Lebanon

Our first view of Beirut

If you have been following this blog, you know that we were on a three month trip prior to this move and we arrived home in Vancouver, Washington on March 22nd from Vietnam and left for Batroun, Lebanon on April 14th. While we were home we spent time with friends and family, unpacked and repacked and emptied out our family’s condo that we were staying in, as it sold and closed only two days after we left. It was a busy three weeks and we loved spending time with friends, family, and of course my granddog Luna. While she lives with Natalie, I often took her for visits - as one does with a granddog I picked her up on the day after we got to Vancouver and kept her until we went to stay with Nat a few days before we left. I love this dog so much and considered spiriting her away to Lebanon with us! I mean, can you blame me? Look at how adorable she is.

While we are so excited about our new adventure, we are obviously terribly sad to be leaving behind our fabulous family and friends, and especially our kids. We are really greatful for apps like Telegram and Whats App that allow us to easily stay in touch. We have been using these apps for several years now to talk with Bassam who lives in Germany and it is amazing how easy it is to stay connected with calls, texts and pictures. Technology has come such a long way since 1986 when George moved to the states and calls home to Lebanon were expensive and the connections were not great. This connectivity has made the move a bit easier.

So, we headed to Lebanon on Delta flights with our six pieces of checked luggage and our carryons. We flew first to Atlanta and on to Heathrow before boarding Middle East Airlines to Beirut. Our flights were great with short layovers and the airport at Beirut was welcoming and easy to navigate. We went through the shorter Lebanese citizen line for customs (thank you George) and I received my stamp/visa for one month, which is standard for anyone coming to visit, though my visa should have been for six months since I am married to a Lebanese citizen We didn’t catch the discrepancy until about a week later and we are now in the process of getting a residency permit for me while I work on completing my application for citizenship…which will take longer than one month.

Our luggage and the carts that are free for use. We found that in the countries that we traveled to, they are always free, except for the Portland airport where you have to pay $7 for each cart.

The airport was less crowded than usual, likely due to the fact that Israel continues to bomb parts of Beirut and Southern Lebanon during the “cease fire”. Just to reassure you, we feel safe where we are living and have had no problems as we have traveled about the north of Lebanon. Our family picked us up from the airport and drove us from Beirut to Batroun which took about an hour. My sister and brother in law, Nelly and Adnan are the best, as is their fabulous daughter Jaimee and we are so grateful to have them as our neighbors! They have shown us where to shop, where to eat, where to get cell phones, etc. and have toured us around Batroun on lovely walks.

Here we are enjoying time together in Arnaoon Village

It has now been two weeks since we arrived in Lebanon and we have begun the work of settling in to our new lives. Batroun is a beautiful and vibrant city on the Mediterranean Sea and we are enjoying rediscovering it now that we are living here. The weather has been beautiful and so we have been walking every day, exploring the area, finding new restaurants along with old favorites. My friends Sharon and Catherine will be sad to hear that the ice cream parlor, Game of Cones has closed. The last time we were in Batroun, it hadn’t opened yet and so we never had the chance to try it. Along with exploring Batroun, we have also enjoyed spending time with George’s other brother Bassam and his awesome family. We are looking forward to visiting Douma soon, which is George’s hometown where we will get to see even more friends and family.

Down by the Sea

Morning walk with Adnan

We partially furnished our home a few years ago, but need to buy additional items. Shopping here is very different from how we shopped in the US. There is no Amazon, no Costco, no IKEA and so we are driving around to various towns and stores with Nelly and Adnan to find what we need. Luckily for us, Nelly’s sister has a furniture store with really beautiful items and so that was where we started. We also have been looking/shopping at local stores online and some of them deliver, typically within a couple of days and so that has been very convenient. We were here in 2022 and at that time it was more common to use the Lebanese Lira and credit cards were not accepted. Now we have found that many places accept credit cards - sometimes with fees - and it is acceptable to use dollars from the US so shopping is pretty easy.

Driving is a bit challenging, but George has adapted well and we can get wherever we need to go. I haven’t tried driving here yet - I’m nervous about narrow roads and getting lost, but will try it at some point. Our sweet friends Toni and Nada have loaned us their car and so we have that while shopping for our own. We are hoping to find something that will easily handle the narrow city streets of Batroun as well as the steep roads up to the mountains. We should have something by next week…inshalla.

We hope you are all well…sending you good wishes and love from Lebanon! If you have any questions, or anything you would like for me to show you, just find me on Telegram, or you can email me at tracihaddad@gmail.com.