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.
Does this need explaining? This is the continuation of the informalization of the countries infrastructure. These are phone lines... and the things actually work...
The Curtained Buildings: I think its a Mediterranean tactic, but I just can't get over these buildings billowing with patterns and colors. I have heard they serve multiple purposes: privacy, shading...
This one is a two-for-one: The businesses and the amount of abandoned buildings. The naming is pretty much universal, the existence of the building stock is of course, political, economic and an sure emotional issue.
The old Holiday Inn: it remains as a reminder of the civil war...still standing, bullet ridden...an anchor in the city that is sprouting up 4 star hotels and luxury condos within its shadow.
The saving of the old for the new...this will be the first few floors of a new luxury residential highrise...
Hezbollah T-shirts and souvenirs!
Addresses: This is the back of a bag of coffee that I buy here locally. Note the address on the back. You see, there is hardly any recognition of building numbers, street signs and the like. Directions are given using landmarks (present or past). Getting a taxi to come to my house (or getting delivery food!) is pretty much impossible with my limited communication skills. The other interesting phenomenon is the use of cell phone numbers and facebook as devices for linking buyer to seller. Many an advertisement will only have a phone number to call, no address...and many a event, business, etc will just be communicated via a facebook "fan" pages.
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