So, you want to work at a cupcake bakery in Beirut?

Greetings! I made it! I am utterly exhausted and should go to bed, but I wanted all of you to know that I am well.

My trip was eventful. I have bad travel karma, and this trip was no exception. For starters my ticket said I was flying on Middle Eastern Airlines, and upon arriving at JFK my cab driver and I found no sign identifying which terminal I needed. After asking around and visiting a couple of international terminals, we were informed that the first leg of my voyage was actually Virgin Atlantic, and I would take MEA to Beirut. That is...if Virgin Atlantic was on time. It wasn't, and the delay meant that I would miss my connecting flight, so the kind VA workers rerouted me. Then I waited and waited while the delay continued to be a three hour delay. (Why do I go to the airport on time?) Fortunately VI and my new connecting airline BMI had free entertainment and free food. I slept for all but two hours of the VA flight, and on the way to Beirut I sat next to too nice Sudanese ladies, one of whom had a baby that was quite taken with me...or my watch. Either way, it was a good flight--albeit slightly delayed as well. My luggage, however didn't make the flight even though it had plenty of time. I finally got my bags back yesterday. That's right folks, a full week later. When I finally opened my luggage last night I had to resist the urge to wear everything at once.

I am sure you are wondering about my first impressions of Bierut. Well, I haven't see too much because I have been working nonstop. But the parts I have seen remind me a little of Guayaquil, Ecuador. I hope to have pictures soon. Everyone is fantastically hospitable. I think I have only had to pay for myself twice, and it was just water. Lebanese speak an interesting mixture of Arabic, French and English. They are reallly beautiful people, but there seems to be a high proportion of people who have severe, and I am not exxagerating, severe unibrows. I hope to get some pictures soon.

The bakery opened on Sunday and has been a roaring success. This is fabulous and stressful all at the same time. It is fabulous because I like the owners and I want them to be successful, but stressful because no one was prepared for the response. The fellow who founded the company works in Amman, and their business is mostly special orders--about 95%. So they aren'y hugely busy. We are 95% foot traffic, and the kitchen was not set up for it. In fact there is only one other baker besides myself, two baristas, two cleaning staff, and Abed who has a very vague role but may be trained to bake eventually. Fortunately, I used to work at a popular bakery, so I have been employing some organizational tactics that have helped. I am tired, though. All but the baristas work two shifts a day. We are beyond exhausted.

The staff is a lot of fun. The other baker is Rihani from Amman, Jordan. He is about 21 years old and a fabulous baker. He is also working hard at teaching me Arabic. He'll go over numbers and colors and bakery terms. I taech him Eglish as well. We work well together, despite a harsh language barrier. Our dishwasher is from the Sudan. I must say, at first I couldn't stop looking at him. He has a interestinlgy chiseled face, and I was a little in awe because I had to realize that he was real and not a National Geographic special. Our other cleaning lady is from Ethiopia, and apparently she is isn't too friendly, but because we don't speak the same language I have no clue what is going on. Our two baristas speak English pretty perfectly--just a itsy-bitsy smidgen of an accent. The a.m. barista, Mansour is bent on teaching me Lebanese Arabic, while Rihani teaches me Jordanian Arabic. And then there's Abed. After we opened he was such a pill. He wouldn't do anything except pester the Sudanese guy almost to the point of fisticuffs. I think our owner gave him a stern talking to, because he has been on his best behavior for two whole days. Plus, the stress level has gone down so we have had time to teach him recipes. I'll try to make him our prep cook--at least. The owner, Nabil, is great. He is at the bakery everyday, he buys our meals, and drives us home. He is new to the bakery industry, but I see that as a benefit because then I can get things organized my way without too much intereference. He does listen, so hopefully things will continue to progress well.

I am going to end this blog post now, since it is getting long (and there are no pictures), and I really need to get to bed. I am sitting in the hotel manager's office, and I don't want to overstay my welcome.