Better Update on Lebanon!

Sorry if the last entry was strange or whiney.  I was jetlegged.  Life is pretty good here.  There are two apartments, and our apartment is especially gorgeous, it has 2 long balconies with lovely views.  There are two bedrooms in each place; in mine there are 8 girls and in the other there are 11.  There are also two boys (eventually there will be 4 supposedly), but they are in a separate building and we are forbidden from visiting them or vice versa.  The rest are located in Beirut (there are 56 of us altogether).  Each of us has a small, puffy mat to sleep on.  The apartment only has "real" electricity for short periods of time, the rest of the time we have a generator.  We are located right outside 2 of the camps.  I will be in Rashidieh teaching English and photography to Palestinian refugees, most of which will be between the age of 8 and 14.  We are located in Sur (or Tyre, depending on which language you speak).  I was worried about my Arabic, but only a few here in the program are fluent.  I've looked up Lebanese Arabic phrases online and copy and pasted them into word and hopefully that will be enough.  Today we went and got our permits to enter Rashidieh.  Tomorrow orientation begins and we will all take a bus to Beirut.

I'm typing this now from a La Costa, which seems to have become the unofficial "internet cafe" of the group (ironically located down the street from a Costa Coffee).  They sell food here too, which is why I think it's so popular.  I've been trying to save money though, since until the program begins monday, all of our meals are on us.  Plus nowhere around us seems to accept credit cards unfortunately.

Apparently we were supposed to have a trip to Tripoli next week.  It goes without saying that it was cancelled.

Made it to Lebanon

So.  After a day in London (write about that later maybe), I boarded my flight to Cyprus, hung out there for a while, and then went on to Beirut.  A cabdriver met me at the airport and then we tried to unsucessfully to find another girl's hotel for a while before finally arriving and picking up an extra two girls from the program.  Drove to Tyre where I promptly passed out.  Then about twenty minutes ago left with them to buy a sim card for my phone and go to La Costa, where we are now taking advantage of their internet.  More later.

Travel Addiction: It's a serious disease

I won't be in a position to actually buy my ticket until Monday- I sold some stocks to do so and will inevitably end up homeless and destitute one of these days. But anyway, now that I will soon be in a position to actually fund my way to Lebanon I am struck by the idea that maybe I should fly out of another European city (other than London which is where I am flying to on the 24th). It seems (at least for now) much cheaper to fly out of Berlin or Vienna. I could travel to one of those cities by bus relatively inexpensively and save myself about $150. But will I be sane enough to endure another 20+ hour bus ride? Hmmmmmm In other news, assuming I do end up penniless one of these days, I have a half-hearted plan that I might then take a bus to NY and try couchsurfing for a few months. Alternative Reality Version of Me managed to make her way around New Orleans for free this way for almost 4 months! But then she was a much bigger parties and sometimes (more or less) traded sex for a comfy bed. I have no moral objections to this almost-prostitution, but my body won't allow it.  Sometimes it sucks being demisexual.

Wish me lucks internet!  I'll need it.