The situation

The situation is tense. But it will not erupt into civil war.

My heart sank when I found out. I was with one of the new American teachers, a guy who's only been here for two months. I said this assasination was a bad one. I've already told him to be ready, be able to pack up quickly, in case things start up again.

But after these past couple days, and Nasrallah doing things like telling people to go home and not be on the streets, and calling Amin Gemayal, I'm actually pretty hopeful.

Last Sunday (two days before the assassination of Pierre Gemayal), I was in the Dahiye, visiting my boyfriend's family. For about half an hour, people were firing their weapons, many of which sounded like automatic machine guns, from their balconies. Apparently, Hasssan Nasrallah had finished his speech. It was kind of freaky. Fireworks are usually the norm in that situation, and caravans of cars with flags and loud music blaring out of them. But the gunfire was crazy. I realized that these people are armed, and they're ready to go.

My friend was up in Aley picking olives. When she heard it, she thought, "It's started."

People are nervous. But after these tense days, I think people are feeling like it's not going to erupt in a civil war. The government, however, is likely to come down. The opposition, Hizbollah, wants to stop the international tribunal that would try the murderers of Rafik Hariri, which will implicate the inner sanctum of Syria. People expect more assassinations.

But I don't think Israel is going to start dropping bombs. And I don't think the people are going to start massacring each other.

But there will probably be more demonstrations and national strikes. Which is all starting to suck. Businesses suffer too much. School gets all crazy, and we have to make up the days.

For the Lebanese, it's just too hard to live here with all this uncertainty. Even me, will the school year finish?? Will I be looking for another job soon? Will we get a fiance visa before everything shuts down?

Yes, fiance visa. But that's another post.

(By the way, my computer is still messed up. iPhoto is jacked up. And I still haven't had the heart to go back to being controlled by my computer. I'm thinking maybe this week I'll fix it, and then finally I'll post some photos on this blog. I have so many.)