I’ve arrived safely in Beirut. Overall the travel experience was great. Turkish Airlines was awesome! The few previous international flights I’ve been on were on US based airlines and were not as great. The flight from DC to Istanbul was spacious, had great food and amazingly there were no screaming children. Also there was free wine!

The hotel is nice and better than expected based on the reviews I had read on TripAdvisor. Here’ s a link to the hotel (trust me it’s better in person!): http://www.hotelalexandre.com

Today we had an orientation with the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation and met Sabine, Melkar and Fadi. We’re going for lunch now and a walking/bus tour this afternoon.

I promise more updates later tonight!