Views of Beirut, 2012

As I was gazing through the bus window at the Beirut cityscape one afternoon, I realized how this place never ceases to charm me. There is something about Beirut, a beauty that is neither quite slick nor gritty, but is nevertheless there, and undeniably so. The elegant balcony railings, the rebellious graffiti, the colorful shutters, and this omnipresent warm yellow, coating the walls of so many buildings.

I haven't been very good at posting pictures on this blog. I actually haven't been very good at taking pictures, period. But here are a few I took last year, mostly in the neighborhood of Hamra and nearby. I have since then moved to the east side of Beirut, and hopefully I'll take the time to capture some more views of the city.

Manara

A Season of Goodbyes

While spring has only indecisively tiptoed its way back to Beirut, the end of the school year is already inching closer, which means the inevitable graduation of the class with whom I began this master's degree endeavor. I would have been one of them, if I wasn't willingly delaying my thesis for a myriad of reasons—not least of which my desire to stay in Lebanon for as long as possible.

The ebb and flow of arrivals and departures in Beirut seems to follow a migration pattern mirroring the academic calendar. And while I have already seen some very dear friends leave Lebanon in the past year and a half, the next two months are filled with the exodus of many people I have grown to care about since I have come here.

I have come to the strange realization of how fragile the social nest I have built here can be, and how unwittingly reliant it has been on people who have always meant to leave, at some point or another.