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.