The past week was good, settling in with my job duties. I've been going over a bunch of info on Arab think tanks and will be compiling a report on all of it soon.
Otherwise, there have been a few new silly things.
DON'T HASSLE ME I'M NOT LOCAL
Several times recently I have hopped into cabs (or attempted to hop into cabs) when the subject of price comes up. I wait for the cabbie to offer a price. This exchange from today is typical:
CABBIE: Where to?
ME: Hamra (neighborhood near where the university is)
CABBIE: Okay, 10,000 lira.
ME: No, 2,000.
CABBIE: Okay, 4,000 lira.
ME: No, 2000.
CABBIE: 4,000.
ME: *walking away
CABBIE: Okay, 2000.
Also, whenever I clearly get charged a foreigner price (we're talking $2 for something instead of $1 here), something usually negates the bitterness. I had a minibus ride that I got charged more for today, then the very next ride I told the driver I was American and he insisted that the ride be free.
DO FEED THE ANIMALS
I was in a minibus, driving through a town in the south today. I looked over and saw a pelican on the sidewalk. It was just standing there, waving its head around, when I saw that a man had a garden hose and was playfully spraying water on the pelican's face. My camera is never quite near enough when I need it.
ALL THIS FOR A CUP
I took an adventure today with one of the other interns and traveled to Sidon, in the south. It's a cool town with a long history (Phoenician, Roman, Crusader, Ottoman) and a medieval souq.
Ostensibly I went down because there is a town about 10 miles south of Sidon that makes hand-blown glassware. I need a wedding gift for my buddy Max so I thought this would do. Buying the glasses in Beirut is triple the price (if not more) and also not as much fun.
When in Sidon, I realized there was a Crusader castle that I hadn't seen before. It's actually not open, or at least has nobody watching over it, so me and my buddy resolved to see it. 20 minutes and a bunch of brambles later, we got to the top and it was friggin awesome. It was like what all the ruins must've been like a couple hundred years ago and actually looked like one of the old engraving prints you see of THE OLDE CASTLE RUINS OF ENGELAND and the like.
We then went to haggle for a cab ride to the glass shop (foreigner prices, no dice), then ended up on a local minibus. We pretended that we understood the other passengers when they told us where to go, but did end up finding the shop after a bit.
The owners were extremely nice and I picked up some goodies for Max. The proprietors were washing down the nearby alley with a hose and invited us to dunk our heads in it to cool off, which was nice. They're probably Hezbollah supporters but such is life out here.
RAID THE LARDER
There have been more receptions at Peter and Kathy's home so I have continued to gorge myself on party food. A couple have been for this art gallery opening that I did the voice-over bit for, so I'm assuming my payment is getting to treat the receptions like a Golden Corral.
I usually end up meeting a couple of interesting people, too, and it very much feels like some outpost in an Agatha Christie novel. Random people just drop in during their travels and somehow know the same baron from Exeter that you do or something.
YEP THAT'S IT FOR NOW. Miss and love you guys!
Otherwise, there have been a few new silly things.
DON'T HASSLE ME I'M NOT LOCAL
Several times recently I have hopped into cabs (or attempted to hop into cabs) when the subject of price comes up. I wait for the cabbie to offer a price. This exchange from today is typical:
CABBIE: Where to?
ME: Hamra (neighborhood near where the university is)
CABBIE: Okay, 10,000 lira.
ME: No, 2,000.
CABBIE: Okay, 4,000 lira.
ME: No, 2000.
CABBIE: 4,000.
ME: *walking away
CABBIE: Okay, 2000.
Also, whenever I clearly get charged a foreigner price (we're talking $2 for something instead of $1 here), something usually negates the bitterness. I had a minibus ride that I got charged more for today, then the very next ride I told the driver I was American and he insisted that the ride be free.
DO FEED THE ANIMALS
I was in a minibus, driving through a town in the south today. I looked over and saw a pelican on the sidewalk. It was just standing there, waving its head around, when I saw that a man had a garden hose and was playfully spraying water on the pelican's face. My camera is never quite near enough when I need it.
ALL THIS FOR A CUP
I took an adventure today with one of the other interns and traveled to Sidon, in the south. It's a cool town with a long history (Phoenician, Roman, Crusader, Ottoman) and a medieval souq.
Ostensibly I went down because there is a town about 10 miles south of Sidon that makes hand-blown glassware. I need a wedding gift for my buddy Max so I thought this would do. Buying the glasses in Beirut is triple the price (if not more) and also not as much fun.
When in Sidon, I realized there was a Crusader castle that I hadn't seen before. It's actually not open, or at least has nobody watching over it, so me and my buddy resolved to see it. 20 minutes and a bunch of brambles later, we got to the top and it was friggin awesome. It was like what all the ruins must've been like a couple hundred years ago and actually looked like one of the old engraving prints you see of THE OLDE CASTLE RUINS OF ENGELAND and the like.
We then went to haggle for a cab ride to the glass shop (foreigner prices, no dice), then ended up on a local minibus. We pretended that we understood the other passengers when they told us where to go, but did end up finding the shop after a bit.
The owners were extremely nice and I picked up some goodies for Max. The proprietors were washing down the nearby alley with a hose and invited us to dunk our heads in it to cool off, which was nice. They're probably Hezbollah supporters but such is life out here.
RAID THE LARDER
There have been more receptions at Peter and Kathy's home so I have continued to gorge myself on party food. A couple have been for this art gallery opening that I did the voice-over bit for, so I'm assuming my payment is getting to treat the receptions like a Golden Corral.
I usually end up meeting a couple of interesting people, too, and it very much feels like some outpost in an Agatha Christie novel. Random people just drop in during their travels and somehow know the same baron from Exeter that you do or something.
YEP THAT'S IT FOR NOW. Miss and love you guys!
It does sound very Agatha Christie. You might want to consider growing a Poirot mustache.
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