk in the desert slowly”.
I spent the rest of the night studying with a short break for ice cream with Claire.
In the morning section of Arabic class we did a vocabulary review and in the afternoon a massive grammar review where once again Hussein’s explanations shined a bright light on the sometimes difficult grammatical explanations in the textbook. After we finished the grammar review we watched a video by this famous Syrian actor whose name escapes me. Every summer he apparently puts on a performance with comedy sketches and the like. This video was from about twelve years ago and involved him reciting an English poem but using Arabic vowels and poetic meter. It is a bit difficult to explain why that is fantastic but Arabic poetic meter is incredibly strict and difficult to master but this man used it perfectly. The beginning part of it can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDYMmaNXH4. It is a bit difficult to train your ear, but most of it is in fact in English. The first line is “Friend walk in the desert slowly”.
I spent the rest of the night studying with a short break for ice cream with Claire.
Beirut Day 42 – August 4, 2009
Class was split on Tuesday. In the morning we had two guests that are friends with our teacher Sara come in to talk to us. The first guest was a woman who talked about Lebanese politics a bit and the book she had written. She also talked a bit about the meanings of body language and did a personality analysis based on our Arabic handwriting. The second guest was a guy who apparently does some acting. He had us do some exercises. The first two weren’t too bad and involved something akin to charades with professions and expressing emotions only using facial expressions. None of us were into the last exercise which was a bit weird and somewhat un-PC so our participation was lackluster. I felt a bit bad but we all told him we didn’t really like acting.
The afternoon was for presentations. I suppose mine went alright but it is difficult to tell with these things. I was incredibly impressed with my classmate Stephanie who was translating from her notes, which were in English, to Arabic on the fly with pretty much no hesitation. If I ever get to her level of thinking and speaking in Arabic I will be very proud of myself. I spent the rest of the night finishing my paper. I met the minimum number of words (1500) and exceeded it by a very tiny bit. I wish I had had more time for editing and making it much better, but oh well (I found out today I got a B on it).
The afternoon was for presentations. I suppose mine went alright but it is difficult to tell with these things. I was incredibly impressed with my classmate Stephanie who was translating from her notes, which were in English, to Arabic on the fly with pretty much no hesitation. If I ever get to her level of thinking and speaking in Arabic I will be very proud of myself. I spent the rest of the night finishing my paper. I met the minimum number of words (1500) and exceeded it by a very tiny bit. I wish I had had more time for editing and making it much better, but oh well (I found out today I got a B on it).
Beirut Day 41 - August 3, 2009
I spent most of Monday after class writing my oral presentation based on my paper. This was a bit difficult as the section I wanted to focus my presentation on, had not actually been written yet. I also studied for my dialect final exam, which was an oral exam. Sadly, that is all I remember of the day.
Beirut Day 40 – August 2, 2009
Sunday morning Rob and I went to Saida (Sidon). We had originally intended to go to Sur (Tyre) as well but since we left at little late at about 9:30 and since we both wanted a short day and it was about an hour from Saida to Sur, we opted not to go. There are some fantastic Roman and Phoenician ruins that I would have liked to have seen but I am not terrible disappointed.
We took a service taxi to Cola to get a minibus and managed to accidently overpay the taxi driver and he of course said nothing. We got a minibus to Saida for 2000LL each. It was completely filled and I was awkwardly the only female in the bus. About 2/3s of the way there everyone has gotten out but 3 of us so the driver honks at another passing minibus for them to take us the rest of the way so he can go back to Beirut and get a full load.
We got off at Saida and walked to the sea to go visit the Sea Castle. It was nice and the ticket was off the kind that I’ve been collecting that’s from the Lebanese tourism bureau and is sort of in a series. The Sea Castle was nice although so far everything has still paled in comparison to Citadel of Raymond Sainte-Gilles. After the Sea Castle we went to find the soap museum.
Saida used to be known, along with Tripoli and Aleppo, for its handmade soap industry and some time back the prominent and local Audi family restored one of the factories and made it into a museum that also still sells the handmade soap. It was very nicely done and although it doesn’t sound like it, a soap museum can be pretty interesting. After the soap museum we tried to find the Castle of St. Louis and Murex Hill. Murex Hill was a Phoenician and Roman era trash heap for Murex shells after they extracted what they needed to make the famous purple dye. Sadly we failed in both of those endeavors although I believe we saw the locked gate of the Castle of St. Louis and the back of the ruins.
We at along the shore near the Sea Castle in a place recommended by the guidebook and somewhat attached to the hotel located there. It was pleasant enough. After lunch we headed back by catching another minibus and then a service taxi from Cola, both without any problems. On the whole I found Saida rather dirty and not very impressive, but this may be because we didn’t really wander off into the souqs and did not try and find the nice quarter.
After getting back Rob and I both went back to our dorms to work on our respective papers but joined up later in the lounge of my dorm to work on our papers and eat some delicious Chinese food, the first time I’ve actually ordered delivery since I got here.
We took a service taxi to Cola to get a minibus and managed to accidently overpay the taxi driver and he of course said nothing. We got a minibus to Saida for 2000LL each. It was completely filled and I was awkwardly the only female in the bus. About 2/3s of the way there everyone has gotten out but 3 of us so the driver honks at another passing minibus for them to take us the rest of the way so he can go back to Beirut and get a full load.
We got off at Saida and walked to the sea to go visit the Sea Castle. It was nice and the ticket was off the kind that I’ve been collecting that’s from the Lebanese tourism bureau and is sort of in a series. The Sea Castle was nice although so far everything has still paled in comparison to Citadel of Raymond Sainte-Gilles. After the Sea Castle we went to find the soap museum.
Saida used to be known, along with Tripoli and Aleppo, for its handmade soap industry and some time back the prominent and local Audi family restored one of the factories and made it into a museum that also still sells the handmade soap. It was very nicely done and although it doesn’t sound like it, a soap museum can be pretty interesting. After the soap museum we tried to find the Castle of St. Louis and Murex Hill. Murex Hill was a Phoenician and Roman era trash heap for Murex shells after they extracted what they needed to make the famous purple dye. Sadly we failed in both of those endeavors although I believe we saw the locked gate of the Castle of St. Louis and the back of the ruins.
We at along the shore near the Sea Castle in a place recommended by the guidebook and somewhat attached to the hotel located there. It was pleasant enough. After lunch we headed back by catching another minibus and then a service taxi from Cola, both without any problems. On the whole I found Saida rather dirty and not very impressive, but this may be because we didn’t really wander off into the souqs and did not try and find the nice quarter.
After getting back Rob and I both went back to our dorms to work on our respective papers but joined up later in the lounge of my dorm to work on our papers and eat some delicious Chinese food, the first time I’ve actually ordered delivery since I got here.
Beirut Day 39 – August 1, 2009
First, I apologize these past few days for not updating the blog recently and that I will not be updating it with much detail. This has been the last week of the program and consequently I have been very busy with little free time and haven’t kept many notes about my day to day activities.
As a flip from usual, Saturday was my boring day in my room as Rob and I planned to go to the south of Lebanon on Sunday. I tried to work on my paper but may have actually just wasted a lot of time. Rob and I got dinner at Bread Republic, which was ok. It was a bit overpriced and their lemonade was the least impressive I’ve had here.
As a flip from usual, Saturday was my boring day in my room as Rob and I planned to go to the south of Lebanon on Sunday. I tried to work on my paper but may have actually just wasted a lot of time. Rob and I got dinner at Bread Republic, which was ok. It was a bit overpriced and their lemonade was the least impressive I’ve had here.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Beirut Day 38 – July 31, 2009
Friday was another one of those days in class where we laughed a lot, and it was good. I gave my short presentation on Amin Maalouf and I think it went fairly well. I was even able to ad lib a little. We read a story in Arabic called “A Girl Named Apple”. Apparently there are some fruit names for girls that are not uncommon in the Gulf region. It ended up turning into a discussion on marriage customs in the Middle East and the practice of giving dowries, both of which related to the story. I got to anthropology nerd-out on the term dowry. In Islam, the word mahr should not be translated into English as “dowry”. A dowry is given from the bride’s family to the groom. What happens in Islam is the groom gives the items or promises to the bride and said items are then her property to do with as she wills. This is more properly called a bride gift. I was pleasantly surprised that when I objected to that translation that my teacher knew what I meant before I clarified, since usually it just gets me strange looks. That’s the end of my anthropology rant.
Since it was a Friday without a trip, class ended early, at 1pm. I went back to my room and napped for a while and worked for a little bit on preparing to write the second half of my paper. Since my plans to go to Beiteddine on Saturday were cancelled and Claire’s plans to go to Bsharre were delayed, I asked Rob and Claire if they wanted to go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We picked a time and at 8 headed to Achrafiyeh and ABC Mall (pronounced like French, Ah Bey Say). The architecture at ABC is quite nice but if you wanted a bastion of Westernism in Beirut, ABC is definitely it.
We had dinner in ABC Mall at a place called Nando’s, which is a Portuguese food chain in the region. Then we went to the theatre, which was also in the mall. What was surprising to us, but is apparently common in Europe, is that the theatre has assigned seating. When we bought our tickets we were asked where we wanted to sit, much to our initial confusion. It was a small theatre and not particularly filled so we more or less had our choice of seats. Sadly we did miss the previews on account of taking a bit too long at dinner.
The movie was subtitled in Arabic and French and some of the French translations were a source of great amusement to us, such as Poudlard for Hogwarts and baguette for wand. One of the best parts had to be when, due to a startling and scary scene when Harry’s leg is grabbed by an Inferi (think zombie) out of a lake, Rob positively jumped and screamed. I had remembered that much from the book and was properly hunched down with my ears covered. After the movie, which we all enjoyed – although that may have been due to our continued whispered comments – we got a cab and headed back to AUB.
Since it was a Friday without a trip, class ended early, at 1pm. I went back to my room and napped for a while and worked for a little bit on preparing to write the second half of my paper. Since my plans to go to Beiteddine on Saturday were cancelled and Claire’s plans to go to Bsharre were delayed, I asked Rob and Claire if they wanted to go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We picked a time and at 8 headed to Achrafiyeh and ABC Mall (pronounced like French, Ah Bey Say). The architecture at ABC is quite nice but if you wanted a bastion of Westernism in Beirut, ABC is definitely it.
We had dinner in ABC Mall at a place called Nando’s, which is a Portuguese food chain in the region. Then we went to the theatre, which was also in the mall. What was surprising to us, but is apparently common in Europe, is that the theatre has assigned seating. When we bought our tickets we were asked where we wanted to sit, much to our initial confusion. It was a small theatre and not particularly filled so we more or less had our choice of seats. Sadly we did miss the previews on account of taking a bit too long at dinner.
The movie was subtitled in Arabic and French and some of the French translations were a source of great amusement to us, such as Poudlard for Hogwarts and baguette for wand. One of the best parts had to be when, due to a startling and scary scene when Harry’s leg is grabbed by an Inferi (think zombie) out of a lake, Rob positively jumped and screamed. I had remembered that much from the book and was properly hunched down with my ears covered. After the movie, which we all enjoyed – although that may have been due to our continued whispered comments – we got a cab and headed back to AUB.
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