Nothing gives you a perspective on life like relocating it to another city, another continent, another culture. Some of the little things we take for granted just can't be expected, and living here Beirut is no exception. Below are the little things I have found that have made me question, made me laugh and in some instances...just hurt! (Remember I am an architect)
The marble threshold: usually located in a position to border off a "wet area" (like kitchen or bathroom). I have found these toe-breaking room dividers to be an interesting addition. I have one at my door to my bathroom and at the divider of my kitchen and living room. I believe its used to keep the water in the room while washing the floors... It gets my guests every time!
This floor drain feature complements the marble toe-breaker above. Located in those defined "wet room" spaces are these floor drains with metal lids. When you wash the floor you just take of the lid, throw down a bucket of water and slosh it around...kinda brilliant. Why was our version of this those domestic central vacuum systems from the 70's?
Electricity: The power distribution in Beirut isn't constant. Parts of the country are without municipal power during the day, and in Beirut, parts of the city are out of power for 3 hours a day. This rotates daily, and on my calendar I have a list of the times (6am-9am, 9am-noon, noon-3pm and 3pm-6pm). I am fortunate enough to have a generator with a switch shown above (the box to the left is the breaker that i also use quite often!). I have to remember to switch off any heating elements while on the generator, hot water heater off and have to decide between washing clothes or running the heat. But really it has become apart of my routine here and the appreciation one has for electricity grows ten fold. (And what a great excuse to just sleep in till 9am when the power is out in the morning?) domestic/small scale energy production is actually a bigger discussion topic (pollution, access, oil, etc) and I will blog about it later.
