The week before the concert

What a busy week! And we’re only half way through. Apart from everything else going on, we’ve had two choir rehearsals down this week - three to go. The AUB choir and Choral Society has been rehearsing every Wednesday night this semester, and this last week before the concert, we have five rehearsals, including the four-hour dress rehearsal on Sunday. All this work for one single performance on Monday night. It’s going to rock! (As far as rock can be applied to Haydn.)

Apart from Haydn’s Gloria, the Polyphonica, a special part of the choir, is doing one piece, and then we’re also singing a very interesting Arabic/Sufi song, and one in Finnish by Tormis. For this last piece, I am doing the solo together with two students. I am nervous, of course, but glad to be doing it. Some people find the piece really dreadful, but I think it’s fun and I feel very comfortable singing it – it reminds me of my Scandinavian childhood. I’m just hoping I’ll feel comfortable performing it in front of a packed Assembly Hall on Monday.

Will you come listen? Monday, 7:30 pm SHARP at Assembly Hall, The American University of Beirut campus.

Abraham gardening on our balcony...

Cereal and Aerobics - Nestle Fitness week in our household

We’ve been trying to move away from cereal in the mornings, because it’s a quite pricy breakfast in combination with milk, which is expensive here. One bottle of milk costs 2750 LE, and one pack of Cheerios/Golden Grahams/Special K/Nestle Fitness costs around 6000 LE. (3000 LE is $2) If all of us eat cereal every morning, we’ll go through 3 packs/week, and one bottle of milk/morning. That’s about $26/week just for cereal, which isn’t really a complete breakfast anyways, because without the protein, the boys will ask for something to eat within an hour after we’ve started school. This is where our major fruit consumption comes in. Kilos of grapefruits and bananas keep everyone going until lunch.

The upside with cereal though, as opposed to oatmeal, pancakes or scrambled eggs, is that I don’t have to cook anything, and it accumulates very little dishes. The boys can feed themselves breakfast and then put their bowls in the dishwasher. Because I already cook both lunch and dinner later in the day, I really don’t want to have to cook breakfast as well.

However, desperate times calls for desperate measures, so we decided to not buy cereal any more. Until earlier this week, when we noticed there was a special on Nestle Fitness and that you get a free workout video with your pack of cereal. So we bought two packs with two different workouts, which we – all of us - now have been doing every day for a week. It felt kind of silly at first, doing aerobics in our living room, but the boys seem to enjoy it, and I feel like I’m getting some much wanted exercise time in, without having to go anywhere or do anything (usually it’s a bit of a hassle, because it takes a while to get to the sports center and I don’t really know what to do with the kids anyways, etc.). Abraham even joins in, puts his arms up, jumps, and laughs through the whole program. The lady – Rachel Something – is a bit annoying, but aren’t aerobics instructors supposed to be? In any case, I’m trying to think of this round of cereal as not just a way of feeding our family, but as an investment in our health. And when the cereal runs out in a few days, we’ll still have the workout DVDs.

Feeding a family of five in Beirut

This week has been mentally exhausting due to our financial situation – every trip to the grocery store is a mathematical exercise, and every day we put our heads together to figure out what we can cook to fill our tummies without exceeding our budget. It’s pretty much impossible, but we have to keep trying. I feel like I spend most of my day cooking and cleaning up the kitchen. "Sorry August, I can't help you with your math right now! I'm making tortillas and have flour all over my hands!" 

Because May is one of our busiest months of the year, we usually rely on not having to cook at home a couple of times these weeks – we would order pizza or go out for burgers once or so every week on days that nobody was home before dinner. Since this is out of the question for the moment, we’re trying to get creative at home instead. 

What would you cook if you only had around $20 to feed a family of five every day?* (Three meals, snacks [fruit], and keeping nutrition in mind, of course.)

*Actually, “feed” is not correct, since this money has to cover not only food, but everything from diapers, wipes, cleaning supplies and hygiene articles, to clothes and shoes, etc. but lets pretend the money is earmarked for food for now.

William opening his presents...

Happy Birthday, William!

Today my little boy William turns eight years old. He spent his last birthday in Cairo, Egypt, and the year he turned six, I wrote this short account of his birth, which took place in Mechelen, Belgium.

Today we are in Beirut, Lebanon, and we started the celebrations on Friday with a small party: friends, games, chocolate cake, drinks, snacks, and lots of playing. Today we gave William his presents in the morning (two small Lego sets, some kind of Bakugan thing that August insisted William would love, and that indeed they’ve been playing with all morning, a strap for his guitar, a cook book and a book about drawing, and a soccer ball), and will celebrate his birthday with a lot of leisurely hanging out, maybe some soccer if the field isn’t packed, Eggs Benedict with real bacon, and home-cooked Chinese food. Abraham is walking around saying, “Weee-yahm, happy Dew-eee!!” The boys are enjoying the new toys, and everyone is content.

During one of our Saturday walks...

"Yooook, mama, an ayyyy-pane!!!"

William's Easter Egg Nests

Saturday parade - Abraham is greeted, honored and admired

Every Saturday morning, Abraham and I walk the boys to their Taekwondo practice. It’s a very slow walk, because, well, Abraham’s legs are short AND he loves to look at EVERYTHING on the way, so taking him with me rather that running the boys over, which would take ten minutes tops, means I commit to a one hour stroll. If you know me, you know I usually walk faster than most people do, and that I am not the strolling type. But; Abraham enjoys it so much, and he’s so cute engaging in everything, that I think of this hour as a treat for him.

Our walk starts out a little brisker, because we want to get the boys to their activities, but after we’ve waved good-bye to them, the adventures begin. There’s always something interesting to see. These past couple of weeks – springtime - there have always been at least one couple of campus cats along the road engaged in making new kittens. Very interesting. And totally OK, because since Abraham is so little, I don’t have to explain anything. “Yoook, Mama! Kitty payyying, mama!” "Yes, they’re playing, isn’t that cute?!" This morning we saw a cat with a bird in his mouth, parading in front of a group of hungry looking cats. I noticed the bird was still wiggling a bit. “Yoook, mama!! Kitty eat BIRDY, mama!!” Yup. That's it. "The kitty is hungry." Then Abraham picks up a deep humming sound, and points to the sky, “Where ayy-pane, mama?!” So we look for the airplane, which I’ve noticed is a Lufthansa flight coming in right after 10 am every Saturday morning. After that we smell the flowers, pick a handful of rosemary and pocket as many pine cones as we can. Always discussing everything in detail. Sometimes we enter the bookstore whose window Abraham will stare through forever, commenting on every single book he sees, and sometimes we stop for a treat at Dunkin Donuts. Always we run into students who want to take pictures with their phones of Abraham. (I wonder about this: Why would they want to carry around a picture of some strange child? But it’s so common and an almost instant reflex many students have when they see Abraham, “Ooohh, he’s SO CUTE!! Can I please take a picture?” Female and male students alike.) Some like to touch his hair, and at least one of the food stall men will hand some treat to him (Today he received a handful of doughnut holes). “What’s your name?” they ask, and Abraham replies, “Ay-mee-HAM!” They look at me and I clarify, “Abraham,” at which they always reply, “What a magnificent name!!” and add a reference to the Bible or the Qu’ran, depending on their religion. Then they take another picture. Sometimes when we near our home and only our Concierge is left to exchange greetings with, “Abraham, how are you today, cute boy?” I feel like we’ve just finished a parade. The display of Abraham, blond and cute, on his Saturday walk.

Happy Birthday to me!

Do you remember all your birthdays? I don’t think I could, even if I tried hard. They are just getting to be too many. I do remember particular birthdays though, my fifth being the first one I have a clear memory of, then my 9^th when I got my first badminton racket, my 13^th, or my 18^th when I got my driver’s license. I also remember my 20^th birthday very well, because that was the day my dad had surgery to remove a big, bad brain tumor, and then I remember my 21^st birthday, which makes me sad, because that’s when he was buried. I turned 22 in the US, somewhere between the slopes in Aspen. My 24^th birthday was the first I spent with Courtney. I spent my 28^th birthday on the beaches of Normandy, pregnant with August, and on my 30^th birthday - Easter - I was nine months pregnant with William. It was around my 34^th birthday that we found out we were moving to Egypt, and Abraham might have been conceived on my 35^th birthday.

Last weekend, I spent - again! - my 35^th birthday, a beautiful day, walking with my family along the Mediterranean Sea here in Beirut. I didn’t really turn 35 again of course, but I like to pretend I stopped counting. Getting old doesn’t scare me, but I feel the years are slipping through my fingers, and as not to stress, I prefer not to think about it too much. My favorite quote by one of my favorite authors sums it up eloquently: “[35] is a perfectly good age. I know plenty of women in the high London society who have remained [35] for years.” (Oscar Wilde, of course.)

Our non-exciting or different-exciting life in Beirut

Since we moved to Lebanon, we have had to learn how to live on a very small budget. We didn’t move here for the money and knew that we would have to make certain adjustments, however we had not foreseen that it would be this big of a difference. Living here is really expensive! While we had some room before during our life in Cairo, after only the most necessary bills (rent, insurance, electricity, and gas) and food have been paid for every month here, we have nothing left. There are no extras: no internet, no phone, no car, no trips, and if anything comes up, like Christmas, birthdays, holidays, or if the boys grow and need new clothes or shoes (which you can imagine happens all the time), we have to use our savings (which were not very large to begin with and will be gone soon). It is disquieting.

 Having to always be careful about money can be energy draining, because it influences the way you are able to live your everyday life. I’ve read hundreds of articles on how it shouldn’t, and how there are so many things you can do with little to no money – all it takes is a little finesse – and we have adjusted to our situation pretty well. We use the university facilities a lot, and do fun things that don’t really cost anything, like reading, sports, playing, walking, etc. However sometimes I am painfully reminded of our meager situation. Like during Easter, which seems to be the time to get out of town. To be able to hop in a car (I don’t think I know anyone here who doesn’t have a car) and explore the country for a few days; see the sites, go hiking or skiing, visit Tripoli or Tyre or even Syria – how amazing that would be! But we can’t. It is also around this time of the year that I start making a list of next year’s schoolbooks and supplies – even wishing I could send out a quick order to add to this year’s material – but the way things stand for the moment, I can’t order anything. I’m printing out worksheets that I find on (our almost non-existent) internet, or make them myself, but it would be so nice to be able to get the actual math tests that go with the curriculum we’ve been using, or get the next grammar book in the series for August before he forgets everything.

Now this is turning into a rant, which I didn’t intend. What I wanted to say was something positive. No, we haven’t been able to travel like we’re used to - we are pretty much confined to walking distance of our apartment. The silver lining is that since we’re fairly immobile, I and everyone else in the family have been able to do things we didn’t have time for in Cairo, like very time-consuming art projects, a lot of reading, sewing, creative writing, and in spending so much time together, we’ve been able to develop our intellectual and emotional relationships more than ever before. Despite our lack of funds we’ve managed to keep ourselves busy – just not the same kind of busy as we are used to. As a consequence, I haven’t been very confident in my blogging and my account of our life here in Beirut: I just don’t know how to recount our current life – it’s not exciting travels and encounters any more, but something else.

Taekwondo belt tests

In Egypt, the boys started Taekwondo, learning from Captain Moyasser, a fantastic coach and inspiring sportsman. After three and two years respectively, practice twice every week, they managed to reach blue and green belts.
When we moved to Lebanon, we were happy to discover that there's a Taekwondo class for youth every Saturday at AUB, and although the practice is not as rigorous, strict or concentrated as it was in Egypt, the boys enjoy going. This past week their hard work so far resulted in belt tests, and they were rewarded the next degree: half red belt for August, and half blue for William.

(For those of you who don't know the system: you start out with a white belt, and then you move on to half yellow, yellow, half green, green, half blue, blue, half red, red, and then black belt, which you can have several degrees of - I think up to eight, although I'm not sure.)

For their tests, they had to do a certain number or push- and situps, then kicks, punches, blocks, one pumsae (or Taegeuk, which is a series of moves, usually around 30, done in sequence), and break two boards by a certain kick or punch. They both did brilliantly, and were so proud when they received their belts!

Life with a two-year old...

We are currently at the stage where a lot of Abewahaaaam-doooo-iiit!!!’s are unmatched by the actual ability. This entails a lot of melt-downs, fits, and frustrations – for everyone. This is not my favorite part of parenting, and I’m sure not anyone’s favorite part of childhood, but it’s something that has to be gone through. My – the entire family’s - task is to make it as painless as possible.

A few examples:

Today Abraham accidentally pushed down his straw all the way into his juice box = instant melt-down and inability to eat his dinner.

This evening Abraham wanted to put his diaper on by himself. He totally cannot do it. Major screaming, fit and melt-down ensued.

Yesterday morning Abraham threw a fit because he couldn't button his own shirt buttons. Me trying to tell him no two-year old is really able to do this didn't help his frustration at all.

God give us strength to get through this.

Houseguests add diversity of thought

We have houseguests this week; friends - a couple - visiting us from Egypt. I love having them around for many reasons, but one of the greatest benefits is the presence of different perspectives, opinions, and even methods of conveying viewpoints in any discussion. Not only are there two more individuals added with their own points of view, but we are a very diverse group. We were all born in different countries and even environments, and we’ve lived in different places, our ages differ, we have very different interests, and although we all studies within the humanities, we all wrote our thesis on very different subjects. All this makes for a lot of talking, and many interesting ideas and arguments; our house is a - more than usual, I should say - stimulating environment for the moment.

Seeing the boys interact with our friends makes me happy, because I know it broadens their minds and interests, and my smart, educated friends inspire them in new ways.

History of China and Japan, and The last Samurai

Today, while I was going through a final review with the boys of the history of China and Japan, where they tell me the story and as many details as they can remember, using our map and self-created illustrated time-line, Courtney came over to the kitchen table, which is where most of our school-work is done, to check his mail, and ended up listening in. Towards the end of the story – our last class on the history of China and Japan – he commented, “Now the boys know more about Chinese and Japanese history than I ever did throughout my entire life.” Coming from a professor of humanities, I think that’s a compliment: to the boys for learning so well, and to me for creating such a great history curriculum. Pride on a Friday during Lent. Forgive me!

As a reward for their hard work, I gave in and let the boys watch the way too violent movie “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise, provided to them by their well-meaning uncle before he had children of his own (proving that although I have my good moments, in the end, I’m sometimes just a tired homeschooling mom who might give in to things she shouldn’t for a moment’s peace).