The Trip

friday morning ... woke up around sixish ... was already packed ... left for the airport ... my flight was at 9:45 in the morning ... i got to the airport around seven or so ... there was a guy from work on my flight ... he's an older dude and he actually works for our contractor so i don't know him very well but we chatted for a bit while waiting to board ... there were several hot moms on the flight as is usually the case with any flight heading to beirut ... one of them had three toddlers with her ... and one of those toddlers was a girl ... now the girl was picking her nose so her mom told her not to ... the little girl did not listen so her mom swatted her hand away and said ma t7utti eedik abadan binnose ... and i thought that was odd ... why did she refer to it as "innose" ...

i read my book for most of the flight ... it's called slam by nick hornby ... i tried to sleep at one point but i couldn't get comfortable ... soon we were flying over mountains covered in white and i knew we were close ... and sure enough a while later the red roofs started appearing ... and the city by the sea ... we arrived in beirut around 12 o'clock ... the airport was playing some fairuzi instrumentals ... which is so cliche but whatever ... customs was a breeze ... the taxi was a major rip-off ...

i was staying in ashrafiye with my best friend ... i hadn't seen him in two years ... he lives very close to hotel dieu for those of you who know beirut ... even closer to AUST ... st georges towers ... very beautiful building ...


we spent the first four days ... friday through monday ... just hanging out in his apartment ... well it's actually his mother's but she wasn't there ... she works in riyadh ... people would come and go ... his maid would cook for us ... good times ...

and yes i realize some people might frown at this ... but i lived in lebanon for four years so i don't care ... i wasn't interested in going sightseeing or anything ... i just wanted to relax and have a good time ... so i had no problem with staying indoors for the first few days ... no problem at all ... plus i still hadn't exchanged my money so that was another reason why we didn't go out either ... but there was no rush either ... like i said i was only there to have fun with my friends not to be a tourist ...

tuesday night we finally went out ... we went to abc which is closeby ... walking distance actually ... we wanted to watch a movie but nothing interesting was showing ... well i suggested watchmen but my friend didn't seem too excited about it ... so we ended up just having dinner instead ...

wednesday morning i began my quest to get my certificates stamped ... if i wanted to be poetic about it i would describe it as traversing the labyrinth of arab bureaucracy ... so i went to the ministry of higher learning ... apparently having the original certificate with me wasn't good enough ... they needed two photocopies authenticated by the university ... so i went to the university and filled out the form to get the two copies i made authenticated ... the guy told me to come back the next day ... i was like it takes you a day to stamp the paper ... he's like yes ... so anyway that was that ... so seeing as how i had to wait until the next day and i was already in hamra ... i decided to walk around for a couple of hours ... i know hamra inside out ... or at least i used to ... so that was kind of nostalgic ... i saw a lot of familiar faces and places ... i went to the building where i used to live and said hi to the dude in reception ... it was the same guy ... another example there's this one beggar dude who has swollen feet that i used to pass everyday when i would walk to uni ... he's still there in his same spot ... i didn't say hi to him though ... i walked around AUB for a bit ... they have designated smoking zones now ... imagine that ... but i forgot to go into the student store ... i wanted to buy some stuff from there ... like i don't know ... a shirt or a pair of shorts ... a bumper sticker ... a mug ... anything ... but i forgot so whatever ...

thursday morning i went and got my certificates from aub ... took them back to the ministry of higher learning and got them stamped there ... then to the foreign ministry ... stamped them there ... then to the saudi embassy ... final stamp ... unfortunately they told me you can't come here to get it stamped ... you have to go to a liaison office ... so i did ... at the office they told me that it would take two to three weeks ... i didn't have that kind of time and as a result i was unable to get the stamp ... so now i will just send it with one of my dad's friends and he will take care of it ... later that night we went to gemmayzeh for a while ... and then on the way home we got a nice takeaway dinner from kababji ... delicious ...

friday we just hung out in the apartment ... i left for the airport around 1 pm ... flight was at 4 ... i forgot my book at the airport by the way ... arrived in riyadh around 7 ... i bought the book again the next day ...

by the way the women in beirut all dress the same ... everyone wears tight-ass jeans with knee-high boots ... everyone ...