Over the past 5 years, I’ve traveled at least twice a year, saw beautiful places, heard many different and sometimes strange languages being spoken around me, even smelled the local cuisine- which is a long, long story in it’s own right.
But nothing beats home.
And even though there were times when I thought this country had nothing to offer to anyone, except a whole load of headaches, I now know that it’s not true and will be leaving with a sort of heavy heart.
Before I write up two lists about what I will and will not miss about Beirut and Lebanon, which I have wanted to post even way before this bl0g started, I spent a whole day looking through my 15 GB worth of photos trying to discover what photos and stories would best convey my current sentiments, especially from the past 3 years or so.
Somehow I knew that all this picture taking would come in handy one day.
- Green Oval, American University of Beirut (AUB) Campus, Beirut, June 2009
There were many, many times that I just wanted to stay here and not go to class-but never did. - Temple of Jupiter, Baalbeck, September 2010
I have got to stop posing like I'm signaling for an airplane to land - A lone fisherman along the coast of Byblos, December 2010
I wonder what was going through his head - Part of the Damour River, sampled for a class in Instrumentation and Analytic Techniques, October 2009
Did I mention we were there for a class? And I was taking photos the whole time? - View of the Dbayyeh Marina at sunset from Le Royale Hotel, June 2011
Also the night of the FHS Gala Dinner - Jounieh at midnight from Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, February 2011
How I ever was convinced to go all the way up is still something I don't understand. But I'm glad I did. - Beirut barely visible in the distance from Harissa, February 2011
Second day of the Bicharaf Leadership Camp in Harissa, which allowed for many photos like this one. - Pine trees near Haytoura, a village in the south of Lebanon we visited for Summer Field Training, July 2010
Also the site of a very long walk under the sun, all to see a wastewater treatment plant - Smar Jbeil, in North Lebanon, New Year’s Eve, December 2009
I absolutely have no comment on this other than it was a crazy, crazy night. - Zawtar El Charqiyeh, another village in the south visited for SFT, July 2010
The bus kept going down the steepest incline I've ever seen just so we could go and sample a river.
Beyond Beirut 
…and you really want to leave this behind, ’cause of a Dutch city ?!?