Beirut Report IV

This year marked only the third time in my life that I've been overseas on the Fourth of July. There isn't much to say about it - all the Americans wished each other a happy 4th, exchanged knowing looks, and went back to class. Classes here start at 8:00am and run until noon. My class - Low Intermediate - has two teachers, who share the time. The first half of class is spent going over the lessons and vocabulary with Rima, a Lebanese graduate student. We then have a half-hour break, which I'm on right now, and return to do application, exercises, and stuff with the more laid-back Mazin, also a grad student.

Sadly to say, the "pledge" to speak only Arabic by the students was not well executed. In a sense it was too rigid; there's no way we could have communicated in Arabic beyond "street talk", and I think it might have worked better if we had been allowed to speak English after 6:00pm, for instance. As it is, students generally lapse into English very quickly, and all relaxed evening chatter is in English. I'm trying to have some conversations in Arabic, especially with the students who are more comfortable with the language. When I visit my family in the mountains again this Sunday, I plan to ask for Arabic-only, since most of what I'd talk about there is fairly simple, and there I'll be the only non-native Arabic speaker, so it'll be a much easier environment to maintain Arabic-only.

I'm going to try and take a nap after class today to prepare for the big party tonight. Graduation for A.U.B. undergrads is this evening, and after that there's a big open-bar, all-you-can-eat beach bash at a resort near Sidon. Most of our group is going, so it should be a good time. And no, I won't be getting drunk, though I am legal to drink here.

Tomorrow we have our first field trip - we're going to the Chouf area, to see small towns and ancient ruins. Our colorful colloquial teacher, Wafaa', will be leading the trip, since it's near her hometown. After that, I plan to spend Sunday with my family. I'll have more on all that after the weekend.

My sympathies with all my Bostonian friends - it's been hotter in Boston than in Beirut the past few days! Here every day is like the last 30 Centigrade, 75% humidity, water temperature is 27 C, and there's always a breeze off the water. Hot weather, but not unbearable given AC and cold showers.

Ok, I've got to finish up and get back to class... ma' salaameh!