It’s the end of Chapter One. Sorry that it has taken me so
long to blog since my last post. Unfortunately my poor laptop went into a coma
about 24 hours after the Achrafieh bomb, leaving me with limited blogging
faculties and struggling to decode any semblance of meaning from Arabic news
channels (it didn't work).
So my time in Beirut has finally come to an end. Haraam (as we say here), shame! I've seen the Arabic alphabet miraculously turn from odd shapes, random squiggles and a couple of dots into some kind of coherent system and have had stilted but ever amusing conversations with locals (“You talk like a Syrian” or the ever present “Shou?” in response to anything I’d say). I also feel like this was touch down in the Middle East proper (Dubai is most definitely Middle East lite) where things like civil wars and Arab Springs have an actual on the ground meaning as opposed to something I’d read on the Guardian. I met an amazing group of people and carved out a little life living in Mar Mikael, drinking in Gemmayzeh, lounging around in Café em Nazih and navigating my way through the amazing daily hassles of not being in Europe.
So my time in Beirut has finally come to an end. Haraam (as we say here), shame! I've seen the Arabic alphabet miraculously turn from odd shapes, random squiggles and a couple of dots into some kind of coherent system and have had stilted but ever amusing conversations with locals (“You talk like a Syrian” or the ever present “Shou?” in response to anything I’d say). I also feel like this was touch down in the Middle East proper (Dubai is most definitely Middle East lite) where things like civil wars and Arab Springs have an actual on the ground meaning as opposed to something I’d read on the Guardian. I met an amazing group of people and carved out a little life living in Mar Mikael, drinking in Gemmayzeh, lounging around in Café em Nazih and navigating my way through the amazing daily hassles of not being in Europe.
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| Gemmayze (or there abouts...) |
The weeks after my last update were also fairly uneventful, which is not to say they weren't amazing but I had slipped very easily into actually just living; going to class every morning, learning huge lists of Arabic verbs, going somewhere dingy and fun after dark, meeting new people, making hummus, car crashes, daily power cuts, Eid festivities and fireworks (not gunshots!), finding Zeina an Armenian husband, demonstrating my ability to read Norwegian, wandering around as Harry Potter (and snapping my wand), enduring three solid days of thunder storms and realising that I really, really didn't want to leave. Yup, I really didn’t. I could have found myself a flat with a twelve month lease, settled in and found a job (if it weren't for doing that pesky useless degree…) and never ever have come home to grey, wet, cold, miserable, austerity ridden, depressing and unexciting England. Unfortunately for you lot it seems I’ll need that Masters in the end, and having met people who have studied the same thing as I’m hoping to it has only made me more excited to do so. But it’ll be a year in London and then Beirut is calling. Put the coffee on and put the hummus in the fridge because habibti, I’m coming back.
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| Beirut's goodbye on my last day. |
Anyway, because of my lack of update, I’m going to retroactively update on some of the things I managed to get up to outside of the city and a couple of best bits of Beirut for anyone who comes here in the future (n.b. YOU ALL SHOULD!) including the best watering holes and food troughs. Those to follow in coming days, I absolutely promise. But for now, it’s goodbye. My fingers hurt and I’m drinking cold Costa coffee (universally awful the world over) and a little bit of Dubai overindulgence is waiting. I miss you all very much (if not the locale). Next stop is a brief visit to a rather chilly Turkey at the beginning of December and this is an official invitation to all those who have stuck with reading this (and all those that didn't that I WILL BE IN ISTANBUL FROM DECEMBER THE 5TH AND I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACES.
Yallah Bye,
Gx.
