New Year Resolutions

The new year is upon us and most of us will have some resolutions that we try to stick to. Most of us are unsuccessful, but we try anyway. A good measure of this phenomenon for me is watching the dynamics at my school gym. Usually the first week after the New Year, everybody is at the gym. You'd be lucky if you find an empty bench to do some presses. Give that a couple of weeks or so and then you are guaranteed to have an almost empty gym by February or March.

So, what's Lebanon's or Michel Sleiman's 2010 resolution?

Cleaning up house, otherwise known as reform.

But my question to you Mr. President, why wait till 2010? Why after the New Year? Why the 'eff not when you were elected President?

You'd think one would want to immediately start the reformation process once elected to office.

My guess is however that this is another New Year's resolution that will not see the light of day.

Good luck with that your excellency.

And to my readers, good luck with you New Year's resolutions.

BG

An (Lebanese) American in Paris

I have been a very, very bad blogger and I am très desolée. Excusez-moi

When I was stuck in my NYC office, it was very easy to blog, a little too easy--I was up to 3 blog posts a day.

Now that I am in Par-ee, this is simply not the case.

But alas, my return is long overdue. Poor Baba has been blogging all on his own, and what is Baba without LZ?? rien. de. tout. (ahh, mais je blague!)

Is my insertion of random french words ridiculously annoying? too bad, i love it. it screams "yes, i live in paris! be very jealous of me!"

i apologize. the parisians have gotten to my head.

also, can we please discuss how EVERY FRENCH MAN is ridiculously attractive? i'm not kidding. from the métro drivers to the security guards to the construction workers, they all look like models. its wonderful.

also, i would like to say that my arabic has been more useful than my french here. really.

everyone loves lebanese people in paris! not only are there lebanese people EVERYWHERE(in my area alone there are 6 lebanese restaurants that i have discovered, if you're standing in one particular spot you can see three of them at once) but there are plenty of algerians/moroccons/tunisians that love lebanese people, especially lebanese girls, which means i have been getting free things and first class treatment everywhere.

like the cute little old tunisian man that works at the épicerie near my place that always gives me free stuff and kisses my hand every time i see him (in a non-creepy way guys, trust me!)and the algerian bouncers that weren't going to let me and my 6 girlfriends into "World's Place" (some show-offy club that thinks its the sh** because its owned by Johnny Depp and Sean Penn) until I spoke with him in arabic and we floated on through and the egyptian men who owned the hookah bar that somehow found room for me and my friends even though the place was full.

yep, speaking arabic can really help you out in paris--maybe not actually being moroccan, algerian or tunisian--somehow i get the feeling that they are not adored here, but speaking arabic or being a lebanese girl; you got it made baby.

On a side-note, if a lebanese guy who is give-or-take 10 years older than you tells you to consider him as your brother for the duration of your time in paris, do not believe him. i repeat, DO NOT believe him.

if he asks you what perfume you were wearing or invites you to eat mnaeesh for breakfast, don't think he's just being friendly and trying to make you feel at home; RUN FOR THE HILLS. or lie and tell him you have a lebanese boyfriend who's father is (a) elie hobeika,(b) samir geagea, (c) hassan nasrallah, (d) milheim barakaat (what? i think he's really creepy...). that is all i have to say about that.

Just to show you how much the Lebanese are adored here:









Yes, I am THAT important, Sarkozy put this up all along the Champs-Élysées, in front of the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand and Petit Palais and the Invalides just for me, oh, and for Michel Suleiman's 3-day visit at the end of March (which was Sarko's first visit by an Arab head of state).

But really, it was for me.



Promise to write again soon!

xxx

Bisous

~LZ

PS: If you are in Par-ee and crave a quick shawarma or falafel sandwich, try Al Dar or Chez Le Libanais