I’ve been in Lebanon for about a week now, and while I’ve had much to say about my first impressions about life here, I haven’t had a consistent internet connection. I spent my first week living on-campus in temporary housing, and was only granted access to American University of Beirut’s internet on Monday afternoon. I’ve also been busy finding housing and dealing with the incredibly complicated process that is registering for classes. However, now that I have both an apartment and am ready to start classes next week, I’m beginning to settle into life here.

My journey to Lebanon began on Wednesday, September 14 with an 11 hour flight from JFK Airport in New York to Amman, Jordan. Yes, this is my second time making that journey in a 3-month period, only this time my flight to Amman was practically empty and seemed to go faster. When I landed in Amman the next evening (Jordan is 7 hours ahead of New York, meaning you lose a lot of time during the journey) I had a 3 hour layover at Amman’s Queen Alia Airport, where I was in the same terminal I had departed from less than a month before. Soon enough, I was on my one hour connecting flight to Beirut.

As the plane descended into Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, I noticed how nice Lebanon’s coastline looked at night. When I stepped out of the airport I got a better view of this scenery, and from certain points, you can see Lebanon’s vast mountains in the distance with lights from small villages outlining the peaks. Unfortunately, I have yet to get a picture of this.

This is actually a lot prettier at night

The first thing I did the next day was explore AUB’s campus, which is probably the prettiest campus I have seen so far. This is mostly because of its Italian-style architecture, nice forested areas, and its location right on the Mediterranean Sea.

Much of my first day was spend doing orientation activities, which I didn’t mind too much since it allowed me to meet fellow international students and to get to know the AUB campus better. AUB’s campus has a gym, a pool, and its own private beach (although it lacks sand and it more like a jetty). That night, AUB hosted a dinner at a very nice Lebanese restaurant (kind of in a castle), and I definitely wouldn’t mind eating Lebanese food every night. We were give a variety of mezze, or small dishes (like tapas), which included hummus, baba ghanoush (eggplant spread), minced lamb sausage, and fatayer (fried dough with either cheese or spinach inside).

The next day I managed to get a mobile phone, but unfortunately didn’t have anyone’s number. Therefore, I spent most of the day wandering around by myself and got to know the neighborhood better. AUB is located in West Beirut in a neighborhood called “Hamra,” which is Arabic for “red.” It’s named after Hamra Street, the main commercial avenue running through the neighborhood that is abound with upscale shopping and western-style restaurants (and an Applebee’s!).

I decided to put my Lonely Planet guide to use next, and traveled along Hamra Street to downtown Beirut. I didn’t get to see everything downtown, and will definitely be making some return trips, but I did get to see a couple major landmarks. The first, Place de l’Etoile, is Lebanon’s main square downtown and contains an impressive clock tower and Lebanon’s Parliament building. The streets converging on this square are all closed to traffic, making it very nice to walk around. However, the cafes and stores lining these pedestrian-only streets seem to be very upscale.

A very short walk from Place de l’Etoile is Martyr’s Square (or Place des Martyrs in French, as the signs in the area say). Despite Lebanon’s recent conflicts, this Square is actually named after the rebels that died in an uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Lebanon up until about a century ago. There’s not much at all surrounding the square, with the exception of the massive Mohammed al-Amin Mosque, built in 2007. This mosque, one of Beirut’s major landmarks, was built by former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was responsible for much of the country’s reconstruction following its 15-year civil war. However, Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005 in a massive bomb attack, and the area around the mosque now holds his memorial.

I then walked a few blocks further east to an area called Gemmayze, known for its nightlife and sizeable row of bars. However, I decided not to have too much fun that night, and turned around at this point. I’ll definitely have to revisit all of these sites later during the day, and will have to take more pictures.

Anyway, here’s some general observations and impressions from my first week in Beirut:

-Beirut is divided between West Beirut, mostly Sunni Muslim, East Beirut, mostly Christian, and South Beirut, mostly Shia Muslim.

-Beirut is probably the most Western city I’ve been to in the Middle East, and is more liberal than both Amman and Cairo. There are more bars walking distance to my apartment than there were in all of Amman.

-The US Dollar is fairly widely accepted in Lebanon, especially at more upscale bars, restaurants, and stores. Most ATMs will also ask you if you would like to withdraw Lebanese Lira or US Dollars. However, I’ve been sticking to using Lebanese Lira most of the time as it’s accepted everywhere.

-Whereas Jordan was adorned with pictures of King Abdullah II everywhere, Lebanon has a much more pluralistic political life as it is not a dictatorship or monarchy. Political posters cover several walls in my neighborhood, and pictures of notable politicians from varying parties are a popular fixture of certain neighborhoods.

-As I learned today, it rains in Lebanon for extended periods of time. This is interesting to contrast against the 2-3 times it rained during the four months I was in Egypt and the complete lack of rain in Jordan this summer.

-There are blackouts on a rotating schedule for three hours on every day. For example, from 6AM to 9AM our apartment was without power yesterday. Today our apartment was without power from 9AM to noon, and tomorrow it will be without power from noon to 3PM. The next day it will be without power from 3PM to 6PM before reverting back to 6AM to 9AM