my new acronym- EAWOP
Everything Always Works Out Perfectly
A tale of my trip to Beirut
As you know, I am a lousy blogger because if I do not write about something immediately, I do not write later, either. So you may never read about Sweden or my trip to the southern Mediterranean in Turkey.
I am situated in a neighbourhood internet cafe, where 80s MUZAK is playing. Since I am way overtired and jet lagged, it is almost soothing. It's that guitar muzak, which is better than sythesizer and panflute, but I digress. That is not he point of this post.
I am in the Hamra area of Beirut, which is the cool university area with lots of coffee shops and bookstores. My apartment is in the German Building, and is home to some other staff members (two arrived last night as well) and some German fmilies. There are apparently events throughout the year- Christmas Bazaars and food nights and I am hoping for an apple strudel from time to time. Yummy.
My apartment is spacious- two bedrooms, plenty of closet space, a decent kitchen and living room area, bathroom with a long tub, large balcony. I am really happy with the layout. My living room/balcony overlook a fairly busy street and my bedroom window directly faces a church bell. It is a very pretty sight.
On Monday afternoon, Mom took me to the Saskatoon airport. My luggage was quite overweight and I should have been paying excess baggage fees to the tune of $400. The man at the counter was nice enough not to impose these charges and I calmly put on my pouty lips and deer in headlights eyes, explaining that I am moving to Beirut and I just needed to bring all that stuff. Then Susan showed up at the airport with carrot ginger juice and cafe chestnut so it was pretty much the perfect day.
I had booked all aisle seats, but to my chagrin discovered I only had an aisle from Saskatoon to Calgary. I could handle the window from London to Beirut- it's only 4.5 hours, but a centre seat for the 8.5 hour trip from Calgary to London? Unbearable. Fortunately for me, there were two sisters separated by an aisle and so I sat in the aisle seat and the one sister took my place in the inside seat. Perfect.
On my trip, I read a book which I borrowed from my mom (I will give it back, I promise) called I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby, who lives in Prince Albert. For those of you who have not heard of it or read it, I highly recommend it. As my background has some Hutterite roots, I have a bit more of an interest in the culture than some, but even without that, it was a very powerful account which helped me to understand a bit more of the history and language of the Hutterite people. Do yourself a favour and read the book. Alexis was telling me the woman had to publish it herself because no publishers would take it on. It ended up being a best seller. I wonder if Canadian publishers realize how many people have Hutterite origins and therefore an interest in this culture.
On the flight from London to Beirut, I was sitting next to a Lebanese guy, probably in his late 20s, coming home for a visit for the first time in one year and four months. He was flying from Washington, D.C. Ass we got closer to the city, he kept looking over me to see if he could see anything. He then informed me CNN declared Beirut the best city in the world, which amused me. The Lebanese are so proud.
After arriving at the airport and buying my employment visa, I collected all $400 of excess baggage and met people from the school. It was fun to have someone with a sign collect me from the airport. I was instantly reimbursed for the visa. There were a couple others heading ot my building, too. One young American woman who grew up in the Middle East, who will be a useful friend as she speaks Arabic, and an American guy who was recently in Guatemala. They were both nice, though we were all pretty tired.
A woman from the school showed us our apartments and some employees brought our luggage for us. They were all kind and hospitable and there were some nice things in our apartments- 3 cans of Almaza, the local beer, a bottle of wine, some orange juice, milk, eggs, bread, butter, processed cheese, cornflakes, nescafe, tea, sugar, apples and grapes. The apartment also has a mop pail, mop, broom, ironing board and iron (all brand new), plus basic serving and cooking dishes and utensils. Perfect. It will get me by until my stuff gets here.
The only thing that has not worked out perfectly is that my shipment from Kuwait was supposed to be here today, but it will be here in a couple days instead. Too bad, because I have Bashar here to help me unpack and by the time my stuff gets here, he will be back in Aleppo. At the same time, it gives us today to just hang out and enjoy the glorious heat and humidity. Then after I am rested up, I will have more energy to unpack and I will have a better sense of where I want everything, so in that sense, it is actually best to get my shipment in a few days. I need a bookshelf. We have coffee tables, end tables, an entertainment center including a TV set (it's not flat screen, but it's large- probably 32 inches). No bookshelf.
Anyway, I have lots of room to do yoga, though my mat is not here. I can do without, maybe I can even find a new mat as mine is pretty worn. You can see a lot of dog poses occurred on that thing. Ha.
Well, I am going to go because I either need food, more coffee, or sleep. I only slept a couple hours last night so am exhauted. Actually, I think just hanging around outside will be perfect. But the point is, it's time to go before I stink like smoke from this internet cafe. Sigh.
Lots of love to all and I do have plenty of room for guests.
A tale of my trip to Beirut
As you know, I am a lousy blogger because if I do not write about something immediately, I do not write later, either. So you may never read about Sweden or my trip to the southern Mediterranean in Turkey.
I am situated in a neighbourhood internet cafe, where 80s MUZAK is playing. Since I am way overtired and jet lagged, it is almost soothing. It's that guitar muzak, which is better than sythesizer and panflute, but I digress. That is not he point of this post.
I am in the Hamra area of Beirut, which is the cool university area with lots of coffee shops and bookstores. My apartment is in the German Building, and is home to some other staff members (two arrived last night as well) and some German fmilies. There are apparently events throughout the year- Christmas Bazaars and food nights and I am hoping for an apple strudel from time to time. Yummy.
My apartment is spacious- two bedrooms, plenty of closet space, a decent kitchen and living room area, bathroom with a long tub, large balcony. I am really happy with the layout. My living room/balcony overlook a fairly busy street and my bedroom window directly faces a church bell. It is a very pretty sight.
On Monday afternoon, Mom took me to the Saskatoon airport. My luggage was quite overweight and I should have been paying excess baggage fees to the tune of $400. The man at the counter was nice enough not to impose these charges and I calmly put on my pouty lips and deer in headlights eyes, explaining that I am moving to Beirut and I just needed to bring all that stuff. Then Susan showed up at the airport with carrot ginger juice and cafe chestnut so it was pretty much the perfect day.
I had booked all aisle seats, but to my chagrin discovered I only had an aisle from Saskatoon to Calgary. I could handle the window from London to Beirut- it's only 4.5 hours, but a centre seat for the 8.5 hour trip from Calgary to London? Unbearable. Fortunately for me, there were two sisters separated by an aisle and so I sat in the aisle seat and the one sister took my place in the inside seat. Perfect.
On my trip, I read a book which I borrowed from my mom (I will give it back, I promise) called I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby, who lives in Prince Albert. For those of you who have not heard of it or read it, I highly recommend it. As my background has some Hutterite roots, I have a bit more of an interest in the culture than some, but even without that, it was a very powerful account which helped me to understand a bit more of the history and language of the Hutterite people. Do yourself a favour and read the book. Alexis was telling me the woman had to publish it herself because no publishers would take it on. It ended up being a best seller. I wonder if Canadian publishers realize how many people have Hutterite origins and therefore an interest in this culture.
On the flight from London to Beirut, I was sitting next to a Lebanese guy, probably in his late 20s, coming home for a visit for the first time in one year and four months. He was flying from Washington, D.C. Ass we got closer to the city, he kept looking over me to see if he could see anything. He then informed me CNN declared Beirut the best city in the world, which amused me. The Lebanese are so proud.
After arriving at the airport and buying my employment visa, I collected all $400 of excess baggage and met people from the school. It was fun to have someone with a sign collect me from the airport. I was instantly reimbursed for the visa. There were a couple others heading ot my building, too. One young American woman who grew up in the Middle East, who will be a useful friend as she speaks Arabic, and an American guy who was recently in Guatemala. They were both nice, though we were all pretty tired.
A woman from the school showed us our apartments and some employees brought our luggage for us. They were all kind and hospitable and there were some nice things in our apartments- 3 cans of Almaza, the local beer, a bottle of wine, some orange juice, milk, eggs, bread, butter, processed cheese, cornflakes, nescafe, tea, sugar, apples and grapes. The apartment also has a mop pail, mop, broom, ironing board and iron (all brand new), plus basic serving and cooking dishes and utensils. Perfect. It will get me by until my stuff gets here.
The only thing that has not worked out perfectly is that my shipment from Kuwait was supposed to be here today, but it will be here in a couple days instead. Too bad, because I have Bashar here to help me unpack and by the time my stuff gets here, he will be back in Aleppo. At the same time, it gives us today to just hang out and enjoy the glorious heat and humidity. Then after I am rested up, I will have more energy to unpack and I will have a better sense of where I want everything, so in that sense, it is actually best to get my shipment in a few days. I need a bookshelf. We have coffee tables, end tables, an entertainment center including a TV set (it's not flat screen, but it's large- probably 32 inches). No bookshelf.
Anyway, I have lots of room to do yoga, though my mat is not here. I can do without, maybe I can even find a new mat as mine is pretty worn. You can see a lot of dog poses occurred on that thing. Ha.
Well, I am going to go because I either need food, more coffee, or sleep. I only slept a couple hours last night so am exhauted. Actually, I think just hanging around outside will be perfect. But the point is, it's time to go before I stink like smoke from this internet cafe. Sigh.
Lots of love to all and I do have plenty of room for guests.
posted by Granola Girl at
12:39 AM
|
0 comments
