Springtime in Syria

I know it has been ages since I've updated my blog. My only excuse is the usual one: spring semester, in Beirut as everywhere else, seems to be especially busy and tiring. In its quest to acknowledge the holidays of multiple religious sects, AUB's calendar only gave us a couple weeks off after fall semester, and so everyone is feeling a bit frazzled by now. Classes are going well, and I am advising a couple Master's theses for the first time, so I'm staying busy.

However, we did recently get two long weekends in a row, in commemoration of both Western and Eastern Orthodox Easters, and so Jeff and I took a trip to Damascus. It was really exciting finally getting to visit Syria, and we had a great time visiting some historic sites, such as an old, ornate mosque where I had to put on a beige druid-like robe that the attendant handed me before I could go in.

Damascus is also known for its souks, or markets, and it was fun looking at the piles of nuts and spices some of the vendors had for sale.



We took a trip to the nearby town of Maalula, where the local people still speak Aramaic, an ancient language I thought was dead. We visited a church which had formerly been a pagan temple. When they redecorated, the Christians replaced the church's pagan altar that had a hole in the middle of it to drain off the blood of sacrifices. The tour guide there prayed aloud in Aramaic, which was neat to hear. Also in Maalula, we visited another ancient church that was actually just a walled-in cave. It has a tree growing in it, as well as a holy water basin that is continually replenished by the water seeping out of the rock itself. Pretty neat.





The town of Maalula itself was lovely, too, perched on some
desert cliffs.

All in all, we had a wonderful time looking around and getting to meet some incredibly friendly Syrian people.

Teaching the American Wilderness

Lest you think that my life in Beirut is an endless series of vacations and cooking experiments, I wanted to share some reflections on my first week of second-semester classes. As I've mentioned before, the academic calendar here is a bit out of sync with the U. S. schedule. Our second semester just started mid-February, and will continue into June. I'm teaching some good courses this semester: one on the novel as a genre, a reprise of my fall-semester American literature survey course (read: no new prep!), and a new course called "The American Wilderness."
 
The wilderness course is a new one I'm developing, and I'm told that nothing similar has ever been offered at AUB, which is neat. It is listed in the catalog as both an English and an American Studies course. We're covering a lot of ground, so to speak: The first part of the course investigates the intellectual, legal, and literary history of the wilderness idea in the U. S.  The second part of the course will focus on the way wilderness is managed as public land. This will include lots of conversation about the Park Service and a case study or two about the dilemmas faced by park management. The third part of the course will look at the ways in which wilderness is simulated and represented in 21st-century popular culture.
 
I am also trying to get students to compare the role of wilderness in the U.S. with the role of natural spaces here in Lebanon. To that end I've invited a guest speaker from a local conservation non-profit to talk to the class about conservation efforts in Lebanon. It's really interesting to see the very recent emphasis on hiking trails and nature preserves and think about how important peaceful natural places must be to a country used to decades of war.
 
So far, students have been engaged and enthusiastic in class. We started off talking about the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. No, that's not a typo--it is a former chemical weapons factory and Superfund site that the U.S. Army handed over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2004. It is now billed as "the nation's most ironic nature preserve." As you might imagine, it provided lots of fodder for discussion. Some students mentioned the oil spills and environmental degradation that resulted in Lebanon from the civil war, which was a good reminder for me of how wilderness and natural areas are often-overlooked casualties of violence.
 
Of course, not everything has gone smoothly in class. For one thing, I assigned the Thoreau's classic "Ktaadn" section of his book The Maine Woods. I'd forgotten that the passage I assigned begins with him breakfasting on "some raw pork" along with a "wafer of hard bread." In a city where getting pork products of any kind can be quite a challenge, I imagined students throwing down the essay in disgust when they read that Henry David was chowing down not only on the flesh of swine, but the RAW flesh of swine. Surprisingly, though, no one brought it up in class.
 
Even though I myself had not been dining on raw pork or anything similar,  I had a mild stomach bug earlier in the week (I'm fine now--it was just a 24 hour thing). In an uncanny replay of my first week of fall semester classes, I taught my American Wilderness class while feeling like my stomach was a wilderness of its own. I made it through 40 minutes of my 50 minute class before I hastily dismissed the students and then...well, let's just say that I was very glad there was a trash can in the corner of the classroom. Talk about embarrassing teaching moments! As I stood there in the corner clutching the trash can I heard one student say, "Oh, I wondered why we were getting out early." Ha!
 
Aside from that little incident, though, I must say that I'm pleased with my classes this semester. I'm glad to have the opportunity to see what the American wilderness looks like through the eyes of my Lebanese undergrads. And when I get some free time, I'll work on my baba ghanoush technique and start thinking about where to travel during Easter break!

Baba Ghanoush

On Sunday Jeff and I went on another hike with a local hiking group. In the course of our trek, we chatted with an ex-pat American woman who had attended a demostration of some traditional Lebanese cooking techniques. One of the things she'd learned was a traditional method of making baba ghanoush, the delicious eggplant dip with a mildly smoky flavor that tastes so good on flat bread. She told us that the best way to cook the eggplant before squishing it up into dip was to simply roast it over an open flame, peel the charred skin off, and then voila--eggplant dip.
 
I decided to give the technique a try. I covered the stovetop with foil, as I knew the roasting process would be a messy proposition. With the aid of a fork stuck in either end of the eggplant, I plopped it right on the burner and waited to see what happened. Sure enough, the skin began to crinkle and char, and juices began to bubble out through holes cut in the skin. I kept turning the eggplant much as you would with a marshmallow over a campfire. Although the woman told us that it took about 30 minutes to roast a whole eggplant, mine seemed to lose all structural integrity after about 15 minutes. It just flopped messily whenever I tried to turn it, and I feared that at any moment it would fall apart completely. So I took it off the burner, let it steam in a covered glass dish for about 10 minutes, and then cut it open.
 
As I peeled the blackened skin off it, I observed that the outside flesh was nice and mushy, but the inside was still pretty stringy. I should have let it roast for the whole thirty minutes! Nonetheless, I tried to leave the stringiest bits out and did my best to mash up the rest with a fork. I then added some tahini, olive oil, lemon juice (from a lemon from a Druze woman's lemon tree; a souvenir from an earlier hike), and garlic and stirred it all up the best I could. It ended up looking like the baba ghanoush you'd see in a restaurant, but when you stick a fork in it, you discover that it is as stringy as the guts of a pumpkin. Next time I'll definitely let it cook longer.
 
Oh, and in the last photo, Jeff shows off how appetizing the fresh eggplant looked before I started roasting it to death!
 

Flowers!

I just had to post a photo of the beautiful flowers that my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins sent me for my birthday. Aren't they beautiful? They were delivered to the English department office at school, and the office staff said they were glad to be able to enjoy them for a few hours before I picked them up and took them home. They coveted them, I'm sure! The yellow roses, lillies, and purple something-or-others look stunning together. It is amazing to think that my family in the US can order a beautiful arrangement and have a Beirut florist deliver it right to my office. It makes the world seem that much smaller. Now my apartment has an extra dose of color and a delicious rosy scent. Thanks Auntie and Unckie!

Egypt (and my Birthday!)

While the east coast was suffering through icy winter temperatures, I snuck out of Beirut for a few days and made for an even sunnier spot: Egypt! Jeff and I were able to get away for nearly a week during the short semester break, and it was a wonderful trip.
 
As we prepared to land in Cairo, Jeff reminded me that Egypt is, in fact, in Africa. I know I shouldn't need to be reminded of such things, but in the excitement of preparing to see the pyramids and such, I overlooked the fact that I would be visiting a continent I've never seen before. That made stepping off the plane into the Cairo sunshine all the more exciting.
 
We got up early the next morning and headed for Giza to see the pyramids and the Sphinx. Jeff's friend Paula had forewarned us that the approach to the pyramids is not a long and dusty walk through the desert, but rather a simple cab ride through what looks like just another urban neighborhood. And that's exactly right: before I even knew to look for them, there the pyramids were, looming large over the bustling streets of Giza. Our timing was perfect: we arrived before the hoards of tour buses and were able to ascend the steep and very small chute up into the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid. It was really neat being up inside the structure that I had seen so many times in photos. When we got into the burial chamber there was a group of New Age Scandinavian tourists meditating and doing what looked like yoga while communing with...something or other. After we had our look around, we descended the chute, only this time there were big groups of tourists coming up the other way. I didn't think we'd fit, but we did. It was pretty tight, though. After looking at the pyramids, we walked down to see the Sphinx. It was just as neat as I'd imagined. I especially like the way its tail wraps all the way around its back.
 
Once back in Cairo, we saw some neat old Coptic Christian churches, and also visited a mosque. I'd never been in one before, and had to buy a scarf to put over my head before I went in. Jeff went in the men's side, and I went in the women's side. The women's side was a tiny room jam-packed with women looking through a plexiglass window at some object (possibly the Quran, but I couldn't get close enough to tell) in a silver cage. The men's side sounded a lot more spacious. In any case, the blue sparkly scarf stayed with me for the rest of the trip. You never know when you'll need to cover up!
 
As if our legs weren't tired enough after climbing around inside the pyramid, we spent the next day walking through the immense and mildly disorienting Egyptian Museum. We made a beeline for the royal mummy room and checked out all the meticulously preserved bodies of the pharohs. It was pretty astounding to see how well preserved they were, though the comments on the exhibits about how decayed King So-and-so's teeth were struck me as mildly rude. How would you like to have tourists looking at your cavities after you're gone?!
 
We were about to leave the museum thinking we'd seen everything when we stumbled upon the room containing all the treasure from King Tut's tomb. Seeing the gold mask of the boyish King Tut was really powerful: again, it was something I'd seen images of for years, so it was really neat to see it.
 
The next day we took a cab ride out to some even more ancient sites: the step pyramid of Sakkara, which predates those at Giza (note: Jeff took the above nice photo of it!), and some pyramids in Dashur. We climbed way down into the burial chamber of that pyramid, and got caught in a sandstorm when we got out, with the wind blowing grit everywhere. We sought refuge in our cab and went next to the museum at Memphis. No, there was no bust of Elvis in Memphis, but there was a statue of Ramses II, also known as Ozymandius. The Shelley sonnet of the same name was inspired by a different statue, but I couldn't help thinking of it just the same.
 
The other neat thing about that day was that it was my birthday. I thought about the same day one year before when I was eating homemade chocolate cake and watching "Life on Mars" with my friend Karen in Maine (thanks, Karen!). That night as Jeff and I stood and watched the Nile flow by, I felt very fortunate to have friends and adventures on multiple continents.
 
The rest of the trip was great, too: climbing up into the minaret of a mosque and seeing the city stretched out before us, watching men balance huge trays of flatbread on their heads, and wandering through a colorful and chaotic market. It was a great way to spend my birthday, too. Maybe I'll try for a new continent next year!

More about Jordan

Fall semester has finally ended. We now get about a week and a half off and then plunge headlong into spring semester. The two and a half week break back in December (all the breaks here seem to begin and end mid-week for some reason) and our trip to Jordan seem like an eternity ago. Nonetheless, I wanted to write a bit more about some of the neat things we saw there.
 
My last post shows me dipping a toe into the Jordan River; above is a photo of the river just meandering along. We stopped to see it at a place called Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, where legend has it that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Because the site is right on the border with Israel (or "the government to the south," as the Lebanese say), visitors have to take a guided tour so we don't accidentally wander across. The armed Israelis on the other side of the river made it look pretty forbidding. It felt a bit strange being so close to Israel: Lebanon and many other Middle Eastern countries won't let you in if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport, so I just figured I'd never see it. But there it was, right across the muddy water of the river Jordan. Our visit was a couple days before the start of the Gaza massacre, otherwise I bet it would've felt even more awkward being so near.
 
Another interesting site that looms large in the imagination is Mt. Nebo. The name might not sound familiar, but Nebo is the mountaintop where the 120-year-old Moses is thought to have stood and gazed upon the promised land. I'm sure the above sign wasn't there in Moses's day to obstruct his view, but I suspect the landscape beyond it looks much the same. It was really windy up there. I'm sure the next time I hear Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, I'll think of the windy summit of Mt. Nebo.
 
In addition to standing on lofty mountaintops, we also visited the lowest place on Earth: the Dead Sea. The Lonely Planet says that "compared to ocean water, the Dead Sea has 20 times more bromine, 15 times more magnesium, and 10 times more iodine." We of course had to take a dip in its salty waters, and it was really amazing how buoyant it was. The signs posted at the swimming area tell you to crouch down and lean backwards to get into the water; if you go in leaning forward, the buoyancy lifts your legs up and tilts you face-first into the brine. Once in the water, you can lean back as if you are sitting in a chair and the water just holds you there. It was really relaxing. If you float on your back, the water lifts you up so high it feels like it is trying to spit you out. And of course, I couldn't resist trying on some of the mud. There are little vats of mud here and there in the swimming area, as the minerals in Dead Sea mud are supposed to give you healthy skin. All I got was muddy, but it was really fun.
 
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. The only question now is whether I will finish my grading and course prep in time to take another quick trip somewhere else before the start of spring semester!

Jordan

If you've been following world news lately, I'm sure you've heard about the awful situation in Gaza. You may have also heard about the world-wide demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza and protests against the U.S.-supported Israeli invasion. Perhaps you saw footage of the crowd demonstrating outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
 
I, too, saw it all on tv from the relative calm of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, one of the most stable countries in the Middle East. Jordan is south of Lebanon, just north of Saudi Arabia, and a stone's throw from Israel and Palestine. Ironically, I was closer to the conflict than I'd ever been before, yet felt more distanced from it than I would have had I been in Beirut. While floating serenely in the Dead Sea (which was so neat that it warrants its own blog entry!) and basking in the Jordanian sunshine, I could see the West Bank on the opposite shore. It was unnerving to think that I was vacationing while the people of Gaza were suffering so nearby. 
 
When Jeff and I returned to Beirut this afternoon, we were the only westerners on the flight from Amman. I admit that I felt a little apprehensive about returning to Beirut, and wondered what sort of atmosphere we'd find there. However, as we flew low over Lebanon's snow-capped mountains and saw the sunlight sparkling off the Mediterranean Sea, I realized that I was glad to be back.
 
I'll write more soon about Jordan's ruins, the desert, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, the camels, the cats, and the amazing winter sunshine. In the meantime, above is a sneak preview of some of the photos from the trip. There's a sand dune near Wadi Rum in the south, me sticking my toe in the Jordan River, and Jeff by a road sign. Here's hoping for peace in 2009.