While my family spent day 4 on a trip to the south of Lebanon, including tours of the historic sites of Sidon and Tyr, I spent the day meeting with friends at NDU. While I apparently missed quite an experience including Israeli jets overhead, toy guns, and a traffic nightmare, it was really great to spend a day meeting with those people I have gotten to know over email from NDU. My trip to the University campus was concluded with a typical, around 3 hour Lebanese lunch. I've never seen such a lot of food in my life - the mezze [View Full Entry]

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A few months ago, my mother told me she and my father were contemplating a trip to Lebanon for my father's 60th birthday. The Lebanese influence from my father's side has played a huge role in our lives, and considering we've never been because of troubles in Lebanon, I of course really encouraged the trip. Things finally were solidified only about 2 months ago for my parents, Melissa and I to spend a week together in Lebanon, touring the 'Blaird' (in South African adopted Arabic this means our homeland)! A quick flight over to Paris and a 4-hour transfer across the [View Full Entry]

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After an exhausting few days rushing through some of the sights that Cairo and Luxor have to offer, Chris and I planned for some R&R in South Sinai in Dahab. From Luxor, we took a flight connecting through Cairo that got us into Sharm El Shiek in 2 hours. The flights and everything associated with them went very smoothly. Overall, I'm impressed with the airline system in Egypt & the ease with which one can travel (unlike here in the States with countless delays, lines and hassle in general). After having to wait a lil longer than expected for our ride [View Full Entry]

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Well, i know its been some time since my last blog entry, but Chris and are currently on an adventure in Egypt...the land of the Pharaohs!! It has been a whirlwind of a trip but one I like to label as 'out of national geographic' - this place is like a life-size museum!! We started off our adventure from staunton, va where we were spending Christmas with the schwalms (wonderful time, thanks again for having us and for all the prezzies!). From there, we went to DC and then took a bus up to NYC (nastiest bus ride ever might I [View Full Entry]

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Well, Its been quite some time since my last blog entry, and I have got to say, these last two trips, which deserve much attention & detail, are actually going to get totally overlooked as I've just waited too long! Last Labor Day, Chris and I headed back to Puerto Rico for round 2. Let me say, the adventure was just as incredible as the first time. We've gotten quite a feel for the island, having done the Eastern half during our first trip and now the Western part. I highly recommend this trip to everyone. Its just so close to [View Full Entry]

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As described to you in our first blog from Yangshuo, this place was quite the adventure! We woke up on day 2, sore as hell from the biking and massages from the previuos day, but ready for some more thrill-seeking and fun in Yangshuo. We decided to sleep in a little bit and try to get some of that relaxing in that we assumed we'd be doing in Yangshuo the entire time we were there (yeah, right). So, had a late(r) morning than normal, and walked into town for some breakfast. We stopped at a place run by some American [View Full Entry]

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So, we have had THE most INCREDIBLE past two days ever, this place has really just been the highlight of our trip thus far, we have sooo many stories and great photos, some of which I'll try to incorporate in this blog entry... Yesterday morning, we were up at 6 am in order to get in a taxi and get to the airport for our 9:40 am flight to Guilin. Because there is ALWAYS traffic in Beijing, we left a little earlier just to play it safe. So, we went off to the airport (with a lot heavier of a [View Full Entry]

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Well, I thought I'd add a quick entry before heading out to Guilin tomorrow morning. I thought that since the last entry was so long and covered so much, I might as well do one on last night and today. Let me see...before I left off last night, we were home resting before heading out for the evening. Chris really wanted to get Peking duck for dinner, so we walked to where we thougth the restaurant was. However, we couldnt find the place, and opted for a Japanese-type restaurant right by Tiennamen Square instead. After that, we hopped into a [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately, I have been slacking with my blog so far this trip. Chris and I arrived in China two days ago, but have not had a free moment to begin a blog. This will be my attempt to catch you all up on a few days of serious sight-seeing and adventure! USA time on Wednesday, Chris and I left DC on a flight from National Airport to Newark. We connected in NJ to a Continental flight direct to Beijing. This flight was about 13 hours (sounds like hell but is nothing compared to our flight to SA, so I'm pretty [View Full Entry]

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