Bittersweet Symphony
2004-04-28 at 9:59 a.m.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm leaving on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!! A travel agent finally called back, she's a friend of a cousin of a friend-cousin. Hee hee. So I have to leave right away or else we can't get a cheap enough ticket for me to go. I'm kind of glad because I hate anticipating something that's a month away. And yet now it's really scary because it's all happening so fast. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I have so much stuff to do and I'm just going to pretend that I don't have anything to do and I'll do it on Friday and Saturday. I'm flying to Atlanta, which is good because I've been there before, and then to Paris, which is kind of cool. I'll be in Paris for 4 hours. It's neat. But really it's not because it's going to take me 22 hours from the time my flight leaves here until I'm supposed to get to Beirut, and Aidan doesn't have his own seat. I'm prepared to be *miserable*. He'll fall asleep in a car seat, but not on a blanket on the ground and usually not in my arms, but last night he did, so I'm sure he can do so relatively without incident if he's really tired and I'm completely responsive to him. The only bad part will be if I have to go to the bathroom on the plane. I'll have to ask a flight attendant to hold him while I go, and he will most definitely cry unless I somehow manage to keep him asleep in the tranfer. I don't doubt that they will be willing to help me because he's definitely a charmer, and strangers are charmed. In an airport it would be easier because he could stand in the stall with me. OK, enough of mundanity. (it's not a word, I know)I'm going to *another* *country* in 4 days!! Not even a regular other country, but one in the Middle East. It is a little scary, because there was a bombing just yesterday in Damascus, which is entirely too close to Lebanon, both geographically and politically. And I have to go to the US embassy at least once while I'm there. So I'm a little scared. No guts no glory. Usually I say that when I'm watching Jeopardy, but it might apply here too. And anyway, I get to see Roman ruins. Tyre is one badass little city. It's one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and all the armies that have come to sack have to had to lay siege to it. Alexander had to, for like, 7 years, I think. Anyway, that's where I'll be. They call it "Sour." Not like sour, but like "sur." The ruins are on the very close outskirts of the city and in some places on the sea, there is an old city under the water and you can walk on top of the buildings. I also saw some pictures of very old stone coffins that have started to come out of the ground with time. Freaky. Pretty cool. That's what I'm most excited about. And little cafes where you can buy menushi (sort of like arabic pizza) for a dollar. And souks (old markets). I'm excited.
And so, I'll bid you adieu, mon cherie. It's Lebanon or bust. I'll write when I can get to an internet cafe.
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