all, i'll try to write something more at some point, but wanted to direct you to our new youtube channel where we've been putting an assortment of videos of Joe. Maybe at some point we'll do videos of other things in Lebanon, but to date it's been pretty much all about Joe. Subscribe to the site, if you are so inclined, so you can get notifications when we post new materials. http://www.youtube.com/user/benrempell?feature=mhum is the link to take you to the site.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Rempell Family Visit to Lebanon
Hey all, I don't have time to write much now as Daniela and Joe and I are in the midst of fun and busy summer visiting season. However, I wanted to direct you to some pictures from the amazing two week visit from Grandma, Papa, and uncle Josh that just ended last week.
In the album there are some classics of Joe with his Grandma:
with his Papa:
and with Uncle Josh:
We have Grandpa Rudstein in town right now and are having a great time as well. I'll post more after Grandpa leaves, though Daniela and Joe and I won't really have time to breath as after that it looks like we'll have a welcome visit from DC friend Holly B and Serbian superstar Berto C.
In addition, there's a different site where I've been posting videos from my phone that are fun to check out. The most recent one is of Joe chatting away, clapping and doing this new head shake that we have concluded is his first effort at dancing. You can find the videos here: www.qik.com/benrempell I haven't figured out how I can embed these into the blog; I probably can I'm just not savvy enough to figure it out... any help from my more geeky (cool) friends would be welcome.
Love to all, enjoy the pics!
In the album there are some classics of Joe with his Grandma:
 |
| From Rempell Family Visit |
with his Papa:
 |
| From Rempell Family Visit |
and with Uncle Josh:
 |
| From Rempell Family Visit |
We have Grandpa Rudstein in town right now and are having a great time as well. I'll post more after Grandpa leaves, though Daniela and Joe and I won't really have time to breath as after that it looks like we'll have a welcome visit from DC friend Holly B and Serbian superstar Berto C.
In addition, there's a different site where I've been posting videos from my phone that are fun to check out. The most recent one is of Joe chatting away, clapping and doing this new head shake that we have concluded is his first effort at dancing. You can find the videos here: www.qik.com/benrempell I haven't figured out how I can embed these into the blog; I probably can I'm just not savvy enough to figure it out... any help from my more geeky (cool) friends would be welcome.
Love to all, enjoy the pics!
 |
| Rempell Family Visit |
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Hot Beirut Summer
It's been a hot month here, figuratively and literally. On the literal front, we've spent a good amount of our free time either staying cool in the apartment or lounging by various pools at the selection of beach clubs in and outside of Beirut. Joe, as you can see, is quite happy either crawling (and now standing!) around the house,
or throwing on a pair of little swimmers and chill out at the pool:
Since returning from Greece in the end of June, we finally hired a nanny which has been a godsend for us. Her name is Minda and she is from the Philippines but has been living in Lebanon off and on for 10 years. She loves Joe, takes him around to her friends to brag about him, and has allowed us to get out to experience a bit of what we'd heard about the Beirut nightlife. At night, many of the beach clubs apparently bring out contortionists in clear plastic bubbles to float in the pools while linen-clad men and decked out women unwind near the water, sipping bright blue beverages and dancing to european and local DJs.
Well, ok, it happened once to us, thanks to an old friend's party. Mostly we have gone out for great meals in empty restaurants that are full by the time we are ready to leave as we are still far from accustomed to having dinner after 10pm. The summer in Beirut also brings the music festival scene, and we definitely took advantage of the diverse selection of music on offer, from Chicago Blues to Brazilian genius Caetano Velloso to Gorillaz. Many of the festivals have picturesque settings, with backdrops of ancient ruins, in renovated roman amphitheaters, or nestled into the mountains outside of Beirut.
In our spare time, we have also worked on getting the apartment ready for our summer of visitors, of which we've only just begun with SAISer Casson in town, my family arriving soon, and Daniela's father rolling in right after my family. We are excited as it'll give us the chance to show off our new home and surroundings, and can't wait for Joe to be able to spend good quality time with grandma, grandpas, and uncle Josh. While Daniela and I brought the plants back to life, hung pictures, bought new furniture to fit into our new space that is slightly larger than our 11 foot wide home in DC (we still miss you 913W!),
Joe has prepared for his visitors by, well, just playing a lot.
In addition to the weather, the country situation has heated up a bit as well, with both internal and external tensions on the rise. We are reminded that for all of Lebanon's great cuisine, rich and diverse culture, and picturesque scenery, it is still a country struggling to emerge from decades of civil war, which was followed by 10-15 years of two foreign occupations, and topped off by political assassinations, one follow up war with Israel, and renewed internal violence all within the last 5 years. Most recently, internal tensions have been sparked by reports that a United Nations special tribunal that is investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri will be accusing members of Hezbollah for being involved in the murder. The current government - a coalition of many major political and sectarian groups including Hezbollah - has been challenged by these rumors but have worked hard to maintain the stability and general culture of cooperation that the country has enjoyed in the past couple of years. The legitimacy of the tribunal is being put to the test by a recent spate of arrests in Lebanon of Israeli spies, many of whom are within the telecommunications sector, which is apparently where the tribunal has been able to collect the most amount of evidence linking the plotters with the assassination. The tension was compounded by a couple of hours of violence last week between Israel and Lebanon on the southern border, the first direct violent conflict since the 2006 war. While the border is now calm, it remains to be seen how the tensions will subside. Many hope that the upcoming month of Ramadan will allow for a reprieve, while others put their attention and faith into the various external actors with interests and alliances in Lebanon. Thankfully, it does not appear, at least on the surface, that most of the main external actors in Lebanon, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel, or Syria, and especially not the Rempell family living in Beirut, are interested in war here in Lebanon.
All the pictures above and more can be found here:
love, b,d, and j
or throwing on a pair of little swimmers and chill out at the pool:
Since returning from Greece in the end of June, we finally hired a nanny which has been a godsend for us. Her name is Minda and she is from the Philippines but has been living in Lebanon off and on for 10 years. She loves Joe, takes him around to her friends to brag about him, and has allowed us to get out to experience a bit of what we'd heard about the Beirut nightlife. At night, many of the beach clubs apparently bring out contortionists in clear plastic bubbles to float in the pools while linen-clad men and decked out women unwind near the water, sipping bright blue beverages and dancing to european and local DJs.
Well, ok, it happened once to us, thanks to an old friend's party. Mostly we have gone out for great meals in empty restaurants that are full by the time we are ready to leave as we are still far from accustomed to having dinner after 10pm. The summer in Beirut also brings the music festival scene, and we definitely took advantage of the diverse selection of music on offer, from Chicago Blues to Brazilian genius Caetano Velloso to Gorillaz. Many of the festivals have picturesque settings, with backdrops of ancient ruins, in renovated roman amphitheaters, or nestled into the mountains outside of Beirut.
In our spare time, we have also worked on getting the apartment ready for our summer of visitors, of which we've only just begun with SAISer Casson in town, my family arriving soon, and Daniela's father rolling in right after my family. We are excited as it'll give us the chance to show off our new home and surroundings, and can't wait for Joe to be able to spend good quality time with grandma, grandpas, and uncle Josh. While Daniela and I brought the plants back to life, hung pictures, bought new furniture to fit into our new space that is slightly larger than our 11 foot wide home in DC (we still miss you 913W!),
Joe has prepared for his visitors by, well, just playing a lot.
In addition to the weather, the country situation has heated up a bit as well, with both internal and external tensions on the rise. We are reminded that for all of Lebanon's great cuisine, rich and diverse culture, and picturesque scenery, it is still a country struggling to emerge from decades of civil war, which was followed by 10-15 years of two foreign occupations, and topped off by political assassinations, one follow up war with Israel, and renewed internal violence all within the last 5 years. Most recently, internal tensions have been sparked by reports that a United Nations special tribunal that is investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri will be accusing members of Hezbollah for being involved in the murder. The current government - a coalition of many major political and sectarian groups including Hezbollah - has been challenged by these rumors but have worked hard to maintain the stability and general culture of cooperation that the country has enjoyed in the past couple of years. The legitimacy of the tribunal is being put to the test by a recent spate of arrests in Lebanon of Israeli spies, many of whom are within the telecommunications sector, which is apparently where the tribunal has been able to collect the most amount of evidence linking the plotters with the assassination. The tension was compounded by a couple of hours of violence last week between Israel and Lebanon on the southern border, the first direct violent conflict since the 2006 war. While the border is now calm, it remains to be seen how the tensions will subside. Many hope that the upcoming month of Ramadan will allow for a reprieve, while others put their attention and faith into the various external actors with interests and alliances in Lebanon. Thankfully, it does not appear, at least on the surface, that most of the main external actors in Lebanon, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel, or Syria, and especially not the Rempell family living in Beirut, are interested in war here in Lebanon.
All the pictures above and more can be found here:
 |
| 7 months |
love, b,d, and j
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
update and new pictures
No updates in quite some time, primarily due to us trying to settle into our new apartment and the accompanying struggles to connect to the internet that ensued. Funny little "fact" about Lebanon (I put that in quotes because there seem to be no real truths here, just opinions stated as if they are absolute), it takes one month from when you get a phone line set up to get a DSL connection installed. Don't ask why, it just is. Or ask why, and you are told that it just is. But it's all better now, no need to dwell.
Life has been going well here for us. My work has been very interesting, especially with an intelligent, committed, and hardworking staff of internationals and Lebanese. And through my work, I've had the opportunity to see a lot of the country. From way down along the border with "Lebanon's southern neighbors" to the eastern and northern borders with Syria, I've found Lebanon to be a beautiful and fascinating country. Of course, I spend a lot of time wondering what I'm missing at home during the day; missing Joe make funny faces while he eats mushed carrots or peas, seeing him crawl on hands and knees instead of army crawl, or watching him figure out how to use the table to stand up, revel in his new accomplishment, and then fall down and start crying. Learning about it after I get home, or watching it all on the weekends has been amazing; he learns so much every day and it's been a joy to watch his development.
As I write to you all right now, Daniela and I are sitting in the living room with the World Cup on and the volume up as we struggle through attempted sleep training. There's apparently nothing more painful than listening to your child cry. I also remember hearing that cliche phrase of "you might not understand this now, but it's good for you" and thinking what a load of shit that was and who do they think they are telling me what's good for me? Well, here we are, doing the same thing, and I can just hear Joe's inner monologue with each scream, telling me "who the hell do you think you are not picking me up and make me feel better?" Ok, he just stopped screaming. Now we feel better.
Enough babbling. Here are some pics of our recent trip to the Greek island of Santorini and our one day in Athens, where we "had" to go to renew our visas. Not too much to say about it that the pictures won't show. Joe's 5-month pictures are up as well if you are so inclined to see them; they are on the Picasa site.
Miss you, please come and visit. It's fun here, we promise.
Love, B, D, and J
Life has been going well here for us. My work has been very interesting, especially with an intelligent, committed, and hardworking staff of internationals and Lebanese. And through my work, I've had the opportunity to see a lot of the country. From way down along the border with "Lebanon's southern neighbors" to the eastern and northern borders with Syria, I've found Lebanon to be a beautiful and fascinating country. Of course, I spend a lot of time wondering what I'm missing at home during the day; missing Joe make funny faces while he eats mushed carrots or peas, seeing him crawl on hands and knees instead of army crawl, or watching him figure out how to use the table to stand up, revel in his new accomplishment, and then fall down and start crying. Learning about it after I get home, or watching it all on the weekends has been amazing; he learns so much every day and it's been a joy to watch his development.
As I write to you all right now, Daniela and I are sitting in the living room with the World Cup on and the volume up as we struggle through attempted sleep training. There's apparently nothing more painful than listening to your child cry. I also remember hearing that cliche phrase of "you might not understand this now, but it's good for you" and thinking what a load of shit that was and who do they think they are telling me what's good for me? Well, here we are, doing the same thing, and I can just hear Joe's inner monologue with each scream, telling me "who the hell do you think you are not picking me up and make me feel better?" Ok, he just stopped screaming. Now we feel better.
Enough babbling. Here are some pics of our recent trip to the Greek island of Santorini and our one day in Athens, where we "had" to go to renew our visas. Not too much to say about it that the pictures won't show. Joe's 5-month pictures are up as well if you are so inclined to see them; they are on the Picasa site.
Miss you, please come and visit. It's fun here, we promise.
 |
| Greece |
Love, B, D, and J
Monday, May 17, 2010
Getting Settled
This past month has been busy but exciting. We have finally moved into our new apartment and our shipment arrived just last weekend, so we are starting to feel a bit more settled every day. We still have no internet access in the apartment, so we won't go into much detail on this post other than providing a few pictures. A couple of pics of our apartment, more to come once we furnish it...
This is our empty kitchen
This is one view of our balcony. If it weren't hazy (which it often is) the sea would be there in the distance...
Municipal elections are happening in Lebanon this month. Each weekend is a different part of the country. These are only the third local elections that Lebanon has seen in its modern history. While there are calls for decentralization, most of the fiscal authority still lies with the central government. The elections have been somewhat interesting, though also have left many disenfranchised as many of the primary political parties undertook last minute backroom negotiations to form unified lists of candidates in many of the municipalities, which have resulted in either elections being cancelled due to an absence of competition or elections where lists of independent candidates have virtually no chance to gain access to the municipal council. The Beirut elections happened recently, and while turnout was embarrassingly low (20%, which is pretty bad even for US standards of election participation), the owner of the taxi stand across the street from our apartment ran to be one of the Mukhtar's of Beirut, which is sort of an official community representative with limited official powers but acts as the link between the average citizen and others who have more power. He won, and they threw quite a party outside our apartment the night after the elections.
This is from our balcony:
and this is the famous Geryes of Geryes Taxi.
As a family, we've gone up to a vineyard for a day of eating and breathing of fresh air, visited as many outdoor spaces that Beirut has to offer, taken Joe to his first beach where he watched dad play some ultimate frisbee, and introduced to Joe the concept of putting himself to sleep at night, which has been somewhat stressful and so far moderately successful.
Here is the link to a bunch of new Joe pictures. Enjoy! Love, B, D, and J.
This is our empty kitchen
This is one view of our balcony. If it weren't hazy (which it often is) the sea would be there in the distance...
Municipal elections are happening in Lebanon this month. Each weekend is a different part of the country. These are only the third local elections that Lebanon has seen in its modern history. While there are calls for decentralization, most of the fiscal authority still lies with the central government. The elections have been somewhat interesting, though also have left many disenfranchised as many of the primary political parties undertook last minute backroom negotiations to form unified lists of candidates in many of the municipalities, which have resulted in either elections being cancelled due to an absence of competition or elections where lists of independent candidates have virtually no chance to gain access to the municipal council. The Beirut elections happened recently, and while turnout was embarrassingly low (20%, which is pretty bad even for US standards of election participation), the owner of the taxi stand across the street from our apartment ran to be one of the Mukhtar's of Beirut, which is sort of an official community representative with limited official powers but acts as the link between the average citizen and others who have more power. He won, and they threw quite a party outside our apartment the night after the elections.
This is from our balcony:
and this is the famous Geryes of Geryes Taxi.
As a family, we've gone up to a vineyard for a day of eating and breathing of fresh air, visited as many outdoor spaces that Beirut has to offer, taken Joe to his first beach where he watched dad play some ultimate frisbee, and introduced to Joe the concept of putting himself to sleep at night, which has been somewhat stressful and so far moderately successful.
Here is the link to a bunch of new Joe pictures. Enjoy! Love, B, D, and J.
 |
| 4 months |
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Welcome to Beirut!
After nearly 17 hours of traveling, we arrived safe & sound in Beirut on April 3rd. Upgrading to business class was key, and Joe was a champion traveler, saving his major meltdown for deplaning at the Beirut airport.
Over the past two weeks, we've been learning about our new hometown. Of course, having worked and lived in Latin America for so long, that's my frame of reference. At this point, I've decided that Beirut is like a smaller, cleaner version of Buenos Aires albeit with more bullet holes, tanks, and fancy cars. The restaurants are phenomenal, the nightlife is supposed to be amazingly fun (we don't get out much since Joe's bedtime is 7p), and shopping/grooming might be considered a national pastime. And nearly everyone here speaks English - all the waiters, most shop workers, even some taxi drivers. One of the best qualities however -- especially with a 4 month old who requires you to be at home from 6:30pm onward -- is that EVERYBODY delivers, from fast food to the best Lebanese restaurant in town. Having fresh and delicious hummus and kibbeh at your front door within 20 minutes is quite a thing.
While Ben is hard at work during the day, Joe and I explore the city. (We'll post more on our adventures later.) Joe's also mastered skills such as rolling over (back to front, and front to back if he keeps one arm tucked under), a baby version of army crawling, drooling copious amounts, making ugly crying faces, laughing, and making his parents dance around to Lady Gaga to entice him to laugh more. Check out the photos and videos...
This one is from when we learned that Joe (finally!) responds to qzerberts with laughter:
This is one of Joe's very impressive back to front roll overs that we've been able to catch on film. Getting this on video is a little like catching the bird of paradise mating dance on film (for all you planet earth fans); we know it happens all the time, it's just so rare to catch it on film...
And here are a bunch of pictures from our first two weeks. Enjoy!
Over the past two weeks, we've been learning about our new hometown. Of course, having worked and lived in Latin America for so long, that's my frame of reference. At this point, I've decided that Beirut is like a smaller, cleaner version of Buenos Aires albeit with more bullet holes, tanks, and fancy cars. The restaurants are phenomenal, the nightlife is supposed to be amazingly fun (we don't get out much since Joe's bedtime is 7p), and shopping/grooming might be considered a national pastime. And nearly everyone here speaks English - all the waiters, most shop workers, even some taxi drivers. One of the best qualities however -- especially with a 4 month old who requires you to be at home from 6:30pm onward -- is that EVERYBODY delivers, from fast food to the best Lebanese restaurant in town. Having fresh and delicious hummus and kibbeh at your front door within 20 minutes is quite a thing.
While Ben is hard at work during the day, Joe and I explore the city. (We'll post more on our adventures later.) Joe's also mastered skills such as rolling over (back to front, and front to back if he keeps one arm tucked under), a baby version of army crawling, drooling copious amounts, making ugly crying faces, laughing, and making his parents dance around to Lady Gaga to entice him to laugh more. Check out the photos and videos...
This one is from when we learned that Joe (finally!) responds to qzerberts with laughter:
This is one of Joe's very impressive back to front roll overs that we've been able to catch on film. Getting this on video is a little like catching the bird of paradise mating dance on film (for all you planet earth fans); we know it happens all the time, it's just so rare to catch it on film...
And here are a bunch of pictures from our first two weeks. Enjoy!
 |
| Beirut First Weeks |
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Goodbye DC...
We have now officially left our home in Washington, DC and moved to Beirut, Lebanon. At the end of March, Ben returned from his 5 weeks overseas to spend a week packing up the house and moving us as a family out to Lebanon. During the insane week of organizing, packing and watching house get emptied out and all our belongings either put into storage or shipment (hopefully the right things going to the right places), we were lucky to have visits from Grandma and Grandpa Rempell to help out with selling the car (goodbye Blancanieves, it's been fun!) and then from Aunt Randi, Uncle Arnie and Cousin Leslie to help us with the packing day and moving and painting day. While their help sorting through random knick-knacks collected over the past 3 years was invaluable, I don't think they minded when we passed Joe off to them in the morning and asked them to spend the entire day with him. From a completely objective viewpoint, this kid gets cuter every day. You can see by the pictures here.
We'll keep you posted as we get settled in Beirut. While we enjoy our sushi delivery that just arrived, please enjoy this post and updated pictures. More to come soon...
We'll keep you posted as we get settled in Beirut. While we enjoy our sushi delivery that just arrived, please enjoy this post and updated pictures. More to come soon...
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