visit lebanon

Finally, I’ve made it to Lebanon. I visited last week from Damascus where I’ve been studying. I loved it just as much if not more than I thought I would. So . . . I changed my summer plans to stay in Beirut for a whole month. I’ll be there for all of August. I want to get a job at one of the international schools now more than ever!

After toying with the idea for the last six months, I finally bought a plane ticket to go to Syria for nine weeks this summer. I’ll be studying Arabic and hopefully getting in some side trips. This means I will FINALLY get to go to Lebanon! Even though I’ll be spending most of my time in Syria, I’m most excited to go to Lebanon. I’ll also go to Jordan if I can. My main purpose for the trip is to learn Arabic but I definitely want to see as much as I can too!

Well, now really isn’t the time to be thinking about going to Lebanon.

The other day I was in the teacher store shopping for my classroom and I hear this guy telling his friends that he really wanted to go to Beirut. His friend said “Uh, I don’t really think now’s the time to be going to Beirut.” I was intrigued.

Just two weeks ago I was online getting excited about American International Schools in Beirut (not for any plans in the immediate future) and now look at the country. It is breaking my hear to see the destruction that is going on in the country right now. It doesn’t deter me at all from wanting to go though. When the time is right I will visit (either for travels or to teach).

My interest in Lebanon definitely started when I dated a Lebanese guy while studying in Florence as an exhange student. A friend of mine was also dateing a Lebanese. I remember one day my friend was meeting my boyfriend for the first time (along with his brother) and he asked her if her boyfriend was a Muslim or a Chirstian. She said he was a Christian (My boyfriend and his bother were Muslims). He said, “Oh, we could never get along. We have completely different politics.” I’ll say I was intrigued. I think the first book that I read was From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman (It is now my favorite book and I’m rereading it for the third time). I’ve since read several books on Lebanon, heard so many stories from my ex and also from my friend who went there to visit her boyfriend. I find the culture, people and politics of the county just fascinating. I know that I won’t be able to rest until I get a chance to go there for myself.