First Group Trip Finished

It was a very full weekend, and I've got lots to share, but that will happen over the next few days.  For now, I will post my favorite photo from the weekend which I took from a boat just off the coast of Tripoli.  In case you know a little about Tripoli's recent history, I'd like to reassure you that I had absolutely no problems.  I also visited the citadel and souks in Tripoli, the Cedars forest and hiked up the tallest peak in Lebanon, Kornet el Sawda, so there should (emphasis on should) be a lot good pictures coming soon.

I'm going to close by saying that boy was quite brave, because I must have seen more jellyfish on that  short boat ride than I have ever seen in my entire life.  They were big and just a few feet below the water almost everywhere in the bay.

Someone's reading my blog!

The nice folks over at zgharta.com recently linked to my blog and I thought I'd return the favor.  Exciting!

Out for the Weekend

Heading up north for a little excursion, will be back on Sunday with lots of pictures.  In the meantime watch Le Tour de France, it starts today!  Here's hoping a certain American wins for the eighth time.

Holland Wins!!

Half of Beirut is distraught, because that means Brazil is out.  The other half is happy because that means Brazil is out, and Germany won't have to face them.

One guess which half honked when we were walking home like this:

But we weren't the only Holland fans...

Hotel Riviera - My First 'Beach'

As I wrote yesterday, I went to my first beach in Beirut (I'm going to leave off the quotations for this entry, but don't forget that beach does not mean sand and salt water here in Beirut.  In fact, there is nothing natural whatsoever about beaches here).  It was at the Hotel Riviera, a seafront hotel that lets non-guests pay to use their beach.

It was hard to get pictures of the pool area, it was sprawled on three levels.  A big saltwater pool farther away from the sea, with a small freshwater pool down by the sea where my group situated ourselves.  There were tons of beach chairs and more tanned and sculpted bodies than I've ever seen in one place before.  A glimpse of what life next to the pool at the Hotel Riviera is like:

A moment of [fill in unflattering adjective here]

I'm at the gym for the first time.  On the elliptical, but getting bored so I switch to the treadmill.  I plan to run for a short time, starting at a good pace I glance down at the display to see that I'm getting close to a mile.  I finish said mile in a little over six minutes.

I'm surprised, I'm not in such terrible shape as I thought.  I feel good for about 45 seconds...

Reasons I'm an idiot:

An afternoon in the life

Without homework, a test tomorrow, and any other plans, I went to the beach today.  What you don't know is that 'the beach' in Lebanon is actually a swimming pool with sea water pumped in.  The 'beach' I went to today was pretty amazing.  More later because I'm off to experience what happens after people go to the beach in Beirut, but here's about what to expect:

No, I did not have a martini, but that's where I went today.