Perched on campus

Here I am, safe and sound! Sorry it took me so long to get online. The internet situation here is a little complicated, especially since they claim not to support Macs. There is a free wireless connection available, but those of us with Macs haven't succeeded in connecting yet.

I had great seatmates on all my flights. Amin from Jordan was next to me on the way from Chicago to Amman, and a man from Tunis sat next to me on the short flight to Beirut, and asked me to be a penpal for his daughters!

The AUB campus is lush and populated with plenty of cats. Yesterday (the first day), one came and sat on my lap while I was resting on a bench. I had to rest because the school is built on a hill, with my dorm at the bottom and all the other buildings at the top. The bench was on a crenellated outcropping on top of a mini-cliff. Yes, I am getting more than my fair share of exercise.

Beirut, at least the part I am in, is much different than I expected. I thought it would be flat and spacious, but it is all on large or small hills, and the streets are quite narrow. It's as if the city had been on a piece of cloth and someone had rumpled it up to fit it in the space available. It has a kind of medieval look because of the narrowness, even though most of the buildings are concrete multi-stories.

It's hard to grasp that this area has been the scene of so much violence, even though I saw buildings that had been bombed and not repaired yet. I've never been in a former war zone before. It all seems calm now!

Yesterday night I went out with my suite-mate, Romi, to meet with some of her friends from last summer and watch the Brazil-Ghana World Cup game. Then we went to eat something; then we went to another place (filled with smoke and excited people) to watch the France-Spain game. It was fun, but the smoke was not so great. This is Romi with Alaa', a very nice guy who will be going to Baghdad sometime soon to keep up with the news, since he works for Reuters. I would never have guessed.

Today we had an orientation and placement test. I was exhausted, because I woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. I drank some coffee and felt worse; then took the 3-hour test (grueling) and had an interview. Finally I got some rest.

Most people are understanding my attemps at colloquial Arabic, but I can hardly understand what they say to me, so it's hard to carry on a conversation. I guess they are not used to speaking slowly. Also, they're happy I'm speaking Lebanese, but often answer me in English, which obviously doesn't improve my listening skills. Looking forward to those classes, starting tomorrow! I'll find out in the morning which one I'm in.

Blessings on all of you!