...and thus commenceth our common life in Beirut.

We spent our first week in Beirut waiting to find and then move into our own apartment. Then we spent another almost two weeks waiting to get our shipment. The day after it arrived, we all got food poisoning, and so we spent this past week recovering, while waiting for our bookshelves, and trying to sort out the house. I feel like our first month here in Beirut was spent in limbo; we waited at the mercy of some uncontrollable force, unable to make plans or take charge.

Tonight our house is tidy, most of our books are on shelves, and nobody has thrown up since yesterday. Our cabinets and fridge are not full, but contain enough food to last us a few days. We have everything here that we need to start our normal life.

What is that? What kind of life is it that we want to be leading here? I have been reading books, articles, and my favorite blogs to get inspiration; how to organize our time and effort, and what to prioritize. I have thought about our goals and aspiration, and what we need to do to achieve what we want. The professor and I have talked about everything; are continuously discussing what our direction is. It’s difficult, fun, scary, and exciting to think about these things, but very refreshing.

For the boys’ well-being and school matters, our most pressing and one of the most important issues at the moment, I still need to finish last years’ report cards and write out the curricula for this year, but the boys have already started their academic work for this semester, and are doing well. We have been debating the possibility of putting them in school, mainly for economical (homeschooling is straining our budget) and social reasons, but they are thriving so nicely, that we’ll continue with our home education for now. This week the boys will start a couple of new sports activities at the AUB campus, and hopefully with a house that is in order, we can give our family’s social life a push, starting with a small party to celebrate August’s birthday on Tuesday.

As for everything else; I need a little more time before I can write out exactly what it is that we are doing here. I know my list will contain a lot of exercise and outdoor exploration, as well as learning and reading. There are things I want to do, things our family can do, and whatever comes first and we end up doing, we are all excited about our new life here in Beirut.