Everyday Car Chaos

Disclaimer: This is somewhat of a soapbox. It's also my perspective as a rider, NOT a driver. So these are my own opinions about what I have seen, felt, or would feel if I was the one behind the wheel. 

I have decided that the traffic here in Lebanon deserves its very own post. This may be a cultural difference, but it is definitely not something I'm likely to miss when I leave Saturday. If you've been here you understand what I'm talking about. IT IS RIDICULOUS! It's a chaotic system that I don't understand and the longer I've been here the crazier it has become. I mean, people, when is the madness going to stop?!

One, pedestrians love reality Frogger; I know it was a fun childhood Nintendo game, but it was okay for him to go SPLAT, not you. Stop weaving through cars and "making a run for it". Also, if you hit (and/or kill) a jaywalker, you automatically go to jail. Hefty fine for something you couldn't control (and trust me, they [the pedestrians] really can't be controlled).

Two, honking. It's everywhere and because people think that where they are going is the most important place in the world, horns become the official weapon in fighting for position on the road. You really could wait more than three seconds to honk after stopping at a stoplight; we can't make the light change any faster than you can make the person in front of you step on the gas to get out of your way, and if they are anything like you they aren't going to budge when it comes to your horny protests.

Three, space. I can, on a normal day, stick my arm out the window and touch the car right next to us, or get pretty close to it. Not that I would ever do that. There was a guy who did tap on our window one morning and it kind of freaked me out. He was only asking for directions though.

Just an example. This is morning traffic too.

Four, merging. People just pull right out, nudging their way in, not caring if you stop because they just expect you to. And it's usually the slow kind of turn, like I'm-going-to-take-my-time-because-I-can kind of a turn and then they continue to go slow. At least go the speed of the flowing traffic. People will pull out and when they see you aren't stopping, they stop, but it's only inches away. 
This and the spacing would make it really really difficult to drive here because I get freaked out when people drive too close to me; I can just see an accident waiting to happen. Which is all the time here because people are crazy (not really, but I question sometimes). Case in point: My aunt and I were at a shop looking for dishware and there was a huge CRASH. Outside, almost directly behind where we parked, an accident between two cars occurred because one of them wasn't going fast enough and passing wasn't necessarily an option.

Five, vespa and other motor scooter riders. They weave in and out of traffic and they are all men, usually with another man on the back. I don't know why I find that somewhat weird, but it also happened in Eastern Europe so I guess it's more common than I think. They basically do whatever they want. They squeeze in between cars and then race through traffic lights that are for the opposite direction. They also like to stop right in front of you if you are at the beginning of the light, and they just sit and wait for the light to change.

There is also another kind of motor bike rider.  These men tend to go really fast on the highway, revving their engines and blowing past you. It really is quite irritating. A story to prove my point: there was this one young man on a dirt bike who keep doing wheelies on the highway, with traffic. And he would just be doing them for long stretches of the road, moving around cars. Why? That is my only question. 

Six, disregard for any driving laws. I don't even know if there are any, and if so then they are not enforced and they aren't obeyed either. Police just stand at the corner and let people do whatever they want. They are usually talking to someone, another officer or some other random dude, but they could care less. And people, because there is no enforcement, do whatever they want. Which leads me to my next point.

Seven, turning. This is probably the most frustrating part of driving...well, riding. People make their own turn lane. There are two turn lanes on the main street before turning onto the road that leads to where the house is. TWO lanes, you think that would be enough. Why would it be? People pull out almost in the middle of the road, turn on their blinker, and sit. They take up a "straight" lane which causes people to honk. Then the people who have patiently waited to get through the light see this and they become more defensive. I would compare it to someone in a drag car race waiting for the green light, or white flag.

This only causes more problems than it solves. Usually there are other people on the other side of the road doing the same thing so then when it comes to actually having the green light, the traffic still hasn't fully cleared the intersection from going straight and you are crunched because of the other people turning left and then you are fighting to turn while trying to beat out the people who made their own turn lane. Stressful? Yes, extremely.

There are FOUR turn lanes here. The one on the left and the one we are in are the legitimate turn lanes. the red van and the green car to the right are illegally turning. Who cares though? No one is going to stop them. 

(2) You know you're in Beirut when...

1. While you're stuck in traffic you notice that there is every kind of car- Kia, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Suzuki, Nissan, Citroen, Renault- but the most popular seem to be the big hitters- Land Rovers, BMWs, Jaguar, and Mercedes Benz. It's just different when children live at home through their twenties- they have more money to spend on the luxurious things in life!

2. Though you do see women wearing ridiculously high heels, although not the Blago five inchers I was used to, the popular shoes are Birkinstocks and Converse. Riddle me that.

3.You see posters and billboards everywhere advertising fashion, food, and old political leaders. 

4. When everyone I meet asks, "Where have you been? Have you been to the beach yet?" 

5. You can travel the whole country in a matter of hours. Border to border, it is so close and there is everything. Sea and mountains. Valleys and caves. Forests and a big city. It's gorgeous. 

6. When something happens that would shock the world, like most of what is happening in the Middle East right now, and they ask, for kids, "So there is school tomorrow?" and for adults, "What do you want for lunch?" (during the week)

7. You go to a "pub" and it is a mix between a pub (the talking atmosphere), a club (the music), and an outdoor bar (the tables).

8. You can see a mosque and a Catholic church right next to each other. It is a beautiful dichotomy. 

If I Had To, I Would Do It Again

At this moment, I wish everything would stop. Do you ever wish that? That things would come to a standstill and you could have time to process all that is happening to you? All the changes within you, all the changes around you, all the changes involving you? I do.

Disclaimer: this is a jumbled mess and probably isn't easily followable. So read on and bear with me; hopefully I got across the big points of what has been on my heart lately. 

I've been in Beirut for a month now and with only two weeks left, and only a month before I'm back home in the States, I am starting to feel every emotion. There is contentment, happiness, joy, loss, grief, reflection, longing, passion, love. Plus much more that I cannot even put into words; they sometimes jumble together, making them incoherent hybrids that make my heart contract and my mind fuzzy. All of this will lead to good in the end. I know it will, I just have to sort through all that has been going on inside me lately, which is not necessarily an easy task, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you. But you probably know that as well.

At my internship I am working primarily on the subject of education and technology. Separate and together, and what I find interesting, and it's a wonder why I never fully realized it before, is how fast the world is moving when it comes to using technology. As much as I loved living in Bulgaria, it sometimes felt like I was living 20 years ago, hence my lack of technological know-how (that and I'm not as tech savvy as others). Either way, it's amazing. There are apps for every little thing and iPads are now being used in classrooms and people are discussing how other technological functions are going to be implemented in the near future. And there are debates about what is right for the budget of spending on technology for schools and is using technology in the learning process a helpful, stimulating tool or is it a distracting thing that detracts from their work. Honestly, I don't know. I understand that we are in the time of Facebook and Apple, where everyone has a smartphone and you are out of date if you don't have one. When did the distinction between a cell phone and a smart phone come around? Call me old fashioned but good lord. Yes, we have the entire world at our fingertips, but do we have to use that privilege all the time, 24/7? And yes, I think it's a privilege. After a few months without a cell phone and spotty internet, you come to see it as a privilege. At least I do.

So with my head whirling from all the technology that I am surrounded by all day every day, I can only look back and remember when I was little and cell phones were big blocks of gray and black with super long antennas. I look back to when I played tag outside and I roller bladed around my neighborhood and jumped on the trampoline, seeing who could be the one to go highest. I remember playing in my grandparents' hay barn on The Farm, climbing and making up games with my brother and cousin. And as time kept ticking, it brought me to volleyball tournaments with crazy warm-up routines (you would think we were a pretty strange bunch if you saw us, but hey, it was a special thing between us). It brought me to driving and trying (and failing miserably) to parallel park. It brought me wonderful friends who I still learn from. And then time wore on, and took me by the hand and gave me college and beautiful friends who have touched my life in unimaginable ways. It lead me to my faith. It led me to study abroad.

Which gets me back to my original thought a long paragraph later. Sorry. I love technology. I do. I see all the benefits and the good advancements that are happening because of what it can do. I wouldn't be blogging and publishing my thoughts if there wasn't the Internet or Macbooks (I am an Apple person- commence the PC v. Macbook debate). I wouldn't have been able to share my photos of all my adventures this past year if there wasn't Facebook. I appreciate what technology can give to society, but I also see what it takes away from society. Little kids are more interested in playing racing car games than climbing trees and playing on their iPods instead of getting their knees dirty. It was great living without a cell phone in Blagoevgrad. It was freeing. But when I go home I'll be surrounded by people only on their smart phones. I won't be joining you friends. Where is the human contact? Where is the face to face conversations?

I want everything to stop. Have you ever seen Clockstopper? It was a pretty awful movie to be honest, but it was about this guy who had a watch who could stop time and rearrange situations. Now I don't wish to rearrange situations, but I do wish I could stop time, to have more time with the amazing friends I made in the Bulgs, to have more time to spend with my family here in the Lebs, and to have the ability- the freeness- to travel more and elongate my time abroad. I want to keep going to Piano Bar and eating banitsa, I want more conversations to get to know people better. I want to spend time with people I didn't spend near enough time with while in Blago.

My cousins' school had a festival called Vintage and I went with their cousin Soha. And she was so nice and accommodating and she let me hang out with her and her friends for the night. And as I was meeting these sweet girls, it reminded me of my friends and the great times we had together and for the night, I became an honorary alpha (they call themselves the alphas, which I love). It was a small gesture, but it was one that touched my heart. It's these little moments that I wish I could stop time in, the three hour conversations with my aunt, sitting outside on a blanket having a picnic outside Skapto 2 with people dropping by as they pass to the Balkanski Center. It's about how the little moments are strung together to make the bigger impact. That's all that really matters in the end. At least to me.