Guests and Fancy Fundraisers

We had another busy week this past week. Thursday night we had a fancy fundraising dinner for school at the Phoenicia Hotel. The fundraiser was fun because we were able to see so many different parents out to support the school. ACS is raising money for a new playground, and with this one event they raised over $119,000! There was a raffle with over 20 great prizes, and I won a Roberto Cavalli clutch! Anything to help the school! 

Ryan hosted a conference for Art, Music and Theatre teachers in our Oasis Conference this week to develop an Arts festival they will be hosting next year. We were able to host one of the teachers, who is originally from California but now teaches in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was fun to show him around and to compare our experience to his so far. Ryan also had a basketball game and his team won again. They beat our rival IC, so it was a pretty big deal. He has a team of all 9th graders, besides two 10th graders and they have some real talent. Ryan also has started an Instagram account for ACS sports and Activities. If you use Instagram, you should check it out @acsbeirut_sports_activities.

We also had some fun news this week. Our friend AnnMarie from Chicago, has a daughter, Kaitlin, who is a senior at the University of Chicago Lab school. She has May off to do a senior project, and she asked if she can come stay with us for 2 weeks! We are so excited for her to come, and we already have so many things we can't wait to show her. 

Back to school

We are back to work after 3 rain days. The school was closed from Wednesday to Friday due to a crazy storm that hit Beirut, and all of Lebanon. We were watching the storm last Tuesday night from our neighbors apartment that has a view of the sea, and it was wild. There were waves crashing over the sidewalk and street on the corniche, which made running a lot of fun! It also got chilly here, which is a big change from last year. Our apartment, and most apartments here, aren't set up for cold weather, and they do get cold! The temperature dropped down to around 40 or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which is obviously not as cold as were used to being from Chicago, but is definitely cold here.
The three days were nice to help get back on the right time zone. Ryan had no issue, but that is because he was off all of Winter Vacation. I am still struggling with sleeping all night, but it's getting better.
Thursday night we celebrated Serbian Christmas with Nick, Michelle and Lucia. Nick's family is from Serbia so he included us in his celebrating. Friday we celebrated Jane's birthday with Margaret, Joe, Jess, Eric and Zainab, which included dinner at our favorite Italian place, Dottore. They pulled out all the stops including massive sparklers in her tiramasu. It was fun catching up with everyone on their travels during the break. Saturday night we attended a concert at the Rose House that included an Arabic singer Maya Hobeika, and a small orchestra that accompanied her. Even though I didn't understand most of what was said, she had a beautiful voice that made the evening incredibly enjoyable. Sunday was a beautiful day, so we headed out around town, walking around the different neighborhoods and parks here.
It was so much fun to see all the students again on Monday. I think everyone was refreshed and ready to be back to school. The sophomores are so fun at this point in the year, since they are much more mature than they were to start the year off. It is awesome to see the change in all of them.
Ryan leaves tomorrow for a conference in Cyprus, just till Saturday, where they will be working on some details for upcoming international tournaments, including the Soccer tournament he is hosting in Cyprus in February.

Back to a routine...kind of

It's been a while since my last post-as my lovely mother reminded me over break :). However, there wasn't much happening besides the normal routine, but I did promise her to post more regularly, so here we go. 

The end of the semester was wonderful, filled with holiday celebrations. There is more Christmas celebration here than in the US for sure. We had a great farmers market with a band playing Christmas music to end the year, as well as a good secret Santa. We ended the year with another rooftop gathering at Nabils, reflecting on the year and sharing in some fun memories with people that were off to all parts of the world for iur break, including Thailand, Austria, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland, London and the US. It's amazing to know how the world is so different, yet the same. 

We headed to Chicago and Florida over break. We spent lots of time with family and friends and it was much needed. We did get to see Ryan's brother and sister and their spouses, who came from the east and west coast, as well as his parents and aunt and uncle. We also saw most of my mom's extended family about an hour after we landed in Chicago as well as my sister brother and their significant others. We spent many days hanging with my amazing 5 year old nephew playing light sabers and other games I don't get. Our break was not all happy though, my 32 year old cousin passed away from a heart issue related to his long struggle with juvenile diabetes. It was and is heartbreaking to think about, but I am thankful I was home to go the hospital to see him, and more importantly be there for my aunt and mother. My moms family is so incredibly close and I appreciate them so much for this fact. 

Florida was nice, rainy, but nice. We did get to have our annual trip to see my aunt Doris and uncle bob in lauderdale by the sea and enjoy some delicious Xmas cookies. 

We landed last night around 10 pm after leaving Sunday at 8 pm. Ryan was excited because he was able to still see Liverpool play last night and all of break. After sleeping in today, and visiting with our neighbor who has been in Italy we learned school was canceled for tomorrow due to the rain storm and heavy winds. I miss my students, don't get me wrong, but I am happy for another day off! 

This coming year will see us hopefully traveling to some new places and hanging out with amazing people, on top of working at an incredible school and hopefully getting some visitors. It's always interesting after being home explaining to people how great Lebanon actually us to live in, how much I have come to love this place. We have plans to travel to Egypt, Dubai, Cyprus, Prague, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Abu Dhabi, London and Bali still this year. And I promise mom, I'll try harder to write more.