Just another day in paradise...

So I'm being a little facetious. (Is that the right spelling? or the right term?) Oh well, I had my first day of culture shock, overwhelming, pissed off, just leave me be and let me sleep kind of day yesterday.
We moved into our apartment at the 'My Home Residences', went grocery shopping, and just had a productive kind-of day. I still can't get my computer to work at school, our financial aid from the US isn't showing on our fee statements for school, and I'm sick of being stared at.
Okay, today I'm not feeling that bad, but yesterday, I just wanted to shut myself off from the world, and fall asleep and forget it all.
I'm glad it happened yesterday, and not tomorrow. We start classes tomorrow finally. I'm a bit nervous, but I'm sure it will all go well.
I learned something about Lebanese politics the other night. Unlike in the states, the president is elected by the Parliament. i was wondering why there was a significant lack of election propaganda on the streets leading up to yesterday's election. well, not yesterday' election, as it was postponed until October 23rd. i guess we'll see if that one happens or not. The real elections, by the people, are for the parliament, which isn't until 2009. I guess that's when you will really see politics in Lebanon. I hope we're here for it, for the experience.
If you can believe it, we went out the other night. Yep, we stayed up past midnight. and.... drumroll please.... Jeremy actually enjoyed going out. We met up with some other students from AUB, mostly Americans, for jazz at one of the hotels. a little strange at first, as there were mostly expats there, we met up with some lebanese friends, and then went to another cafe. ended up meeting 2 cool students from poland, just passing through, and ran into about 20 other international students at AUB. really had a great night.
I'm surprised at how many people we have actually met. people are so nice, whether they are lebanese or other nationalities. it has been wonderful.

Day ummmmm..... I think it's 6

We received quite a shock the other night, while sitting down to dinner at Zaatar w Zeit, a fun Lebanese restaurant, the news came on (all in arabic of course), and we saw flames, and destroyed buildings, and people crying and the obvious signs of a car bomb, and a few dead people. And the footage kept going... and going... and we realized that it must be local for all of the footage that they were showing. Turns out, as most of you probably know, that there was a car bomb in east Beirut a few days ago, targeting one of the anti-Syrian MPs. I won't go into the politics of this, as there are a lot. But, as I'm writing this, Jeremy and I are fine, and we saw it on the news just like you. (We are in west Beirut - FYI)
And life continues as normal. It is not that people don't care, they just know that they have to continue living, or they would all go crazy and not function so much. Maybe that's why they all smoke.
Life here has been fun. I think the hardest part for me so far has been the jetlag. We actually got one night of full sleep a couple nights ago, but most nights we are up from about midnight to 4 or 5 in the morning. wide awake. can't fall asleep. watch senseless tv. hope the guys singing down on the street will shut up. hope the car that keeps honking its horn at 4 in the morning will all of a sudden go hoarse. yep - it's like that.

Queen Alia International Airport - Amman, Jordan

The time has come for the next JOURNEY to begin. Sitting at Starbucks, with my husband beside me, ready to fall fast asleep. Our travels started about 23 hours ago as we departed from the Mack household in Bettendorf, IA. On to Chicago we went, ate some good American burgers before heading to Ohare Airport. The flight to Amman was surprisingly short, for a 12 hour flight. And now, here we are. Well, for a few more hours. We are trying to keep ourselves awake so that we can sleep through the night, and wake up in the morning refreshed. Hopefully, with not too much jet-lag. We are 8-hours ahead here, so though we would only be awake a couple of hours back home, it is almost time for bed. Screws with the cycles a little. I guess that is all for now. We will be in Beirut in about 12 hours or so, so I will try to keep you all updated.
Lots of love.