The Final Countdown

Well, we have less than a month left in the Lebanon (some people use a definite article before saying Lebanon because it’s written like that in the Bible). Because things seem to be happening so quickly, I thought that it might be a good idea to document what I do during the last thirty days—too bad I did not start this project four days ago, but I will just have to try to catch up.

Tuesday, May 24th

I thought today would be my last Arabic class so I came in with a list of words and grammar rules that I wanted to know. Although learning the new words was easy, I need to be more careful about what I wish for when it comes to grammar rules! My teacher also said that she wanted us to meet next week—I think working on the tough grammar stuff is exciting for her (I just wanted someone to come in and kill me).

May 24th was also Honey Day at the American University of Beirut. The students in the AUB bee sciences class sell honey and other merchandise to raise money to support AUB’s hives. They also promote bee awareness by handing out information and having a small hive on display. Our friend Nouhad was the student coordinator of this year’s events, so I figured that I had better check it out.

Nouhad had done an excellent job. The Honey Day area was pleasing to the eye and the logo that Nouhad had designed was adorable. Even though it was blazing hot, I stayed for a couple of hours and helped with the honey sales and clean up. My brother-in-law Mazin, a beekeeper himself, would have been proud!

Wednesday, May 25th

I went into the office to help one of my friends who is working on improving our NGO’s website—I have not been in much lately because work on our current projects are being done in Arabic. Everyone was doing well.

On the way home I stopped at A. Antoine, Lebanon’s Barnes & Noble, and bought a British cross stitching magazine. I started cross stitching a few months ago because I miss crafting and it does not require a lot of supplies. It has been going O.K., but I need to be more patient and careful with my stitches.

That evening I had to deliver ten grams of royal jelly (what the queen bee eats) to the Chair of the English Department. Nouhad’s bee professor told her to deliver it on Honey Day, but I offered to do it since he is my neighbor.

Later that night one of my friends came over to use my computer because she is having trouble with hers. I am currently in the process of trying to make a love match via Facebook between her and an archeologist who gave us a tour of a few sites in Lebanon in February. Keep your fingers crossed!

After the Facebooking was complete, she and I went to Café Blanc for labne (thick yogurt with garlic and herbs), fattoush (salad with toasted bread), and frozen mint lemonade (eat your heart out, Kristina!). We stuck with vegetarian items because my friend is also going to the wedding of the century and thinks that we need to try and lighten up before June 17th.

Thursday, May 26th

I went to H & M and bought a new scarf and a wallet. I also stopped by El Dorado, Lebanon’s T.J. Maxx, to look at luggage because I have sent two of my suitcases back to the U.S. One of the bags I liked had a tag that said “2 PCS” with a picture of two bags and a description of their dimensions. Foolishly, I thought that this meant that the bag came with a smaller bag, so I asked the salesclerk why the smaller bag had a separate price tag. She explained that the tag reads “2 PCS” merely to let customers know that a second piece of matching luggage is available for purchase. Needless to say, I did not make a purchase.

I also tried using Google Voice to call my dad on his cell phone. The call was completed, I could hear my dad speaking, but he could not hear me. He thought I was a crank caller and really let me have it. Ouch! Afterwards I contacted him via Skype and explained that I was the “crank caller.”

In addition, Thursday was Bill’s last teaching day at AUB. One of his students bought him a box of sweets from an expensive bakery on our street. Very nice!

We were on our way out to dinner when we ran into one of our neighbors who is also a visiting professor from the states. Even though we were not looking our best—it is seriously H-O-T—our neighbor convinced us to go with him to a party at the dean’s house. The party was very nice. The dean’s house is on campus and has a nice sea view and garden. If Bill wanted to be the dean here one day, I think I might consider it . . .

Friday, May 27th

Another hot day! I went with Bill to the AUB English Department’s potluck picnic at the dean’s house. Talk about delicious! It was also nice to see a lot of our friends from the university, and I think I had Iranian food for the first time. Yum!

Later that evening we had a nice time meeting up with a AUB few writing professors, a writing professor from another Lebanese university, and an American writing expert from the University of Missouri. We ate at Socrate, a Lebanese restaurant that Bill loves but I think is just O.K. I had Chinese beef and noodles. I also noticed that our normal waiter, a very ambivalent guy, had gotten a perm. Sadly, it was a bad hair styling decision.

Monolingual Wallflower

O.K., I am not sure if I qualify as a monolingual wallflower because I am conversational in Spanish, have a very cursory knowledge of Japanese, and am studying Arabic (yeah, good luck with that!).  But, I like the expression because it comes from a campy movie we watched in high school Spanish class.[1]  It also describes my feelings of linguistic inadequacy when I am around most of my Lebanese friends.

I do not think that I have mentioned this much before, but everyone at my office except me and the cleaner is trilingual.  (And I think the cleaner is bilingual—English and likely Tagalog.)  It is not uncommon for people at my office to switch from English to Arabic to French in a single conversation.  When this happens, I usually just sit there until the conversation is over and then ask for a translation.

I thought that the trilingual cultural phenomenon was something unique to Lebanon until I started reading Legal Language by Peter M. Tiersma.  According to Tiersma,

During much of its history, the English legal profession was trilingual, using English, French, and Latin in differing situations, and with varying success.  . . .  Many written pleadings and legal records were in Latin.  Speech directed at nonlawyers—such as discussions with clients or questioning of witnesses in court—would necessarily have been in English.  And interchanges with other barristers or judges in court—especially oral pleading—would have been in French, at least for part of this period.  Lawyers would therefore have needed at least a working knowledge of all three languages.

Legal Language, pp. 33-34. 

Yikes!  For some lawyers (including yours truly on a bad day), a knowledge of English is tough enough. 

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[1] As you may have guessed, the point of the movie was to convince teens that they would be cool and be able to get dates if they learned Spanish.