Of course...

...It's not all perfect here.  Just two stories to share with you about my fellow students.

In my religion class, as my teacher gave a rudimentary explanation of early Judaism, one girl indignantly called out, "Isn't it true though that the Jews still practice human sacrifice?"  The professor was fazed for only a second, before moving on resignedly, as if he'd heard the question before, to explain that no, Jews did not and had never practiced human sacrifice, that it was entirely anathema to the Jewish tradition, that only animal sacrifices as specified in Leviticus had ever been carried out in the Old Temple.  The girl remained incredulous, and appears to have left the class still thinking that secretly, Jews probably still practiced human sacrifice. 

And just today, sitting in the library doing homework, I heard this conversation.  A girl and guy sit together, flirt for a while, are joined by another friend, and one of the two men turns the discussion to current events, saying "I didn't expect Gadhafi to hang in this long!" His friend agrees and they turn to the woman, who stammers "What? Who?  Sorry..."  The men are awkwardly incredulous that the woman has no idea who Gadhafi is, and as they push her for details of her ignorance, are even more awkward upon discovering that she didn't even know there was a revolution in Libya.  "I just haven't really been watching the news so much recently...you know, I didn't know...I don't know anything about politics, it is not really my interest.  But for you, it is your background, of course..." The two men awkwardly say that they are in fact physics majors, not poli sci, and the girl continues to stammer.  I am sitting a table away, already horrified by this interaction, when I hear the real punchline - Guy asks girl, "You really didn't know who Gadhafi is?"  "No," she stammers again.  "And you're not American?" he replies, at last truly incredulous.

I was so shocked, and offended, and struck by their assumptions and their ignorance, that I actually teared up.  This girl was Lebanese, had spent her whole life in the Arab world and probably couldn't even find Libya on a map.  Her ignorance and apathy are appalling.  But it is Americans - people like me - who are so generally assumed to be ignorant and apathetic about the world.  There I sat, only feet away from them, an American, totally aware and in support of the tide of national pride and democratic fervor that sweeping across the Middle East, and she sat, Arab and ignorant as the day is long. 

It can be really hard to understand other people.  But at least some of us are trying.

Hi! Kifak? Ca va?

Welcome to Beirut, the trilingual Mediterranean city of dreams, where the men are polite, the women are gorgeous, the sea sparkles along the Corniche, waraq eynab are excellent, and where I'll be spending my spring semester.

I'm currently withdrawn from Kenyon, due to the state department travel warning advising against travel to Lebanon and Kenyon's strict insurance rules, so I'm a full-time student here at the American University of Beirut (AUB).  I had, of course, intended to spend my whole year in Egypt, moving from Alexandria to Cairo for this semester, but the EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION - Yalla ya Misr, alf mabrook!!! -  happened instead, and after my program was canceled, I had to find another alternative.  I'm so grateful for all the hard work and help of Marne Ausec at Kenyon, and my international program advisor here, for getting me set up at this amazing school in this fabulous city.

Let me just give you a quick look at my new campus:

This is the view that I see every day on my walk between my apartment and my Arabic class. 

Welcome to college.

I'm taking Modern Standard Arabic, 4th semester, and loving it.  Tons of homework, but it's so great to actually have work that matters and feels organized and productive (as opposed to the Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language Center at Alexandria University).  I'm taking a "great books" class that's going to count as my religious studies class - we're reading Augustine, Al-Ghazali, Aquinas, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd, Dante, Luther and apparently a few surprise dudes along the way (unfortunately, all male authors...but, welcome to old school establishment religious studies).  I'm taking a really interesting history class on Modernity in Middle Eastern Cities, specifically Beirut, Cairo and Istanbul.  (What up, I've been to ALL THREE of them).  One of the articles we've been assigned is called "An Olfactory Journey through a day in 1875 Beirut" and another is about prostitution in 19th century Cairo.  Following the example of my mom, my dad, and my brothers, I am ready to learn all about the urban character, whether seedy and sketchy or official and sketchier, of great cities of the world.  I'm also taking a class on the Archaeology of Pre-Islamic Arabic, because really, it's not like we have archaeology at Kenyon!  And all my Middle Eastern studies so far have been about the post-Islamic Arab world, so I think it will be really good for me to learn something about the thousands of years of Arab culture that came before Mohammed.

Best of all, I'm in choir.  AUB has a wonderful choir, directed by an adorable American conductor who actually went to grad school with Doc Locke, my Kenyon conductor!  It's around 50 voices, and meets three times a week.  Everyone's been really welcoming and we're singing a wonderful Mass by Haydn and, among other pieces, a monophonic chant by my homegirl Hildegard von Bingen!!!  And I just found out yesterday that I also got in to the select voice ensemble Polyphonica, so I start rehearsing for that next week!  I'm going to be singing a lot this semester, and I couldn't be happier.  

I live in a small apartment about a five minute walk from AUB (though I have to climb some wicked stairs to get up the hill from my apt to campus) with another American.  Her name is Lindsey, and she's lived in Egypt for the last 2 and a half year, so we've had a good time bonding over all the things that are different between Lebanon and Misr.  She's also a hardcore brilliant biologist, so I'm learning a ton from her and we have really interesting discussions about religion. 

I'm working hard at settling in here, getting comfortable in a new place with brand new people for the 5th time in as many months.  I haven't left Beirut since I got here, so I'm hoping to do some traveling around the country soon, and I'm hard at work on pushing government loopholes so I can get my visa to Syria.  There are so many places in this region that I want to go.  Just looking at a map makes me frantic with excitement and desperate to see everything - the Arabian peninsula, the Gulf states, East Africa, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and I'd love to go back to Turkey.  I feel like the more I see of the world the more I realize how much I haven't seen and how much I want to see - like any great teacher can make you understand how little you know and how hungry you are for knowledge, or how any great library can make your knowledge feel narrow and your imagination enormous.  So, in short, my love life right now is basically focused on maps. 

I'm sorry I've been so out of touch for the last month, but life has been too hectic and I've been trying to embrace the hecticness of it, rather than sit down and summarize my experience.  I'm determined to keep up with this blog this semester though, so expect fair weather and fine letters from here on out. 

Salaam, bye, ciao!

Aaaaaaand we're back!!! As soon as I can get my internet to work, there will be a shiny new post here...