Amy’s Journal

Wow. Unexpectedly, Hamas has swept the Palestinian elections. I kind of wish that I was seeing my students before Monday to see what they think about it. And I’m definitely curious to see what this means for Palestine, Israel, and the rest of the Middle East.

I feel like I haven’t taken as many photos of Bourj al-Barajneh as I did in Chatila, so I took a few today. Michael, this butcher shot is for you.

Earlier this week, Ethan and I were stuffing a few wine bottles and water bottles into the recycling bins. A young guy (high school aged?) passed us and said, “Good job!” and pumped his fist in the air. He seemed genuinely pleased. Normally, when we are trying to perform this civic duty, people will slow down in cars or look on in wonder. I’m not sure if they have just never seen anyone use them, or if they actually are not clear on the purpose of such bins. I’ve never seen anyone else put anything into them or take anything out, but they do fill up, so we are not the only ones giving the recycling thing a shot.

This is all that I have found about Sukleen’ s recycling program, so I have no idea how successful it is. Sukleen is the garbage collection company that serves Lebanon since the mid-90s. There are dumpsters all around where you are supposed to put your trash if your building doesn’t take care of it for you. Our friend, Andre, told us that before the dumpsters were there, people just threw the trash in the street, sans garbage bags. Anyhow, the Sukleen employees, who are mostly immigrants, always seem to be working pretty hard, and the streets and sidewalks stay pretty clean. I would be curious to know whether or not Sukleen is a good employer, though I suspect not.

I just finished a great book – Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury, a Palestinian born in Lebanon. It’s historical fiction and recounts the journey from Galilee to the refugee camps in Beirut when Palestinians were expelled by Israelis in 1948, referred to by Palestinians as nakbe, or “the disaster”. It made me wish that I could read/understand Arabic, since the translation showed such an intoxicating style of writing. The stories that Khoury collected from the camps take on a mythic quality, and I think a lot of those stories are myth by now, having been retold over and over and rarely written down over the last 57 years.

Today, I started reading a new book called Heart of Beirut: Reclaiming the Bourj. So far it seems absurdly optimistic about Lebanon’s future, but who knows. Somehow, even with having read a lot of books, talked to a lot of people, and experienced living here for many months, I feel less confident that I truly grasp the situation here than I did when I arrived. It really feels like the deeper one gets, the more there is.

The two points that get made about Lebanon/Beirut when trying to sell it as a tourist destination are the following:

1. Beirut is the Paris of the Middle East.

2. You can ski in the morning and then swim in the Mediterranean in the afternoon.

I have no idea who actually does this, but if they do, I imagine they do it in March, when it is presumably warmer out.

Last night, Ethan and I had dinner at Scallywags. When I called to make the reservation and gave my name, the voice on the other end said, “Amy? Is this Amy-Amy?”. It was great, not only to have someone be excited about my coming to the restaurant, but because it was for sure the first time anyone has ever said “Amy-Amy?” as if there is only one. There are worse things than having the 2nd most popular girl baby name of 1970, but it is sort of nice to be here and feel unique.

Juice man in Haret Hreik

I read this article about a psychic who “predicted” the assasinations last year in Lebanon. He isn’t planning on making more guesses about Lebanon’s political future, however.

Aleppo in August

I think I’m over my jet lag, which is pretty cool.

Yesterday there was a pretty big (thousands) pro-Syria protest near the U.S Embassy and I watched some of it on TV. Supposedly it was mostly Hezbollah and Amal supporters, though most of them were careful to carry Lebanese flags. An oh-so-clever slogan has been adopted- “U.S. — Leave Us”.

On Monday, Iran announced a new visas on arrival policy… for Americans, too! I didn’t read about it until yesterday. It was pretty timely because the night before, Ethan and I had chatted with an Iranian grad student about Iran and how it was too bad that Ethan and I, as Americans, couldn’t easily go there. He encouraged us to apply for visas anyhow, since sometimes they are approved. Now it looks like we will be able to go, which I hadn’t expected.

Our travel plans are getting pretty exciting. We are going to Aleppo (see photo above) in a few weeks (we got Syrian visas when we were in Washington D.C. in December), hopefully we are going to meet Katy and Oneida in Athens soon after that, and we are going to try skiing in Lebanon at some point. I hope that we can go to both Iran and Oman in March or April.

Last night there was a tremendous thunderstorm- some of the loudest thunder I have heard in my life. I have no idea how people manage to dry their clothes in winter here. We have moved the latest load into the apartment on our drying rack. I think we have been trying to dry them for 3 days and they have been caught in several downpours. I am trying to adopt the strategy of carrying an umbrella at all times. We now have a gas-fueled space heater, which makes a huge difference in taking the chill off.

On the way to Bourj al-Barajneh today, I noticed that the butchers seemed to have been hard at work. Lots of swinging carcasses and heads in buckets. As I sat on the bus, I watched a fellow remove the head and legs of a sheep a few feet away. Halal butchers are not kidding around with the sharpness of their knives.

Today was absolutely gorgeous here in Beirut. These guys in the photo really know how to hang out. The clouds are obscuring the snowy peaks–it’s ski season after all.

We are finally back in Beirut after 6 weeks in the U.S. We arrived last night after an uneventful set of flights. I’m settling into the boring process of cleaning our dusty apartment, getting over jet lag, re-stocking the fridge, etc. Right now I am brewing my favorite coffee, Oaxacan from Curra’s. The sun seems to be coming out after a long thunderstorm last night, and life is fine.

Being back in the States (NYC, Texas, Maryland, Rhode Island, then back to NY) was a really good time. Our families and friends are so fantastic. The wedding itself was a lot of fun, with friends traveling in to Austin from all over. Our families really pitched in and helped make it all work. We got to spend Christmas with Ethan’s family, which meant being woken by 3 little kids on Christmas morning. We spent several relaxing days in Rhode Island with Ethan’s parents. We also met one month-old Milo (lovely) and saw not-quite-3 year-old Cooper, who is fond of loudly singing “Copacabana”. We spent New Years in Brooklyn with many of our best friends.

Being back in New York was interesting, I think I miss it more than I realized. I was well aware that I missed friends, but I was reminded that New York is truly special. The food, the pace, the mixing of cultures, feeling anonymous yet a part of it all…what I felt was nothing new, but I had mistakenly thought that I was over it.

And with that, a quick photo montage ..

Reunited pals

Ethan and I went swimming in paper bathing suits provided by the hotel…

Hitched

Dinner with my brothers

Texas Bike