My beloved readers, am very sorry we haven’t been blogging lately. Last weeks of Europe were hectic, but coming here home to Lebanon was even more hectic. You know how it goes: must see all the family and all the friends in the same time. Furthermore, my parents are coming here the first time ever tonight, so we needed to do all kinds of preparations for them.

My parents have been a bit nervous to come here, as well as they have been exited. Last night, my mum send a panicked sms: there has been clashes in Northern Lebanon, is it still safe to come? We had been on our mountain village house for bbqing the whole day, and didn’t know the shit of the news. Quickly checked, and normal stuff: anti-government vs. pro-government shootings, few killed, dozens wounded. Nothing big deal in here. Yes mommy, you are still safe to come.

Anyhow, coming home has been cheerful. Nothing much has changed here in a year, except that Downtown Beirut is normal for the first time I am in here. No air raids and bombs, no more Hizbullah tents. But Hizbullah flags have been replaced with the new ones: German flags! For some reason, most of the spoiled brats with their fancy cars seem to support Germany in Euro football. And believe me: they truly SUPPORT! Downtown is full of big screens showing the games, and people have flags, horns and facial make-ups to cheer to their teams. I have never seen this kind of enthusiasm even in Europe. A friend of our said that it is normal for Lebanese always take some side to piss off the others. Always bickering and quarrel on something, if not politics then soccer. Guess so.

Also, once again I have come across of cultural differences I just cant understand. For example, I asked Sasi if it is possible to visit the Hariri mosque downtown. He said he didn’t know, and he refused to as the taxi driver because, he said, “i don’t know if he is a Muslim, and it is a weird question to ask. You just can’t ask if it is possible to visit Mosque”. I didn’t understand and I still don’t.

Even weirder was the clash of mosquito nets. I hate mosquito, and they just love me. I don’t know if its my white Northern skin which is delicious to them or if I smell so bad, but they are all over me always. And especially on the mountain home there is plenty of them. So I asked where I could buy a mosquito net over the bed. Sasi looked me weirdly and said, “we don’t use them”. And why, I demanded. “Because only Arabs use them, we Christians use Vap”. Yhym. But I don’t want to use sprays, I suffocate myself, and I want my net. So he asked his parents from where we could find them. My parents-in-law have probably used on the strange questions of their foreign daughter-in-law, so they didn’t laugh too much. After a family meeting, the possibilities were either getting one from Syria delivered by a family friend, or getting one from Dahiye, the Shiia neighbourhood of Beirut.

Finally, I managed to find the net from Bourj Hammoud, an Armenian neighbourhood of Beirut, and been happily sleeping under it without any bites, Christian habit or not.

Yours, Maiku

PS: Sasi wrote about his home coming to his personal blog jlian.info. Have a look!