Differences

As I look over AUB's academic calendar, it occurs to me that I'll be teaching on Thanksgiving. I'll be teaching Lynn Worsham's essay "Going Postal" (among other things, about how emotion plays a role in how we teach persuasion) that afternoon in my graduate course and I suspect the first portion of class will be an explanation of the idiomatic title.

Anyway, given that campus closes for Christmas and New Year's, Easter, the Feast of the Assumption, St. Maroun's Day, Armenian Christmas, Al-Adha, Hijra New Year, Ashoura, the Prophet's Birthday, "Independence Day" (November 22), and May Day, I certainly can't complain. Still, Thanksgiving has meant a day off school every single year of my life except 1973-1977. Nicole and I have talked about taking a trip to Istanbul on Thanksgiving (get it?), so maybe we'll leave for Turkey after I get out of class on that Thursday afternoon. But if not, maybe we'll Skype into a couple turkey dinners back in the States. I figure everybody will be congregating around 9:00 or 10:00, Beirut time.

Speaking of differences, I've heard from several individuals that for the most part you can't buy milk in Lebanon. Milk, I'm told, tends to be expensive, if available at all. More Lebanese people eat yogurt or labneh than drink milk. So we won't have cereal and milk first thing each morning. More common breakfast: bread, olives, cheese, tea, and labneh.

Mealtimes. On the first day of faculty orientation, I have a fairly full schedule of events until lunch at...1:30. And that's relatively early. Many in Lebanon eat a large meal at 2:30 or thereabouts, followed by a nap, then chores/housework/etc., capped by dinner at 9:00 or so.