Lebanon!!!

Oh my gosh! Lebanon was amazing. I absolutely loved it, and I felt, for the first since I've been in this side of the world that I am in the Middle East. If anyone is your family is Lebanese, then you are automatically Lebanese, regardless if you've ever been there or not. Pratically everyone speaks French, Arabic, and English. I used more Arabic there than I have in Dubai. And I got to use my French! (especially at the airport, where I mostly spoke in French). The farther away you get from Beirut, the less English you see and the more French and Arabic there is.

I also loved that everyone on the airplane from Dubai was extremely excited to be arriving in Beirut. I think there were three non-Lebanese people on that flight. The pilot kept pointing out landmarks once we started flying over Lebanon. The contrast with the flight returning to Dubai was hilarious. The plane was almost empty, no one was excited, etc.


I didn't get to stay in Beirut much, but what I did see was, of course, beautiful (I'm not biased at all ;p ). And I had my haircut there at this ridiculously nice salon, which was really cheap compared to what it would have been in the states. $1 in Lebanon gets you 1500 lira, but you can pay for stuff in dollars and they won't give you evil looks. Everyone was extemely nice (except for this one army guy in the airport.)

Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to go sightseeing and show you guys the really cool pictures, but I took what I could. There are some pictures of my grandparents house and the town they live in, and there are pictures of what the mountains/towns look like. The weather, by the way was absolutely beautiful--clear, warm, not humid (unless you're in Beirut). It was refreshing, and the food of course was amazing. I think I gained 10 pounds from eating so many sweets from the sweet shop. Anyway, I hope that's enough detail for now, but post/facebook/email any questions.