Life at my new office

Hello again, it seems that my working life is now picking up speed. The way people work here is quite different from what I'm used to in Germany. Everything seems totally chaotic, but there must be a hidden system to it because there's a lot of work and it's getting done. I will continue my investigation of how this system works. (Er, actually I can update this thought right now because a colleague just came in for a chat, and according to her, there simply is no system and things are actually totally chaotic. Well. Hm. I'll follow up on it...). This morning, lesson 1: don't show up at the office too early! I thought I'd demonstrate my motivation and diligence by getting here before 9 a.m., but I had to sit outside the door on the staircase for 15 minutes until somebody got here.

I went to have lunch at a nearby shopping mall with some colleagues and was kind of appaled at how un-Middle Eastern things can be here. Where's the authenticity, guys??? This place could have been anywhere, Milan, London, Berlin, probably Buenos Aires for all I know, or Phoenix, Arizona. Although I doubt that women there have this special Lebanese look, the highlights, the expensive accessories, I don't know, somehow it's very characteristic and recognisable. In any case I find it hard to believe this place is only several hours by bus from Damascus, which is an entirely different world.

Well, and now I'm going to walk back over the hill to my neighbourhood... I am thinking of stopping by the Virgin Megastore inside the same shopping mall. The most recent guidebook to come out is "A Hedonist's Guide to Beirut", written by the Arts&Culture editor of the local paper, The Daily Star. So it has all the fancy restos and bars for sure. Hm, I'm not so sure this is the kind of info I need, because these things travel by word of mouth anyway. The book I need is, "A Political Scientist's Guide to How This Place Really Works" (ideally containing a step-by-step guide "Publishing your stuff on Lebanon"), or, alternatively, "Finding a meaningful job with a decent salary in Lebanon" (mind that I'll only work at this place for 2 months), including sections on "How to avoid typical foreigners' mistakes" and lots of other helpful tips.

If any of you come across things like this on amazon or whereever, do let me know!!! For now, I'll leave you with the view from my office window of Beirut hills in the setting sun, cheesy-weez: