While you are living in Lebanon many things can go unnoticed
because they become part of our routine; things that any foreigner would
consider as strange but in our point of you they represent a habit that we got
used to, we are like a lion that has been tamed and taught to live by the rules
that are imposed on him. But the subject
that I will talk about is in contradiction with the name of this blog since it
is not typically Lebanese because it has only manifested itself this year. What
I am going to talk about is the weather that has been cast on us this year. Unable to predict the weather, TV stations
left us no choice but to believe the exact opposite of what they are
broadcasting. Usually the Lebanese reaction to the typical weather is very
predictable:
1-Octobre: in this month, the regular Lebanese hangs his
t-shirts in the closet and starts unpacking his winter kit and his ski equipment
(the Lebanese are very passionate about skiing and start preparing 3 month in
advance). Also in this month he starts
complaining about the lack of early showers that usually open up the rain
season. And based on this keen observation, this Lebanese practices one of the
sports he is the master of which is jumping to conclusions, and postulates that
this year will be dry and that we will have some water troubles in the upcoming
summer.
2-November: at this point we start experiencing some rain,
but the Lebanese that was complaining in October is still not satisfied and
worried that we haven’t reached the yearly amount of water dropped on our
territory (noting that we are still in November, and it is called a YEARLY
amount)
3-December-January-February:
in these three months every Lebanese will regret every complain he said
during the previous months since the sky will open up and empty a bottomless bucket
of water onto Lebanon thus drowning us under several meters of snow. It is at
that moment that the Lebanese will take out their mitts and boots, jump in a
car and go have a snow trip. For the skiers this will be a tremendous opportunity
to show off their class skipping skills and enjoy themselves in faraya or the
cedars or any other ski station. As for the rest of us, we will go to a
mountain, make a barbeque on the snow, build a snow man, and then to practice
another Lebanese tradition which is show off, we will put some snow on the car
just to show to the rest of the world that we did it, we played with some snow,
and now we are going to rub it in your nose, and to push the knife further into
the wound, we will post all of the trip photos on Facebook. This period is also
marked by the incredibly high amount off cold and flu which attack everyone and
leave none at the mercy of their nose blowing, loud coughing and incessant
sneezing symptoms.
4-March: usually the
wrath of the winter is taken down and the flowers start blooming, the Lebanese is
happy to see the sun again and put back the heavy coats in the closet, which he
was wearing for 3 months. But there is always something to complain about in
this country and this time it is the end of the ski season that is turning some
smiles upside down and causing uninterrupted nagging for the whole month.
However this year March was not merciful and he hammered us with some heavy
rain and snow thus preventing us from healing from our flu or cold and leading
us into an infinite punishing circle of nose blowing. But the skiers are incredibly happy since for
the first time they will be able to ski in April while other people might be a
t the beach.
In conclusion we can say that this year the weather is more
schizophrenic than John Nash, changing from sun to rain in a window of 15
minutes. But this is the beauty of Lebanon, the ability of enjoying opposites
in a short term of time, take for example the fact that we can go from the sea
to the snow in the matter of an hour, which is the Lebanese fun fact that we
brag about the most even if no one does it.
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