I posted pictures! Lots of pictures! Some are the graf art in Hamra which is where I live. Some under the title "Corniche" are of the walkway by the sea where I go running. It is always full of families with kids riding bikes and roller blading. There are vendors selling corn and coffee and argeli (hookah). You can see that on warm days people go swimming. Of course, only men go swimming as it would cause a huge scene if a woman was seen in a bathing suit. However, the men can go swimming in their underwear whenever they want. I have seen women go swimming wearing their entire covering including the long black garment to the floor and their veil. The range of people here is so vast though. There are women who are covered in black from head to toe with only little slits for their eyes and then there are also the Muslim women who wear leggings, short skirts, tall boots and designer sunglasses, and to top it all off they wear a veil on their head. Then there are also the Muslim women who don't wear any outward sign of their religion. It is a constant struggle for me and for the entire population of Lebanon, to try and take each person as an individual and not project all of our previous experiences and ideas on people before we get to know each other as human beings and not just the labels because there are SO many labels. Anyways, NEW TOPIC. The other pictures are of caving with the Extreme Club which was AMAZING and planting trees in Anjar with the Environmental Club. A couple pictures of the Christmas chapel. You can see the room where I sing every week with the band and the people I work with who are so great. The snowy pictures are of the mountains where I went skiing/ snowmobiling with a friend from AUB over the break I had last week. It is really amazing that in Lebanon I can go up to the mountains and ski and then come back down to Beirut and run at the beach in shorts on the same day! There are also pictures of Magdouche, which is my friend's village in the South where I went for New Year's Eve. The pictures of the sunset and the moon are NOT photoshopped. Lebanon really is this beautiful. From the pictures you can probably see why I don't want to come back to the U.S. Just kidding mom:) SO I had a great break for a week between semesters and now I am back to school starting a new semester which is shaping up to be even better than last semester! AND my grandparents are coming home this Saturday! Lebanon makes me so happy.

New Pictures!

Hi! I finally added a few new pictures. These are from my trip to Akkar where we renovated the school. You can see the before and after pictures. The school looked very different when we finished. This past week I had finals. I have one more tomorrow (Monday) and then I will have a week and a half of vacation. I think I have done well on my finals so far. The schooling here is very test-heavy...no papers which is unfortunate for me but I am getting used to it. Last night I went to a concert in Bourg Hamoud. Of course, it was in Armenian and I didn't understand anything but musically, the band was really good and the lead singer had an amazing voice. My friends translated the basic ideas for me:) It is getting very cold here and I am starting to freeze because I didn't really bring winter clothes...including a warm jacket or boots. I think I may have to spend some of my vacation shopping. Everyday I get home and put on three sweaters and curl into my bed:)

Hello everybody! I know everybody wants me to upload pictures but, unfortunately, the internet in my building is so bad that it takes about 20 minutes to upload one picture and that causes me excruciating pain so today I will just write. The last time I wrote was right after Christmas. For New Years Eve I went to my friend's village in the South of Lebanon and we just spent the night watching tv and eating with his family. I spent the rest of my break trying to be outside as much as possible as the weather was like summer and reading and writing. Some Armenians, including my roommate, celebrate Christmas on January 6 so I went to church with her in Bourg Hamoud (the major Armenian neighborhood in Beirut). In Bourg Hamoud there are dvd stores where I can buy any dvd for 75 cents! I already bought Avatar and Amelia. See Avatar in the movie theater but DO NOT spend money to see Amelia. I was anxious to get back to school and see everybody. Last Friday I went caving with my Extreme Team. Caving was AMAZING! I had to wriggle on my belly through these tiny tunnels. There were bats flying around everywhere but I wasn't scared! When we came to a room we sat silently and could hear the water dropping from the celing. Then there was this little tiny room that we had to get to alone cause only two people could fit inside. In the room if you knocked on the rocks you could hear different pitches and it was really beautiful. The next day I went to plant trees at a school in Anjar, an Armenian village in the mountains. We planted 55 trees in honor of Haigazian (my university's) 55th anniversary and then went out and ate A LOT of food. I saw Avatar in 3D and loved it. You should all go see it in the theater. This is my last week of the semester. The next week will be final exams. I just registered for next semester. My courses are Human Rights, Comparative Politics, Politics of Lebanon, Christian-Muslim Dialogue and International Law. It looks a little overwhelming but it will be interesting. Also, one of my friends is teaching me Armenian. I have a lesson once a week and it is really fun. Also, starting next semester, another one of my friends is going to start giving me Arabic lessons every week because I feel that I need to be more deliberate about learning the language. I am not satisfied with the amount of Arabic I have learned so far so I want to work harder on it for the remainder of my time here. Also, some very exciting news for me is that my grandparents who have been visiting my relatives in Atlanta since the summer are finally coming home to Lebanon! I am really excited to have my family here. I will feel much more at home with them. Other than that, I am just enjoying life and all the new things that I learn about myself and about the world with each new day. I'm really happy here but I sure do miss my little brother:)