Drama Queens (and Kings)

If anyone knows a Mexican, they know they will have a share of the most delicious drama. Man... us Mexicans, we love drama. We are experts, masters, no, artists in the field of drama. And the juicier, more intriguing and sentimental we can make it, the better.

Also we have very artistic and elaborate ways to express our passion for drama. Drama ranges from fist fights in bars, jealousy between couples, rolling with pain on the field during a soccer match, shouting like crazies during our independence day... But man, our music really portrays it. And the best example for this is Mariachi.

I mean... there is nothing like Mariachi. To express love, a heartbreak or just plain disappointment in life. Mariachi during weddings, during quince anios, during farewell parties... Or for serenades, when our loved one needs reassurance of our absolute devotion to her/him.

Mariachi is something like our national sport, and also our national addiction. Hey, who has not sobbed when drunk at some sad Mariachi tune?

Mientras yo estoy dormido 
Sueño que vamos los dos muy juntos 
A un cielo azul.
Pero cuando despierto 
El cielo es rojo, me faltas tú.

(click on the link to see one of our jewels of drama, Lucero, singing this one)

While I am asleep,

I dream that we are walking, very close

Towards the blue sky.

But when I wake up,

The sky is red, I miss you...

I mean how can you not cry, and cut your veins in the process?

Well, I have found an equally dramatic obsessions among my dear Lebanese... Oh man. Lebanese love to relish in drama, as much as we do! And the most exquisite expression of drama is the unmatchable... Fairuz*. I recently was translating one of her tunes during my Arabic class... I felt at home, goose pumps and all. I think I have found my drama "fix" in Lebanon. Look at her, she is brilliantly dramatic!

I loved you in the summer, I loved you in the winter

I waited for you in the summer, I waited for you in the winter

Your eyes are summer, my eyes are rain

Our meeting is left behind the summer and the winter

Some similarities between the two, you think? I'm telling you, I feel at home!

*For all those Lebanese reading this, please do not see this as diminishing Fairuz. How could I? She is the "Ambassador to the Stars" after all.

Smoking in Beirut

One of the things that always strikes me when I go to Mexico is how much people smoke. Smoking is very much a social exercise, that yes, is very bad for your health, but nevertheless an ever present element in any kind (yes, even family meals) of Mexican social life.

Lebanon is pretty much the same. People smoke everywhere, all the time. Sometimes I wish that there were some bans to smoking indoors and public places-as there surprisingly are in Mexico. My clothes haven't smelled like smoke so bad after going to a bar since I was 16.

But something that we don't have in Mexico that much are arghuilehs. Arghuiles, Narguilehs (or Nargeela in Arabic), Shishas, or Hookahs are these incredible devices, otherwise known as water pipes, that are used pretty much by everybody in Lebanon. You see students and old people, men and women, rich and poor "drinking" arguileh (they don't call it smoking arghuileh, but drinking it) for hours and hours while chatting or playing backgammon.

Arghuilehs were introduced in the 15th century by the Ottomans (however, it's origins are apparently Indian), and it is used traditionally in many places in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and has become trendy recently in other places in the world. I know that in Mexico a friend opened a small bar back in 2002 called "Hookah Lounge" and it is now extremely successful.

In Lebanon, arguilehs are usually made of glass and some are very simple looking, while others extremely elaborate with pompons on the pipe and all. And you can buy little ones, in a box to offer as a gift, or with a "to go" kit, so you can bring your pipe with you, wherever you go. As a matter of fact, I was snowshoeing with some friends last weekend, and on the top of the mountain, two guys were drinking arguileh sitting on plastic chairs!

I think the only problem with arguileh is it's deceivingly healthy smell. I mean, the thing tastes like "grapes" or "green apple". And the smoke that comes out of it smells really nice. And the smoke goes through water... But the reality is that drinking one is the equivalent of smoking one pack of cigarettes... Ouch.

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Hiking away

Here I am once again (like in the song), trying to convey the awesomeness of Lebanon.

If you get a bit bored of the traffic and urban life in Beirut, and going skiing is definitely not an option if you don't want to spend 3 hours seating in traffic, you always have the choice of going hiking.

Yes Lebanon, or Lubnan as you would pronounce it in Lebanese Arabic, comes from the word "lbn" which means "white", a reference to the snow-capped mountains. There are lots of hikes you can do in Lebanon, and this weekend was the first time I went on an organized trip to do one with some friends.

We used Lebtreck , a good company to book some day trips leaving from Beirut to discover Lebanon. I heard that Cyclamen is a good company too, but I have personally not travelled with them.

So the day starts early on Sunday (maybe a deterrent for some), and the first stop is a small shop where you get a Manoushe (best food evaaaaa) before starting your hike. Then you travel on a very, very, very, very (OK, did I convey my discomfort?) narrow road in the mountain till you reach 1000 m of altitude.

As we arrived to the mountain near Jbeil (sorry, I forgot the name) , we discovered, just like that, without any notice, some Greek ruins! I don't know about you, but I personally don't associate Lebanon with Greece. Well, I guess it's time for me to review my history books, since they were here, no doubt about it:

We kept walking and came across some water falls that had muddy water, which at some points looked red. The legend says that the river, called Nahr Ibrahim, turns red because of Adonis' blood, who was killed by a wild boar.

Adonis was in love with Aphrodite/Venus, and there was some pretty cool drama going on there, so I recommend the story. An interesting fact is that Beirut was named after their daughter, Berytos.

After walking for 3 hours, in the mountain, we were all satisfied with the amazing sightseeing, the fresh air, and also our workout (hey, it wasn't easy, believe me, especially not for a city girl like me!).

To close, we had a late lunch at a family's house in a village in the mountain who, for about 10 bucks, cooked for us an amazing meal of rice with chicken (djej w roz), Fatoush (awesome salad with pitta bread), hummus (the real deal), little sausages, and loads of fruit. Knock your socks strong coffee was of course the perfect concluding step to an awesome meal and weekend.

Beauty in chaos

The term "Cultural activities" engulfs such a vast array of things, that it will take me a long time to describe everything I have seen since I've got here. I mean, culture is composed of the arts, customs, and traditions of a place, and Lebanon is so rich...

I am going to highlight some of my favorite things for starters. This is not an exhaustive list, since a) I have only been here for 6 months, and there are still loads of things to discover and b) many would argue with me that what I am depicting here falls into other categories, such as recreational or entertainment. So please take this as the anecdote of an individual's experience of the "cultural scene" in Lebanon.

I must say that the more I live here, the more I am amazed by the Lebanese refinement, especially in terms of everything that has to do with design. The first thing that caught my eye was interior design. I don't know about you, but I had never seen, in any country in the world, such attention to detail. There are some restaurants where the decor, the plates, and even the waiters outfits match the design of the walls and furniture.

Some examples of places that I personally like a lot from an interior design point of view are the following:

Basma

Source: http://www.beirutnightlife.com/

Cafe Blanc

Source: http://lebrestos.com/Gallery-View

Museums in this area are quite cool too. I mean you can go to places like Byblos or Baalbek that are literally open air museum, with fantastic Roman ruins. However, the National Museum is this gorgeous little hidden jewel near where I live.

It is not very big, but some of the pieces exhibited there are worth the trip. Some pieces come directly from sites such Byblos, and the variety of artifacts you find in it - from the Roman, Byzantine or Arab conquest periods - give you a sense of the richness of Lebanon's history.

Source: http://www.beirutnationalmuseum.com/e-collection-bronze.htm

A place that I have been meaning to visit but haven't, is the Sursock Museum in Achrafieh. I think they specialize in modern art. But what really calls me is the building itself:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sursock_house.jpg

Which brings me to another topic: architecture. I have seen some gorgeous buildings around here, including, yes, night clubs. Look at my previous posting on Beirut's nightlife to see some very cool clubs, built by the likes of Bernard Khoury, among others.

And something worth noting is the number of Film Festivals in Beirut. I have been to at least 4 of them in the past 6 months, including a German/Russian festival, a Latin American Film Festival and one that had to do with Human Rights recently. A film that I was particularly moved by was the documentary "12 Angry Lebanese" based on the American film "12 Angry Men". The movie is very powerful; it shows the life of 12 Lebanese men who are in prison. The film's musical score was composed by the inmates themselves and is beautiful.

Why did I call my blog post "Beauty in chaos"? I guess that in the midst of political tensions, lots of anxiety, and Beirut's traffic jams, I wanted to remind myself of the beauty this place has to offer. It is very very beautiful. Ktir Helou, as they say here. And I also wanted to remind myself of the beautiful things humans can create instead of focusing on all the harm we can do.

Being afraid is a very bad habit

I am sure most of you have read something about the political situation in Lebanon. From a governance, historical, political, and social point of view, what we are witnessing in Lebanon is just reaching levels of complexity that few fully understand.

But I am not here to do a situation analysis. The environment in the streets is tense for sure. There are tanks in the corners of the streets, we get security briefings at the office, friends and family send e-mails to check (rightfully so, after reading the news) if we are safe.

We are safe. We are safe. We are safe.

But what is this concept, being safe? What does it mean?

Most of us have it that being safe is a result of circumstances. We are little kids in a confined privileged bubble, where no one can harm us. And we pray no one will come and shatter our safety illusion. Yes, safety is an illusion. Safety is nothing more than a simple illusion of control over our environment, and a way of separating ourselves from others who are "unsafe".
Just ask yourself: Do you feel safe among people who look like you, and unsafe among people who don't? Do you feel safe in familiar environments and unsafe in new territories?

You could argue "But everyone is saying Lebanon (or Mexico for that matter) is unsafe". How can I feel safe in a place where everyone thinks is unsafe?
Well, we can choose to be safe. We can hear all the rumors, gossip and feel the fear and still make a conscious choice of being safe. It is a choice.

The easiest thing we can do right now is being afraid. It is so easy to be afraid. And it is also very easy to be controlled when we are afraid. Do we want to be agents of fear in this world or agents of peace? Because as I can choose to be safe, I can also choose to be peaceful. I can quit that bad habit on mine, of being afraid of others. I can just choose to be OK.

What is this situation in Lebanon, in Mexico, in Tunisia, in Iraq, or in Afghanistan other that one group being afraid of another group?

By the way, I am not minimizing the ability of one person to harm another one. I am not either advocating for putting ourselves in harm's way. I am just saying, let us think clearly, with our eyes open, our feet on the ground, our brain alert, our heart open. This is no time in the world to be afraid and isolated in a cocoon of safety. This is no time to go to our corner and hope that someone "in power" will make it OK.

With our individual actions, we can do something in our everyday lives that will contribute to world's peace. We can smile, be kind, be tolerant, be humble, be willing to learn, be willing to talk to someone who makes us uncomfortable or angry, be willing to give up our right to be right.

I invite us all to take action. A loving, fun or kind action. In Lebanon, in Mexico, in Iraq, everywhere. And to make a resolution of quitting our fear habit. Being afraid is a terrible habit. Why don't we just get used to be safe and peaceful instead? Let's do it everyday, especially today.

Lebanese Top Cat

I know that everyone must be waiting for a political analysis of what is going on in Lebanon right now. I am sorry to disappoint you, but I do too much of that at work. Today, as I was wondering what to write on my blog, a kitten crossed my path with a French fry on his mouth. It was a sign (and the cutest thing I have seen)! So today’s topic is: Beirut’s cats.

You know how some cities are full of street dogs? Not here. Beirut is full of street cats.
As a matter of fact, in the corner of our house, there are a 3 or 4 green dumpsters where a bunch of cats live in. It’s something like the Lebanese version of Top Cat, that cartoon from the late 70s. In Mexico, we had a far better name for that show, “Don Gato y Su Pandilla”, and it was my absolute favorite.

I have taken upon myself the task of giving names to these cats, since they are - after all- our neighbors and deserve all our respect. So there’s Moustache (a cat with a little black line under his nose), the Blondies (a yellow cat and her 3 kittens), Cinnamon Roll (another yellow/brown cat with crazy circular lines, probably the father), Crasher (a black cat that sleeps inside of our building) and the grey cat that has no name (and whom we thought was a house cat and used to pet him, until we realized that we couldn’t see the dumpster dirt on him because he is grey).

They are pretty good neighbors, since they take care of mice and mind their own business. However, at some point they can be very loud, when they fight or when they, hum, fight in a different way, so then it gets pretty annoying.

The American University of Beirut, or AUB as it is known here, hosts a LOT of cats. It’s actually pretty cool, you have this awesome campus, with wonderful gardens, a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea, and loads of lazy cats. They live on campus and make you understand that they were there first. If you want to sit on a bench and there is a cat there already, you can forget it, it won’t move. As a matter of fact AUB launched recently a 2011 calendar to raise awareness and support the welfare of campus’ cats. Very cool.

We usually don’t think of animals as victims of war. But after the war in Lebanon, there were several efforts to take care of street and abandoned animals. One worth mentioning was an initiative in 2006 to send close to 300 cats and dogs for treatment and adoption to the US.
There are sadder chapters on this topic, and barbarism towards animals is still present in Lebanon. However, there are several agencies that take care and advocate for animals as well.

I personally think the cats in my streets are the cutest thing. I can't keep a straight face when I walk pass them and they are fighting to death with a plastic bag. I just wish I could take them all home with me...

It's electrifying!!!

I remember back in the 80s when I lived in Mexico City, power would sometimes be out for a couple of hours when there were bad thunderstorms. I have actually great memories of those days when at home we would take the candles out, and play cards with my Grandma and Mum until the power came back. Nowadays this is fairly uncommon though.

In Lebanon, however, power cuts are an everyday occurrence. And they are actually quite organized. Each day, power is out for 3 hours, scheduled ahead of time, and the time of the cut varies everyday. As a matter of fact, I have a neat excel spreadsheet on my fridge that tells me everyday from when to when I can't count on having electricity at home. And for those 3 hours, when the power is out, people buy the services of a generator that kicks in as the power goes out and lasts for the time when there's no electricity.

The problem is that when the generator is on, you can't operate as if you had electricity at full capacity. You have to be careful not to blow a fuse by, for instance, drying your hair while having the AC on, or having the TV, the toaster and the iron on at the same time. And you have electricity in you apartment, but when you live in the 6th floor and the elevator is out, you really don't want to get to your place with bags full of groceries...

We have a friend who is a professional who depends on electricity for a living, so he has a generator for his generator in case the first one goes out!

But not everything is lost... With some Lebanese creativity, like in this photo, it is possible to get electricity from somewhere else...

Can you imagine being an electrician and trying to figure this one out?

What I have heard is that in Beirut you loose 3 hours of electricity but in other places in Lebanon the power goes out for much longer periods of time.

So from time to time, we hear on the news that groups of people burn tires on the roads to protest the lack of electrical power in their villages.

At a party last night someone was talking about a 4 year plan that Lebanese Cabinet approved last year to boost the electric capacity of the country, and to supply a more sustainable service. However, the different groups in government haven't agreed on the plan's implementation, so it is likely to be delayed...

Playing cards at candlelight can be fun when you are a kid... But having no electricty everyday can really be a nuisance at best and a business hinderance at worst. Let's really hope that this plan gets implemented, for the benefit of everyone in Lebanon.