Our school

Another day of orientation. It has been really nice getting all of the new teacher items taken care of here at ACS. The staff here is amazing and they do a great job helping us out with everything. Today we got our pictures taken for our IDs and our blood test and TB test. Good news, I did not pass out! Starting tomorrow the rest of the faculty will be here as well and then we have 9 days of institute. I'm excited about that because it seems like there will be a lot of time to get to set up our classes and work on our curriculum. It's quite the change from the one day institute. Ryan was able to get into his office today and is busy going through everything to see what he has to do. I imagine its pretty overwhelming, but he is loving it.

We still don't have wifi at home, or cable, so I have quickly gone through my mbs. I'll probably have to go today or tomorrow to re-up those minutes again. But it's actually really cheap, 26 bucks a month. Most cafes, bars, restaurants have wifi to use and right now I am at school on that wifi. 

Big adventure yesterday was finding the bootleg DVD shop, which is awesome. Every DVD for 1000 lbl which is less than a dollar.  Actually, 1000 lbl is $.66. There are no US copyright laws so all movies are pirated copies. We brought the PS3 so we can watch movies, but of the 5 we bought only 1 worked. So I took a quick jog back, less than a half mile, and exchanged them. Of the two we tried them, 1 worked. It is some sort of format issue with the PS3. 

Speaking of running, it is amazing here. Running on the Mediterranean is gorgeous. There are a lot of people out running. However, there are a ton of hills so it is tough. Plus it's really humid, and my hair is really huge! 

As far as prices, things are pretty scattered. Fruits and veggies are really, really cheap. They put everything in one bag and weigh it. Other things, like cheese, are really expensive. Like 29,000 lbl which is $19.19. 

Also, I was thinking if you have any questions you want answered email me or whatever and I'll try to answer them, if I know how too. Otherwise I'll ask one of the wonderful people here who we have met already. 

Here are some pictures of some of the school. It is separated into a few different buildings. 

Going to another building

All lockers painted every year

Cafeteria

Outdoor cafeteria

Outdoor theatre area

Ryan's office

Ryan's keyboard

Door of Ryan's office, not sure of who's dog it is...

Shopping day!

Ok we did it, took a big shopping trip to get random things we needed. We had a lot of stuff in the apartment but there were a few other things we wanted. So we all took to buses to four different stores.  Think super target meets Costco.  Some sad news the aforementioned Costco trip had a slight change since over the summer they had to move (15 meters) and change their name to Wesley's. No matter, it was still awesome. They had all the regular American brands, including Kirkland and Trader Joes. Each store we went to had more stuff then the previous. We ended up with towels and sheets, since the ones we had were a little rough. We also got a few decoration type things, frames and more. We also got a mop, I tried the squeegee thing once, didn't turn out well. 

We had to get rugs, and still need more. Hindsight maybe bringing those, but the suitcases were packed. 

Once we got back Ryan invented a new way to hang all our pictures using the cardboard from the sheet packaging. He hung those up and we tacked on our pictures. He then stated "pintrest that!" We had a chance to FaceTime with our parents. That was fun giving them the virtual  tour. We don't have wifi yet so calls were quicker than we would've liked. 

Making dinner tonight for the first time in our place. Ryan watched the Liverpool game at a local bar then brought back salad stuff, fresh, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and avocados for 7000 lbl, which is like $5. My man knows a bargain. 

Here are pictures from the shopping excursion. Look for Ryan and the huge jar of pickles. I vetoed that purchase. 

Scrunchies!

All the same products, just a little more expensive. 

Top Chef!

Ryan's pintrest moment. 

More pictures

Here are just a few more pictures of our place, the school and the city. The first few are the hallways in our building and the exterior. Take note of our name on the buzzer.  Second few are the school. Then some around Beirut. 

Ryan's office in the gym. 

The gym. 

So prepared. 

Lots of people fishing here. 

There are some amazing pools on the sea. Most connected to hotels, but you can pay $10 or so for access. 

The corniche, like the lakefront path but better. Took a nice run on this this morning at 6 am. Lots of people out and an exercise class bring taught I might join in. Ryan liked the guys playing paddle ball in the middle of the street. 

Obviously. 

Our place

Well we made it. Everything was really smooth. We got to London and ran into our friends brother on his way home from his summer in Africa. Flight to Beirut was really nice. We landed right on the Mediterranean at sunset. We were picked up by the elementary school principal who took us to our great apartment. It was more than expected. We then went down to the high school principal's house for a drink. After we met some more people out at a few bars. Today we walked around and saw the city. We had a lemonade on the water. Then we saw the school. After all of that we made our way to the Hypermarket for some household items, hangers, laundry basket etc. Our place is a five minute walk to school. We are a block away from a farmer's market. So far the impression we are getting is everything os really close and easy to find, even without street names. Now time for dinner. Just opened a bottle of Lebanese wine. 

View from the cafe

Bedroom balcony

Living room balcony. Look close you can see the Mediterranean.  

Living room

Office 

Guest room

Front of our building 

Marble floors throughout 

Kitchen

Awesome chandelier

Front door. 

Our bedroom. 

Dining room

Front sitting room