everyone calm down

the lack of posting is the sad result of: 1) no internet connection, and 2) no transformer or adaptor, meaning that a) i can't plug in my things without them blowing up, and b) all of my electric things are presently dead. tomorrow, though, tomorrow is the day! i will go out and make all these things happen and then there will be so many posts that you all won't know what to do with yourselves.

that said, this is what's going on, divided into a few categories:

1. what does beirut look like? what does lebanon look like?

this country is ridiculously beautiful and not even remotely what i think most of the rest of the middle east looks like. it's green, but not eastern united states or montreal green, but tropical green, which sometimes gets so bright that it looks computer-generated. the whole country is very mountainous and beirut roads spontaneously drop into san francisco-esque drops which makes for a very unfortunate i'm-going-to-fall-off-the-earth feeling when you're in a bus and hard trekking in high heels. i like the idea of high heel trekking.

side note: aub is unbelievable...like a jungle, in all seriousness. the buildings are amazing, too, even on the inside. also, it is built on a hill like the rest of the city and there are ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR STEPS from my dorm to upper campus.

anyway. although there are buildings all over the city that are still bombed out from the war, especially when you get closer to the green line (the metaphorical line that divided muslim west beirut from christian east beirut during the war, and therefore the site of some of the most serious violence during that time), a lot of beirut is extremely ritzy looking with lots of swanky stores (lacoste, dolce and gabbana...i don't even know how to spell that, prada, etc. etc.) and everyone is so hot and it makes me feel terribly inadequate. lebanese people like to show off like no one's business. i learned yesterday that people will pay thousands of dollars for an easy-to-remember cell phone number and then guys will "missed call" girls they're trying to pick up to impress them with their high-status phone number.

wait, this should be a new category.

2. what are lebanese people like?

it's the same with license plates. a short license plate is a lot more expensive, so my friends and i have taken to judging people who drive by by their license plates and making snide comments in english about it that everyone around us can understand because everyone speaks english, but we ignore that. also, as wild as montreal drivers are, lebanese drivers take driving to a whole new level, namely that of survival of the fittest/x-treme road racing.

besides that, everyone here has been very warm and welcoming and tolerant of all of our limited abilities in arabic, particularly in lebanese colloquial, and will continue speaking to us in arabic even though it's quite clear that we don't know what the hell we're doing. everyone is also very generous. my suitemates took my roommate and me out our first night here and when i offered to pay, i was told that, "unitmates don't pay each other back," and that was the end of that. this generosity extends to food, as well. new category.

3. lebanese food = god

it is irrelevant to me whether you have any interest in lebanon or beirut, but i strongly advise everyone to come to lebanon and gorge shamelessly until you get sick. then get sick, but proceed as before.

when you arrive at a good restaurant for a big meal, the table will be laden down with the following: pita, hommos, baba ganoush, lebneh (yogurt that has been strained, so it is no longer slimy...often has crushed mint and lemon juice in it), maybe a couple other things for dipping, a plate of pickled things (any or all of the following: pickles, beets, turnips, carrots, eggplant), nuts, fresh thyme, and a massive plate of fresh vegetables (lettuce, pepper -- green peppers are sweet here, tomato, radishes, hot peppers, green onions, and a sprig of mint roughly the size of my head). so everyone plays with all of that for some time. also, the lebanese use both hands and utensils to eat, so all of my self-training for eating indian food with one hand is useless here. then the meal continues: tabbouleh, grape leaves, kibbeh (fried oversized almondy-shaped balls filled with spiced beef), these fried pastry stick things filled with sweet cheese and lemon juice, maybe another kind of pastry, and french fries which is still a little puzzling, but everyone dips them into everything. then the main course: rice and meat cooked with cinnamon and other wonderful things and it smells amazing, but i haven't eaten it yet because the rice always has meat in it, too. then dessert is just piles of fruit -- always tangerines with leaves on them and yesterday we had strawberries soaked in some kind of syrup -- and maybe little pieces of moist cake (similar to tres leches, but different flavors). i have left every meal i've had feeling comatose, but also exhilerated.

* * *
it's late and i have to be up early for a long morning of bureaucratic registration-related bullshit and a long afternoon of trying to find everything i need, but hopefully i will have internet and then i will post my writing after the first day (2 hours worth...be excited), pictures, and musing on what i've done here and the security situation.

everyone comment and let me know that my toiling at a public computer has been worthwhile.