Just Another Day

Another sleepless night, one would think I would quit my evening espresso habit, but with the opportunity to get out of the apartment and to socialize with new friends, I just can't seem to help myself! Some of you have been asking me to write about the day-to-day details of our life in Lebanon. I forget that the same very things that are becoming normalized to me may not be to you, so here it goes (in no particular order)!

1. Yes, Lebanon has malls, in fact, very obnoxious glamorized versions of the American ones. The only difference is that your car (and trunk) get searched and ran through a metal detector before you can park. When I walk into a store, it's second nature for me to automatically hand my purse to the nearest guard so they may dig through it. Sometimes soldiers stop me in the street, shift their machine gun to their other shoulder and ask to peek into my bag. After polite pleasantries in my childish sounding Arabic, I am waved away. One of these days, I am going to put something disgusting or embarrassing in my bag, just to see their expression...or maybe not.

2. Lines do not exist. In orientation today (for school), one of the speakers adamantly exclaimed that to the Lebanese, lines are viewed as "the survival of the fittest." A few weeks ago, Tylor and I were casually hanging out by the Registrar's window to ask a paperwork question about registration and just as we reached the window, a very elegantly dressed elderly Lebanese man rudely butted in front of us and took our place. Fast forward to the buffet lunch today offered at orientation today, low and behold, Tylor and I were pretty much the first people (out of 200) with our lunches! Let's just say we are learning fast and feeling no shame :)

3. Cell phones are very expensive, .18/texts and .38/min. These prices are for texts/calls from and to Beirut, don't even ask me about long-distance rates. This means texts are prevalent and calls are very quick. Missed calls announce when someone is waiting for you or wants to get a hold of you and you almost always wait for other people to call you. Luckily, unlike America, minutes are taken ONLY when you make a call or text, not when someone contacts you. There are no monthly bills, you just refill your SIM card when it runs low. SIM cards expire after a month of non-use and are often passed around and even resold. This means we are constantly getting phone calls asking for random people. When we tell them in Arabic, "No, this is not Ali, you have the wrong number", typically we are not believed and the caller thinks they are a victim of a practical joke. Consequently, they proceed to call us 10 more times, just to make sure. At least we are practicing our Arabic and it's not taking away our precious minutes! Don't even get me started on the text-like commercials and advertisements we get.

4. Electricity is a precious commodity. The Israelis bombed numerous power plants in 2006 and as a result, I have been told the country runs on 2 generators (this figure is hearsay and has not been fact-checked). This means the electricity goes first to the 5 star hotels in order to cater to the tourists, then to the appropriate officials and businesses that can afford generators and then to the rest of us. Luckily, our area only has electricity cuts for about 3 hours a day, others have it for 10-12+ hours at a time. There is even a schedule, 6-9AM, 9AM-12PM, 12-3PM, and 3-6PM. We all have our preferred time of cuts but we've learned, for the most part, to work around them. We do have a solid rule that we have yet to break: evening black-outs mean a restaurant, good food, and wine. The majority of the time, a schedule is followed...now if only we could figure out this schedule!

5. Speaking of precious commodities, let's not forget water. If you had a choice and had to choose between having electricity OR water, which would you choose? Sadly, this is a conversation that Tylor and I take very seriously and put much thought into our answers. Apartment buildings here have reservoirs that hold a specified amount of water, typically each apartment unit has 1-2, and they are filled on a weekly (?) basis. When you are out, you are out--that is, until the next fill comes around. I've learned the hard way never to do more than one load of laundry a week and to always have tons of bottled water on hand. As luck would have it, the main reservoir (the one that fills the individual ones) had a hole in it, this happened right around the end of Ramadan, meaning no one was working, nor were they filling water. After 3 days of no toilets flushing, showers, dishes, cooking or even hand-washing, we called up our friend Dina, who along with her gracious family, opened up their home (and their shower with hot water) to two smelly, foul, pitiful foreigners. The hospitality we have experienced thus far is indescribable. Thankfully, the hole got patched. This patch lasted about a week then it burst again. As I am writing this, alhumdulilah, we have water, and I promise never, ever to complain about the temperature of the water, as long as we have it. At least until winter comes.

I used to balk at the old adage, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", but in the whole scheme of things, it's given me a new outlook on life. Now whether this is a positive or negative attribute depends on the day. So there you have it, just a few random tidbits about our life here in Lebanon!

Hugs and kisses from Beirut,
Tam and Asad (who is curled up on my arm purring like crazy)