Time sure flies. It is nearing six months since I moved to Lebanon and let me tell you it has been quite the challenge. It is not an easy move going from a first world country to a developing country, but it was a vision that I was determined to pursue.
A little background on that vision; ever since I was in middle school it was a dream of mine to live in Lebanon; back then I didn’t know the implication that came with the move. I would beg and plead my parents to make the move; enviously looking at the education system and the fact that Lebanese Armenians know a minimum of three languages, English, Armenian, and Arabic, while I could barely mutter a proper sentence in Armenian, my mother-tongue. I felt cheated not being able to know these languages, I felt stripped of my Armenian culture, being from a place that has no Armenian community.
My dream finally became tangible when I was accepted into the American University of Beirut Business Analytics Masters program. The plan was set for me; I would receive my bachelor’s degree, embark on a journey of self-discovery to Armenia, and then move to Lebanon for my masters, but I had a daunting feeling that the program was just not right for me. I went to the university a day before classes started and switched to a non-degree student where I studied Arabic instead. Immediately realizing that the Arabic language class at AUB was not advancing my existing language skills, I left the program and enrolled into Saifi Institute instead. One of the major lessons I took away from this experience is that you can perfectly plan pieces of your life and on paper, it all sounds great, but not everything goes as planned.
Upon arrival, my uncle had taken me to our family house where I was to live on my own. Unaware of the basic functions of the house, I came in to find there is no ishtirak (the second type of electricity source in the country). Improvising, I found some old wax candles, ones that are meant to insert into a candelabra, I proceeded to melt wax on some plates creating a makeshift candle holder in order to disperse these candles around the house as I tried to settle in. I spent my first night in Lebanon with no electricity and no hot water. I remember sitting there thinking, “and this is just the beginning, boy am I in for a ride.” And I was right. From hot water heating problems to having no water in the water tank to short-circuiting the electrical system while using a microwave, etc. it was a never-ending blunder of events.
On a positive note, in these six months, I am now able to understand basic Arabic conversations, communicate my order at a restaurant, and do some (not all) of my day-to-day transactions. I am far from fluency, but I am getting there, “shway shway” (little by little). A huge component in this is the willingness to just converse even if you make a mistake; this is something that I need to work on because my perfectionist self doesn’t allow for a mistake, but you learn from mistakes. I am also proud to say I spruced up my Armenian while I’ve been abroad and most importantly attained invaluable life skills.
When you travel to a new place it involves a lot of trusting of other people. You have to trust the driver is taking you to the right place, you trust the information you have been given, etc. but the obscurity in all this is the language barrier.