One month anniversary!

A few days ago I woke up with the shocking realization that I am already a full month in Beirut?! How can time pass by so quickly? And how can I feel at home when it also seems like I see the city for to the first time every new day? I am also a little embarrassed that my knowledge of the language has not improved very much in these last weeks. Even though I am looking for a Lebanese language course and just bought myself a hilarious dictionary for beginners, I am not doing enough to learn it. Maybe it’s just laziness and maybe I have already too many other things to do. But it’s no excuse! I will retrieve my persistence and study! But enough of this. You are not reading this blog to hear my thought about my own shortcomings ;)

Beirut is still wonderful. Like I said before; I am getting to know the city and start to feel at home, but at the same time I am still surprised by new things I discover each day. Mostly about daily life here. It is still such a strange place to me. The chaos of the city but also the (apparent) chaos of the rules of society people life by. This might make no sense to you. Let me give a few examples. The words ‘time’, ‘appointment’, ‘promise’ and related notions, have a different meaning here. It seems to express a certain intention rather than something I can count on happening. Confusing and also slightly insulting at first, but it seems to work fine for my Lebanese friends and colleagues. People only plan things for the moment and see how it works out. I was advised to do the same but most of you probably know me well enough to understand how that will be just as much a challenge for me as learning the language, if not bigger ;)
Another thing I want to bring up is the somewhat material mentality I assigned the Lebanese in my previous blogs. On the surface, which is all you see in the beginning, material things like phones and cars seem very important. However, having been here for a month, I start to see customs and traditions rooted in strong ties with religion, culture and family, but also with friends and neighbors. I think none of us will deny feeling at least a little better off living in Europe compared to the Middle East - yours truly included - and on some accounts we might definitely be right to do so. But I must say that sometimes I am a little ashamed of the individualism we so obviously and proudly life by. Maybe I do not value a Blackberry and smug about spending my money better, but I have not - and never met any Dutch who has - paid for the education of my siblings or the rent of my parents’ house. I wouldn’t even know what my parents pay for the house I lived in for eighteen years because I feel no responsibility for it. Not to make you feel guilty or unease dear reader! This is a different world and we take of each other in different ways! I don’t intent to determine right or wrong! This is just to tell you about the layers you see when you take time to peal off the surface and discover what the outside might not show you.

A completely different thing the outside of this country shows you is the war. The evidence of the violent struggles this small state has known in recent history is staring at me from the many bullet holes I pass by every day. It strikes me and makes me realize how small and safe my world has been. I have been hesitant to ask my friends or colleagues about where they were during the wars and how they experienced things, but when they bring the topic up themselves, a surprising and impressive national survival strategy becomes apparent…. Humor! A colleague and I were watching an old building being torn down by a hoist swinging a heavy iron cone against it. He laughed and told me the cone was about the same seize as a projectile he ones saw falling from the sky on his neighbors house. ‘Except it was on fire, of course.’ He added as if he I knew what a projectile looks like. ‘I was ten and it made me froze for a second when the house disappeared before my eyes,’ he mimics a shocked impression on his face, ‘but immediately after that I thought: run!’ He mimics the running and laughs out loud while he observes the iron cone hit small and perfectly round holes in the building. My eyebrows are still somewhere in my hair when he puts out his cigarette and concludes: ‘Yeah, it would go a lot faster with a projectile.’ Though I trust his expertise on the topic, I am very happy to see the building destroyed slowly by the iron cone, one floor at the time ;)

The unrest in the region have some people ask me about my safety here, so I would like to say: don’t worry! Beirut is still very safe and peaceful, and Lebanon is considered the place to be in the Middle East for everyone but Estonian bikers ;)

Good day everyone!