Spring break!

Ryan and I left last Friday for our first spring break trip ever. For the last ten years we both have had to coach during spring break so we were never able to go. Well, we made up for those years this week. We left Friday early morning and had a few hours in Cairo before landing in Brussels.  Ryan's cousin Christi and her husband picked us up from the airport and we were off. We got to their amazing house in this great neighborhood in Brussels, near shops, markets and a great hill to run on. We then went with the boys, Marshall and John, to see their school, ISB. This campus is incredible. There is so much green space around the school. It was cool to see where they go to school and compare it to our experiences at ACS. That night we went out in the Grand Place a square full of bars and restaurants. We had a good time people watching and catching up. We also went to a Lebanese falafel place and talked to the guys about living in Beirut. In true Lebanese hospitality they gave me a free falafel.

The next morning we had a great run through the neighborhood followed by a trip to the Saturday outdoor market. This market was incredible and a definite must do if you live here. Then we were off to the train station to make our way to Paris. 

The train was really easy to take and fast as well. We headed to the 3rd arrondissement to our hotel. After checking in, we wandered around, which is pretty much what we did all week. Some highlights of Paris were walking the Promenade Plantee, which is like the New York high line park, eating and drinking in parks, seeing the city on a river cruise, and the Louvre-through the side entrance skipping the line because we're in the know.  We went out for a run on the Sunday of Easter and happened past Notre Dame during mass and without a huge line in front, so we went in and walked around and heard some of the mass in French. Pretty much the entire trip I spent trying to remember my French, which I was ok at, and as the week went on I think I was better or maybe it was the great french wine-not sure that my French teacher Madame Bald would have been impressed or not.

We of course went to the Eiffel Tower but did not want to wait in line to go up.  Ryan loved the park in front of the Eiffel Tower for his favorite highlight, and since he has only written one blog post I guess I'll write about his favorite-also to see if he actually reads what I write. We walked the Champs élysées at sunset, which Ryan took some great pictures.  Another night we had the chance to eat dinner with Margaret, a wonderful woman we teach with in Beirut who is from the Northwest, and her sister which was really nice. After that dinner, Ryan and I were sitting in the garden at our hotel and two little kids were playing hide and seek. They were speaking Spanish so we were testing our Spanish skills. We may have helped the little girl cheat as well always telling her where the little boy was hiding. They came over and talked to us for a while.  He was from Miami, and her family from Venezuela. It was interesting and so funny to watch them. It was hilarious, until I somehow made the little girl upset, probably because my spanish was not good enough to understand her, and she ran away crying. Pretty classic Becky/random child interaction. 

Next up, the train to Amsterdam. We stayed near the Central Station neighborhood and just really enjoyed more green spaces. After being in Beirut for 8 months I have really found an appreciation for parks and even just grass. It was great to picnic in Vondelpark  and Rembrandtpark. The people watching was fantastic there as well. Although with all the bikes, I did want to pull a little Big Daddy action and lay a big stick in the road, but I didn't, perhaps next time. We did the most important spots in Amsterdam, like the cheese museum, and the Heineken tour, were cultured like that. 

After a few days there, we were back to Brussels via train to hang out a little more with Christi and the boys. We got a chance to go to a favorite local Italian place and enjoyed a late dinner. It stays sunny there well past nine, so it feels earlier than it is actually. John did get his family some hot oil, thanks to the inattentiveness of the less than polite waiter, so that was a big score.
The flight back left a lot to be desired, note to anyone reading EgyptAir, not a great airline. There were so many kids running up and down the aisle of the plane, laying down on the floor and crying, it was insane. Not to mention they asked us to change seats 3 times because others didn't like their seats. Oh, and the small matter of a woman and man fighting on the plane because he reclined his seat, which was in front of her. I was on her side on this one, he was reclined really far back, and that just isn't right. It was getting pretty sketchy, so I flagged down the flight attendant, who had to stop it. However, I never laughed so hard at a border stop then when we landed in Beirut and went through customs to get back in to Beirut. The customs guy was cracking jokes-sort of, or I took them as jokes. At one point I think he asked if we were CIA, so I told him yes.  He asked where we live, and I told him the airport, and he then proceeded to invite us to live with him, and told me he wanted to drink Coronas with us. Seems totally normal. 

It was a really relaxing vacation, which we needed to rest up for this upcoming week. Thursday we head off to Nepal with 65 students. Should be quite the adventure.

Louvre

Mona Lisa, a lot smaller than I would have thought. 

Boat trip, classy plastic cup of wine. 

Our lock on a bridge in Paris. 

Michelangelo statue

Promenade Plantee in Paris

Hanging out by the Seine

Sunset picture Ryan took. 

Jim Morrison's grave 

Group in  Brussels

Marshall, John, Ryan and I in Brussels. John is officially taller than me

Family of ducks in Amsterdam

Tulips in Amsterdam

Arc de Triomphe at sunset

The great Cheese Museum in Amsterdam

Another sunset photo. 

End of the season

Another successful sports season is over. Last night around 11 pm we returned from an amazing trip to Amman, Jordan with the Track and Field team, as well as my fellow coaches Alex and Andrew. The track season has gone by really quickly and in the last two weekends we had our final meets. On the 29th, we hosted our last meet, in which we had five teams competing, and our boys took first and our girls took second place. This was the final meet for about half of the team because they were not traveling with us to Amman.

We left Friday morning from school at 5:30 am, with our flight leaving around 7:30. It was my first time traveling for an overnight trip with students, let alone taking students out of the country. I was so pleasantly surprised at how well behaved these 18 middle and high school students were on this entire trip. It was fun helping the students fill out their forms to leave the country, and teach them how to handle getting tickets and other airport essentials, since I am sure their parents always handle these things when traveling. I know my mom and dad always handled all of this, and I am not sure I would have been responsible enough to do this myself at 12 years old. Anyways, we set off to Amman, and we took up a great majority of the plane. It was fun to see the students interacting with other students that they do not always hang out with and how well they all got along. We landed in Jordan and made our way to our hotel. We set out to find lunch, but Friday is a weekend day in Jordan, and not a lot of places were open at noon when we were looking for food, so we had to settle for the authentic Jordanian cuisine of Little Caesars, which I can not remember the last time I had that to eat.  We headed off to ABS Amman, the school the meet was at, and had some time to hang out and take some team photos. The competition got started a little late, it was not organized all that well. We started around three and got done there around 7 pm. We jumped back on the bus and went to one of the malls to eat dinner at the Food Court.  The kids, and more importantly, the coaches were all exhausted by 8:30 and we headed back to the hotel for an early night, since we had all been up since four am. The next day was a long day at the track, starting off at 8 am and leaving the track at 8 pm. It was a beautiful day in the sun, again, a few hitches in the organization of the meet-including a not needed 4 hour lunch break-but our athletes did really well.
Amman itself, was not much of a city that we got to see. I definitely like Beirut better than the parts of Amman I saw. The people were friendly and the malls were nice, but it didn't seem to have much of a personality.
Our under 14 and under 16 boys took first place and overall our athletes took 61 medals home with us. Some of the athletes even took 8 medals home individually.
Perhaps the most fun part of the weekend was Sunday when we were able to go to the Dead Sea Spa. We had all day to hang out around the pool and float in the Dead Sea. Oh, and the best part, go down the water slide, which I failed miserably at, slowing down so much, however Ryan also did when he went down, so I didn't feel so bad. We were able to relax after the long weekend, and just hang out, which was really nice. We headed home, and landed around 10 pm, and were back to school to a warm welcoming of excited parents waiting to take home their champion athletes. It was truly a wonderful weekend.
This coming week Ryan finishes up the basketball season, and I start up the After School Volleyball for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade volleyball camps.  We had our third quarter parent teacher conferences on Thursday and this last quarter is flying by already. We have less than a month till our Week Without Walls trip to Nepal with 60 some Grade 10 and 11 students. We only have a week and a half until Spring Break, where we will be off to Brussels and Paris to see Christi, Kevin, Marshall and John.

Dead Sea Spa

Ryan and I floating

The pool

Ryan, myself, Alex, and Andrew out for a coaches float

Team at the Beirut Airport with our medals and trophies

Doing abs in the Dead Sea

Pre Meet team photo

The eighth grade boys

The great coaching staff at the meet. 

A few of the girls