On Saturday I went to Saida and I took pictures! Saida is a city about 40 minutes south of Beirut on the water. There is an old Crusader castle built on an island about 100 yards off the coast. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside was just fantastic! I still can't fathom how they built those huge halls with high ceilings out of just stone and some adhesive stuff (forgive my ancient castle knowledge). After exploring the castle for a bit, I walked around the Old City of Saida. It was great. We ate lunch for about two hours at this popular restaurant that was such an ordeal to order at. When we asked for the check, the guy shouted out "46,000" (approximately $30, which for 4 people is pretty good) without consulting any receipts or even looking at what we had ordered. I had quite a sweet tooth that day (not dissimilar from most days) so we went in search of kanafeh in the Old City. Kanafeh is boiled cheese with tons of sugar and flour. Sounds disgusting but with a bit of sugary syrup it's quite tasty. We found our kanafeh at a little shop, and once we started talking to the guy, he invited us to sit down so we ate a huge plate of kanafeh in a dirty, unlit little shop and it was great. It seemed like everyone we met that day was Palestinian. Whether it was the boy who brought us coals for the argileh, or our taxi driver in Beirut, or the man who sold us kanafeh, everyone seemed to be Palestinian! It made me think that Lebanon probably has a more sizable number of Palestinians than is actually reported. Or maybe we were just in a popular spot.
This Sunday there are protests being staged by the March 14 coalition, the supporters of Hariri and the Special Tribunal, in Beirut. I'm not sure if I'll attend since I don't know much about them and it seems like quite the targetable location that everyone has warned me to avoid. I think Sunday will be a real test to see what the future of Lebanon holds. As a girl on my hall said today, "things only get resolved when they get really big, so for Lebanon that means war."
In kind of related news, we've been having tremendous thunderstorms here. It must be a mixture between the Mediterranean and the mountains. Today there was one clap of thunder that was so loud that most of the international kids thought it was a bomb. I ran to the window as soon as I heard it, but since no one outside seemed to notice, I went back to my work.
I've been trying to observe the relationships between Muslim and Christian students here. Lebanon has such a horrific history of fighting along religious lines, that I wondered how much of it has changed today. It's really hard to tell how much people hang out with people from different religious backgrounds. Beirut, and the western coast of Lebanon in general, is so liberal that many times you can't even tell who is Muslim and who is Christian (at least for the women). One Christian girl told my friend that for every 10 students accepted into AUB, 7 are always Muslim. So there's definitely a bit of tension, kind of like our affirmative action. Also, Lebanese Christians don't consider themselves Arab, but rather Lebanese, or even Phoenician. My friend and I were discussing last night where the definition of Arab ends, and a person can just be described by their country of origin. I've always thought that if you speak Arabic, you're Arab, but as she pointed out, it gets kind of fuzzy when you hit North Africa. It's tricky and I'd welcome anyone who knows the answer to please tell me.
Finally, just a personal update, I have decided to spend the summer working as a coordinator for the program I did last summer in Palestine. I am looking forward to the opportunity to return to the West Bank and see how much has changed, for better or worse, in a year.
This Sunday there are protests being staged by the March 14 coalition, the supporters of Hariri and the Special Tribunal, in Beirut. I'm not sure if I'll attend since I don't know much about them and it seems like quite the targetable location that everyone has warned me to avoid. I think Sunday will be a real test to see what the future of Lebanon holds. As a girl on my hall said today, "things only get resolved when they get really big, so for Lebanon that means war."
In kind of related news, we've been having tremendous thunderstorms here. It must be a mixture between the Mediterranean and the mountains. Today there was one clap of thunder that was so loud that most of the international kids thought it was a bomb. I ran to the window as soon as I heard it, but since no one outside seemed to notice, I went back to my work.
I've been trying to observe the relationships between Muslim and Christian students here. Lebanon has such a horrific history of fighting along religious lines, that I wondered how much of it has changed today. It's really hard to tell how much people hang out with people from different religious backgrounds. Beirut, and the western coast of Lebanon in general, is so liberal that many times you can't even tell who is Muslim and who is Christian (at least for the women). One Christian girl told my friend that for every 10 students accepted into AUB, 7 are always Muslim. So there's definitely a bit of tension, kind of like our affirmative action. Also, Lebanese Christians don't consider themselves Arab, but rather Lebanese, or even Phoenician. My friend and I were discussing last night where the definition of Arab ends, and a person can just be described by their country of origin. I've always thought that if you speak Arabic, you're Arab, but as she pointed out, it gets kind of fuzzy when you hit North Africa. It's tricky and I'd welcome anyone who knows the answer to please tell me.
Finally, just a personal update, I have decided to spend the summer working as a coordinator for the program I did last summer in Palestine. I am looking forward to the opportunity to return to the West Bank and see how much has changed, for better or worse, in a year.
AUB Campus
Sea Castle, Saida
Man treating the cotton as another sews it into a quilt in the background
Knockturn Alley of Saida
Sea Castle, Saida
Proof of life!!
Skiing at Faraya
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