While I sincerely hope my (two, maybe three?) readers enjoy my blog, I thought I would take a moment to explain what I am doing in Lebanon, because despite the fact that it may seem I spend most of my life watching the World Cup or travelling, I'm actually here for school.
Or some form of it. I am a student at the Lebanese American University's Summer Institute for Intensive Arabic Language and Culture (SINARC), which means that from 8 am - 12:30 everyday I'm in class. I have an hour of Lebanese dialect in the morning, and the rest of my time is spent learning MSA (Modern Standard Arabic, or the form of Arabic you will only find in the newspaper or on the news). Besides classes, the program also plans a number of trips all over the country so that we learn about more than just Arabic grammar during our time in Lebanon.
The question I'm asked a lot about coming to Lebanon is if it's safe. Most of the time, it's not really a question as much as it is an exclamation that I'm crazy for traveling here. There's no question that the Middle East is volatile, and you don't have to look far into the past to find violent conflict in Beirut and Lebanon as a whole. And then there's a little group called Hezbollah. But for the most part, people here are 'live and let live' types, they've seen too much conflict and know that the price they pay is far too high.
My program accommodates for this potential volatility in mundane ways. For example, we have a test every Friday. And that's not because the chose this structure, but so that every Monday a grade is entered on the books and in case we all have to leave Lebanon very quickly, we can get credit for the work we did while we were here.
That is it for now, but I hope this explains what I'm doing with my time here. Leave a comment if you have any burning questions.
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