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.