life is good

so. i admitted that i have a blog to guy the other day. this brings the total number of people who know my dirty little secret up to 3. he asked to read it and i gave that one a big hell no, leading to a somewhat-argument, but nothing serious, just teasing, about my blog.

player lbg: i promise, you don’t even want to read it.

player g: but i do.

player lbg: it’s even less coherent than when i talk.

player g: yea actually, i could see your blog being all about what time of day you pee.

and he’s absolutely correct. but i didn’t create this thing to start a political revolution, to entertain people, even to let people know that i’m still alive and well in whatever country. i started it because it is yet another great way to procrastinate. and because it’s nice to just ramble along. especially when you’re doing work and just want to unload all other thoughts onto something. so. today i peed at 4:41pm beirut time. and about 9 times before that.

in all fairness, i have written guy more than one lengthy email detailing the daily bathroom activities. but still. 

hellllo again,

so i covered the story today and it was all in arabic. this has happened before, and luckily i found a guy who was willing to translate it for me. i had to give out amanda’s number to 3 different lebanese guys, but i got the story. and i called ahead and set up an interview with the UNDP project manager, since it’s usually a safe bet that the UN reps or the ministers speak english, and he gave me really good information.

but now i have to write it. and format, etc. the pictures. by the deadline. which is fine. this time i have plenty of time. but i find myself taking an online quiz about being burned out at work..

the cheese/lamb-slaughtering story made front page. and page 2. i thought it would be page 12 b/c it’s a feature, but they ended up choosing 2 pics and putting it in the front. which is nice. if they put it front page and it’s not that important of a story it usually means that there was a photo that they wanted to print in color. hence the kite festival making front page. hooraaay.

alright well i guess i’m gonna go do my job. i guess. last week.

so i’m at work and the editor just handed me a press release about the UNDP’s launch of an
energy conservation campaign in lebanon. they want me to write. i’m too
intimidated, but honestly - saying no would be missing an amazing opportunity. and
would just be limiting. i was just researching a bit because the launch of the
campaign isn’t until tomorrow morning, and i wanted to prepare some questions and know some background. but then i decided to take a quick break to write..

the cheese/mountain story should be coming out tomorrow. it was supposed to be out today, but there wasn’t enough room. and since it’s not news that needs to be published immediately, they held it. i
like seeing my name in the paper though. i’m not gonna lie.

i don’t like though, how guy gets compliments. on me. no one says ‘you’re super’ or whatever, they go up to
guy, sitting next to me, and congratulate him. tell him that he made a ‘good choice’, or that his ‘woman is beautiful’, etc. -don’t get me wrong, it’s not like these comments burn my ears - it’d just be cool if i could get some credit for
it.

world cup last night. good good day yesterday. italy won. i won 1,000LL. it was crazy anarchy here. now there’s a big
story here about what the Italian player said to Zizou. they’re saying it was a remark about Arabs - terrorist or something really upsetting.

red white and green covering the city. “I-TAL-IA, I-TAL-IA”, mosh pits and chaos. it was
like christmas. in july. a somewhat violent and less-lawful christmas. but a lot
of fun.

things are really good here. the work, the food, guy. things are all really good. this is my last week. we went to imad’s house yesterday. we were invited the night before, but i was sick. he has an amazing house slash life.
we’re doing another story with him, and he says he’s going to try to take us white-water rafting and hiking in the > mountains if we can get friday off of work.
i’m mildly in love with imad. i’m pretty sure guy is too.

alright. back to work.  

so the food - is sooo good. i ate about 55 servings of hummus two
days ago - it was also all i ate that day, but i made up for it
yesterday.

so ‘free time’ is kind of sparce - not that that’s a complaint. we work
mon-fri pretty much all day, and then on weekends i’m covering stories
for the mostpart. but i love it. and i have a free day (i think) so
we’re probably going to go to the south. touristy things aren’t my
favorite, but i think it’ll be great to just see a different part of
lebanon.

so world cup - ppl here are mostly for italy. guy’s for
france and we’ve been betting on the games (see also: one poor
unsuspecting lbg has been getting hustled). personally i wanted
portugal to win, and now care a bit less. but it’s still fun.

this place has amazing weather. except that i’m cold a lot - no one told me the mideast was
cold?

so. here’s the rundown:

holy yesterday. so i get up around 6am - well, that’s a lie, 7 - but
was supposed to be up at 6, to cover a “cheese story”, which i’m
looking forward to, not only b/c cheese is possibly my favorite food,
but also b/c my last story was about an international kite festival
(made front page!!), but yea was the least exciting.

these stories are all an illusion though - when they tell you about
them. you think ‘kite festival? really?’ but then it turns out to be
about japanese-lebanese relations and a bunch of ambassadors giving
speeches - with kites in the background. ppl treat media really well
and i like being involved in it.

so i learn a little about this story b/f i go from google, b/c i’m
given very little info. and then a lot more about it in the car on the
way there. turns out, it’s about an NGO who works w/ microfinancing for
different groups in lebanon. (ACDI VOCA). we end up in the mountains,
where they’ve flown in a fiesty lesbian cheese expert from the US -
whose won several international cheese awards, to teach these villages
how to pasteurize so that they can sell their cheese to international
markets.

so i’m at work right now and am waiting for the IT guy to come help me
w/ some photos, so i’m gonna try to keep this short. honestly, i doubt
anyone would care if they saw me writing blog entries, but still.

so these villagers slaughter a lamb for us and we sit and eat raw lamb
liver, with raw lamb fat, and onions. i realize at this point everyone
except E or mr p (who would most likely be salivating), is vomitting. i
gagged a bit too, and now feel kind of queasy remembering, so let’s not
talk about it.

so we watch as this woman explains how to make cheese, we smoke hookah,
eat the biggest heaviest meal in the world, hike, play w/ the kids,
pee, visit other villages, and drink coffee and tea inside the
tent. and also do the story/interview/photos/etc.

we were there for 12 hours.

so this ‘cheese story’ ends up being the best one i’ve done yet, and
about a lot more than cheese. the ‘team’ we go with is amazing,
especially this one guy, who i spend the rest of the day with. he’s
like a 38-year-old kid. and sooo much fun.

so we leave the village and everyone’s exhausted. but this guy - Imad -
decides that we’re gonna stop in this town on the way back and play
bumper cars. he treats slash forces me, guy, the driver, and himself -
to not 1, but 2 amazing rounds of bumper cars. he rents out the entire
bumper car place for us 4, and we have a jolly good time. actually i
didn’t spend a cent yesterday, ate like nobody’s business, played
bumper cars, and ended the night with caviar and wine on a rooftop -
but we’ll get to that.

so after the bumper cars we go back to the office (that the town was
in), and then to another place, where we eat cherries in a park for
about 5 seconds. that’s not an intersting story.

anyway, so we’re on our way back to beirut and the team we’re with is
about 2 hours late for a microfinance reception. we all smell
disgustingly of lamb and dirt, and some sweat. so imad’s all about not
letting the party end - aka kidnapping some unsuspecting ‘reporters’
for a day, and by the end of the car ride me and imad have convinced
everyone (aka guy) to go to this reception thing with them.

we get there, and everyone’s dressed in amazing gowns. it’s on the
rooftop of a fancy hotel, open bar, free food, and 22 of iraq’s leaders
in microfinance.

i get my wine and then ‘mingle’, as that’s what i’m told to do. i
recover my appetite which i thought was lost forever with the lamb
(r.i.p.), and eat a plate or two of salmon and baklava.

i feel like some kind of royalty, as i’m talking to people who do what
i would love to do for a living, eating fancy food - which i choke down
even when it tastes like feet, and drinking free wine. and i also feel
a smidge out of place, b/c most ppl there don’t smell of lamb.

all the funding for these microfinancing projects comes from american
tax dollars. they were telling us that most ppl here recognize the
difference between the american gov’t and the american ppl, and some
even like the american ppl. i also asked the ppl what it was like to
live in iraq - since i’ll probably never know, which was also really
interesting.

oh and when we were in the mts - no women were allowed to sit in the
tent/smoke/eat with the men - they served everything and ate later on from the
leftovers in another room on the floor - but since me and girl#2 were
‘guests’, we were allowed to eat.

oh man, ok, glad i got that out of my system. so work here is
relatively lax, but there are deadlines. which make me panic like no
other. but i’ll get into that later. i’ve got to finish up this piece
really soon so i’m gonna go for now. sooo much more to ramble about. soo much to do here - you’d think as an intern i’d do nothing. or file. 

so it turns out i started tonight (friday night)- not monday. they called and had me cover some
car racing show. it was cool to have press passes and unlike the states (where i take
photos for the music company sometimes), a press pass here means that i could pretty much
just hop on one of the cars. no boundaries. 

i’m back to my state of intimidation. and as for the laidback atmosphere - it is, but there are deadlines. like, the driver will pick you up and drive you to this place - have pictures of it for me in the office by 10pm. and
surprise, you’re working this weekend. i like it though. not so proud of my first shots,
but they were decent, and i can take more on the closing day on sunday. also, while i was
there i got to go in the vip section (and basically wherever else..) and some
photographer for an auto magazine took all these photos of me. he had me pose and put my
hand against my face in a very arabic way and all this stuff. from what i think he said,
and from what i saw him doing, he was just taking pictures of young girls near cars. i am
proud to have been selected to participate in what is sure to be an extremely
intellectual and important article. ‘young girls hold hand to face and look coy around
fast cars’ - the start of a new career perhaps?

alright well i’m exhausted. perpetually. today was a really good day. oh - i have
business cards. contacts or ppl that i may interview, etc. - i ask them for their
business card and then hand one right back. ‘hi i’m stephanie preston from the daily
star’. i feel like i’m pretending to be a ‘grown-up’ with a real job and real clothes and
business cards. i feel like i’m pretending to be a photojournalist. but i like it. and
once i get into it i pretend it really well.

alright i’m out for real this time.

i just finished my interview and it was amazing. lot’s of honesty on
both sides - me about what experience i genuinely had, and her about
the limited resources (ie computers) they have available for interns,
etc etc, and we worked it out and they loved my photos and my resume
looked good and i start monday!!
it’s less intimidating when you’re completely honest.

i start at 1pm. not because it’s a half-day or anything. not because i
like sleeping in (i’ve been getting up at 6am each day and just reading
til the day starts) - but that’s just when things start
here. people don’t go to work until 12 or 1, they work late, eat
whenever, stay up late, etc. -the place i’m at seems like quite a lax
environment. which is good.

and this paper is intense. i read articles before i
came, but then i read today’s and some from earlier this week, and it’s
just..a very different perspective. information you would never hear in
US media. ever. some of it’s really tragic. and daily. daily tragedy.
good environment?

so the city of beirut is beautiful. and soo different from haiti (duh).
it’s nice to be in a place with infrastructure, a good economy, things
like student loans, health insurance, etc. it’s especially nice to fit
in. and fit in i do. you know how i’m ethnically ambiguous? spanish ppl
think i’m spanish, mrs chuang even thinks i look asian..etc. - well i
am lebanese. more lebanese than some lebanese girls. my nose and eyes
could be a bit bigger, and maybe a fuller body - but really,
everyone thinks i’m lebanese. and i like it.

anyway, i’ll wrap this up and write more later.

i could live well for 2 dollars a day here. easy. but i’m sure we’re
going to nicer places - not that 2 dollars doesn’t mean a fantastic
meal at a great place. the food here is amazing. but there are certain
places ‘buddha bar’ and an arabic dance club - that are on the agenda,
as well as some touring i’m sure, and that’ll up it a bit.

and the people i’ve met here are great - i just had an hour to kill
before the interview, so i went and bought some carrot juice. i was
looking at the menu b/c it was a fresh fruit place and seemed amazing,
but there were a bunch of things i didn’t understand. achta, labam,
etc. so everytime i asked what something was they made it for me in a
little sample and i tried it. i stopped asking after 3 or 4 things b/c
i didn’t wanna puch my luck. or ruin my appetite for my carrot juice,
but i feel like i’ll be back there everyday. i love this city.

as for turkey - my ticket is for the 16th, so i have 2 days and 2
nights there before i go to london and then ny. it’s only 11 dollars
per night, and as long as i eat at the hostel it’s either insanely
cheap or free. the only real thing that costs me money in istanbul is
transport to/from airport, and if i went out one night or something.
but i have no plans to do that. the mosque i want to see is free, the
beach and the grand bazaar don’t charge for admittance, and the owner
said he would give a half-day tour w/out charge.

he’s also offered to hire me if i would like to work there next summer.
he says that i seem like a genuine person, especially for an american,
and that i can give back to people in life. he thinks i have amazing
‘energie’. i know all this makes him sounds insane and kind of creepy,
but he’s really not. i promise. intuition says anyways.

alrighty. peace out cub scout.

Hello again - so the ‘i’ is back, as well as the apostrophe. as well as many many
arabic symbols that i don’t understand. i hate going to countries and not even being able
to say basic things in their language. it makes really little difference here though, b/c
in beirut EVERYONE speaks english. well, it’s like frenglarabic. the most common greeting
goes something like this: “hello, kifak, ca va?” - but i get to use french lot’s during
the day which i am loving.

i’ve read half of my new textbook so far - NOT the russia one, that one’s still somewhere
around chapter one. but the “among nations” book is really interesting. 

..how do you make “Russia in the 21st century” sound interesting to
kids who have less interest in that part of the world than most other things in life? -it’s not that though, it’s the writing. so densely academic. pedantic. BORING. wow i hope professor rosefielde never reads this, b/c he also wrote all of 4 of our textbooks for next semester.

anyway, so there’s been progress on both of those fronts and it’s only day 2. i was so
tired yesterday though that i slept through most of it and therefore also appreciated the
forced chinese language lessons that much less. but i do appreciate.

in an hour i meet with editor #2. i just left the office - i came early and read today’s
paper, to familiarize a bit. i’ve read articles before but it was good to read through the whole thing. in print.

i’m feeling really intimidated, but i think things will go really well. i’m going to
apply to work as a photographer - for many reasons - and also suggest that i could work
in the archives - going through past papers and picking out articles from that same day
in history - as well as filing and whatever dirty work they may have. they compensate -
well.. they recompensate - for transportation costs and very little more, but i’m not
going to ask for any money (pretty ballsy if i did) but i am asking that if i do a good
job that they allow me to put them as references - the main editor - and possibly be
willing to write a letter of recommendation should i need one for future work. i’ll see
how confident i feel about my work first though.

and the apt is amazing! it’s really nice w/ an outdoor terrace and bianca - a german muslim
roomate who speaks no english and seems very conservative. it’s located in a german
church - in manara, a muslim district. and in the same apt, on tuesdays, there is a
german child psychologist who rents the room right next to the bedroom i stay in, and
apparently random ppl come in and out. i find all of this to be hilarious.

there’s even a cleaning lady - she comes on tuesdays also and is apparently really nice.
i feel like she might like me least though b/c before i came the whole place was
spotless. it still is minus some clothes and books scattered about. nothing like the
messes i am capable of.

i’ll write more later. lot’s more. but if i don’t get off the compute now i’ll get
charged another 2,000. au revoir pour maintenant..

so ?f you see a quest?on mark ?n th?s post just put ?n an i. or some
random turk?sh symbol that ?snt show?ng up on your computer. be l?ke
gestault and f?ll ?n the tr?angle. bc ? cant f?gure out th?s computer.

anyway. so im ?n ?stanbul now (or was when i wrote this).

theres no apostrophe. etc. but there are these: ??????. etc.

? just spent 47 hours travel?ng. just travel?ng. ? have so many stor?es
about how ? enterta?ned myself dur?ng those hours. but another t?me 
- because ?m cracked out as hell. 7 hour t?me d?fference makes
my sleep?ng habits go from lazy to just nocturnal.

so ? just bet a large turk?sh man 25 l?ra on the spa?n france game. ?
have yet to really grasp on the ?dea of how much 25 turk?sh l?ra ?s -
but ? hope spa?n w?ns. (yea i ended up losing that bet. but winning free dinner..)

alr?ght ? could ramble on but ?m gonna go for now. and ?m so exhausted
out r?ght now.

m?ldly ?nsane. and ?n love w?th th?s large turk?sh man. and this gorgeous turkish country. gonna go
cracked-outly soc?al?ze. and note to self: learn how to say -no- and -sp?cy- ?n every language.