The ain't no party like a Lebanon party

I would like to introduce someone less lazy than me my replacement a guest poster. Please welcome ... LMC!

Hello All!!
I'm laura aka LMC. I'm approaching the end of my year as a nanny in lebanon and Missy has been nice enough to let me do a little post about my time in the middle east.

I came over in january, the middle of winter (yuck), with the intention of working and studying as i figured 'seriously its lebanon how many friends can you make here'.

Although the job part of my time here turned sour quite quickly I managed to wrestle myself some time off to pursue a life i.e. boozing at the pub.I live/d in a small town an hour south of beirut and 2hrs north of the israeli border. As many of you would know last year lebanon and israel were at war. Remnants of the war are still visible here in the town i live in, and in beirut. The highway to beirut had several bridges wiped out but most of them are almost rebuilt.

Lebanon is such a beautiful country and i have had such a wonderful time here. I've met more people and more different nationalities than i ever thought possible. I started my 'life' with the odd weekend at skandars (which soon became MY pub) with my boss. Then i met a british girl around my age and we started to hang out a bit. She then introduced me to a group of male british deminers who had a thirst for beer and doing silly things which is where my My Life began.

I did the usual things drunk 20 somethings do, a lot of the time resulting in monster hangovers i thought i'd never recover from. But then there was the swimming in the ocean drunk at 4 in the morning when its 10degrees, Singing into a toilet brush (Clean I swear it was brand new) that someone got free with something at the supermarket, Swapping clothes with my male friends...why you ask? Because we could! We became such regulars at this pub that the owner started calling me 'queen of the pub' and every time we came in they would play our theme songs: American Pie and The Gambler. We would then thrust our beers in the air and sing like, well, like we could actually sing.

Some of my best time here was summer when we sat at this little shack with $1 beers from morning til night and jet skiied all day. The tan i got was A-MA-ZING!I've snorkeled roman ruins, I've puked my guts up on a boat trip (was gross but hell funny).

I've also travelled while I've been over here. I spent easter trawlling the souks of Damscus which has a roof full of bullet holes giving a sort of starry effect as you wander through. (Note: Its bloody busy there so if your one of those people who doesn't like being shoved...dont go)

I made a trip to Istanbul, turkey to visit some friends and the mosques they have are large and beautiful.You probably couldn't care less but i have met my bf here and he and i went to cyprus where i got a tattoo, my first, quite an experience. We partied it up in agia napa which is a great place if thats all you want to do.I've danced on bars at posh beach resorts and partied at beach concerts, I've even shopped at some ridiculously expensive european shops (bad bad bad idea, my credit card hates me).

Lebanon has some of the most beautiful landscape and there's always something going on.

Winter is setting in now and I'm going to miss the snow this year but i've had such a wonderful time and made such amazing friends. Lebanon is definately a place I would come back to time and time again.

Cheers,
Laura
xxx