Happy new year!

I know I'm a little late, but you'll have to forgive me. You see—Lebanese people are always late. But happy new year nonetheless and I hope that the first week of 2010 has brought you all good things. I haven't updated in a while because I haven't had internet access, but today I am officially connected (JOY TO THE WORLD!). So expect more frequent updates from your Arab-influenced friend.

A lot has happened to me and although I would like to take you on a detailed and thorough adventure through the past few weeks, I know that you, unlike me, may actually have a job and somewhere to be. Or you probably don't really care. So I'll give you a brief summary.

Mountain life, although filled with funny anecdotes about the electricity and the cold, quickly turned limiting as I realized I was seeing the same pair of 80-year-old women every day. Don't get me wrong, these women are feisty and fun, and I definitely put the jabal in the “horizon broadening experience” category, but when the heater stopped working in my room I quickly turned to my grandmother and said, “Please get me out of here.” She finally agreed to move into this apartment in Beirut a few days earlier than planned when she realized she was seeing the same 22-year-old every day and unlike herself, this 22-year-old was neither feisty nor fun.

As we were getting ready to move, we made a trip up to a nearby city to pick up a few things. In true mountain fashion, it started to pour. The road back was literally rocky and curvy, and with the rain it was even harder to navigate. But my grandma had been handing me the keys lately so that I could practice driving. I was so proud of myself, driving in Lebanon! If you can drive in Lebanon, you can drive anywhere!, they say. Well, I guess I can't drive anywhere, because I came around a bend and suddenly the wheels wouldn't turn, and the car wouldn't stop. I felt the car sliding in the water, towards the edge of the road. Naturally I did what any competent and adept driver would do and rammed into the monster tires of an 18-wheel truck. After the initial impact, I turned in shock to my grandmother in the passenger seat. I was blubbering, “Are you okay?” and she was blabbering “Are you okay?” so in short we were both okay. I turned around to check on my mother's sister-in-law and saw her sprawled across the backseat. I had a mini-heart attack, but when she sat up, her glasses diagonal on her face, and said “I bumped my toe”, I nearly passed out in relief. Everyone is fine, and we are really lucky. I know this kind of accident could happen anywhere, but I'm playing the newcomer card and just taking taxis from now on.

The new year was spent in my cousin's house turned nightclub where my mom's cousin kept serving me cranberry vodkas much to the displeasure of my grandmother who thought it was straight whiskey and kept feeding me bread-based foods. We waited for the countdown and then 5 minutes before midnight I guess all the old people got tired and said “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” and the hugging commenced, the confetti dropped, and then everyone left. I said, “What?”, shrugged, and sipped my cranberry vodka.

A few days later we moved to Downtown Beirut, which is an amazing location. There are remnant's of Beirut and Lebanon's past all over the city but there is a spirit of life here that I can't describe, tainted but positive, sectarian but helpful. Each neighborhood really deserves its own entry, so I'll keep this short and just say that it's phenomenal and I love Beirut already.

A few days ago, I interviewed with a great English publishing house here in Beirut for an editorial assistant position. If I get the job I would be helping them with a few projects and then pick up and develop projects on my own. I would also get the opportunity to travel with them to international book fairs as well as other Middle Eastern countries! Helping Lebanese and Arab authors get their words read and their voices heard is a very personal dream come true, so I was very excited when they called me yesterday for a second interview. Here's hoping! I'm also still looking to get involved in the film scene here but I think for now I'll see what opportunities present themselves in the field. There's really no industry here so to find an actual position is pretty difficult. And I'd rather work in publishing, which I also love, than work in television, which I don't plan to pursue and really don't have too high of an interest in at this point. So hopefully this progress will continue, but until then I've really been just trying to enjoy my time with my family and get to know the city, which is a person to get to know itself.

That's pretty much it from this side of the world. The news here keeps saying that Israel is planning to attack Lebanon in May, to which I respond by saying, “Crap.” Cool it Middle East, I'm here now. But other than that possibility I'm seeing a very bright and amazing 2010 up ahead.

For you that is. I'm just trying to stay out of war.

Hope you're all doing well! And again, happy new year!