"Homeward" Bound

It's been 22 months since I arrived to Beirut, earnest, energetic, and overflowing with optimism. On a mission, I'd been dispatched by MIT to recruit the region's finest, but in so doing, I myself was recruited for a job in strategy management at a leading local bank.

I've finally accumulated enough vacation days to go "home," to my country of birth, to my childhood house, to the world I first awoke to. Riverside County is stop #1, where I'll linger a little less than a week before I fly east to Boston to visit my younger brother at Tufts. Boston is my second home: I spent a good two years there pursuing my graduate degree, academic glory, and New England's finest: clam chowder. I can't wait to be back: I've already devised a plan of alimentary adventures!

Thanksgiving will be celebrated in Riverside, where Mom will cook her oriental take on the classic stuffed turkey. The following week, we'll be setting sail on a cruise to Mexico, and a few days thereafter, I'll be back at LAX to hop on a plane to Beirut.

I'll undoubtedly miss Lebanon, especially views like the ones below (placid Zaituna Bay), but I also crave a change of pace, fresh new sights, and memories revisited. Fret not, readers, for I will include you on my journey, from the reverse culture shock that's sure to jolt me, the new technologies taking shape in the Land of Opportunity, to the general atmosphere of America's Obaman Sequel!

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away...


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