Dear friends,

I have now arrived and started a new life over here in Beirut. As I promised, I will tell you my stories and send you pics (Bilder & Geschichten) of what I'm doing over here. Let me start by showing you a view of the Corniche, Beirut's beach promenade. That was actually not the picture I wanted to put here, but it took about half an hour to upload this so I'm not gonna change this now. Pretty though, no? This was the day after I arrived at 4 a.m. in the morning and took up residence in the chichi Crowne Plaza Hotel, where I got a room on the 15th floor with a sea view. (Will include a picture of that below.) So I had a day to catch up and adjust to the amazing speed of events, which took me from my normal life in Berlin to a completely new story here in Beirut, all in the space of barely two weeks. My new motto is 'why not?'. Many thanks again to all the people who helped me organise things before I took off and are now storing various items of my stuff, carried my beloved Vespa down the stairs or drove me to the airport!!!! :) And also, sorry once again this is all in English ---- aber sonst muesste ich alles zweimal schreiben und das wuerde wahrscheinlich dazu fuehren, dass ich gar nicht schreibe. Ich hoffe, das ist o.k. fuer Euch bzw. uns alle in der globalisierten Welt und so....:)

Ok, here we go, this is the view from my hotel room across Beirut at 4 in the morning. It looks a lot nicer than the day view actually, although that's not bad either. But anyway, to stop rambling on..... The second day I was here was also my first day of work, and I felt a bit overwhelmed by it all, especially as I had to take part in a bunch of meetings and process large amounts of information. I also met the Minister of Social Affairs, Nayla Moawad, which I hadn't known was part of the agenda that day, and I felt very inappropriately dressed sitting in her office (the other people there where having a meeting, I was basically just present). I was so confused by it all that I took the security guard at the entrance to be a participant and shook his hand, until I noticed how surprised he was and that he was carrying a gun. Just for the record: for the next two months I will be based at Rene Moawad Foundation here in Beirut. I will be doing some stuff for them and will also be helping to coordinate some projects for Friedrich Naumann Foundation, my official employer (i.e., I report to them and they pay me money). If it all seems confusing to you, rest assured that it does to me at the moment, as well. It'll all become clearer in time, I'm sure....

Ok, so I had to move out of the Crowne Plaza eventually of course (after two nights), and this is where I live now. This is Paul's apartment, and Paul is a friend of a colleague's of mine (I have met neither Paul nor the colleague who is based in Amman, but both of them are incredibly nice and helpful, for sure!!). Very nice place and all mod cons, I have to say, including a huge flat screen TV and surround-sound DVD and all. It's also located close to my work (I work opposite Hotel-Dieu, the big French hospital...) in the lovely Achrafiyeh area. A very pretty and fancy neighbourhood with lots of designer stores and funky bars and restaurants. The main clubbing area around Rue Monot is a 5-minute walk from the flat. Way to go, Paul!
My building is actually fairly modern-looking (and has a small but ugly Phalanges-logo sprayed on outside), but to give you an idea of what the 'hood looks like, here's a pic of the building across the street....(see below).
Erm, this is really addictive and I could tell you lots more stories (e.g. how I took a picture of a random, futuristic-looking high rise building and a soldier came walking up to me, machine gun dangling from shoulder, to say something with his forehead all wrinkled up and looking serious - and then he turned out to be joking. How funny! Or how I got lost walking home from the supermarket, or the adventure of taking a taxi and all these things....) but more later....I'll show you some more pics instead:


This is the building I was talking about.... and there are lots like this one around.
And this is a pic from my birthday, the first day I was here, when I went out for drinks with my friend Yasmin in Gemmayzeh:





Well, will write more soon....see ya!