I have arrived safely in Beirut.
I'm living in Basta, above a bookstore, in a spacious and open apartment. The woman who owns the apartment, Sana, lives here as well, and over the past few days she's helped me more than I can say with getting settled and adjusted. She used to teach both English and French, and so she'll be giving me lessons in Lebanese Arabic. Like most students who studied Arabic in the US, I learned Modern Standard Arabic, or fousha (فصح ), which is quite different from the Arabic that people use in daily life. I can recognize some words, but many are either totally different or are pronounced in a way that I can't understand. I'm picking it up, though, and I hope that I'll be able to hold conversations soon.
This is all I'll say for now - my computer has not been able to connect to the internet, so I've been using Sana's and so I can't upload pictures. As soon as I'm online with my laptop, I'll be updating much more frequently.
I'm living in Basta, above a bookstore, in a spacious and open apartment. The woman who owns the apartment, Sana, lives here as well, and over the past few days she's helped me more than I can say with getting settled and adjusted. She used to teach both English and French, and so she'll be giving me lessons in Lebanese Arabic. Like most students who studied Arabic in the US, I learned Modern Standard Arabic, or fousha (فصح ), which is quite different from the Arabic that people use in daily life. I can recognize some words, but many are either totally different or are pronounced in a way that I can't understand. I'm picking it up, though, and I hope that I'll be able to hold conversations soon.
This is all I'll say for now - my computer has not been able to connect to the internet, so I've been using Sana's and so I can't upload pictures. As soon as I'm online with my laptop, I'll be updating much more frequently.
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