Just a normal weekend in Beirut....

On Saturday morning we went to Souk el Tayeb. This in an open air farmer's market at the Beirut Souks (which is pretty much an outdoor mall).  Our friend Dania took us and we had a nice morning. While we've been there before we have always been later and therefore much is already sold. We were quite surprised at how much was there and how busy it was! Here are some pictures!

This is the empty building behind the Souk.  I thought it was beautiful.

Our first stop was to get honey.  We always get our honey from Habib Honey. Their honey is incredible. Delaney and Janna are looking at the bees they brought in the honeycomb. They also have a centrifuge on hand and are making honey right there. This time we bought Cedar Honey. It tastes great in my morning coffee!

We then went to Dania's friends booth from the north near Tripoli.  They have all organic fruits and vegetables. We bought apples, tangerines, kiwis, pomegrantes (that were HUGE!!), carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

As you can see the food looks great here!

They sell all kinds of things at the souk.  There is a man that sells all things wicker and this lady sells clay cooking pots and trays.

We then went to purchase some great treats for later. These little pastries have "wild greens" in them. Not sure what they were but they were really good! Especially with Labneh  (something they have here that is a cross between sour cream and cream cheese)

They also had these pastries. On the left there some are filled with cheese and some are filled with thyme. The ones on the right have lamb. All quite good. In the background is my all time favorite! Kibbe!

The kibbe above is a stuffed kibbe. It is meat (usually a mix of beef and lamb) that is stuffed with spices and sauteed onions.  The one in this picture is made of chickpeas.  Yes, kibbe for everyone!
By the way, the woman who made these treats was named "The Queen of Kibbe" by Anthony Bourdain when he came here to make a TV show.

Next to the vegetarian kebbe were these sweet treats. I love how everything is made in these big round pans.

Here is another view of the end of the souk.

Here are more stands. Notice all of the canned goods. They have pickled mozzarella balls, olives, seasoned feta and all kinds of things! All of the cookies and pastries are boxed up as well. 

We then had some manouche.  The woman in the back is making fresh bread to go on the round grill. The woman in front is putting zaatar (thyme with olive oil and sesame seeds) on the one in the front. The one in the back has cheese. They then add vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers if you want and fold it up. It's the best street food EVER!

That was part of our Saturday. We then went to Wesley's, otherwise known as the Beirut Costco, to get food for Home of Hope. Home of Hope is an orphanage we have taken to donating to. Last week we had the ACS book fair. The middle school students and teachers created baskets to auction off. We earned 400,000 Lebanese Lira on our 5 baskets. (That's about 275 dollars) With that we bought food to donate.

We will take this up to the orphanage with shoes, books and other things tonight!

On Sunday, Janna and I also went on a morning walk along the Corniche.  Here are a few more pictures of this awesome place we walk along every day!

As always, there are people fishing along the Corniche. A lot of people were swimming as well.

Here comes Janna on her bike! They also had no traffic on the road because there was a triathlon going on. 

And the lighthouse towards the end of the Corniche.  If I walk from the beginning of the Corniche to a little past the lighthouse and back home its about 5K.

Overall, once again, a great weekend! It's always hard to think it's December here when it's 75 degrees and beautiful!

House Retreats in October

While Janna was staying with friends (making cookies, playing with kitties, eating pizza, and reading books) Tim, Delaney and I all went to different places in Lebanon to be part of the ACS Middle School House Retreats.  In the middle school we are divided up into 6 houses, like Harry Potter I guess. Tim is a Griffin, Delaney is an Indrik, and I am a Wizard.  Here are some pictures. Mostly from Tim and I but I hope to get more pictures to add from Delaney's adventures.

Tim went up into the mountains south and east of Beirut to Ramlieh Hostel.

Yes there was a ropes course. Yes, Tim did it. (some pictures were posted on facebook)

The weather was hit and miss.  Yes, we all experienced rain at different times.

Students repelled from here.

Two of our friends, Josef and Nesrine

Fun doing archery

The whole Griffin team, Tim, Nesrine, Ruwaida, Oulaya, Nadine and Josef

As always, beautiful views of Lebanon

A beautiful rainbow in the morning.

I also went with a group but we went to Peaks Resort in the Mount Lebanon Area north and east of Beirut.

We had some serious storms that forced us to modify what we were doing. No rappelling for us.

Yes, I saw the same rainbow as Tim and Delaney.

We went on a nature walk and I just thought this rock formation was typical of what we saw all around the resort.

Marcelle and I waiting for our turn.

Some of the students freaked out when we saw this bug.  Not this student though...not sure what it was.

More of the Wizard team. Joumana, Lolita and Marcelle.

We had a ropes course as well. Thanks to one of my students, who I think is 1/2 mountain goat, I got a lot of pictures.

So happy I finished it!

This house was next to the resort. You can see many houses like this up in the mountains.

The storm was coming in.

We had a zipline as well.

This olive tree was in front of the resort. I thought the roses were pretty.

Delaney went to La Maison de la Foret, in Jezzine which is east of Sidon (Saida) in the southern area of Lebanon.  She stayed in tents in the forest. She also did many of the same things Tim and I did.  I hope to get more pictures of her and add them to the post.

Here she is doing a group activity where you could only use two legs to stand but with four people.

Here she is with her friends, Erin and Maysoun.

Delaney at the end of the zipline.

Overall, we all had wonderful times connecting with friends and enjoying nature.

A Walk to the Park and a Beautiful Evening

We had a holiday last week (October 2nd - 8th)  for the Eid al Adha also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. This is a Muslim holiday that honors Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his promised son, Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of submission to God. We had a quiet week and chose to just spend time relaxing around Beirut.

One day, Tim, Janna and I walked up to a park that was renovated last spring. What a treat. Here are some pictures of our time at the park.

In the center of the park is a pool with a fountain that turns off and on. 

Around the fountain are trees that have grown together with benches underneath.

These were sinks to wash in. Not sure why they were there but they were clean and pretty.

The walkways were very nice.

There were 3 playgrounds in the park. Janna enjoyed them.

She was nervous about climbing over the cargo net but after the first time she was a pro!

Then, we had a wonderful dinner on the balcony and enjoyed the great weather, the moon rising and the sun setting.

Very relaxing.

This was opposite of the sun setting.

By the way, this is the "famous" Holiday Inn from the war that happened here in Lebanon...

We then decided to go up onto the roof and get a few more pictures.

The Mediterranean off in the distance.

The moon behind us.

Just a great picture.

Just another beautiful day in paradise.