Safe in Byblos
Well as you already know I've arrived safely in
Byblos and we are staying at the campus here. It's actually a much nicer campus than the one in Beirut. Byblos is a gorgeous city. They say it's one of the oldest cities in the world. Today we visited an 11th century, french castle. The sad thing is that the castle was built out of Roman, Greek and Persian ruins. So they destroyed these ancient ruins to build this castle. We did see the stone outline of a Phoenician temple from around 2800 BCE. Obviously things are much more relaxed here. We can still here the jets at night, but there is no explosions or gunfire anywhere near us.The state department is emailing us and saying that they are working on an evacuation. I was at first considering staying, but everyday the fighting is getting worse, and I get the feeling that this will become a regional conflict. So, I think I will go with the evacuation. The bad thing is that one of my bags is still in Beirut, and all the gifts I bought for people are in Beirut. I might be going home without a lot of my clothes and other possessions. They also said in the email that there is a cost to be evacuated, and they will tell us how much in the next email. This is becming very complex, and I will be very sad to leave Beirut.
I included a lot of pictures this time there's one of a bunch of the sinarc people with hussain. He's and LAU student from Lebanon. He was pretty sad to see us leave and is kind of trapped where he is right now. A few pictures from Byblos, including a beautiful one from the balcony of my room. One of me and Pat with our concerned faces as we drove by a military base on the way to Byblos. One of the ships stuck because of naval blockade. One of Karim sticking his head out of the bus window. A few (I don't know how well it will come out) of smoke rising from the airport in Beirut. One of a building in lebanon still damaged from the civil war. One of the roads out of Beirut which is packed with overcrowded cars and trucks. Well, I have to run because other people are waiting to use the computer. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers and comments (the comments mean a lot to me, so if your not leaving them please start leaving them.)
Love
Josh
posted by Josh | 8:00 AM
16 Comments:
glad to hear that you are safe again and even able to do some sightseeing (doesn't seem quite right to call it that). jorge and i agree that it seems a good idea to evacuate when that becomes an option. whatever you need to get out there, just say the word. i'm happy to help but so sorry that you have to cut your trip and studies short, and even sorrier that the locals you have met and all the people of lebanon and israel are suffering through this conflict. i have and will continue to blog about it myself.
maybe next summer you and i should take jorge to london. things seemed pretty safe there. ;)
glad to know you're in a relatively safer place. my rationalization that i tell most people is that israel has about 1 and 1/2 friends left in the world, and that if they accidentally bombed some americans, they'd totally get deleted from Bush's Myspace page.
i'm glad the us state dept is at least getting their ass in gear. i read that france already sent a ferry from cyprus to evacuate its citizens from lebanon. always good to hear from you. we check your blog first thing every morning. hope to see you very soon.
- jv
Josh, we read your daily reports from the conflict and were relieved when you were evacuated from Beirut (that's ok about our gifts, just be safe). Your photos add to our understanding of where you are and what you are seeing. You are in our prayers.
a relief-and-a-half to hear that you are safely out of immediate danger. as Amy said - we can all set up a paypal Josh evacuation fun if you need it...or just follow Jorge's news and play French - you can make up for this lost opportunity by spending the rest of the summer in gay Pareee.
truthfully, I've been rather stressed by all of this. aside from Megan and I simply worrying for your personal safety, it's been interesting to experience how much more connected one feels to a region's frustrations and sadness by having even just one common connector-point like yourself to give us an insider view.
also, anyone would feel less bad for you as soon as you start throwing around those pictures of yourself gallivanting upon balconies overlooking paradise.
come to think of it...do you remember the turmoil that I had to go through, waiting in that long line to get Howard Zinn to sign your copy of A People's History? The least that you can do is go back into Beirut and get us all presents.
And should that plan fail, then in addition to the evacuation fund, Amy and I will start up the "Clothe Josh" fund.
peace, brother -
<3, M&P
we spoke with Josh again this morning, saturday, at about 8:00 am. He reiterated what was in the blog. the rumor is that is will be anywhere from $25 to $2000 to be moved to cypress. he has a plane ticket out of cypress already so that is where he hopes they will send him. we also don't care about the gifts, we just want him home and safe. last night they went out to dinner and to a hooka bar. today they are going to the beach. he says the area is absolutely beautiful. we are going to have a BIG party once we get him home!! Laura
Josh,
You can just buy me a gift when you come home thats OK. I'm glad you are safe, and I will try not to make fun of you anymore if you come home safe. Whatever you need let us all know. We miss you lots and love alll the pictures and stories.
Aunt Mary Ann
Well, this is really insane. Like everyone else has said, I am so glad that you are safe. The pictures actually make it look like everything is fine. But Josh it definitely is not and you should be sure to evacuate. We will do anything we can to help you, and who cares about your clothes...Kohl's is having a big sale on colored polo shirts. They just announced on the news that America is making arrangements to get a ship there to evacuate the American students and ambassadors. Get on that ship. Love ya lots, See you real soon, I hope and pray.
Mary Beth
So, now that you're safe, the real question remains:
Have you seen A Scanner Darkly yet?
Cause it's freakin' awesome!
Evacuate the hell out of there so you can come watch it with the LaSalle Family. We miss you and your songs.
I was worried about you and your little golden curls. I am relieved to hear that you are safe and that an evacuation will be available to you. listen, forget the gifts, come back in your tighty whities if you have to, just stay safe buddy. I heard about that sale at Kohls also. I think I have a coupon laying around. I'll totally hook you up.
lots of serious love and prayers
- V & E
p.s.
cant wait to see you again, so we can get on with the bowling!
p.s.s.
We took the liberty of registering for our "souvenir" at Bloomingdale's. hope its not too forward. thanks!
Hey Josh,
The cover article in the July 16, Washington Post magazine is "Is the Israel Lobby too Powerful: Is even raising the possibility a Sign of Ant-Semitism?" It's a good article I'll send you a copy. David and I send our love and a contribution. The thought of you wandering around anywhere in your tighty whities is a little scary.
So good to hear your updates. Watching CNN was scaring the crap out of me. Be safe...we can't wait to see you.
Rian
Well Wilson, you've gone and done it now. I'm really glad to hear that you haven't blown up. Get your ass back here so we can do a car bomb together. An Irish car bomb that is. I'll wish and hope that you stay safe. Peace.
I'm glad to hear that you are okay and that you are in a safer place. I hear on the news that the bombing is getting pretty heavy now so I think you should get out as soon as possible. I think its in your best intrest and more importantly in the best intrest of your bowling career. BE safe and try to get back here soon. PS. thanks for the shout out homie!
eloy
Hey brother,
I will take you to Zuma beach and speak Arabic/Lebanese to you all day if you just get you butt on that next evac out of there soon.. it all looks the same anyway (sand, water, etc.). Then we will go shopping for new polos at Mervyns, and I will buy you a burger and cheese fries at Islands. You can get me a "I partied in Beirut" t-shirt some other decade (when Israel stops shooting rockets and pissing people off and they all hold hands and sing Kumbaya my Lord.)
Take care brother and come back soon.
Josh left us a message this morning. The evacuations will be taking place in the next couple of days and he will hopefully be home by the end of the week. His phone cards are gone and all the students are trying to get on the computer so he may not have time to post. We will keep you all updated in the comments whenever we hear from him.
Big party on Saturday if he is back by then!
Sara (the sister)
Update from Josh who just called. They are charging him to get out of the country. The Swiss, the French and every other country that is evacuating citizens has already done so and they did it for free but to get AMERICAN STUDENTS out of the country they are charging them! Please call your congress person and tell them that if they can spend billions of dollars on a war in Iraq then they can front the money to get 25,000 Americans out of Lebanon!
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