Back to Lebanon

We have now been back in Lebanon for three weeks, which is wild to think how fast the summer went. As we start our third year here it's fun to think about how much more we know then when we arrived the first year. This year we have more friends that moved away from Beirut going to new jobs or retiring but we have made some new friends with the teachers that are just arriving, which is the incredible part of this job. We have friends all over the world now and friends 
from all over the world. 

School officially started for the students on Wednesday. I'm really excited for my classes this year because I have three sections of the 11th grade IB history and we are doing a new curriculum. I have taught most of these students before as well, so we already have a great rapport. I also am teaching two classes of senior seminar which is fun since it is my second time teaching it and I am looking forward to making the class better. I start volleyball on Monday-the girls are so excited and have been coming by to talk volleyball all week. 

After a great summer visiting family and friends in Florida, Chicago, North Carolina, And driving from London to Scotland, I was excited to be back and in a routine. This year we moved to a different apartment building, which is Nabil's building where we spent most of our time anyways. It feels like home already. Nabil is an incredible man with amazing stories, as he has lived here since the 60's and experienced some remarkable things during the civil war. He is a generous man and has friends all over that he shares with us. For example this past weekend he took Ryan and m, Nick, Erin and Debbie to his friend'so house in Deir el Qamar, just south east of Beirut in the mountains. The woman who owns the house collects antiques from all over the region and had them displayed in her home. After we had a delicious lunch at a relatively new place in Beit Eddine called Bouyouti, which the cooks are the same as one of our favorite places in Beirut, L'Autre Bistro. It was so nice to be out of the city, in a quiet green space, with temperatures not in the 90s! 

Spring break 2015

We are coming to the end of our incredible spring break trip which we headed to Eastern Europe to tour four different countries and their capital cities. We are so very lucky to have jobs that afford us the chance to travel as we have and that we both love to explore new areas as much as we do,which means a lot of wandering around and getting a little lost-sometimes a lot lost.  

Before spring break we were also lucky to have our friends Brenda and Alex come stay with us for a week. Alex taught at ACS last year and now lives in Dubai. They had two weeks for spring break so they came to us for a week before moving on. It was great to catch up with them and show their friends who came with beautiful Beirut. It really is when others visit that you remember all the great things the city has to offer. 

Dinner with Margaret, Jared, Alex, Brenda, Iman, Jane and Annie. 

Friday we set off on a 6 am flight through Istanbul to Prague. We landed in Prague around 2:30 pm, however my suitcase decided to take a longer route and ended up being delivered to our hotel that night at midnight, minus one wheel. Oh well, could be worse as Ryan has experienced  all too often. The only minor issue was that I had packed my winter coat and Prague was cold! However, it was easy enough to catch the bus and tram to our hotel. Man, do I miss public transportation. That night we wandered around old town Prague, crossing the Charles bridge, drinking the hot mulled wine and even ran into a colleague of ours that we did t know would be there. So crazy to hear from across the street "Ryan?" We ate at an incredible vegetarian restaurant that night too, which was fun to find through the winding streets.  The next day we spent hanging out at the Easter markets and went to see Swan Lake which brought back great memories of dancing when I was younger. 

Easter markets with ribbons on tree. This area practices the Easter Monday tradition of boys making "whips" and hitting the girls and throwing water on them for health and beauty. They put ribbons on their "whips" for each girl. Sounds fun....

We of course had to find an Irish pub to watch Liverpool play. 

The next morning we caught the train to Bratislava which was about a 4 hour train ride. Bratislava was a cool small town, but we were there over the Easter holiday so a lot of places were closed till Tuesday. No problem, we found lots to do including some great runs on the Danube, lots of green spaces to hang out in, and an incredible Mexican restaurant to eat at right next to our hotel. Our hotel was incredible and if you are ever in Bratislava I strongly recommend the Marrol boutique hotel.  Small, near the river, great service, and an incredible breakfast-what more could you want.  We toured two castles and went to the villages surrounding Bratislava. It was so cold there though, including one day where it actually snowed on us for a few minutes. We are weak now that we have been away from Chicago winters for two years. 

Look how cold we look. 

Next up Budapest! 

Next we took a 2 hour train to Budapest. Taking the train is so incredibly easy, it makes me wish it was this nice in the states to travel around by train. Budapest was my favorite stop. We stayed on the Pest side of the Danube. We were near the old town and lots of fun outdoor markets. It was warmer and there were so many people hanging around outside in all the incredible parks that are around the city. We rented bikes and rode around the city which was fun, and easy due to the bike lanes everywhere. We hiked up to the citadel to get an amazing view of the whole city. We took a boat cruise on the Danube with a wine tasting.  There was a great farmers market filled with fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses meats and more paprika than I have ever seen. All in all it made me miss living in a big organized city. 

Hour glass. 

Heroes square. 

View from citadel. 

Next was our overnight train to Bucharest. I was a little tentative about this 16 hour train ride but it was so fun. What our own sleeper cabin that we bought for cheap once on board complete with great bunk beds. Nothing beats seeing Ryan in a tiny bed with his long legs hanging over the edge. We saw a lot of cool villages along the way and snow! 

The last stop is here in Bucharest for the night. Not sure what to see or do here but we will find out soon! 

Prague airport. 

Swans on the Vltava river. 

Easter market in Prague. 

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.

Egypt

Two weekends ago we were fortunate enough to take a trip for Mike's birthday to go to the pyramids. We took off with a group on Saturday morning, with Ryan meeting us later since he had a soccer tournament. We stayed at the Marriott Casino hotel, on part of the island in Cairo, right next to the Nile river. We took a cruise on a Faluka on the Nile the first night, that we had to negotiate to get since there were no cruises leaving when we were there. We negotiated a nice price, and when the cruise was almost over, another boat brought us some snacks to enjoy.

The next day we all went to the pyramids. It was different than I imagined, and breathtaking. The pyramids are right near the city, so people have houses right there that they can always look out their window and be staring at the Great Pyramid. The Sphinx was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be, even though Ryan warned me about this fact. We climbed into all three pyramids, which was a little scary since it is a tight space, and pretty steep. Ryan had to be basically on his hands and knees going through. We did take some more pictures on camel rides. I felt bad since tourism is down in Egypt, clearly the people aren't making as much as they usually did selling to people. They were desperate to sell us something.

That night we enjoyed a great feast right on the Nile with our group of friends from all over the world. We left Egypt right as Putin was flying in, so that was probably good timing.

This last week we had our fundraising dinner for our Bali trip at Cru, a restaurant in Hamra. Gretchen and I wanted to contribute since the girls are doing so much to raise the $10,000 we need. We managed to raise over $600 at the dinner, which was really nice. Cru is an incredible restaurant and wine bar, and the owner, Karen, is from Indiana and is a wonderful person.

Ryan was gone from Wednesday to late Saturday in Cyprus running a soccer tournament for boys and girls, JV and Varsity. It was a huge undertaking, but overall went smoothly. The Varsity girls won first place, JV boys and girls  took fourth and JV girls also received the sportsmanship award. Ryan put the tournament together since last year no teams wanted to travel here, so he hosted it in Cyprus.

Sunday we had a nice brunch at Jesse's apartment in Monot. She has a great place, that she has decorated incredibly since she is a very talented artist. I should have taken pictures!

I leave Thursday this week to go to an IB conference in Dubai. There are some new changes to the History curriculum, so Else and I are heading to there to learn all about the changes.

Track has started, so we have practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last week was a little rough with the big storm that came through. There was some pretty big damage. It is funny, last year it only rained 2 times all year, and this year we have had some impressive storms. Ryan and I saw a lot of the damage yesterday when we were out on our run. The track team looks to be pretty good this year, a lot of solid athletes. We will travel to Dubai for our international meet in March.

Living Abroad

This week had me reflecting a lot about living overseas. There are so many things I have learned from living in a different country with a different culture than what I have grown up with in Chicago. However, there are so many ways in which things are similar too. The people here are much more hands on, hugging and kissing people when meeting more frequently, walking with arms around each other, sitting with arms around friends and more. It is really nice to see such outward signs of friendship and love. I am still constantly amazed at the generosity as well of the people in this country too. Today ordering a Saj at the place by school I only had a 100,000 ($75) and Feras, the owner, didn't have change since it was early in the morning. He was prepared to say just pay me next time no problem. I can't even imagine this happening in Chicago.

There was a moment this weekend where Ryan and I were a little homesick as well. This comes and goes of course, but with the Superbowl on Sunday we reminisced about all the Superbowl parties from before. We always went to Ryan's friend Jake and Kelly's house and all of us got together with great snacks and some watched the game, others the commercials and most importantly half time show. I sent them a text yesterday to find out about what snacks they were serving. However, when hearing about the blizzard going through Chicago, and the trouble my friends were having getting to their Superbowl parties, while sitting in a t-shirt and jeans here, I quickly got over my homesickness. I do not miss that snow and cold!

We had a great weekend, starting on Thursday at Jai for dinner with Nick, Margaret, Gretchen and Mike. Jai is the Asian take out place with only a round table in the kitchen so you are the only ones who are there eating while the food is being prepared next to you. The food was delicious and sitting at a big round table like that makes it seem like a big family meal, and these people have so quickly become my family over here. Friday Ryan and Mike had basketball games and Saturday there were two Football (Soccer) games that we attended. Our Varsity is ready for the championship game of the League Ryan started this year next week after demolishing the big rival IC, the school we face and share the road with. Saturday night we did a progressive dinner in a building where some teachers live, where we started at the ground floor, and worked our way up eating appetizers, dinner, and dessert on the different levels. It was a great time with lots of different food and people all over.

We are heading to the Pyramids this weekend! I am so excited. A group of us are flying out Saturday morning and coming back Monday. We don't have school on Monday, so it is a great way to spend the long weekend. The flight is only an hour long so it is nice and easy to get there. We have been talking to a lot of people here who have lived there before, so we have the inside scoop on where to go. Right after Ryan heads to Cyprus for the big conference football tournament, with jv and varsity boys and girls playing. We are going to be busy the next few weekends, we realized that the two of us won't both be in Beirut, without guests on a weekend until after Spring break, and then only for 2 weekends before week without walls. So crazy and fun!

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.