Monday Night Football

In order to stay on top of the American Football scene, Ryan and I ordered the NFL game pass, which allows you to stream the games, and go back and watch games after they were played. After talking with some friends about missing watching football, an idea was born. Ryan talked to the bartender at his favorite bar, which shows Liverpool games, about hooking up a laptop to the computer. Diego, the great bartender and new friend, was in. Mike and Ryan decided Tuesday nights would now be Monday night football night. They promised not to watch the game early, or check any scores, which is obviously difficult for them. Mike sent an email out inviting other football fans from school to stop on by.
We got to the bar around 5:30, and had a little hiccup. The sound wouldn't work, due to the way the bar sound is hooked up. It was hilarious to watch all these guys try to problem solve to make sure the dream of MNF on Tuesday worked. Random guys were called in to help, and finally after about an hour, we had sound. This was great, because the other idea was that Mike and Ryan would be doing the play by play and color, which could only be trouble.
While the game was on, other football fans came out of the wood work. There was a family walking by who stopped and started watching a little, so we invited them in. Turns out he is a chef from Pittsburgh, and she is from Oak Park and a good Bears fan! Some university students from the American University stopped by, and two of the guys were on the football team there. All in all, it was a successful night, mainly because the game goes so much faster without commercials!
The hope is that this is a new tradition, the hope of Ryan and the other guys I am sure. We brought a little taste of America here, if only it was a better game!

Celebrating a marriage

Last night we attend the wedding of Ryan's assistant's daughter. The first day Ryan met Hassan he gave him an invitation for us to go to this wedding. I was extremely excited. The wedding was at the Phoenicia intercontinental hotel which is right on the water, not too far from us. Friday night we had some people over so I enlisted the help of the girls in deciding what I should wear. Everyone I have spoken to about this wedding has said there is no way I could be fancy enough. They were so right.  The beautiful Lebanese women spend thousands on a dress, and go to a salon for hair and make up. Picture a prom for adults. I went with the black dress I wore to Argo's prom. 

The wedding started at 8:30. For the first hour we were in this beautiful lobby with a sweets table. At 9:30 we were let in the ballroom and it was crazy. There were close to 40 tables of 10 plus a dance area, and band/dj area. The entrance of the groom was amazing. He was carried in by a bunch of guys. The bride came out behind a white silk curtain with her father. Then they all danced. They both were lifted up on chairs. 

Dinner was served around ten. The first course was a seafood salad. On the table were a bunch of veggies and dip, as well as bread. The second course was a delicious mushroom tart with asparagus. Then came the beef tenderloin with veggies and a potato dumpling. Then came the first dessert and then the cake. Dinner ended around midnight. The entire time people were dancing. There was a wedding singer who sang in english, spanish and arabic, then a dj, then another wedding singer who sang in Arabic. It didn't matter that we couldn't understand the words, a wedding is a wedding. The bride was beautiful, her friends and her kept dancing together. The groom and his boys were all over. The families were dancing and talking all over.  It was an incredible experience. Pictures below! 

Big screen view of bride and groom lifted up

Fake cake that was cut with a sword followed by the ring ceremony where are you they both moved their engagement rings to the other hand. 

Dance floor

Ryan and I 

Sweets table 

Hallway

Table setting

 

Bride and grooms first dance 

Ryan and Hassan

Table setting. All tables labeled with famous movie couples. 

Wedding singer!

Love the fog machine!

Delivery magic

This blog post was recommended by Gretchen, how do you like that shout out! First things first, as I write this I'm watching Bring It On on our Lebanese cable, genius. It's the little things. I don't think I have written yet about one of the greatest parts of where we live: free delivery. I mean absolutely free. Anything you want. Whenever. For example, I just ordered myself a bottle of wine, because I'm classy like that...or lazy. The amazing thing is how quick it is delivered too, not to mention they bring it all the way upstairs. I'm telling you, the Lebanese have the service industry down pat. They are the nicest shop owners, and wait staff I have ever come across. This is no surprise with how nice all the people are everywhere here in Lebanon. But they genuinely want to be friends. Mike, the salon owner we pass everyday to and from school, comes out every afternoon to talk. Yesterday I bought some veggies for dinner but realized I forgot an onion. I stopped at another shop and tried to buy one, but the guy wouldn't let me pay, just insisted I take it. Ryan and Mike, not the shop owner Mike :),  have talked a local bar to let us stream football games there the next night, so Tuesday we are watching he Monday night game there.  There are some guys Ryan met that invited him to play soccer Wednesday nights, so that is helping with how much he misses the softball team! 

The people here are incredible. 

Side note: school has been going amazing. Tomorrow I'm taking my grade 10 to Starbucks to discuss enlightenment ideas thanks to a lesson from Gretchen. Can't even imagine doing that in the states. 

Beach Day!

Today we were able to take a trip to the Palm Islands, just off the coast of Tripoli with our friends Fabio, Gretchen and Mike. Palm Island is an amazing, small island that is some what private. We were able to enjoy some beach time, and be in the Mediterranean. The problem here in Beirut is there is so much of the sea, but really no where to go in and enjoy it. The water is dirtier than you would like, and mainly men are in the water. There are parts you can go into, but you have to pay to go, which isn't really a big deal. But today, we did it up right. We took a bus with a tour group called Vamos Todos to the islands, and then a boat to the island. Before that we stopped at a Mamluke citadel from the 14th century. It was amazing how well it has stood the test of time.

At the island we just hung out in the water, which was amazing. The water is really salty, but so warm. Then the tour group prepared a great lunch, grilled fish for everyone, (we didn't have any), baked potatoes, and of course, hummus. Seriously, I think Ryan and I could live on hummus.

Last night we went to a member of the PE department's apartment which has this insane rooftop view looking out over the Corniche and the Mediterranean. There were a group of us talking and sharing stories about the first week of school, and then of course watching the sunset over the water.

Here are some pictures from the beach trip.

Random Pictures from around Hamra

The area we live in is called Hamra. The streets have names, sometimes, but mostly you wander around looking for landmarks to determine where you are at. The conversation for telling people where you live, or where another store is can be hysterical.
"wheres the best place to get hummus?"
"You know where Silver Arrow is? Go down that street toward the garage that sells vegetables. It is the store with the small tiles on it."
Hilarious. There are no addresses, and a lot of the small shops have no names on them. It seems to work.
Yesterday we had a chance to see three other apartments of people that work at ACS. They are all nice, and different. It is interesting to see apartments of people who have lived here a while and have made it their home. We are still in that process.  Finding items for the apartment is an adventure, because there isn't like a one stop shop, like a Target, so we find ourselves wandering up and down streets stopping in small, overstuffed stores. Yesterday we finally found some big mugs for Ryan. The cups here are ridiculously small. Yesterday we went to a rug guy, we had tea and he showed us a lot of nice Persian rugs that we were not going to be able to afford. Today we found two small rugs at the grocery store for 3 bucks...an obvious place for rugs in our price range.

Here are some pictures from around where we live.
Fruit and Veggie stand.

 Hummus store

Butcher Shop, haven't been in there...

I don't know what this place is, but looks awesome. 

Another Fruit and Veggie stand 

obvious. 

Time Square looks different from what I remember. 

My fav grocery store. 

Karaoke bar I have to go to! 

Wine Tasting above Byblos and Beyond

So I can't start to describe today without starting yesterday at 2:30 AM, no, let's start last weekend. After arriving in Beirut it has been a whirlwind ride though pub crawls, school events, job requirements, introductions, cell phone providers, and then last weekend a Beirut virus. Becky had it for basically an afternoon but it had me all week. We weren't sick, we just knew things weren't right and all week long it was tough to sleep, tough to eat, and basically tough to complete everyday tasks without feeling that you were in a haze.

So finally Friday night I started feeling better but thanks to the Mickey Mouse Fantasy football league that I am in, and a Friday night 6:30PM draft in Chicago, that's 2:30AM in Lebanon. So we made sure that we were in bed before 10 to get a couple hours sleep per draft, and with a recently installed Internet connection I was confident in a good draft. So alarm buzzes at 2:30 and since I still am not sleeping well I am up already, and I am not the last one ready for the draft, but I am the only one in a different country. Well after about ten minutes of face time with Joe, Jake, Justin, Pete, Kevin, Nicky's Barber, Jimmy FF, Bono, and Jason, my MB's ran out and I lost the connection forcing Jake to live text a seemingly hilarious draft. Fast forward to 6:00AM and I phone in my last 5 picks to kickers, defenders, and best available RB's, thank you Jake, and try to get a couple more hours sleep. 

Finally feeling 100% we head out to the bank because I was told be the representative that to finalize our new account we needed to be there after noon but before two. Well something was lost in the translation and the bank closed at noon and at 12:15 it was locked up and deserted.  So Becky and I continued to explore our new city and found some of favorite Italian pizza. Our new neighbor and Principal Fabio, introduced us to another new section of the city called Mono. It is a subsection of Ashrefieh (bad spelling), which I can only describe as similar to the neighborhoods of Chicago, some areas are lazy, laid back, and full of restaurant and pubs while others are a hectic mix of clubby bars, fashion boutiques, and cafés. 

After a great evening of soccer pubs and a three man Lebanese band that played everything from Tenacious D, to Oasis all with a flute, we woke up early and headed to Martyr's Square to meet the bus for our first excursion into the mountains of Lebanon. Two wine tastings, a foie gras farm, and a crusader castle later we are on a bus, fighting traffic back into Beirut and watching a beautiful sunset into the Mediterranean. Even better than the wine was the warm welcome of a Lebanese family while eating lunch next to them under an old tree, next to a small ancient church, using Roman columns as benches, offering tabbouleh salad, meat skewers, and their fire pit baked potatoes to a group of foreigners. As we drive into Beirut and the skyscrapers appear, the Ferraris, crotch rockets, and 70's Datsun's fly by, and the car horns blare, I am still tired from the lack of sleep but excited to spend the next two years having weekends like this.

Watching soccer at a great place.

Playing the hits with a guitar, drum machine, and a flute.

Wine tasting room?

Second winery, and best one. 

Completely green building and business reflected in the logo. The roots and the sun, good roots and lots of sun, makes good grapes.

Good reasons to be a vegetarian!

Lots of wine bottles.

Great lunch under a tree much bigger than this old olive tree.

Leaving the mountains and traffic in the city.