Homework

My schedule has become as such: getting up at six in the morning, working until one-ish, studying, napping, class and then trying to fit in more studying before I collapse from exhaustion. Alex and I are still working on finding time for each other and to go out and have fun, but we have the weekends. Most importantly I’m relieved that I am now on a schedule because for a while I thought I was going to have more free time (which also means time to slack off) than I preferred.

The speed with which Alex and I were able to settle in and begin enjoying our time here is astonishing. We, however, did not escape a bout of travelers’ blues. Our antidote was finding a huge market -ironically right up the street from our apartment – finally getting out with some new friends to a jazz concert, beginning to cook meals and not eat out everyday and clearing up some issues at AUB. The small period of frustration we went through has come and passed. Thank God!

So what’s taking up all my time? During the week my schedule is pretty packed (refer to first sentence) due in part to the editing job I began this week. I have not encountered any significant problems thus far. My only editing experience is from high school and college and sometimes I feel that my editing skills are inadequate. Although I do not lack confidence in my writing abilities, I found that some of my changes do not make it to the final copy.

When editing I try and respect the writer’s style, maintain consistency throughout and make everything as concise as possible. However, I get just one chance to go over the page I’m editing because I have such a strict time limit. The first couple of days I came home upset from frustration.

I want to be better and quicker, so I’ve been spending a few hours everyday studying the art of editing. I put together a few note-cards with common names of state leaders, etc, so I wouldn’t waste time asking the writers if they themselves checked the names. Furthermore, I am refreshing myself on vocabulary, tricky words to look out for, proper punctuation and subject-verb agreement. It is like taking a middle school English class, all over again. But hey, I’m doing my homework.

While we’re on the subject of homework, my Arabic classes are intensifying! Our class was cancelled last Thursday because of the assassination of MP Antoine Ghanem, but we were right back at it on Monday. Moving onward from simple greetings and requests, our professor decided we were ready to start conjugating verbs in the past tense. Memorizing the vocab has been simple and up until now I did not have to put in much effort.

On Saturday Alex and I took a trip to the South of Lebanon – only 12 miles from Israel! The name of the town is Tyre, known as Soor in Arabic. First, we visited a site of famous Greek/Roman/Byzantine/Egyptian ruins. Near the end of the site, which happened to be at the beach, a man carrying a wooden cigar box approached us with some “historical” information (Howard, you are going to like this story). He seemed friendly enough but, of course, he had an ulterior motive.

Soon enough, he had us in a conveniently secluded spot in the ruins showing us artifacts he dug up out of the ocean. His treasures included currency from three different empires and carved dolls. Claiming to need money for his child, he ran down a list of reasons we should buy them. If Alex wouldn’t have been there I probably would’ve bought the whole cigar box. I loved the thought of owning a little part of history. Alex, on the other hand, was the reasonable one.

Not only was he reasonable, but he informed me that there are many international laws against selling and buying such artifacts. I had no idea! I agree that the trinkets could have been fake and that they probably should be reserved for display at museums, but illegal to buy? One can buy famous art, surely a historical artifact, and it is not illegal. Needless to say, I didn’t come home with the Greek coin of two people making love!

The rest of our trip was browsing through the souks (little shops) and swimming in the Mediterranean. The beaches were actually sandy and less polluted. It turned out to be a great day! Oh and there were flags of Nasrallah all over…it really is Hizbullah land!

I’ll have to wait until my next blog to talk about the Lebanese presidential elections and other things on my mind. This is about the time I collapse from exhaustion! Good night!