Jebel Lweibdeh, where my grandparents’ home is, and where I spent most of my childhood summers. We lived overseas,and would come back and spend a month or more every summer with all of my cousins wandering around Lweibdeh. Wish my kids could have that kind of magical freedom but the world is a more complicated place now. I was telling my daughters who are fans of the Arthur cartoon series (check it on http://www.pbs.org) that summers in Lweibdeh were sort of like Arthur’s life in “Elwood City”. We were free to be ourselves in the safe confines of our Jebel.In my mind, those summers are forever captured by the heady scent of red geraniums, jasmine blooming at night and overhwelming you as you past a garden wall, and delicious incomparable scent of pistachio skin,staining our finger nails as we climb up the trees at my grandparents whose to pick and eat the delicious nuts in their fleshy shell. We wandered from dukannet ABu Adnan where we bought Jabri ice cream cones or candy crayons in the little red box(across from Wahbeh’s butcher shop)to the kids club that used to be in the Muntazah (now replaced by Canvas). I think I still have my club id card somewhere :))There was a little shop nearby that sold malteeneh (the playdough that came in small colored rectangles, remember that??) and those big drawing pads with orange covers.
As preteens we could walk all the way to the Hawooz (hilariously renamed Square de Paris in my humble opinion). I still laugh about the crazy sidewalks, too high in some places, too narrow in others, with trees planted in the middle of the sidewalk, requiring you to risk your life by walking in the street. Falafel and fatteh were best from Abu Mahjoob. There used to a be a little grocery store next to Terra Sancta school that sold colored popcorn kernels (bushar); a real treat! As we got older, we (girls) would stop to buy nail polish or accessories from the little shops by Afghani. We experimented with hideous 80s make up (read colored eyeliner) and spent many shilins on scrunchies and big brightly colored earrings and bangles. Then came the teenage years, and the journey to buy pretty stationary (from university bookshop) for love letters or mix tapes from the place by the bookshop to nurse our crushes to the tunes of Majida Roumi among others. (For good American pop you had to travel across town to Music Box near NadiSayyarat). YER7AM!!!

As an adult, I love a walk through Jebel Amman down to El-Balad. All of Jebel Amman — Rainbow street, the older less “revitalized” areas, and the ruthless and beloved old staircases of the city.
thanks for the chance to travel down memory lane :)

Jebel Lweibdeh, where my grandparents’ home is, and where I spent most of my childhood summers. We lived overseas,and would come back and spend a month or more every summer with all of my cousins wandering around Lweibdeh. Wish my kids could have that kind of magical freedom but the world is a more complicated place now. I was telling my daughters who are fans of the Arthur cartoon series (check it on http://www.pbs.org) that summers in Lweibdeh were sort of like Arthur’s life in “Elwood City”. We were free to be ourselves in the safe confines of our Jebel.In my mind, those summers are forever captured by the heady scent of red geraniums, jasmine blooming at night and overhwelming you as you past a garden wall, and delicious incomparable scent of pistachio skin,staining our finger nails as we climb up the trees at my grandparents whose to pick and eat the delicious nuts in their fleshy shell. We wandered from dukannet ABu Adnan where we bought Jabri ice cream cones or candy crayons in the little red box(across from Wahbeh’s butcher shop)to the kids club that used to be in the Muntazah (now replaced by Canvas). I think I still have my club id card somewhere :))There was a little shop nearby that sold malteeneh (the playdough that came in small colored rectangles, remember that??) and those big drawing pads with orange covers.
As preteens we could walk all the way to the Hawooz (hilariously renamed Square de Paris in my humble opinion). I still laugh about the crazy sidewalks, too high in some places, too narrow in others, with trees planted in the middle of the sidewalk, requiring you to risk your life by walking in the street. Falafel and fatteh were best from Abu Mahjoob. There used to a be a little grocery store next to Terra Sancta school that sold colored popcorn kernels (bushar); a real treat! As we got older, we (girls) would stop to buy nail polish or accessories from the little shops by Afghani. We experimented with hideous 80s make up (read colored eyeliner) and spent many shilins on scrunchies and big brightly colored earrings and bangles. Then came the teenage years, and the journey to buy pretty stationary (from university bookshop) for love letters or mix tapes from the place by the bookshop to nurse our crushes to the tunes of Majida Roumi among others. (For good American pop you had to travel across town to Music Box near NadiSayyarat). YER7AM!!!

As an adult, I love a walk through Jebel Amman down to El-Balad. All of Jebel Amman — Rainbow street, the older less “revitalized” areas, and the ruthless and beloved old staircases of the city.
thanks for the chance to travel down memory lane :)