Tripoli

No, I did not go to Libya. Lebanon also has a city called Tripoli, or Trabolus in Arabic. Tripoli is about an hour and a half north of Beirut along the coast. Tripoli is best known for its sweets and winding old city. I had a great time walking around the old city, exploring the citadel that overlooks the city, and sampling the cuisine. To be honest, I was not as impressed by the sweets as I had expected, but maybe that's just because I was building them up in my mind all week. I had three types of sweets from Halleb, the most famous shop in Tripoli.

Halewit l-jibin (sweet cheese) - this was the strangest thing I've ever eaten. I can't even describe it. Basically, it's a doughy bottom with salty cheese on the top, and then smothered in a syrup that smells a lot like rose water. This came the most highly recommended to me and when I told some of the girls on my floor that I didn't like it they were speechless. I guess it's an acquired taste? So I'll just have to keep eating it.

This one was delicious. It's essentially pistachios wrapped in a sweet pastry. I really liked it.

Kanafeh is a particularly well known Arabic sweet. It consists of flour, cheese, sugar, and rose water. I like kanafeh, but I've definitely had better.

Tripoli also has a citadel dating back to the 12th century. It's been occupied by the usual suspects throughout the last 900 years, but my guidebook left out the fact that it's now occupied by the Lebanese army. The street surrounding the citadel is full of humvees and part of the citadel is closed off for army barracks. It was very odd. The citadel is really dirty and there's restoration work being done all over the place. We had free roam over the entire place, with the exception of the army area, which was really cool, but I just wish someone was taking better care of it. Tripoli has had a lot of trouble attracting tourists since 2007 when a battle between Palestinians in a nearby camp and the Lebanese army spilled into the old city. 

I loved the old city of Tripoli. We went on a Saturday, so it was bustling with people doing their weekend shopping. I definitely want to go back during the next two months because I feel like I only saw the tip of the iceberg. There are so many mosques, baths, khans, and madrassas tucked away in the old city. I love old cities because there's such a variety of things being sold. In one shop you can find nice, although distinctly Lebanese, dresses, and right next door will be a butcher hacking away at some huge hanging piece of meat. Some of the stores are not very vegetarian friendly, but they also make great pictures. I bought two pairs of Arabic coffee cups for myself (all for $1.50) so now I can drink coffee back in the US. I also loved Tripoli because I had one of the best meals of my life there (sorry Mom). We were walking along the streets of the old city, contemplating heading to the sweet shop and then home, when my eyes were caught by this vendor selling some sort of sizzling dish. We had walked by once before, but I had restrained myself, wanting to save up for the sweets. However, passing by twice was too much for me and I relented. Now I wish I had a picture, but basically it was Moroccan couscous (big, white circular pieces not like couscous in the US) with a few chickpeas, white onions, and lots of oil. The whole thing was flavored with just the perfect amount of cinnamon. All this was wrapped up in pita, obviously, because every meal comes with pita in the Middle East. After I had my first bite I passed it along to my friend, who then turned around and bought himself a sandwich, and then my other friend gave in and bought one as well. They were just so good! After the three of us had purchased our sandwiches, we walked into the back of the store and sat down at the plastic table and chair set up. Like most old cities, the interior of the shops are the best part. All have arched stone walls/ceilings and it was the perfect atmosphere to chow down on my sandwich. If I go back to Tripoli for any other reason, I am definitely hunting down this place.

I tried to capture the street scene in the old city but my finger and chattering got in the way. I think it gives a decent impression of the atmosphere, regardless. Specifically, I wanted to get the guy selling veggies on film. He was sooooo loud.

Just by chance we found the soap khan. It's in the open area next to the gold shops, and immediately upon stepping into the khan we were overwhelmed with the sweet smell of flowers. It was such a relief from the constant smell of the butchers shop and cooking food. 

It's another beautiful day in Beirut, but I've shut myself up in my room to study Arabic. I have an exam on Tuesday in my formal Arabic class and the grammar is tough. It doesn't help that I don't know much about English grammar, but this definitely seems much harder. I'll just keep thinking about my trip to Turkey on Friday and that will get me through it I'm sure.

I'm back!!

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while since my last blog. Things have been crazy here in Lebanon what with my parents visiting and midterms. To start things off, let me say that I had a wonderful birthday. Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes (and gentle reminders for me to update my blog). I'm embarrassed to say that I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. It seems to be the Lebanese thing to do. All the bars and restaurants have specials like unlimited wings and beer or tacos and margaritas. I don't think things like that exist in the US because people would drink way too much. So, I went to the Hard Rock and had a delicious veggie burger and cupcakes.

It was wonderful to see my parents. They mostly did their own thing, but we had a few days together. One of those days, we went to the Qadisha Valley up in the north. Also know as the Valley of the Saints, this is a lush and verdant valley with monasteries and hermitages tucked away amongst the terraced land. To get down to one of the monasteries, you have to drive down this windy road with no guard rail. In the US, this road would definitely be one way, but not in Lebanon. To round a corner, you brace yourself, try and look in the mirrors set up, beep your horn (although the horn of our car didn't work), and speed on around the corner. The views on the ride down into the valley were breath-taking. Because the valley is in the Cedars, there are snowcapped mountains in the distance and the melting snow leads to gushing waterfalls throughout the valley. You can see why people were attracted to the area.

I also went to Byblos twice in the past month. Byblos (or Jbail in Arabic) is supposedly the longest inhabited city in the world (~6000 years) and it's where the first alphabet appeared. The main attraction in Byblos is the ruins of the city. There are millennia after millennia of buildings piled up one on top of another. Even though I went twice, I did not do the guided tour, although I wish I had. Byblos is particularly cool since tourists have total freedom. Sure, there are bars around the necropolis, but no one would really mind if you wandered into it. My favorite part was the old spring. It doesn't work now, but there's a winding stone ramp that goes down to the source of water. Byblos is also well know for its old harbor. Apparently in the summer you can go snorkeling there and see more of the ruins that have sunken into the water. So maybe I'll be making a third trip back to Byblos!

The next 3 shots are of Achrefieh, the French quarter of Beirut

Typical construction scene in downtown Beirut

That's it for now. This weekend I'm going to either Tyre (Sour) or Tripoli (Trabolis). And after that is our Easter break during which I'm going to Istanbul!! 

14 March

This past Sunday, 13 March, I went to the rally for the 14 March coalition. I went merely as an observer since I do not have enough of a handle on Lebanese politics to support either 8 March or 14 March. All I can say is that the energy at this gathering was unbelievable. I have never seen such a large group of people rallying for a political cause. It was like a huge party. I wish people in the US could get excited about political issues the way people over here are. It was an exhilarating experience.

At first I didn't want to because I was afraid the rally might be targeted by Hezbollah or one of their supporters. However, 14 March coalition must have also anticipated this because they funded signs all over Beirut (and perhaps Lebanon) that criticized Hezbollah's arms stockpile. These billboards tied Hezbollah's hands because if they used their weapons they would be proving 14 March right and thus losing a large group of middle ground Lebanese. To counter the 14 March signs, Hezbollah put up signs that said "Israel also wants a demilitarized Hezbollah." This alludes to the fact that Hezbollah is the only force in Lebanon capable of defending the country. The Lebanese army is poorly equipped to respond to any Israeli offensive.

Lebanon is a country that relies heavily on coalitions for a functioning government. As such, there are many questionable alliances and a lot of hypocrisy. For example, Saad Hariri and his political party, the Future party, have allied themselves with the Lebanese Forces party, which is headed by Samir GeaGea. Their main rallying point is the Special Tribunal to Lebanon, which is charged with investigating the death of Rafic Hariri. They relentlessly criticize Hezbollah for being a part of the assassination. What's interesting in this is that GeaGea is no saint himself. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death after the Civil War for ordering several political assassinations, including the assassination of Prime Minister Rashid Karami. So while he's now supporting international law and investigations into Hezbollah's actions, I bet he wouldn't be too keen on reciprocal investigations into his past. From talking with a few people at AUB, I sense that this is the reason many people are disillusioned with politics. Politicians are only interested in their own power, and will act as the moment requires in order to retain their power.

Flag of the Special Tribunal to Lebanon

Conversations with Lebanese

I've made a few Lebanese friends in my dorm and in my classes over the past few weeks. Almost everyone here is a science or business major. At first I thought it was just because those departments were strong at AUB, but now I think it's something else. Against my guidebook's warning, I always tend to bring up politics in conversation. The responses I get always start the same, "I don't know much about politics and I don't want to know anything. I'm Lebanese. Our system is very messed up." Then whoever I'm talking with will go on a rant about what they think of the political system. Most of them are so fed up with Lebanese politics and think the politicians are just corrupt demagogues who lie to the people. It's interesting that a country with so many political problems can claim so many young inhabitants who hate politics. I wonder what this spells for the future of the country.

Wasta

A big thing in the Middle East is "wasta," or connections. You have to have wasta to get anything. It ranges from a small bribe at a border to securing a job at the biggest business in the country. It's funny to think that a whole region can run on this. How unfair, how dysfunctional! But, as one girl in my dorm pointed out, maybe the wasta is just exacerbated because the country is so small. Don't connections like this exist throughout the US? I kind of agreed with her, but the US also has a fully functioning bureaucracy and system where things do get done, for the most part.

Saida

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.

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

An assortment of things

I haven't been up to too much recently, just hanging around Beirut and taking classes. I did go to the farmer's market last Saturday and it was quite enjoyable. No pictures though because I'm always afraid of standing out as a tourist. I'll try to go again on Saturday.

Dorm life at AUB is very different than in the US. For one thing, dorms are single sex and they are very strict about it. For example, my friend was helping me move all my suitcases in a couple weeks ago and was walking towards the elevator when this lady came charging after us and made him drop my bags immediately and go outside. Also, there is no meal plan here. AUB has a dining hall, but the food isn't great and it closes at 5h00 on the weekdays and isn't even open on the weekend! I've been experimenting with cooking, and I supplement that with a few meals out during the week. So far nothing traumatic has happened, but I did melt a plastic bag on my frying pan.

The perspective in my Political Science classes is really fascinating. Never did I think I'd hear a professor say "it goes without saying that Israel does not want peace" or other such candid utterances. Some of the things I hear are just ridiculous, but then I begin to think that maybe they only sound ridiculous because I have been hearing a very one-sided account of history in my academic career. It's hard to tell, and I'm always wary of outlandish statements. My Palestinian-Israeli politics professor is particularly funny since every time we discuss a Hebrew word, like Likud or Kadima, he says something like "and of course those words all come from Arabic." I am not an expert on linguistics, but I didn't think one language necessarily inspired the other, so him taking credit for that word seems a little iffy. But please correct me if I'm wrong. Finally, I've always thought it natural to think from West to East. But here, the professors and Lebanese students talk from East to West. So when a professor asks you where the Ottoman empire stretched from, the appropriate response is Saudi Arabic to Algeria/Tunisia, not the other way around, as myself and the other American and European students mistakenly said.

I watched the Academy Awards last night in my common room with a bunch of girls from my dorm. It was amazing that they knew more about the actors on stage than I did. I barely know anything about Lebanese/Arab stars except the music of Amr Diab and Nancy Ajram (both of which you should check out). Also, this was weird (and just proves my ignorance and stereotyping) but I was talking to these two girls about the band Florence + the Machine and saying how much I love them, and one responded, "I feel like their concert would be such an out of body experience, but you have to be, you know, totally high to go. That would make it incredible." Uhhhh. I just kind of laughed and continued to eat my dinner.

The Ambassadors (people who have to help lost international students like myself) showed a movie on Lebanon last week called "Caramel." It's on Netflix watch instantly, so definitely check it out. It shows the side of Lebanon that we don't get in the West: the normal, easy-going, modern life that actually exists here.

Finally, on Saturday I went to Jeita Grotto. I couldn't take pictures, but it was one of the most fantastic places I've ever been. Jeita Grotto is a series of caves in the mountains of Lebanon that are HUGE!! I felt like I was underwater. Here's a link to some photos: Jeita Grotto.

That's all for now! This weekend I'm planning a trip to Seida, a really neat coastal town with a castle!