Timeline Part III
Okay, here we got some more. When we left off, Teta was yelling at the news and everything was going to be a-ok on the evening of Wednesday, July 12.
Thursday July 13:
Airport bombed sometime before 6:45 am. I don't know exactly what time, but I know it was before 6:45 because that's when I was supposed to get up because I was getting up early to shower since I was too lazy to shower the night before.
Dany woke me up at 6:45, told me the airport had just been bombed, and said I should get ready for class but she wasn't sure if I should (read: would be allowed to) go yet.
Got ready for class but didn't end up going. Called my friend Callie from CAMES around 8:15 (when I would normally be on campus already) and she said that she figured I might not come that day.
Found out later that one of our teachers, Hussein, couldn't get to class that day because (I think) he lives in the south suburbs.
After dropping Sandro and Silvio (my cousins) off at day camp (yes that was still going on), went to Starbucks with Dany and read news and blogs and sent emails for three hours. Sent one to Naamah that I will post later when I get on my laptop (I'm on the desktop right now because I'm too lazy to go find my charger).
Got an email from CAMES saying there was a required security meeting that afternoon, so went to last class session after lunch then the meeting.
At the meeting they told us not to worry, things will be fine, we should let our embassies know we're in Beirut but that they probably wouldn't be doing anything for us, classes would not be cancelled, they just had the meeting to make sure we were all on the same page, etc etc. The whole meeting had a very relaxed feel and no one was really worried at all.
Friday July 14:
Dany woke me up at 7:15 to tell me that I would not be going to class because things were getting worse, basically more bridges and roads and such were bombed overnight. The bombings didn't wake me up, but Dany and Teta said they were up till 3 am hearing bombs.
Kids' day camp cancelled for the day.
After lunch, went up to the Merryland Hotel in Naas which is up above Bikfaya in the mountains. Planned to stay only for the weekend then return to Beirut and class on Monday. I really really didn't want to go and was really angry that I wasn't being allowed to go to class and threw a bit of a temper tantrum because I just was not seeing any danger. I didn't hear anything that day and just wanted to go to class and not be cooped up the house for what I thought at the time was nothing at all.
Called Callie again in the afternoon and she said class was cancelled that day because neither Rima nor Hussein (our two teachers for our level) could make it in to campus.
People seriously started leaving through MedEx and International SOS (I think a Yale group and the first Harvard group left that day) and independently to Damascus (I found this out later since I was not at AUB on the 14th). The road up to Naas was crowded with Syrian taxi full to bursting with luggage. The road up was so crowded that at some points there was no road going back down.
That night Nasrallah got on al-Manar and gave his "call to war" speech and Hizbullah announced that it had sunk 3 Israeli warships (which was false as it turns out). Someone else can tell the story of AUB and crazy celebrating boys and ordering Domino's, which I was not a part of because I was up in the mountains but have heard a good deal about and it sounds like a pretty entertaining night.
Saturday July 15:
Hanging out at Naas, reading, went down to Bikfaya for nailpolish remover (yes this is what we worry about).
Jeddo (my grandpa) went down to Beirut in the morning to get some stuff we'd forgotten and it took the normal amount of time.
Just as we were sitting down to lunch at about 1pm, I got a phone call from Elissa (a friend from AUB who also was in my Arabic class at Michigan) telling me that the CAMES program had been cancelled and that AUB was bussing international students to Amman sometime the next morning. She assumed that I'd received an email about all of this, but we didn't have web access. I freaked out for a little while and talked to my family and my dad and decided to go down to AUB and leave with them.
Called Caroline Chalouhi to see what was going on but she didn't have any information just then and said we were leaving sometime "today or tomorrow."
Called Jake at about 1:30 (maybe?) to make sure he hadn't gone somewhere with his family. He said he was at AUB and that the bus was going at 8:30 the next morning and to call him when I got down to Beirut.
Ate quick lunch and said goodbye to Teta and Sandro and Silvio and Dalal.
Called Callie from the car (about 2? 2:30?) and she said the trip to Amman was cancelled (found out later it was because of the bombin of a van of evacuees that were told by the Israelis to leave their village, then were turned away from a UN refugee camp and were bombed).
Decided to still go down to AUB and wait for the American evacuation.
Went back to Achrafieh to pack and go to AUB.
Arrived at AUB around 5:30. About an hour or so earlier Israel had dropped a propaganda letter bomb that failed to explode in the air (they're supposed to explode in the air and rain down fliers) and instead hit the AUB soccer field and made a huge crater...about 50 yards away from the guys' dorm. Got one of the fliers. Here is a picture of the flier, stolen from Heather:
Also, here is a picture of the crater in the soccer field, also stolen from Heather:
Hung out with Sarah in New Women's lounge for awhile.
Watched Leena give an interview to NBC - this was one of the first times that the news came to see us so everyone was really shocked and excited to talk to them.
Tried to call Jake but the number was disconnected - found out later that he had just left with ISOS sometime between when I called him (and he seemed to have no idea he was leaving) in the early afternoon and when he wasn't there anymore in the late afternoon.
Callie made loads of phone calls to ISOS trying to figure out how to leave with them but she and Emily both decided against that plan at the time because they thought it would be too dangerous to travel on the roads.
Went to get crepes from creepy University Crepy (because the delicious other place that was our favorite was closed) on Bliss Street with Callie, Emily, Sarah, and Ryan from Vanderbilt. Strange, because some things were the same as always, like going to get crepes, but at the same time Bliss Street was deserted.
Went back to New Women's, then Sarah got a phone call from Heather so Sarah, Elissa, the wine, and I went to Penrose to hang out with lots of people. Lots of fun singing and entertainment and getting bombed and such.
(For all those who remember, this was the night that we went for a walk on campus and the security guy didn't know what to do with Viktor's drink and Viktor was like "it's fine, just dump it out" and he still just stood there staring at us for 10 minutes before he finally dumped it out.)
I think that the lighthouse was hit on Saturday, but we went to see it on a walk on Sunday so I'll talk about that in a bit.
When I got to bed at about 3 am the bombing was so loud that I couldn't fall asleep till about 5, so that was pleasant.
Okay, I'm tired now and so I'll finish this off later today. Yalla bye.
Thursday July 13:
Airport bombed sometime before 6:45 am. I don't know exactly what time, but I know it was before 6:45 because that's when I was supposed to get up because I was getting up early to shower since I was too lazy to shower the night before.
Dany woke me up at 6:45, told me the airport had just been bombed, and said I should get ready for class but she wasn't sure if I should (read: would be allowed to) go yet.
Got ready for class but didn't end up going. Called my friend Callie from CAMES around 8:15 (when I would normally be on campus already) and she said that she figured I might not come that day.
Found out later that one of our teachers, Hussein, couldn't get to class that day because (I think) he lives in the south suburbs.
After dropping Sandro and Silvio (my cousins) off at day camp (yes that was still going on), went to Starbucks with Dany and read news and blogs and sent emails for three hours. Sent one to Naamah that I will post later when I get on my laptop (I'm on the desktop right now because I'm too lazy to go find my charger).
Got an email from CAMES saying there was a required security meeting that afternoon, so went to last class session after lunch then the meeting.
At the meeting they told us not to worry, things will be fine, we should let our embassies know we're in Beirut but that they probably wouldn't be doing anything for us, classes would not be cancelled, they just had the meeting to make sure we were all on the same page, etc etc. The whole meeting had a very relaxed feel and no one was really worried at all.
Friday July 14:
Dany woke me up at 7:15 to tell me that I would not be going to class because things were getting worse, basically more bridges and roads and such were bombed overnight. The bombings didn't wake me up, but Dany and Teta said they were up till 3 am hearing bombs.
Kids' day camp cancelled for the day.
After lunch, went up to the Merryland Hotel in Naas which is up above Bikfaya in the mountains. Planned to stay only for the weekend then return to Beirut and class on Monday. I really really didn't want to go and was really angry that I wasn't being allowed to go to class and threw a bit of a temper tantrum because I just was not seeing any danger. I didn't hear anything that day and just wanted to go to class and not be cooped up the house for what I thought at the time was nothing at all.
Called Callie again in the afternoon and she said class was cancelled that day because neither Rima nor Hussein (our two teachers for our level) could make it in to campus.
People seriously started leaving through MedEx and International SOS (I think a Yale group and the first Harvard group left that day) and independently to Damascus (I found this out later since I was not at AUB on the 14th). The road up to Naas was crowded with Syrian taxi full to bursting with luggage. The road up was so crowded that at some points there was no road going back down.
That night Nasrallah got on al-Manar and gave his "call to war" speech and Hizbullah announced that it had sunk 3 Israeli warships (which was false as it turns out). Someone else can tell the story of AUB and crazy celebrating boys and ordering Domino's, which I was not a part of because I was up in the mountains but have heard a good deal about and it sounds like a pretty entertaining night.
Saturday July 15:
Hanging out at Naas, reading, went down to Bikfaya for nailpolish remover (yes this is what we worry about).
Jeddo (my grandpa) went down to Beirut in the morning to get some stuff we'd forgotten and it took the normal amount of time.
Just as we were sitting down to lunch at about 1pm, I got a phone call from Elissa (a friend from AUB who also was in my Arabic class at Michigan) telling me that the CAMES program had been cancelled and that AUB was bussing international students to Amman sometime the next morning. She assumed that I'd received an email about all of this, but we didn't have web access. I freaked out for a little while and talked to my family and my dad and decided to go down to AUB and leave with them.
Called Caroline Chalouhi to see what was going on but she didn't have any information just then and said we were leaving sometime "today or tomorrow."
Called Jake at about 1:30 (maybe?) to make sure he hadn't gone somewhere with his family. He said he was at AUB and that the bus was going at 8:30 the next morning and to call him when I got down to Beirut.
Ate quick lunch and said goodbye to Teta and Sandro and Silvio and Dalal.
Called Callie from the car (about 2? 2:30?) and she said the trip to Amman was cancelled (found out later it was because of the bombin of a van of evacuees that were told by the Israelis to leave their village, then were turned away from a UN refugee camp and were bombed).
Decided to still go down to AUB and wait for the American evacuation.
Went back to Achrafieh to pack and go to AUB.
Arrived at AUB around 5:30. About an hour or so earlier Israel had dropped a propaganda letter bomb that failed to explode in the air (they're supposed to explode in the air and rain down fliers) and instead hit the AUB soccer field and made a huge crater...about 50 yards away from the guys' dorm. Got one of the fliers. Here is a picture of the flier, stolen from Heather:
Also, here is a picture of the crater in the soccer field, also stolen from Heather:
Hung out with Sarah in New Women's lounge for awhile.
Watched Leena give an interview to NBC - this was one of the first times that the news came to see us so everyone was really shocked and excited to talk to them.
Tried to call Jake but the number was disconnected - found out later that he had just left with ISOS sometime between when I called him (and he seemed to have no idea he was leaving) in the early afternoon and when he wasn't there anymore in the late afternoon.
Callie made loads of phone calls to ISOS trying to figure out how to leave with them but she and Emily both decided against that plan at the time because they thought it would be too dangerous to travel on the roads.
Went to get crepes from creepy University Crepy (because the delicious other place that was our favorite was closed) on Bliss Street with Callie, Emily, Sarah, and Ryan from Vanderbilt. Strange, because some things were the same as always, like going to get crepes, but at the same time Bliss Street was deserted.
Went back to New Women's, then Sarah got a phone call from Heather so Sarah, Elissa, the wine, and I went to Penrose to hang out with lots of people. Lots of fun singing and entertainment and getting bombed and such.
(For all those who remember, this was the night that we went for a walk on campus and the security guy didn't know what to do with Viktor's drink and Viktor was like "it's fine, just dump it out" and he still just stood there staring at us for 10 minutes before he finally dumped it out.)
I think that the lighthouse was hit on Saturday, but we went to see it on a walk on Sunday so I'll talk about that in a bit.
When I got to bed at about 3 am the bombing was so loud that I couldn't fall asleep till about 5, so that was pleasant.
Okay, I'm tired now and so I'll finish this off later today. Yalla bye.
posted by Dana at 3:17 PM
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