Weekends in Lebanon

Hi All,
Sorry it’s been a few days between blogs but the weekends here get very busy. Socializing in this part of the world is a necessity, like food and shelter. Lebanese love to party and are rarely on time…..two traits of mine that I now realize are just part of my DNA!!!!! And weekends are for enjoying friends, going out, staying up really late (we’re not doing too much of that one) and looking good.

I have learned from the local Lebanese friends we’ve made that the Lebanese are all about appearances. They spend a fortune on designer clothes, big, expensive jewelry, large houses, hot cars (more Porsches, Rovers, Bentleys, Ferraris and Mercedes here than even Southern CA!) and big parties – even if they don’t have a cent! The women, who are truly beautiful naturally, wear tight, low cut outfits with high, high heels – even to the supermarket - no matter what their age, shape or weight. Wristwatches are about the size of Big Ben. Big hair, big lips, big boobs – often enhanced artificially – are the norm. Lebanon has more plastic surgeons than any other country and is proud of its reputation as THE place to get “work” done. (Say, maybe this is my golden opportunity; right now I think I am the only woman in Lebanon without Grand Canyon cleavage!!!)

Restaurants are the size of a football field, room after room of tables, serving hundreds of diners at a time. Dinner is late – often starting at 10 p.m. and going for hours. Kids are part of the festivities and they just fall asleep at the table when they get tired.

Weddings are the best parties, starting with a huge church ceremony which is followed by a long car procession to the reception. The bride and groom ride in a decorated car and the bride usually stands up through the sunroof and waves at the onlookers along the way. The reception will last all night, literally, with food, drinks, Arabic music and dancing until well past sunrise. There are always fireworks, the big ones like we see at 4th of July, usually twice or 3 times during the evening. Everyone dresses to the nines – black tie for men, sequined gowns, stiletto heels, flashy jewelry and of course, the 3 Bigs for the women. We can see and hear a popular restaurant from our bedroom and the music was still playing at 8:30 a.m.

This past weekend we had a special treat, meeting a terrific Lebanese family, the Mardellis, and their friends for lunch at their flat in the hills overlooking Beirut. In another wonderful small world story, when a friend of mine from our condo complex in St. Pete, Judy Johnson, heard I was going to Lebanon, she told me about two teenagers from Lebanon, Hilda and Joe, who lived with her family in CT for several years while they were in college. They had escaped Lebanon during the civil war, but the ship they were on was bombed near Cyprus. They finally made it to the US after about 4 months, and lived with an uncle in CT for awhile. When that situation changed, Judy and her husband took them in and they were able to finish college. Hilda met and married her husband Adel in the US. He was at MIT and is now a Civil Engineer for a large multinational company in Lebanon. She is also an Engineer, and they have three adorable daughters.

Judy gave me Hilda’s e-mail before we left the States and we communicated and made plans to get together here. So, long story, long, we went to lunch Saturday at their lovely flat which overlooks Beirut and the Mediterranean. Lunch was in the garden and Adel’s uncle and his wife and 2 kids were visiting from Montreal, Canada and Adel’s best friend and his wife were visiting from Saudi Arabia so it was quite a party. We had another wonderful Lebanese feast with many of the foods I’ve described earlier, hummos, fresh, crisp salata (salad with olive oil and lemon dressing), kafta kebabs, warm pita, olives, nuts, yummy grilled beef and chicken shish kabobs, and fatayeh – which are small dough pockets filled with spinach or meat or cheese. Each filling has a different shape. My mom used to make these and memories of her rolling the dough and shaping the individual pies came flooding back at first taste.

Thick, dark Lebanese coffee, served in espresso sized cups, followed. Unlike Turkish coffee, you add your own sugar, but never milk or cream. I am beginning to realize how the Lebanese can stay up so late, it’s the caffeine! Then dessert! We had stopped at a wonderful Lebanese bakery on the way and bought a rich strawberry torte and a huge pot of Lebanese ice cream.

I have to tell you about this ice cream. I tasted it the other night when Walid and Shiron (remember them from the cherry orchard?) came by the Stone’s one evening last week and stayed for dinner. Walid had brought this light brown clay pot filled with a creamy white substance topped with a few pistachios. (I thought he had made it himself, but no, that’s the way you buy it, pot and all). In it was ice cream that is truly the creamiest, most delicious I have ever had. It is a thick cream base, flavored with a little rose water and a type of tree sap called mestique (sp????), which is used like a sugar in the ice cream. At first bite, I remembered that flavor from my early, early childhood and haven’t had it since. What a wonderful discovery. I can buy the mestique here to bring home!

Anyway, back to the Mardelli’s. Charlie and I brought a big pot of this ice cream, and Hilda had made a chocolate cake, a yummy blueberry cheesecake tart and someone else brought a huge ice cream cake…..so the table looked like a pastry case had exploded on it! Well, we did some damage, but nothing like the 7 kids did. No wonder they have so much energy…..

After the ritually stuffing was completed (Charlie says it’s a Lebanese tradition to measure you for a funnel when you arrive in the country, insert it in your mouth and continue to fill it with delicious food the entire time you are here…..I agree), we sat around the garden and talked for a few more hours. It was again fascinating to hear about life in Lebanon, but also in Saudi Arabia for a young American couple of Lebanese birth.

Here’s the big news. I may have a family/ancestral connection through Adel’s business partner. He is an Alkhazin and his family has records and documents tracing the family’s lineage. As I mentioned, the family is still very prominent here and is one of the oldest and wealthiest families, at one time owning much of central and northern Lebanon. I was teased about being a possible Sheika (female Sheik) and owner of half of the country. If I’d known all of this, I’d have been here years ago!!!!! Of course, I made everyone bow and scrape to the Sheika – yeah, like that happened! Anyway, I spoke with his partner on the phone and we’re going to get together this week! Keep those fingers crossed!

Judy, thank you, thank you, thank you for hooking us up with Hilda and Joe.

As the sun was setting, Huda, James, Charlie and I piled all 7 kids into the SUV and headed to the mall to see the new Harry Potter movie. Movies are universal and all the first run movies from the US open here about a week later and have both Arabic and French subtitles. It was almost surreal sitting in a movie theater in Beirut watching Harry, Hermione and Ron prepare to fight Voldemort. Makes me appreciate how small the world really is.

After dropping off the kids that weren’t coming home with us, we headed up the mountain. Traffic was worse than ever as this is the real start of the tourist season here. August is the busiest month for tourists and about 5 million tourists are expected this season. When you consider the population of the entire country is only 4 million, that’s mind boggling. Most tourists come from the Arab countries or are Lebanese who live elsewhere and return for vacation. This year, Ramadan begins in late August, so most Muslim visitors will stay until then.

Sunday, the British Ambassador to Lebanon and her husband, Hugo, a French documentary film maker came up for lunch. They have been close friends of Huda and James since Frances was Ambassador to Yemen several years ago. They have two children, James and Nina. Nina and Nadine and Dina are great friends and Nina had been staying here or the girls had gone to her house every night last week. James and his friend, Kevin, came along and the kids spent the day doing whatever teenagers do everywhere – hanging out.

Later, the Stone’s Lebanese partner, George and his family stopped by and we all spent a lovely afternoon in the garden. Hugo plays guitar and had his 12-string with him so we had our own private entertainer! Frances is a marathon runner as well as a diplomat and has had postings all over the Middle East in her career with the British Foreign Service. Man, am I feeling dull! Although everyone seems to be really interested in who we are and what we’ve done, especially our cruising adventure. Later, we zoomed down the mountain to see the Moscow Circus at the Casino du Liban and traffic Sunday was worse than Saturday. I have a feeling this will be a growing trend.

Looks like we’ll be staying another 2 weeks; returning home sometime during the week of August 17-21. We’re trying to change tickets now, but the internet is not available so it’s been challenging. I might be asking some of you to make a couple of phone calls for me to cancel some appointments if I can’t get online in the next day or two.

We’re well except for the constant ear issue with going from sea level to 6000 feet in 45 minutes twice a day or more. My body is never sure where it is, frankly. But after the face lift, tummy tuck and silicon injections, it won’t be my body anyway!!!!

Love to all,
Lari