my brother left for lebanon and, i must admit, i am a bit jealous. he's spending about ten days there, then flying to the united arab emirates. he stays for a day in the U.A.E. (and the day happens to be september 11th) before continuing on to nairobi where he will remain until the end of his vacation, returning at the end of september. before we left for canada, i gave him a bunch of beginning arabic books and tapes, although i have my doubts that he will have time to get very far. on the other hand, he knows swahili, which means he already knows a lot of arabic vocabulary (even the word "swahili" is an arabic word). plus, he's good with languages. i just hope the bastard doesn't come back knowing more than me, after i've spent years struggling with this friggin language.
as it happens, lebanon is in the news this week. syria, which effectively occupies and dominates lebanon, has used its influence to push forward a constitutional amendment which would allow president emile lahoud to serve another three years as president (without the amendment, he would be required to leave because of a term limit). meanwhile, the u.s. and france are sponsoring a resolution condemning syria's interference in lebanon's affairs (as if syria has ever not interfered every day since they began their occupation). by the time i get to speak to my brother when he gets back, all this will probably be old news. but it will be interesting to hear whatever perspective he picks up in beirut.
meanwhile, i get to travel to this week, although not quite as far away. tomorrow i fly to louisville, kentucky for baji and TP's big fat pakistani weeding. it's not the first muslim weeding i've ever been to, or the first muslim weeding i've ever been invited to, but it is the first muslim weeding that i have been both invited to and will attend. how's that for a historic landmark?
i'm bringing my laptop with me to louisville. it's sort of an experiment. i left it behind when mrs. noz and i went to canada because i didn't know how much of a pain in the ass traveling with it would be. i didn't want to be saddled with it for two weeks if there was, in fact, much posterior pain. this louisville trip is much shorter, basically a long weekend, so i will give it a try.
thus there is no need to worry. blogging and (just as importantly) KoL will probably not be interrupted this weekend, assuming i can find a hot spot.
