life is good

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.