ꜱᴛᴀʏ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ • ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴏɴᴇ
Follows the lives of six self-proclaimed adults: a witty procrastinator, a smart-mouth with a drinking problem, a crybaby, an overdramatic playboy, a social-recluse workaholic, and an intellectual charmer, as they learn to en...
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Jezzine's nature was breathtaking. Ghia offered driving for a little bit around town because of their exhaustion after the heavy lunch with her parents, who had been incredibly welcoming and warm to them and even offered they stayed the night here instead of having to stay on the roads for additional hours. They had walked around Souk el Sedd, meeting owners of provision shops and cafes offering traditional food they were too full to taste. Ghia seemed to know most of them from her parents. They stopped at a few craft shops, Chloe making them stay an extra few minutes at Haddad Cutlery as she admired the handcraft, intently listening as Ghia translated the history the owner of the shop narrated.
"It dated since 1770. They used to produce army rifles, knives, uhm, swords. Now it became a cutlery business. The firebird handles are made of..." Ghia faltered as she spoke something in Arabic. "I don't know the word, hold on-" She fished out her phone to google. "-Oh, Buffalo horns. He's also saying they've been presented by Lebanese presidents." Ghia gave up on translating and continued conversing with the old couple about the country's crappy politics, while Chloe picked a firebird keychain to buy as a souvenir.
Ghia took them to see the tallest waterfall in Lebanon, then drove on the road to Shouf, where they were met with the astounding landscape, and finally parked the car further down the road in Azzibeh. She was translating to them what an elder man was narrating about the 'Jisr Al Khalas', that the Ottoman army wasn't allowed to get into Jezzine because it was part of Mount Lebanon - this bridge was the border and hence the origin of the name, which in English was 'salvation bridge'.
"Pont Al Khalass," Veronica read the English letters with furrowed brows. "What does 'pont' mean?"
"It's pont," Ghia pronounced it with a silent 't' and 'n', with a more nasal sound for the 'o', and Veronica blinked. "It's French for bridge."
"Oh," Allen's mouth became round as he remembered. "Is that because you were part of the French mandate?"
Ghia nodded eagerly with a small smile. "Exactly. Right after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire," she paused with a proud grin. "Wow. All those years of swallowing useless history books in school finally came in handy to me."
"I remember Bilal telling us about how much he hated history," Ethan commented as he recalled the first time they met him when they'd been nine-teen-year-old teenagers.
"Bilal loves history. He hates the book here because it's so outdated," Ghia explained. "The last chapter we learn of Lebanese History is the Independence Day back in 1943. I guess it's because of bias the rest can't be written objectively...? I'm not sure."
"How do you know this?" Veronica addressed Allen, curiosity getting the better of her.
Allen frowned. "I think it was when I found out Bilal's from Lebanon, but I'm not sure. I was just interested."
