After Thanksgiving we had Eid. Eid actually just means celebration, But I don't know the name of this particular fest. I know that it is for Hajj -the pilgrimage to Mecca- and that there were a lot of sheep slaughtered this weekend in commemoration of Abraham, but I don't know much more about it. But my good friend E.B. Harper invited me out to visit her in Beirut, so here I am. We had a great time. On Saturday night we went out to the opening of an English Pub where a visiting French SWAT team there to train the local police forces was cheering on their national rugby squad against New Zealand. It was a great time. We took it easy on Sunday, and it was nice to hear some Arabic in Church. On Monday we went on a Gondola up the mountains so we could have a view of the city. We then went out to lunch to a restaurant named Shea Sammi, a seaside place in which I got the best service of my life. On Tuesday we went to some caves call the Jeita Grotto. They were nominated to be some of the seven wonders of Asia. I am not sure how I would rank them, as I have not seen all the other contenders, but they were very nice. There were two sections, they were both spectacular with different kinds rock formations, but the lower level was my favorite because you take a boat ride through the caves. I don't have any pictures because photos were forbidden, but they were beautiful. Other than that we just took it easy. It was good trip. I took a bunch of pictures of the city, and here they are in the order that I uploaded them.
-Us hanging out at the pub opening.
-The view of the city from the mountains surrounding it.
-Beirut from the boardwalk and day then at night (the one at night had people walking in front of the camera).
-A sunset of the beach that I thought would make a nice picture.

-An old man fishing on the rocks.
-The city lights reflecting on the sea.
-Salon Jihad. I took this picture while we were driving, so you can only see alon Jihad, but that is what it was. I thought it was pretty funny.
-This was a creepy statue at the caves. Why is the man so upset? Sadly, I don't think I'll ever find out. But at least we can all ponder this art together.
-This was the self proclaimed zoo. It contains gerbils, rabbits, turtles, and chickens. Hands down the best zoo I've ever seen.

Thanks to some American connections in the Branch, we had a Thanksgiving just like we would have had in America, with a Butterball, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes. It was great. This was a picture of some of us there, taken when not everyone was aware. Before this, instead of a turkey bowl, we had a Turkish bath. I don't have any pictures for that, but it was a good tradition to have out here. The next day was great as well, we were able to head out to the Paul Shrine. This is the place where on the road to Damascus Paul saw his vision and was converted. It was a great weekend.

I started taking candid photos of people when I thought the shot would be interesting. The top left corner were two guys who I thought looked very stereotypically Arab, looked like they were sharing some sort of secret, and at least for the guy standing, looked like he was doing his very best to be the creepiest he could be. The next photo was an Iranian pilgrim and his daughter. This was one of the yougest girls I'd seen in a hajeb. I also really liked the man's green scarf, and the wares being sold in the background. The last picture was the end of a group of women who were all carrying goods on thier heads out of the market.