Blog

  • Day 1 (June 23) – Live Achrafieh Festival

    Stage at the Live Achrafieh Festival. Sorry the pics are so awful. Last night, our hosts surprised us with a special outing, just up the street from our hotel. A square in Achrafieh (our suburb of Beirut) had been closed to traffic, and a full stage/sound system/jumbotron system was set up for the Live Achrafieh Read more

  • Day 1 (June 23) – Beirut

    This picture is really why I’m already loving this country. Pictured above are the Malakite Catholic church and the mosque built by Hariri. The small building between them, touching walls is the home of the Malakite priests. Beirut really has everything. For instance, we had coffee here: Yeah, we were in a hurry. We saw so Read more

  • June 22 – Traveling Update

    8:42 AM local time. I don’t have Wi-Fi situated very well yet, so updates may be few and far between at first. Managed to dash off a text to the family while on the airport’s wi-fi. I had expected immediate access at our hotel, but that has not occurred as planned, so hopefully someone disseminated Read more

  • “A Country of Contradictions”

    LSF 2012 Participants with Ambassador Antoine Chedid at the Lebanese Embassy, Washington, DC Sitting at Dulles, 9:13 PM EDT. Thought I’d get some thoughts down from today’s orientation at the National Council on US-Arab Relations. It was a truly excellent day. The Council provided us the opportunity to speak with many individuals from all sides Read more

  • House of Stone – Anthony Shadid

    As part of our fellowship requirements for our trip to Lebanon, I chose Anthony Shadid’s House of Stone. I’m honestly not sure why. I think I just went with my normal “go with something farther down the list” strategy. I’m glad I got lucky, as I really did enjoy this book, and I highly recommend Read more

  • Experiential Learning

    I’m a big fan of experiential (or performative, whatever you want to call it) learning.  I was pretty involved with the Reacting to the Past program at UGA (a curriculum created by Barnard College.  I was involved in the Athens game), which I think is one of the best ways to learn history out there. Read more