Athens and Beginning of Timeline
I arrived in Athens last night around 11. I'm here with Katie until Friday and then we're going to Santorini, then back to Athens to catch a boat to Venice, then leaving for home from Venice on the 25th. So it should be a fun 10 days.
I can't read the news anymore because I just feel suffocated by it. I don't know what happened in the last few days, but all of a sudden I feel so lost. I can't even process the news anymore, it all just goes right through me. This ceasefire looks like a step in the right direction, but I don't know what kind of long-term effect it's going to have. And there is all sorts of interesting analysis that I would like to read/participate in (who won this war, if both sides are claiming victory? is this when the real war begins?)...but I just don't have the energy anymore. I just feel a serious need to retreat. I feel almost homesick, but I don't want to go home. I want to close my eyes and just be alone for awhile, or I need someone to tell me that it's all going to be okay. I don't want to think anymore, and I just want to hide from everything that is happening, but at the same time I always have to know what's going on.
Maybe once we get out and start seeing Athens I'll feel better. Katie is napping right now because she just got off a 12 hour flight.
I have no idea how I'm going to be able to do school if I keep feeling like this. I just want to go back.
I'm going to start typing up my timeline of events, starting the Friday before everything started.
Friday July 7:
Went up to Shahtoul in the mountains to Soha's (Mom's cousin) husband Danny's family's house. Such a beautiful place with amazing views of everything, up about 1500 meters I think but I might be wrong. They had all these fruit trees and we had the most amazing blackberries I've ever had in my life. Like I can never appreciate a blackberry again after this. And we saw the church where Soha and Danny got married, which was tiny and made of those white stones like everything else in Lebanon and with beautiful arched ceilings that Mom said were to make the building strong so that it couldn't get bombed out.
Saturday July 8:
Went to Baalbek with CAMES/AUB. Baalbek (for people who don't know) is in the Bekaa valley and has these amazing ancient Roman ruins. It was beautiful but personally I enjoyed the drive over through the mountains (you have to cross Mt. Lebanon to get into the Bekaa) more than the actual ruins...but that's just me. Also, Baalbek is a huge Hizballah town so there were posters of Nasrallah all over the place and some of Khomeini as well. People bought Hizballah t-shirts as souvenirs. Also we went to Anjar which is more ruins and is in an Armenian town. Went out to lunch there in Anjar and that was fabulous of course, and Jake and I judged the food together because we are Lebanese food connoisseurs.
That evening went out to dinner with Mom and Dany and two of Dany/Papi's cousins at ATCL (fancy shmancy pool club on the water, aka Kaslik, by Jounieh).
Sunday July 9:
Homework all day, then the World Cup Final at night. No one should ever be allowed to win anything besides the Italians because no one else knows how to celebrate properly. Celebrations all night, very very loud...fireworks are pleasant explosions.
Monday July 10:
Nothing of particular note, just went to class all day. Mom left for home at 2am (actually 2am Tuesday, but Monday night).
Tuesday July 11:
Again nothing of particular note, but for my class it was a neat day because in the afternoon Hussein (one of our teachers who let us ask him questions like "how do you say Axis of Evil in Arabic?") took us to a couple of Arabic bookstores to look around.
Okay I better go wake up Katie now, but stay tuned because, as you can guess, Wednesday July 12 is a doozy.
I can't read the news anymore because I just feel suffocated by it. I don't know what happened in the last few days, but all of a sudden I feel so lost. I can't even process the news anymore, it all just goes right through me. This ceasefire looks like a step in the right direction, but I don't know what kind of long-term effect it's going to have. And there is all sorts of interesting analysis that I would like to read/participate in (who won this war, if both sides are claiming victory? is this when the real war begins?)...but I just don't have the energy anymore. I just feel a serious need to retreat. I feel almost homesick, but I don't want to go home. I want to close my eyes and just be alone for awhile, or I need someone to tell me that it's all going to be okay. I don't want to think anymore, and I just want to hide from everything that is happening, but at the same time I always have to know what's going on.
Maybe once we get out and start seeing Athens I'll feel better. Katie is napping right now because she just got off a 12 hour flight.
I have no idea how I'm going to be able to do school if I keep feeling like this. I just want to go back.
I'm going to start typing up my timeline of events, starting the Friday before everything started.
Friday July 7:
Went up to Shahtoul in the mountains to Soha's (Mom's cousin) husband Danny's family's house. Such a beautiful place with amazing views of everything, up about 1500 meters I think but I might be wrong. They had all these fruit trees and we had the most amazing blackberries I've ever had in my life. Like I can never appreciate a blackberry again after this. And we saw the church where Soha and Danny got married, which was tiny and made of those white stones like everything else in Lebanon and with beautiful arched ceilings that Mom said were to make the building strong so that it couldn't get bombed out.
Saturday July 8:
Went to Baalbek with CAMES/AUB. Baalbek (for people who don't know) is in the Bekaa valley and has these amazing ancient Roman ruins. It was beautiful but personally I enjoyed the drive over through the mountains (you have to cross Mt. Lebanon to get into the Bekaa) more than the actual ruins...but that's just me. Also, Baalbek is a huge Hizballah town so there were posters of Nasrallah all over the place and some of Khomeini as well. People bought Hizballah t-shirts as souvenirs. Also we went to Anjar which is more ruins and is in an Armenian town. Went out to lunch there in Anjar and that was fabulous of course, and Jake and I judged the food together because we are Lebanese food connoisseurs.
That evening went out to dinner with Mom and Dany and two of Dany/Papi's cousins at ATCL (fancy shmancy pool club on the water, aka Kaslik, by Jounieh).
Sunday July 9:
Homework all day, then the World Cup Final at night. No one should ever be allowed to win anything besides the Italians because no one else knows how to celebrate properly. Celebrations all night, very very loud...fireworks are pleasant explosions.
Monday July 10:
Nothing of particular note, just went to class all day. Mom left for home at 2am (actually 2am Tuesday, but Monday night).
Tuesday July 11:
Again nothing of particular note, but for my class it was a neat day because in the afternoon Hussein (one of our teachers who let us ask him questions like "how do you say Axis of Evil in Arabic?") took us to a couple of Arabic bookstores to look around.
Okay I better go wake up Katie now, but stay tuned because, as you can guess, Wednesday July 12 is a doozy.
posted by Dana at 12:10 PM
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