Valentines week

This week was a shortened week, with school off Friday for Commemoration day.  This is a day in remembrance of the 2005 assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. During the week, my students stayed after on Thursday for a Skype chat with some Argo students.  It was a really great chance to see some former students and for our classes to share and ask questions to each other. I was really impressed with the number of students that stayed late, due to the time difference on the day before a day off. They were a great group of students who had a lot to share.

Friday morning we woke up to some bad news. Our pipes at our townhouse in Chicago are frozen. There has been others that have been frozen since the beginning if January and ours is just the latest in the bunch. We have a great property manager who is on the case but it's just a reminder if how terrible the weather is in Chicago compared to here. 

Friday we went up north for a trip with 8 other people. We took three cars and headed off on our weekend extravaganza  full of hiking and sight seeing. Our first stop was Baatara gorge which is a 3 waterfall gorge just recently discovered in the last few decades. It was a beautiful spot. The drive was amazing as well through tiny villages in the mountains. Next up, we stopped at the cedar reserve in Tannourine. The cedar is the national tree and there are not many left so when you get a chance to hike in them you take it. We had a nice picnic there, and walked through the reserve. During our hike the fog began rolling in. We were able to get some great views and pictures. 

After that, we went on to Becharre. We stayed in a hotel and had a fun dinner in town. The next morning we went up to a ski village, but there has hardly been any snow, so it was a ghost town. It did start snowing when we were up there, which was the first snow I've seen since last winter. It was a nice, fluffy, warm snow as well, so I'm not sure it counts. We headed to the Qadisha valley for a hike next. This was so incredibly beautiful I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We had a nice hike until it started to hail so we headed out. Overall it was a great weekend.

Hiking

Last night we went on a hike with some people from the school. I know I have tossed around words like amazing and incredible a lot on this blog, but I can't think of any other words to describe this hike. We left school at 3:30, and drove through the crazy Beirut traffic for around 2 hours. We arrived at the Cedar reserve and began the intense hike to the top. There were around 20-30 of us on the hike, some newbies and some veterans. The view the whole hike was incredible, it was nice to be out of the city and  back to nature, since like any big city Beirut is loud.  The hike took about an hour and we went up 2000 meters.

What happened at the top of the hike can almost not be explained besides with pictures. We got to the top and could look out over the Bekaa valley. This valley was once controlled by the Romans and used for agriculture. It still is an agriculture hub in Lebanon today. We were above the clouds and could see the mountain ranges that separate Lebanon and Syria. There, everyone broke out their snacks and wine and we had a great time hanging out with our new friends. The people here are so amazing with all of their different life experiences. 

After the most unbelievable sunset I have ever seen, we started the long hike down the steep trail in the dark. No wipeouts though! At the bottom when everyone got back, we sat down in a circle in the pitch black and looked at the stars. There were so many stars, with some people saying they saw shooting stars. We could see the Milky Way galaxy, and other constellations, so others told me, I have no idea. Then, someone took out there flute and played a beautiful song. After that our new friend Julianne, from Hawaii, and two kids that were with their parents, and go to ACS sang a Hawaiian song about granting wisdom. Truly, I was in awe. It was a great hike, with lots of time to get to know people better. Here are some pictures, enjoy! 

The hike up.  

Part of the group hiking. 

One quick stop. 

Bekaa Valley