Spring in Beirut

Trees seemed to have burst into full bloom overnight. The main concentration of trees is at the American University of Beirut, which thankfully we walk through almost every day. A row of orange trees there covered with blossoms about knocks you over, maybe because you are in full swoon over a large jasmine just before it. As you reel to take it in you look out over the Mediterranean below. Ah. Further along, exotic (to me) trees sport hundreds of vaguely lily-like orange numbers, on the very ends of branches with no leaves. Wild.

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Kurban Travel’s Easter specials include 3 nights at the Dead Sea, Istanbul or Budapest ($555). But you could also choose The Benediction of Jean Paul II package, all inclusive at $1230.

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My birthday was lovely, with greetings from people of at least 6 nationalities, from here and a few other spots around the globe. Nice! Broumana friends celebrated two of us with birthdays the same week, with two cakes.

Broumana F/friends

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Mother’s Day is March 21, the equinox. Festive atmosphere around the country. Flowers for sale everywhere. Gifts are given. At the local supermarket, a manager presents me with a “cadeau”—a box with the words Happy Mother’s Day and pictures of flowers on it. Not every female is a recipient; I am considered a “regular” here J I thank him and open my gift at home, to find: four cleaning products, two for floors and one for toilets, the fourth a kind of Clorox. What every mother needs, apparently. Hmm, but they all have [migrant worker] maids!