Its been a bit!

So, let's start with the bombing from two weeks ago.  I wrote down all my feelings and thoughts after it happened, but I am not sure about posting it because of the lack of freedom of speech in Beirut. So, I will try and sum it up.

We didn't even know the bombing happened until we read about it, we did not feel it at all. It occured about 15 minutes away.  We stayed in our building and in our local area for the weekend.  There was no reason to get ourselves in any potentially dangerous situation.  There was a lot of tire burning and protests.  Once and awhile the smell of burning rubber would waft its way to our building.  2 days later the city was back to its busy, loud self. The Lebanese recover very quickly!

I have decided that since this new job allows me a lot! a lot! of free time that I would try and set some professional goals for myself.  Please notice that none of my goals involve working out which is ridiculous since I get done with work everyday at 2.

My number 1 goal is to be complimented on an outfit I wear to school.  Not by an American.  I am definitely the nerdy American teacher at the Preschool.  The local teachers wear outfits that I would wear out for a nice dinner or for drinks with a friend.  A woman the other day literally wore a tube top! Needless to say a tube top and my Ann Taylor loft wardrobe do not match. Since, I no longer own tube tops, I have to think of something else.  I have been banned from Pajama jeans from my husband, but I am pretty sure they would get me the win in this goal.  Shelby and Molly have banned me from diaper pants so again, I am way behind.  I think I have the shoes nailed down because almost everyone owns a pair of converse shoes with spikes on them..no joking! So, I just have to find the longest spike shoes possible! Any other ideas is appreciated. I will keep you posted on my progress.

My number 2 goal is to get my 5 year re-certification done for Virginia and begin working towards a General Education endorsement. I am really excited about this but the time change is making things a little more difficult because I can't call and ask questions whenever I want. But, I am confident this will work out. Although my track record with getting things done in the teaching world isn't great.

My number 3 goal is to learn how to make cake balls. They are a delicious treat sold in a bakery here and I am obsessed with them and they make me giggle whenever I talk about them.  They are small, round balls of undercooked cake in a multiple of favors. I am pretty sure this goal is impossible but I am going to do my best to try!

Finally,
This past weekend we had a 4 day weekend and we made the most of it.  On Friday we created a building wide decathlon and had a blast. There was beer pong, flip cup, and roof drop just to name a few.

Then on Sunday we went to Byblos which is an amazing fishing town about a half an hour away and had a great time.  There is a crusader castle there that is over a 1000 years old.  Oh the stories it could tell and the amount of people that have been there.  Crazy! It was also super nice to get out of the city for awhile and not hear honking horns every 5 minutes. 

Pictures from all weekend events are below

                                            Rooftop Drop. We dropped napkins rings from the roof into a bucket!

                                          The black raincoat team!

                                         The columns in Byblos

   This was found after an earthquake. There may or may not be a dead body in there..=)

                                         Byblos!

Fun times in Lebanon

I had a lot of firsts last week in Lebanon and most of them turned out great.

I went on Friday night to a dance club with a co-worker.  We got a half hour Salsa lesson and then a band came on and continued to play Salsa music.  I really enjoy dancing usually but I have found that I do not enjoy being in close dancing proximity to strangers.  I am unable to be comfortable making eye contact with a stranger who is practically nose to nose with me.  Thus, making it very challenging for me to be a good dancer. I am also not good at following and letting the guy take the lead, shocker there..I know! So, I will take the knowledge of not liking to dance with strangers touching me into my future and check off the box on my list of things to do for know yourself better..=)
I also danced in the lesson with a young guy who just kept insisting on telling me that he is "just a really good dancer." I don't know anything else about him, except that he is a really good dancer.  Do not think when you read this that maybe there was a language barrier and that was all the English he knew.  He knew lots of English words about himself, hence "I am a very good dancer and a dentist." We strangely enough did not reunite on the dance floor after the lesson.  So, the number 2 thing I learned this week. I do not enjoy really good Lebanese dancers.

If I keep on at this pace of knowing myself in 2 years I will be the most self-aware person in the world!

I also decided to try the world of maintence here in Lebanon.  By maintance I mean I needed my eyebrows waxed or I was hoping to get them waxed.  I had asked several of the girls in my building where they went for personal grooming and since all the names are Arabic my brain refuses to accept or memorize them, so I often venture off in the general direction someone pointed me and hope for the best.
Anyways, lucky enough for me there is a beauty salon two buildings away from our apartment, so I was able to avoid getting lost..=)  I walk by there every day and there is often a group of employees just sitting on the stairs and they all watch you when you get a haircut. It is a very unusaul experience and makes me again for uncomfortable...haha. But, I had to go to this place because, of course, I could not remember the name of anywhere else to go.  Stupid Brain!...So, I walk in and in offensively slow ( i am trying not to be one of those people who thinks talking louder to someone who speaks a different language makes a difference so in turn I talk really slowly and take lots of long pauses, intermixed with lots of confused faces..works super well.) and ask to get my eyebrows done.  A nice lady offers to help me and I spend the whole walk trying to tell her I just want an eyebrow wax.  I am asking her general questions and she just keeps nodding along.
I have to preface this by saying I am asking lots of questions because some of the people here in Lebanon do not believe in eyebrows consisting of hair.  They much prefer it to be hairless but filled in with make-up.  I do not believe in this and I wanted to make that abundently clear to my new friend.
Long story short, I still have eyebrows but I did experience threading for the first time, along with the most plucking any human has ever had to endure. I spent what felt like an eternity, wincing and cringing and wiping tears from my eyes. I am sure the lady thought I was one tough cookie. I personally find plucking to be one of the worst and most annoying thing ever!  Its like being pinched 100 times. It takes all my self-control not to swing a right hook on whoever is closet. Thankfully, there are no laws in Lebanon so if by accident I hit my new eyebrow friend, she can do nothing about it.

The couple across the hall from Michael and I are awesome. The wife is from Thailand and she makes amazing Thai food. I subtly hinted to her that I love Thai food and now whenever she makes extra she brings Michael and I a plate to share.  It is freaking fantastic. Although, it is some of the spiciest food I have ever eaten.  Last weekend she invited a bunch of us over to have a Thai cooking class.  We made fried chicken with mango salads and it was all super delicious.  Now, everytime our doorbell rings I am very wishful it is her with more food. 

 Mango chicken salad!

This week we also started the process for getting our work permits.  Without them we can not leave the country.  So, you have to go about a half an hour away, depending the worlds worst traffic to general security.  The school has a driver that gives you a ride.  There are a lot of them so it is always a surprise who you will get.  Moving on, we get to general security and a guy who now works for our school, calls you from the curb to get out of the car in the middle of traffic and follow him.  Next time I will know that follow him means run as fast as you can because he is not waiting.  We walk through metal detectors into a room that is the DMV but without any rules or regulations. I know the DMV can take forever and super suck, but imagine a DMV with no lines or ticket numbers or order ( i think i have mentioned it before, but Lebanon literally does not believe in lines, anywhere).  You just push as hard as you can to get to the desk you need to go to. Then you go upstairs (two at a time) to another set of desks that you push your way to. Then you finally go to another room where you wait in a tangled mess outside of until you can push your way through. Thankfully, the guy who was with me knows everyone who works there so we skip all lines and go to different desks.
Good news is I will get my permit in a week Lebanese time..so 3 weeks American time and I will be ready for Barcelona and Paris!!

Finally,
If you have made it this far. I have attached a few photos. I feel like all the pictures Michael and I post of our things and not us and since I know you all love to see us. Here you go!

 Me after walking in the pouring rain to one of favorite places Dar.  Our friend Nadia's cousin owns it and we met her this night. She was probably really jealous of my hair!

 Me working..aka...looking at people.com

Michael working...writing and responding to parent emails ...

Day to Day

Hi friends.

I have added a video of some pictures from our daily lives in Beirut.  I hope it works. If it doesn't work right please let me and I can send it to you in an email.

Things have been great here the past few days. The temperature has started to cool down and there is a nice breeze.  So, we are enjoying spending time outside.  We had a building bbq last night and a few people from the another international school came and it was a wonderful evening.  The weather was perfect and everyone could not have been friendlier.  We are excited to get to know more and more people outside of the IC family.

I was going to include pictures of the Corniche (its the walkway) along the Sea by our house, because I just wanted to show our main walking routes so you can visual what our walk to and from school and doing regular things looks like.

We also went to the driving range with the President of our school last week and plan on going again on Tuesday.  We got a golf pro ( i don't know how pro a person can be in Beirut) but he seemed to have good advice.  Its a nice past time especially with the nice weather.  It is considerably cheaper than the states but we have to go in a taxi and pay a few fees so we will see how often we continue to go.

Things are getting better at work, I am starting to find my way slowly but surely.  These next two years are definitely going to be the most unique teaching experiences we are probably going to have.  So, we will learn to enjoy it while we are here before we have to go back to the States and all the pressures of No Child Left Behind.

We miss everyone terribly! Hope you are all well while reading this and enjoying the blog.

We also decided to name our wall Octupus Clumsy, but every since he has come into our lives I have become more clumsy, so I am going to rename the Octupus multimillionaire in hopes that rubs off on us as well.

Just a little over 2 months before Barcelona and Paris..WAHOO!