Showing posts with label Photo-A-Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photo-A-Day. Show all posts
Day 27: Listening To
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Arab theater class at LAU. Our teacher is an actress here in Beirut, and she also participates in something called drama therapy which is used in prisons and psychiatric hospitals. Today we watched a documentary called "12 Angry Lebanese", which is about the making of the first drama therapy play performed by inmates here in Lebanon. While we listened to the documentary in Lebanese Arabic, we were able to follow along with English subtitles. I highly recommend it if you are interested in theater, therapy, or prisons. You can watch the trailer here.
Day 25: People
Went to a great new restaurant today, and the servers were really nice and fun. They posed for a picture for me (in their fun uniforms):
Day 24: Weather
It's just starting to get chilly here in Lebanon, and by chilly, I mean lower 70s, and you can wear a cardigan at night. It's nice to be able to layer. Not looking forward to rainy season officially starting though.
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| Clear skies for now. |
Day 23: The View
So, I'm breaking from the photo-a-day mold, but I just have so much to tell you about. I'm going to give you a bird's eye view of my Thanksgiving Extravaganza. Two full days of Thanksgiving! Here we go...
10:30am: Nicole, Hudson and Elam come by, and we head to Krispy Kreme.
Thursday, November 22nd:
10:00 am: Wake up. Slept in. Win!10:30am: Nicole, Hudson and Elam come by, and we head to Krispy Kreme.
Day 22: In My Town
The big hullabaloo in America today is over Thanksgiving, but my Lebanese friends are celebrating their Independence Day. It's nice because it's a holiday for everyone, even though we're celebrating different things. Happy Independence Day to my Lebanese friends!
Day 21: Calm
AUB's campus was pretty empty today because it's Independence Day here, so I wandered around and took in my favorite spots, like these benches, which are never empty! Sometimes it's just nice to be out and about in the city without the crowd.
Day 20: 4 O'Clock
Today at 4 O'clock I was walking through the city, carrying these flowers, with a big smile on my face. They are a gift for some Lebanese friends who invited me and some Americans over to their home tomorrow so we could celebrate Thanksgiving in an actual home. They are even making us a big ol' turkey. I wanted to get them something "fallish" (a season they don't have here). I think these are so beautiful! Good job flower shop guy.
Day 19: Letters
So, clearly I'm running a couple of days behind here. Sorry!
To make up, I'm going to post 2-a-day for 2 days. Here's day 19: Letters.
Being a big city and all, Beirut has graffiti. What makes it fun for me is that it is often in Arabic, which just adds some pizzazz. I can't read this whole thing, but from what I can tell it's the letters for ghraafeetee _____, so it's graffiti something, in Arabic, in graffiti!
To make up, I'm going to post 2-a-day for 2 days. Here's day 19: Letters.
Being a big city and all, Beirut has graffiti. What makes it fun for me is that it is often in Arabic, which just adds some pizzazz. I can't read this whole thing, but from what I can tell it's the letters for ghraafeetee _____, so it's graffiti something, in Arabic, in graffiti!
Day 17: Fruit
...and vegetables. One of the great things about Beirut is the produce stands (dekene) on every corner. They have a great selection and they're cheap. This morning I went down to my corner stand and bought 1 green pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 big head of romaine lettuce, 1 big o' bunch of cilantro, some cucumbers, a bunch of bananas, and 1 red onion for $2.33. It's so sprawled out I couldn't get everything in one picture, but someday I'll do a whole blog post on it for you. Until then, sahtein!
Day 15: Dinnertime
I ate bottomless mini-burger baskets for dinner tonight at a place called Bob's, but as intriguing as that is, I thought I'd show a pic of last night's dinner instead. Farah's mom cooked, and it was uh-maze-ing, and we got a big bag of leftovers sent home with us to boot.
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| Grape Leaves, Potatos with kuzbara (cilantro), tabouli, sambosas, kibbeh, hummus, and a Palestian meat and onion dish with a Lebanese twist. All homemade! Yum! |
Day 14: Makes Me Laugh
Tonight some of my roommates and I went to our friend Farah's house for dinner. Her mom cooked and amazing Lebanese meal, and we sat around and laughed about how poorly we say things in Arabic. It. Was. Awesome. Thanks for having us Farah!
Day 13: Landscape
The city offers more in the way of cityscapes than landscapes, and if you wait until night to get a "landscape" shot for your blog, you might get something likes this. The lights are still up from Adha, so I hope you enjoy Hamra Street tonight!
Day 11: Something Up Close
Unfortuantely, there was no internet last night due to a massive thunderstorm, so today I'll have to double dip on the photo-a-day.
The conversation that led to this photo went something like this:
Me: "Today is my 100th post. I'm supposed to do something up close for my photo. And I ran a 10K. How do I capture all of that?"
Kim (roomie): "I have no idea."
Me: "I could paint it. On my face."
Kim: "Yes! I'll help!"
Me: "This is weird. Let's do it."
Day 10: Emotion
Last night and this morning I made some crafts for my wall. They are a little nod to each city I've lived in. Today's photo-a-day topic is "emotion," and these represent a certain odd combination of emotions I've been experiencing lately.
Sometimes when I'm traipsing around Beirut, I stop and realize I'm not in American anymore. Odd as it sounds, some days I forget I'm in Lebanon. Before you worry that I'm careless and hopelessly unaware, I don't mean that I literally think I'm in America. I just forget I'm not in my own country, not "home." I've adjusted, and Lebanon has become my new normal.
I felt it coming on about 2 weeks in. One night I was brushing my teeth and realized that I was in a 'eap of trouble: I was starting to love it here. I have this obnoxious tendency to love everywhere I am. So, every time I go somewhere new I add another place to the ill-fated list of places and people loved and left behind. People are a little easier than places. With Skype and Facebook and Whatsapp, I'm still very socially(ish) connected.
All the more reason to love being in Lebanon, right? I literally feel like I'm starting to lose my English, and very poorly-understood Arabic words are flooding my head. I can now tell you about classic Arab instruments and songs, perform a stage-version of the debke (the Lebanese national dance), and even cook a few traditional Lebanese foods. I can order a taxi, arrange a trip, brief you on Lebanese politics, and refill the propane tank for our stove. I have favorite places now, and not just restaurants. Even more significantly, I'm starting to recognize people while I'm out and about. "Oh look, there's so and so. Let's go say hi." Aye, aye, aye. When I leave here, I'll miss it all. And I'll know what that feels like, because I already feel that way about several places.
I miss Columbia, where I lived with one of my best friends in a quirky, adventurous, and craft-filled house. I was 1 minute from my church, 2 minutes from my bank, 3 minutes from my grocery store, 4 minutes from Moe's, 5 minutes from my gym, 10 minutes from Chick-fila and Target, l5 minutes from my best friend and about a dozen more amigas, and 0 minutes from my dog. Even if I move back to Columbia in July, I know I'll never get that life back. The people may still be there (also the dog.), so the most valuable parts don't fade away, but it was a sweet time, and I was content. It was bittersweet to go.
Heraclitus said, "You cannot step into the same river twice" (or some version of that), just as I can't go back to being a kid on the family farm in WV. I can't stop by my grandmas whenever I like. Now I have to pick up the phone and call. How are we supposed to play Rummy that way!? My mom, aunt, and cousins don't all live next door to each other. On an average day, I can't look out my window and see a 4-wheeler go by with about 5 of my 2nd cousins hanging off of it. I can't go for a run and smell the crisp farm air with cattle lowing in the background, and then go and ruin the whole workout by pounding down an entire order of douby douby bread from Angelo's. I'm mean here in Beirut I have to do that with crepes...
You see what I mean? I love where I was. I love where I am now, and most of the places in between. With each season there comes the wonder of the new, and the wistfulness of the old. These simple 12x12 canvases are nostalgic, but also telling; a little bit of my heart is in each of these places.
I'm sure the point of a photo-a-day topic about emotion is to show a photo that captures the emotion, and here I've done gone and done it with a few hundred words. I'll try to do better tomorrow, when I aim to have an impressive "Something Close-Up" photo that both captures the experience of me running a 10k in the Beirut and celebrates my 100th blog post. Pins and needles, I know.
I felt it coming on about 2 weeks in. One night I was brushing my teeth and realized that I was in a 'eap of trouble: I was starting to love it here. I have this obnoxious tendency to love everywhere I am. So, every time I go somewhere new I add another place to the ill-fated list of places and people loved and left behind. People are a little easier than places. With Skype and Facebook and Whatsapp, I'm still very socially(ish) connected.
All the more reason to love being in Lebanon, right? I literally feel like I'm starting to lose my English, and very poorly-understood Arabic words are flooding my head. I can now tell you about classic Arab instruments and songs, perform a stage-version of the debke (the Lebanese national dance), and even cook a few traditional Lebanese foods. I can order a taxi, arrange a trip, brief you on Lebanese politics, and refill the propane tank for our stove. I have favorite places now, and not just restaurants. Even more significantly, I'm starting to recognize people while I'm out and about. "Oh look, there's so and so. Let's go say hi." Aye, aye, aye. When I leave here, I'll miss it all. And I'll know what that feels like, because I already feel that way about several places.
I miss Columbia, where I lived with one of my best friends in a quirky, adventurous, and craft-filled house. I was 1 minute from my church, 2 minutes from my bank, 3 minutes from my grocery store, 4 minutes from Moe's, 5 minutes from my gym, 10 minutes from Chick-fila and Target, l5 minutes from my best friend and about a dozen more amigas, and 0 minutes from my dog. Even if I move back to Columbia in July, I know I'll never get that life back. The people may still be there (also the dog.), so the most valuable parts don't fade away, but it was a sweet time, and I was content. It was bittersweet to go.
Heraclitus said, "You cannot step into the same river twice" (or some version of that), just as I can't go back to being a kid on the family farm in WV. I can't stop by my grandmas whenever I like. Now I have to pick up the phone and call. How are we supposed to play Rummy that way!? My mom, aunt, and cousins don't all live next door to each other. On an average day, I can't look out my window and see a 4-wheeler go by with about 5 of my 2nd cousins hanging off of it. I can't go for a run and smell the crisp farm air with cattle lowing in the background, and then go and ruin the whole workout by pounding down an entire order of douby douby bread from Angelo's. I'm mean here in Beirut I have to do that with crepes...
You see what I mean? I love where I was. I love where I am now, and most of the places in between. With each season there comes the wonder of the new, and the wistfulness of the old. These simple 12x12 canvases are nostalgic, but also telling; a little bit of my heart is in each of these places.
I'm sure the point of a photo-a-day topic about emotion is to show a photo that captures the emotion, and here I've done gone and done it with a few hundred words. I'll try to do better tomorrow, when I aim to have an impressive "Something Close-Up" photo that both captures the experience of me running a 10k in the Beirut and celebrates my 100th blog post. Pins and needles, I know.
Day 9: Red
Rainy season started today.
P.S. I really don't like red, so red flowers on my umbrella are about as red as I'll get.
Day 8: Angle
Tonight some friends and I visited Harissa (I first went there during the summer of 2011). It had a much different feel than other times I've been (like on the night of my birthday). It was less touristy and more reverent. There were many prayer candles lit, and I thought these were so beautiful. They're not all perfectly straight, but I think their casual angles makes them seem imperfect, messy, and earnest, which is such a fitting representation of prayer.
Day 7: Light
I'm totally going to take this post in a different direction than you might expect. First, Lebanon is hot. I know there is snow in the US, but we are still wearing tank tops here. All this heat has changed something in me that I never thought could be changed: I have become a light eater. I'm the girl who loves burgers for breakfast, who ate chili dogs during halftime at my high school soccer games... Confession: I sometimes crave hot wings when I'm nauseous to "calm my stomach." I have a stomach of iron. But here, sometimes I'm just too hot to eat, let alone eat anything heavy. There are days when I even eat meals without meat. Unfathomable! In the wake of this sudden change in my dietary habits, I've found a new go-to meal. I present to you the very light, but tasty and filling, Pasta Chicken Salad from Universal Snack. Their menu describes is as "chicken, pasta, corn, green pepper, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, boiled eggs." It is delightful. Sorry this isn't the greatest picture; these are leftovers from my fridge. Grace please!
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