Marhaba!

We’re back from Lebanon safely, and I’m in the dormitories at St. Elias Monastery again in Syria. It’s good to be ‘home.’ That’s right; our place in Damascus, Syria now feels somewhat like home. Damascus is familiar to us, with more or less some semblance of routine: wake up, eat breakfast, then hop on a bus for Berlitz to get drilled for 4 hours by our Arabic teacher. Of course a ton of different things happen in between all of those (bus rides never, ever get old) but we’ve finally got a small bit of understanding in the city and how it works. In Lebanon, it was starting over again.

Lebanon is a very interesting country. Like Syria it was under French mandate, but for far longer. After they got rid of the French, the Lebanese continued to teach French, English and Arabic in their schools. For this reason, almost every sign in Lebanon is in English or at least French instead of Arabic letters. Also, communication was loads easier. We stayed in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. Beirut seemed like a mix of a European city sharply contrasted with the Arabic world. Women would walk around without coverings and in skirts and heels (!) but then call to prayers would blast at 4:30 in the morning from the minarets stationed on every other block. Stores featuring modern Western names such as Nike, Versace, and Starbucks would be sitting right next to the ruined buildings shelled during the civil war and the war against Syria. One of the favorite parts of Beirut for almost everyone was being by the Mediterranean Sea. It. Was. Amazing. I’m stoked to see it again in Greece in warmer weather.

Aside from being in Beirut, we also had opportunities to go visit a ton of different ruins such as in Byblos, the city that gave the name to the bible (Byblos=book). Seeing Greek and Roman artifacts never gets old…even though they are. ha. ha. sorry….moving on. We also got to tour Jeita Grotto, a giant cave structure with an intricate series of giant stalactites and stalagmites that is under consideration for being named one of the new 7 Natural Wonders of the World.

I wasn’t able to attend the trip to Mt. Herman, a giant snow capped peak around a 2 hour drive from Beirut, as I came down with food poisoning. It was quick and unrelenting, but it was over within 24 hours. I would like to formally apologize to Joe, my roommate, for the whole business, but as other members have learned already it’s to be expected with travel.  Back to Mt. Herman, I was assured that it was stunning and I would have loved it. Especially the snowball fight that occurred in which rumor has it Linford tackled a student into the wintery tundra.

I’m sure you have heard something about all that is going on in Egypt. To say the least the situation is pretty awful. Normally our group would be in Cairo right now, so we picked a good year to change the program up and go elsewhere for the first month. Lebanon’s government fell the other week, and they had some peaceful protests before we arrived but we felt at ease the whole time. Getting into Syria went without a hitch, and there haven’t really been any signs of unrest here at all. This next week should be exciting, so keep checking for more blog posts coming from our group!

Ma’as Salaam!

-Dan Nafziger