Category Archives: Home and Abroad

Home and Abroad

beirut continued

I’ve been so bad at updating this blog. But, now I’m going to give you an update. First of all: Beirut in bullet points.

Water: Here, at least in my apartment, water doesn’t just come as one may be used to. There is a indicator on the wall of the water level, and when it’s low, you have to call a water tank that comes and refills the water tank through the window. Smooth and easy, huh?

The traffic: The traffic in Beirut is, with Swedish eyes, chaotic. Compared to Cairo it’s a summer breeze. You cross the street when you want to, eye contact is the key. U-turns? No problem. Traffic jams (zahme). Yes, certainly. Also, there is no public transport system, at least not one that’s functioning properly. Beirut is actually the first city ever where I’ve wished I had a car. In Cairo, the taxis are so cheap that it doesn’t matter, but here, no. I want a car. However, if you take a service it can be fairly reasonable price-wise. For 2 000 lebanese pounds ($1,3), you can get to a place in the same area. If you pay serviceen, i.e. 4 000, you’ll get practically anywhere in the city proper. A service is simply a taxi car that picks up more passengers along the way depending on where they want to go.

Electricity: In my house, we have electricity most of the time, except from 3 hours per day on a rotating schedule. Also, something that is both charming, quite dangerous and scary is that there are electric chords hanging down from houses onto the pavements practically everywhere.

Language: In my area, which is a predominantly christian area with a big French influence, you hear Arabic and French mixed in a wonderful melting pot. Personally I like the mix. For instance, a common encounter in a shop at night would not be “Masaa’ ilxeer, hadritik/-ak” as one would talk in for instance in Cairo or in more Arabic parts of Lebanon for that matter. No, here, the right way to go is to say “Bonsoir, madame/monsieur”, but with an Arabic accent, of course. In general though, you also hear a lot of English as well. Depending on background and education, Lebanese people themselves also talk English or French with each other, to various extents. On the whole though, Arabic dominates.

The nightlife: Lebanese people love to party. There are bars, pubs and clubs everywhere. Something that surprised me though, is that there are basically no clubs with proper dancefloors, that’s just not how you party here. No, instead you book a table with your friends, spend the night there and dance around your table. I find it nice, but personally, I miss the dancefloors.

The weather: I think it’s a lot hotter than usual at the moment, but it’s October and it’s like 27°C! Earlier this week it was 36. Sometimes though the weather can go crazy. One time, there was a big-ass thunderstorm accompanied by hailing and heavy raining. To be fair, quite exciting.

In general though, I’m living, breathing, going to yoga, going to school. I study at this nice little institute where I’m acquainting myself with Lebanese Arabic. I will get you some pictures soon when I have access to a faster internet.

Love

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Home and Abroad

بيروت ١

I’ve just arrived in Beirut. Well, actually, I’ve been here for a bit more than 12 hours now. I’m going to take everything from the beginning. So, I went from Gothenburg via Budabest to Beirut. The flight was fairly pleasant, between Budapest and Beirut I actually had a whole row for myself. Quite okey I suppose. Now, one thing I don’t get (sorry) is why every flight I board towards the Middle East is like a minor kindergarden. I mean, you would always see a kid every now and then on flights in general. However, this was insane. The row behind me and the one in front of me were both empty, and they were quite soon occupied by two kids. Now, these kids thought it was extremely funny to sit and jump on the chairs in addition to making a small disco with the lamps. Yes, they do light up if you press the button. Do I have to say that their mother just looked in a very weird manner towards me? Flights free from kids, now, please.

Okey, anyhow. I arrived in Beirut, everything went smoothly. The taxi was there, waiting for “Cebastian“. Now, on the way to my apartment at 3.30 A.M., my taxi driver and I are talking about Sweden, Arabic, Beirut, you know, the normal stuff. Suddenly, he starts talking about how beautiful noses we Swedes have. Then he asked me if my nose was natural or not. I could not help but to laugh. The picture below might give an indication of the obsession towards these things here. I mean, Facebook, 12 hours!? Come on…

So, I woke up at around 10 today (I live by a construction site), talked to my landlord, made up plans and talked to the neighbours, which was all very nice. I then went down to the city (well, I live really central, but anyway). I had to go to the university and I also wanted to check out the city. The university is really cool, just what I hoped it would be. I’ll attach some pictures of the city which I took today.

Actually, I’m not going to upload more pictures. It takes ages, and we have some sort of limited internet. I did some grocery shopping too. 55,000 pounds, quite ok. Actually, when I was walking in the store everything just went pitch black, and no one seemed to care, haha. I’ll update more along the road.

Love

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English, Home and Abroad

ventilation

I thought I should write something again. Really, I haven’t posted something proper in like a year or something like that. This year has been crazy, full of arabic verbs and conjugations. I managed to survive though. This year has also made me miss English, more than ever. I think I am as Swedish now as I will ever be in the next 10 years. Well, close enough.

At the moment, I am back home, doing nothing, just because I can. Every time I step outside of my door, it feels slightly unreal. I mean, 3 years ago, I lived here permanently. These years have passed by so quickly, yet, it sometimes feels like it was yesterday, especially when you go back home.

So, this Sunday, I’m going to Gothenburg to meet up with Sofi, who’s there with her big-ass boat. Later, I’m meeting up with Amanda (finally!), and doing a sleep-over at Diana’s, who I haven’t met in pretty much one year. And… on Monday, I’m off to London where I’m going to stay for 12 days. So many people to meet, so much time to compensate for, so much love.

The most exciting thing I have to tell you about is actually that I move to Lebanon in like 20 days, actually, less than 20. That is exciting. I will tell you more along the way. Right now, it feels quite okey just sitting here, relaxing, not doing much. Somehow, I suppose it’s okey.

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Home and Abroad

مصر

Just have to tell you wonderful people about my absolutely fabulous trip to Egypt. It was simply so realxing and soothing as one would like it to be. After some hectic, yet nice days in Cairo, we took the somewhat shaky and slow train to Alexandria and the beach. You know, it’s such a different world in that country. The traffic, the buildings, the highways, the smog. It’s all very big, very crowded and very loud. Somehow, I love it.

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