I finally got my transcript request form in today. I made the trip to campus yesterday to turn in my remaining library books so that I could have them sign off, authorizing that I had no more debts to the University. Unfortunately, I forgot one book, the Rough Guide to Syria and Lebanon I checked out before my trip, and I had to come all the way back to campus just to turn in one book and get the library's signature. Once I accomplished this, all I had to do was turn in my request form and now I am khalaas!
The first bus leaving from campus back to Zamalek is at 12:00, and since finishing the transcript stuff took all of twelve minutes, I have some time to kill here. Hence why I am posting right now. A usual routine for me killing time at the library computer consists of a number of things. First I will check my ND gmail, then espn.com, blueandgold.com, and facebook. If I've blogged recently I will also check to see if anyone has commented. After these sites I check nytimes.com and washingtonpost.com for the day's headlines. Then I might head upstairs to the third (second) floor where the rest of my friends congregate to do homework. Going to the top floor is usually necessary since most other parts of the library get turned into social spaces between classes.
I say third (second) floor because the weird way stories on buildings are numbered here. The ground floor of each building here is called the Plaza level, and each room number starts with P, followed by a number. The second story is floor 1, with room numbers start in the 100s. Some buildings are built into the sides of hills, like a suburban house with a walk-out basement. In a building such as this, the very bottom floor, the "walk-out basement floor," is called the Garden level. The next story is the Plaza, then the third story is the first floor. So in the library, the third story up is the second floor. My friend's apartment building is even weirder. He lives on the sixth floor, which is actually 10th story of the building. When you take the elevator down from his floor (pressing the number 6 in the elevator actually takes you to story 10), you pass below floor 1 through at least six stories all labeled as floor -1 before reaching the ground floor. These bottom floors serve as shops and offices for small businesses.
*Beirut*
I don't know that I mentioned it in the first post on Beirut, but the city center has a LOT of money. We walked by a Porsche dealership and saw two Porsche Carerras and a Mazeratti just while walking down the street. We saw another sign of the amount of money in the city next to our hostel. Everyday we would walk by a travel agency advertising deals on round-trip flights for vacations in Europe or Japan or the Caribbean. But mixed within these round-trip deal were also advertisement for great one-way rates for flights out of Manilla and Columbia. Many rich families in Beirut have maids/nannies. Sonja and I saw more than a few south asians watching over young children while their wealthy Beiruti parents were either shopping or working.
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I can't think of any comments better than Mrs. Wryly's. Suffice it to say that I can't wait until you are back home! I want to hear all the stories and see you in person. I want to clear your cereal bowl from the table when I wake up because you had a late snack after I went to bed. I want to wake you at 11 because it's time you got up no matter what time you went to sleep. I want to give you that disapproving look when you take out your frustration on my furniture or my house. I want to remind you for the gazillionth time to not leave dishes in the family room where Hailey can lick them clean. I want to welcome you back with more exuberance than the dog! But most of all, I want to see that this experience has helped you to become the person that God meant for you to be. I pray that your sadness over the temporary absence of your friends will be replaced by the joy of seeing your family.
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