Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Merry Christmas!

I have finally finished with all the tests and papers I had due before vacation. It has been VERY busy but SO fun! I think that my tests and papers went well. I have a couple projects to do over the break but I will not worry about those till next week:) I posted pictures below of the bike ride I did with my Extremers Club from Tyre(in the South) to Hamra(Beirut). After the break we are going caving! For Christmas, I baked LOTS of cookies to bring to a Christmas party I had with some friends. It was really nice and I still had some left over to give to others at my dorm. On Christmas Eve I went to my aunt's house. We had a nice dinner and visited. After everyone went to bed I watched "Love Actually" and then went to sleep:) On Christmas day I walked around the neighborhood and saw the Christmas decorations then I visited some family who I have been meaning to see for a while and it was very nice. I had to go back to my dorm in Hamra on Christmas night because I had another project. On the morning of Dec. 26th I had to be at Haigazian at 5am. A group of Hagaizian students went to Akkar, a neighborhood in the North near the Syrian border, to renovate a school that is in need of help. We renovated an entire building...the entire inside and outside. We cleaned, scraped and painted and the final product was worth all the hard work. We were totally exhausted by the end. I will post pictures when I get them in a couple weeks of the before and after. I came back after a couple days and my vacation finally started. Yesterday, I went shopping...bought a shirt and two books...then went to the premiere of a documentary called "Gaza Hospital" at AUB. Today, I went running/walking/gazing at the sea and the cloudy sky opened up beautifully for me for a couple hours. I plan to spend my break exploring Lebanon...especially the areas close to where I live...and take pictures so you can all see this neighborhood that I live in. It is an exciting place to be! I promise I will also spend this break writing about some topics that have been on mind and posting pictures on this blog.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

New Pictures and Updates!

I have been very busy these last couple of weeks with midterm exams and different activities. I posted some pictures of the spiritual life retreat with my club from Haigazian. We went up to the mountains to an area called Dour el Chour which you can see is really beautiful. That was two weeks ago. This past Friday I had an actvity with my extreme club. We took a bus to Sur (Tyre) and then rode our bikes back to Hamra. We rode from 11:30pm until 6:30am along the rodes and highways of Beirut along the sea. The moon was big and bright and reflecting off the sea. It sounds romantic but it was really cold and there are no streetlights so we couldn't see the road and thus, couldn't see the potholes. Let's just say there were a few unfortunate accidents but no one was badly hurt. I have been running regularly since I got here so physically the bike ride wasn't very hard on my muscles but my butt is still recovering. I will post some pictures of this trip when I get them from my friend. After riding all night I arrived back home at 6:40am, changed my clothes and then ran back to school for another trip that I was taking with a different group to the North of Lebanon at 7:30am. Oh, to be young and adventurous! We went to see some different monasteries and villages in the North and had lunch and went for a ride in a paddleboat which wasn't really fun after biking for 8 hours. This was also a really beautiful trip. My favorite site was the Kadisha valley which is in most of the pictures below with all the pretty colors in the valleys and mountains. It was the first time I have really seen fall colors since I've been here. Also, Kadish is a Syriac word meaning "holy" and I was really excited because that is the language of my mom's church so I knew the word from the church music I grew up listening to and of course I burst into song.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Lately, I have noticed that I am so relaxed here and I'm almost always in a really good mood. I'm taking five classes, have a student job and am a member of three clubs at Haigazian, but somehow I never feel stressed out and I have been thinking about why. I think people are more relaxed here. People will go out at the last minute rather than having to schedule something. People aren't so rigid about time and addicted to their schedules. Life seems to have a more natural and comfortable flow here which I think has made me a more healthy person. In the U.S., I always felt like I had to be penciled into peoples' lives. Another big difference here, which is something my mom has always talked about, is that in the U.S. you always have to be invited to someone's house. Here, people just drop by and everyone is happy to have you and welcomes you and genuinely wants you stay. When I first arrived here, there were a lot of little things that I thought were rude, but now I realize that most of the things make life simpler and easier because people don't hide what they are thinking/feeling the way that Americans do. In the U.S., you never know if somebody is genuine or if they are just being polite. You never know if someone wants you to stay or if they are just saying that because socially it is what is expected. People don't wear as many masks here. It is also strange that in the U.S., everyone is SO scared of everything. Of everything from processed foods to driving without a seatbelt to terrorism. Here, in a country whose history is ravaged by civil war, occupation, invasion, a presently unstable government and tense relations between religious and political factions, everyone goes about their everyday life without a worry. There is a different mentalityhere because people have not been conditioned to fear, fear, fear and it really shows in everyday life. Compared to here, the U.S. population is so secure yet we have been taught to fear so that we will consume becuse capitalism and the U.S. government can't function unless we are scared.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

My Birthday(See pictures below!)

I turned 21 on November 1! Some of the people who I live with came to my room at midnight with a cake and balloons and surprised me. I spent the day with my aunt Amal and my cousins Samar and Semer. It was great to see Samar because she is doing her medical residency in the U.S. and she was just here for a week. At night, I ate my 3rd cake from Mary Mikhael, the president of the school where I have my dorm room. Then I went and rented movies with my friend. The next day(not my birthday) I was surprised with yet another cake(my fourth) from my Grandma and Grandpa in the U.S. Everybody was very happy to have the cake at lunch. Unfortunately, I did not go out and get drunk on my 21st birthday, as is customary in the good old U.S.A. because my birthday happened to fall on a Sunday and most of my friends had big tests on Monday morning. But don't worry, I will make up for it on Friday night...just kidding, mom.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Survival Camp (See pictures below!)

There is a club my school, Haigazian, called the "Extreme Sports Club" and they do activities such as rafting, hiking, biking, caving, snow caving and others. Because the activities they do are mentally and physically challenging, you have to go through a test called "survival camp" in order for them to learn if you are strong enough to enter the club. This is my "survival camp" story...

First of all, we met at Haigazian at 11pm. We drove for 2 hours into the mountains where we were dropped off and had to hike for an hour in the dark to find our campsite. We had to do some trust activities and then we were ordered to go sleep somewhere. No tent, no fire, just the cold hard ground. Then we were woken by yelling and flashlights in our eyes at 5am (still dark) to start running. Then we proceeded to go for a 2-hour hike before the sun even came up. When we arrived back at camp we had various tasks to do. We had to make a shelter, make a raft, make traps, purify water, make fire without matches(never actually happened) and make a stretcher...all with the tools of mother nature and some rope. Also, throughout the day, they would make us stop and do races and push-ups and sit-ups and a variety of torturous activities.

When we were working on the raft in the river, I had to leave the water after about 30 seconds because my feet were so cold that they hurt. When we finished the raft we had to swing from a rope, Tarzan-style, and plunge into the river. After we all did it and were freezing, we were told that we had to stay in the water for 2 HOURS! I thought it was a joke because I honest to God thought we would get hypothermia. But once I realized it wasn't a joke and went along with it, it turned out to be SO fun. By the way, I was the only girl and all the boys were sitting on the side shivering and complaining while I swam and slipped and climbed happily ahead. It has to be the Yooper in me. You guys wouldn't believe it if you saw me. Because I was so tired and overwhelmed and not believing where I was or what I was doing, I got into that wierd mood where EVERYTHING is hilarious and so I was splashing through this river laughing hysterically at the boys and myself and just having so much fun. Probably cause it was the only option other than crying.

After this escapade through the river, we collected firewood, did some rope climbing and relaying, obstacle courses and climbing in uncomfortably high trees. After it got dark we had some reflecting time around the fire and then we were told to go sleep in our shelter. After a couple hours, a couple guys came and "kidnapped" one of the guys and took him blindfolded into the woods and tied him to a tree (please reference the picture below). Then they came back and kicked down the shelter and told us to go find our friend in the woods. When we got back we had to take an actual test (on paper). This was around 1am and I have no idea what I wrote but I'm pretty sure it was garbage which is bad because they said the results are a big part of their decision.

THEN, they told us to pack our stuff and it was time to hike back to the road. My body hurt so much that I could barely walk, my backpack was full of soaking wet clothes, so it was twice as heavy as on the way in, but the idea that it would soon be over helped...a little. We start walking back and realize that the way in had been steeply down-hill which means that the way back was steeply up-hill. I also want to explain that this trail is not like any trail you have walked before. There are points where you are actually climbing rock ledges with a backpack on your back, a sleeping bag in one hand and a flashlight in the other. It was kinda hard.

I was in the front of the group coming back and all of a sudden we heard someone screaming in the back. Someone had fallen off the trail (there was a steep ridge all along the trail) and hit a tree and badly injured his leg. The group started screaming for us to find branches(in the complete darkness) and take off our clothes to make a stretcher. All the while this guy is yelling and moaning. You bet your boots I was calling on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Finally, we made a stretcher and the guys have pulled him back up onto the trail and start carrying him so we have to carry their bags on top of all our own stuff. The guys with the stretcher went ahead and eventually we realized we had been split into 2 groups and we were lost. For some reason, I wasn't scared...just really annoyed because we were exhausted and didn't have any food or water. We decided to keep following the path rather than sitting in hope that we would reach a road sooner or later. Eventually, after this 2-hour ordeal, we reached the road and guess what? The guy who had "broken" his leg was walking around and laughing. It was all part of the "test". I just lay down in the middle of the road and went to sleep. We still had to wait for the bus to come pick us up, drive 2 hours back to school...at which point I had to walk back to my dorm...where I ate two tangerines and collapsed at 4:30am.

So this is the thing...I won't even find out if I am accepted into the club or not until Friday. I don't know how I appeared to them but after thinking about it for a couple days now I realized that I should be really proud of myself. I think that was one of the hardest things I've ever done and there were so many times, especially near the end, when I couldn't imagine taking one more step...but I did and I did it with spirit.This experience really made me aware of how young I am and that I should be thankful for this body I have that is capable of carrying me through such an experience. Another thing that really surprised me is that I was never scared (except for a moment in the uncomfortably high tree) and it never crossed my mind that I wouldn't be able to do something. I was ready for everything and I feel so brave and confident about different aspects of my life because of what I have proved to myself.

Also, you can see from the pictures that this is one of the most beautiful places ever. On the river, under the stars of Lebanon, with waterfalls and mountains on all sides. I'm so thankful that I got to experience Lebanon this way.

All in all, would I do this again? Um...no. I have honestly never felt more like my actual life was so bad that I had to be dreaming. When we were lost at the end I kept telling myself to wake up. But, since I am stupid and the fact is that I did enter blindly into this experience, I have to recognize that it was really worth a lot to me in terms of what I got to see, what I learned about myself and how it changed me...so there.

The only thing that made the experience bearable was the other guys who were going through it with me (the five of us in the picture with the shelter and the raft). We complained to each other and made fun of everything when the others weren't around and took good care of each other.

Just hope that the next time you get lost in the wilderness, you're with me. I'll take good care of you.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Smoking in Lebanon

I feel like almost everyone around me smokes...especially people my age. I feel like in the U.S. smoking has become really taboo. It is frowned upon and the laws really encourage an anti-smoking attitude with the cigarette taxes and laws about where you can/cannot smoke. When I first arrived in Lebanon, I had to get used to the fact that it isn't illegal to smoke in restaurants here, as it is in Chicago. Pretty much everywhere I go I'm caught in somebody's cloud of smoke. In Chicago, it is even illegal to smoke in front of the entrance to a building. Here, students smoke during school workshops and events and on the bus to events. Of course, I have serious issues with the cigarette industry because I think it really is evil and when you buy cigarettes you are making bad people very rich, but being in Lebanon reminds me that it certainly isn't the government's job to tell people what to do in regards to a matter as personal and mundane as smoking cigarettes. I think people should be able to make the choice but I am thankful that I can eat in a restaurant and not have to inhale cigarette smoke. Again, I am seeing these two extreme sides between the U.S., which always seems to be way too much into peoples' personal business, and Lebanon, which may be in need of a few more laws to keep people safer. It is a very tricky balance and no government has ever found the "right" or the "best" way to govern. All I know is that a man was smoking IN THE GROCERY STORE this morning and it bugged me.

Monday, October 19, 2009

BLEEP

It is a little strange to watch TV here. They play American movies and edit out, not only the sex, but the kissing as well. In addition to bleeping out swear words, they bleep out the word "God" on certain channels. I have only watched Lebanese channels since I've been here so I don't know if the American cable channels that can be purchased are edited as well. Probably not...there wouldn't be anything left of the shows after everything was bleeped out on MTV.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Out of the West

I have realized that for the first time in my life my education is not revolving around the West. Even at my univeristy in Chicago, my political science classes hugely revolved around American politics and cities and Western philosophies. Also, all my textbooks were written and my lectures were presented by people with Western mindsets.

I will remind you that the five classes I am taking this semester are Middle East Politics, Eastern Religions, Karabagh Conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, New Testament and Politics of East Asia since 1945. This is really a breath of fresh air for me. In my opinion, the students here have a much better knowledge of world history and geography. I think American students are taught the same basic version of world and U.S. history over and over again and I am realizing that the account of world history that I have learned is really inadequate. People here know about all sorts of things that I haven't even heard of and I am constantly looking these things up on Wikipedia so that I don't feel stupid when they are brought up in class.

Another thing that is different about university here is that I DON'T HAVE TO BUY BOOKS! The teachers know that most students can't afford them and that they have the means to photocopy them so I pay like $10 for a photocopy of a book that might cost $140 in U.S. This is definately the way it should be...there are just less rules and laws in general and everything still works. Of course, it isn't great and there are a lot of things that could be better, just like anywhere. I feel that I have only been confronted with two extremes. The U.S. is SO rigid. You get in trouble for everything. Here, people can't believe that it's against the law to smoke in front of the entrance to a building in Chicago or that there are tickets given for littering and that I can't park my car in front of my own house at night. The U.S. is so excessive in controlling the mundane everyday aspects of peoples' lives which is interesting because we also have the old cowboy mentality of rugged individualism and of course, the free market system.

However, I recognize that in Lebanon, there also exists an extreme. It is common for me to see people driving around with babies and little kids sitting in the front seat on their mom's lap. There is A LOT of garbage in the water and people frequently just throw their garbage out the car window onto the street. I know that these are largely cultural matters in addition to legal matters and in different countries there exist different ideas about what is good or bad and dangerous or not dangerous.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Sabtieh: Pictures of my family's neighborhood

I finally posted all my pictures of Sabtieh. This is a neighborhood where my mom grew up and where my grandparents still live. The signs pointing to Middle East College are at the top of the hill in Sabtieh and that is where my mom went to college. This is also the neighborhood where my parents got married. As you can probaly tell by the shrines, this is a Christian neighborhood. There are shrines to the Virgin Mary everywhere. They are along the roads and inside the entrances to apartment buildings. They are really beautiful and colorful. As you can also see, the neighborhood is made up of a variety of buildings. Some buildings are very old and are still marked by signs of war, but most buildings in this area have been rebuilt and still look brand new. The wildlife that grows in this country is amazing. You can see the beautiful flowers. There are no sidewalks in this neighborhood and the cars drive very crazily all over Lebanon so I have to pay very close attention when I go walking on these steep hills with all the bends in the road. Also, all over Lebanon, there are little stores called "dikenas". These are tiny little shops owned by a family with quick groceries. The cool thing is that everything can be found on this one road which makes up the center of the neighborhood. You can just walk across the street to buy fresh bread or vegetables. You don't have to drive "downtown".

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Sensitivities

Everyday I am learning about the sensitivities that are present here in Lebanon. In my previous post I mentioned my Eastern religions teacher and now I have another story to tell. I am also taking a class on the New Testament. The teacher was giving a basic history to put the Bible in historical context for the class. Before he could do this, he had to explain that he is not a Zionist and that he is not expressing political views in this class, just telling the facts. The issue was that he had to talk about Jesus being a Jew. Again, something that would absolutely not be an issue in the U.S.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

First Week of School

I moved into my dorm room this past weekend. I am staying at the Near East Theological Seminary which everyone refers to as the NEST or in Arabic, kiliyet lehoot. My roomate's name is Anita and she is from Armenia. I ask her MANY questions about what it is like to live in Armenia and questions about Armenian history and attitudes. She is incredibly kind and loves to go exploring with me and talk about everything. She is the perfect roommate and I know I'm really lucky to be put with someone who I can be good friends with.

There is a big Lebanese-Armenian community in Lebanon. This is a new dimension of Lebanon that I am just learning about. All of a sudden, I am going to an Armenian school, my roommate is from Armenia and everyone around me is speaking a mixture of Arabic, Armenian and English.

The school I am attending is called Haigazian University and it is an Armenian institution. However, the make-up of the school is roughly 40% Lebanese-Armenian, 50% Arab-Lebanese or just Lebanese, and 10% other Lebanese minorities. The school is about a 20-minute walk from the place where I sleep. These are the classes I am taking this semester:

1. The History and Politics of the Karabakh Conflict
2. Middle East Politics
3. International and Political Relations in E. Asia since 1945
4. New Testament
5. World Religions: East

I think that these classes and class discussions will be particularly interesting in Lebanon. Even today, before he even introduced the class, my Eastern religions teacher gave the class a speech about how we don't have to worry about him getting in trouble with God for teaching us about other religions. He said God knows what he believes and he will be fine. He kind of apologized to the class for having to teach about non-monotheistic religions which would NEVER happen in the U.S.

Also, the instruction is given in English, but teachers and students will ask and answer questions in Arabic and I love it because it really makes me feel like I am in a classroom in Libnan.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Correction!

Hi everybody! I want to give you all some information about the pictures below. I previously titled the pictures of the buildings "Sabtieh, the place where my family is from". I took the pictures looking right down the hill from my aunt's balcony so I thought it was the same neighborhood but it is NOT. The name of the neighborhood is Zeitrieh (I hope I am spelling it correctly). The distinction is important because Sabtieh(where my family lives) is a Christian neighborhood and Zeitrieh is a Muslim Shia neighborhood. When my mom was growing up her neighborhood was shelled by fighters in Zeitrieh and many of her neighbors were killed and homes were ruined. Looking out over Zeitrieh can bring back many bad memories for people who had to endure that time. My uncle recalled a woman, who lived in the building behind his, hiding in the hallway with her two children when the shells came and her throat was cut by shrapnel. She died in front of her children. Lebanon has a very sad and complicated past which dictates the present and the future in huge ways. I am learning more about this everyday as I talk to people. There are people who will disagree with me, but I believe that all religious and political sects have both contributed to the problems and suffered as well. Through all the history here and all the wars, all the groups have caused some pain and felt immense pain. As it is with all wars, it is the innocent everyday people who just want to be able to go to work and buy groceries, who suffer the most. As I said before, my aunt and my mom warned me not to talk to people about politics and these issues but I have found that people my age, studying at the university, are very interested to talk about these subjects and have incredible insight. I talked to the president of Haigazian this morning and he told me that in the past there was never a demand for political science classes and now, all of sudden, many young people want to study politics. Some students here have expressed hope in Lebanon's future and want to help make it better. I have also talked to students who believe that voting here is useless. They refuse to vote because they don't think any of the candidates care about what is best for the Lebanese people as a whole, but rather, have their own monetary interests and political ambitions in mind. This is going to be a very interesting place to study political science. Check in soon for new pictures of the REAL Sabtieh!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Check out the pictures I just added below. My aunt works 6 days a week so Sunday is really saved as the day for rest. The big meal in Lebanon is not dinner as it is in the U.S, it is lunch, or "ghada" in Arabic. On Sundays, a big meal is prepared for lunch and then people spend time with the family and maybe take a drive. So my aunt took me up into the mountains and it was SO beautiful as you can see from the pictures.

All week I have been hearing these loud banging noises and I think that they are guns but no one reacts to it so I figured it was okay. Today I asked my aunt what it was and she explained that during Ramadan, little kids buy fireworks and play with them all day. When I tell my brother, Elie, he will want to move to Lebanon and be adopted into the Muslim faith.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Marhaba! I've been in Lebanon for a few days now. I'll be staying at my aunts house for about another week. The neighborhood where she lives is called Sabtieh. It is the same neighborhood where my grandparents live and where my mom grew up. Lebanon is very hilly. I freak driving on all the steep hills and narrow streets. There aren't really any rules when it comes to driving. There are a few street lights and stop signs but people don't really pay attention and nobody enforces any rules regarding traffic. I rarely see police but there are soldiers everywhere which is pretty different from the U.S. The style of clothing, of housing decor, of relating to people, is all very different. Also, the electricity is a big problem. It goes off all the time and you never know if there will be warm water or not. I had a really cold shower this morning! I have been advised again and again not to talk about politics, even in class, with anyone. This may be a problem since I am going to be taking all political science classes. I've been advised to just be objective and not reveal my opinion. Anyone who knows me knows that that will be quite difficult. I'm just going to have to evaluate situations as they arise. I like to state my opinion and have conversations but I am also good at recognizing the right time and place to do so. I think I'll be just fine:)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I also want to comment on the title of this blog. I named the blog after one of Lebanon's national forests, "The Cedars of God National Forest". The cedar tree is Lebanon's national symbol and it is also on the Lebanese flag. I also chose the name because the cedars are incredibly beautiful, really a national treasure, but they are in danger of becoming extinct in Lebanon. Also, Lebanon is a country with constant political problems which are often veiled and manipulated by religious rhetoric. This is a country that consists of people of many different religions but what really stands out to me is that everyone I meet, whatever their religion, has so much faith. I wish that around the world people could focus on that similarity rather than making rules to separate us from each other. When people argue and get so mean about religion and politics, I look to nature and really believe that it is the only thing we can truly say came from God. When I see the magnificent ancient cedars in the mountains of Lebanon, I know that they are "cedars of God". Salam!
Marhaba! That means "hello" in Arabic. I fianlly figured out how to use this blog. When I logged on my blog was in Arabic which was a bit of a problem so I had to figure out how to change it back to a language that we can all understand. I had a long (12 hour) flight from Chicago to Jordan which was brutal and then a nice short flight from Jordan to Lebanon. My aunt Amal and my cousin Semer picked me up from the airport and I am staying with them for about a week because my semester doesn't start until the end of September. It has been great staying with m family. Amal only speaks to me in Arabic which is exactly what I need. I get pretty lost sometimes but I'm learning to just ask questions, A LOT of questions. It feels strange being here because on the one hand, I know that I belong because this is where my family is but at the same time, I can't speak Arabic fluently. Everyone expects me to understand everything they're saying and I just don't but it has only been A DAY and I've already learned so much from being forced to only use Arabic. I have realized that I know a lot more than I thought I did. I'm saying words that I didn't ven realize I knew but at the same time I am constantly reminded of how much I don't know. But we all need that in life in general so it's all good. I'm really happy and I truly feel like I'm in the right place for this point in my life. I am ready for a change and a challenge and I already know that that's what I'm in for.