Teacher's Day

Over the last couple of weeks we have been busy, hence no post for a while, sorry mom.  3 weekends ago I was in Dubai for an IB conference. There are some pretty exciting changes to the History curriculum, so Else and I took off to learn about these changes. While we were there we were able to hang out with Alex and Brenda, and see some of the crazy and unbelievable sites in Dubai. We saw the Dubai Mall, which was nothing short of overwhelming. I would definitely be lost in there still, if it wasn't for dumb luck and Else.  There is an aquarium, in the mall, with guys scuba diving. There is an ice skating rink. There are hundreds and hundreds of stores, which are somewhat organized by category, such as sports stores, shoe stores and stores I can't even dream of affording. We were able to eat some Mexican and Asian food, which was a plus with the lack of good quality Mexican and Asian food here in Beirut.

This past weekend was Teacher's Day, so we had Monday off of school. My exceptional students were so kind with great emails wishing me a happy teacher's day. The holiday is big here, with stores having teacher's day displays in the window. Gretchen, Margaret and I went to the Library Hotel in Cyprus Friday night til Sunday night to celebrate with some hot stone massages, Mexican Train Dominoes, and reading in the sun. The Library Hotel is probably the most quaint hotel, with incredible sisters that run the place. Gretchen and I took some great runs/hikes up into the mountains there, checking out incredible flowers, cactuses (cacti?), and just some general peace and quiet, much needed after the busyness of Beirut.  There is an incredible artist right by the Library, who collects rocks from the beaches and turns them into incredible statues and planters.

Ryan spent the weekend busy as well. He ran our track meet, then headed up to the mountains with Mike, Phil and some other people to spend the night in Becharre. The next morning, by 5 am, he took off on a 19k snowshoeing trek, uphill in the mountains with the Lebanese Army. It looked beautiful in the pictures, but he was definitely sore.

Today Ryan is off with the JV bball teams to Abu Dhabi for their end of the year tournament. They are looking to bring back a victory. He has a great group of guys, and one of the nights they are there, they are going to a Drake concert. That should be hilarious.