Just so no one worries – I have had some fine hot meals this week. I got my hands on a grilled chicken and it kept me happy for a few days. Also, a wonderful lady brought me a plate of stuffed grape leaves one night. They were fabulous, by the way.
While it seems that the cost of living here is are expensive as the US or much more expensive, if anything is imported, the one thing that is dramatically cheaper (especially in this part of town) is produce. We are located right next to a large produce market and you can probably find the freshest produce next to picking it on the farm itself. It is the busiest produce stand that I have ever seen and all day long they are unloading trucks to replenish the constantly depleted stock. I bought a bag of 4 grapefruit, 6 bananas, 3 tomatoes, 6 small cucumbers and 3 red peppers for $4. I am lucky if I can buy a grapefruit for a $1 in the States. So yes, you can find many produce items for very cheap here.
Fortunately, I love vegetables! I have discovered that tomatoes, cucumber and pepper all chopped up and lightly coated with olive oil and zaatar (try it, I promise you) is the tastiest salad ever. I am convinced that zaatar on everything makes it amazing. I am not sure if they would be offended by all the foods I dump it on, but I have been eating it on EVERYTHING. Yes, including that grilled chicken.
Tuesday saw me taking my first Arabic language class since Mid-November. While I tried to keep up with review while in the States, I am still trying to relearn all the words I forgot when I wasn’t using the language every day. My teacher was impressed with how much I did remember and was able to understand for having it be my first day back. It was a little glimmer of hope for me in tackling a very challenging language. Later on, a lady told me that she thinks it will probably take me 4 years to be fluent since I am only taking a few hours of classes a week. I just love people putting such limitations on me. It was gasoline on my fire of motivation to grasp the language.
I could spend an entire post pontificating on the ups and down of learning a new language, and I just might in the future! I felt a great deal of satisfaction when I listened to the Pastor preach a sermon without any translator (usually I have translation) and I could discern almost every word that was said, even if I didn’t know most of them. That probably sounds weird, but I heard the words was he was saying, beyond a bunch of noise or words jumbled together in an indiscernible sentence. Noise and words jumbled together is what they hear when I get excited and talk English very fast in my perplexing accent that they haven’t heard before. Oops!!! I try to remind myself to slow down when I am talking. However, talking slow and low is NOT something that happens in the Middle East. Discussions are exuberant, lively and loud. If you ever heard people talking the language and thought they were shouting at each other, it is because they really are. Doesn’t mean they are mad though. I don’t think….
It doesn’t take a lot in life to make me happy. A barbell and plates is one of those things that is a must have for me. I don’t need a fancy gym or machines, just a barbell. I managed to return to my old CrossFit class after my Arabic lesson, even though it is on the other side of town from where I am now staying. There is nothing quite like seeing friendly familiar faces, even when they are on the other side of the world. Strange how what used to be so foreign is now so comfortable and familiar. And there is nothing like throwing some weights around and then successfully navigating my way home in a city that I still barely know.
To be honest, I wasn’t 100% sure how I was going to get home that evening or what kind of adventure I would end up on. I ended up sticking with the familiar, walking a good distance to pick up my old bus. In the end, it didn’t add much time onto the entire trip from what my return trip home would have been last fall. To top it off, my best friend called me with some good news from the other side of the world. What a world we live in where I can be sitting on a bus in Beirut talking on Whatsapp with my best friend in Florida? So….. no excuses to not keep in touch.
So many stories and I struggle with how to share the best ones due to the sensitivity of the subjects. So, more on that and many more stories to come.