{"id":55371,"date":"2018-04-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/55371\/25-things-youll-remember-if-you-grew-up-abroad-and-would-visit-lebanon-every-summer"},"modified":"2024-02-12T07:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T07:01:59","slug":"25-things-youll-remember-if-you-grew-up-abroad-and-would-visit-lebanon-every-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/55371\/25-things-youll-remember-if-you-grew-up-abroad-and-would-visit-lebanon-every-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Things You’ll Remember If You Grew Up Abroad And Would Visit Lebanon Every Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"If you’re like me and you spent the greater part of your childhood living outside of Lebanon, you’re sure to have experienced a lot of culture shock every time your parents would force you to spend entire summers in Lebanon.

From everlasting family lunches full of investigative questions directed at your young self about your life in the states or elsewhere, to spending a lot<\/i> of time in Lebanon’s mountains and being forced to become acquainted with your distant cousins of the same age while not being able to communicate in the same language, here are some things that you must have experienced on those oh-so-awkward<\/i> pre-teen trips to the motherland.


The seemingly week-long airplane\/layover journeys\u2026<\/b>

Day-long layovers in never-before-visited countries around the world – where, if you were lucky, your parents would check you into the airport hotel for a much-needed snooze and an even-more-needed shower. But, if the layover wasn’t long enough, you’d walk around the foreign airport like a drugged up sloth with a backpack full of Barbies and your dad fighting with all the ticketing clerks for not putting you on the earlier flight to Beirut.


Culture shock at the gate to Beirut<\/b>

Once you entered the vicinity of the Beirut flight gate, you had instantaneously stepped foot in Lebanon. Loud speakers, loud bizir<\/i> eaters, long head-to-toe stares, your parents saying hi to people you’ve never seen before but they then tell you that they went to AUB together and then, just like that, you were forced to create an instant bond with their children for the duration of the imminent flight.


Being paraded at the Beirut airport with balloons, chocolates, and an entire family-tree joyously waiting for your return<\/b>

Which one of these<\/a> was your family?


Being confused by the call to prayer while you’d be intensely jet-lagged and awake 5 AM<\/b>

You’d ask your mom why someone was singing so loudly in the middle of the night.


Uncomfortable summer camp experiences<\/b>




A lot of culture shock<\/b>

You’d never know (and still probably don’t) the quota of how many cheek kisses to give someone upon meeting them, you’d constantly be told how you look like your long-lost Lebanese ancestors, and you’d be shocked at how much people here eat – and drink coffee before, during, and after every meal.


Instantaneous immersion into day3a<\/i> life<\/b>

Where things get weird.


Intensive Arabic language courses<\/b>

You’d be forced to sit with an aggressive Arabic tutor for an hour a day who relentlessly tried to teach you (while screaming at you) your mother tongue.


Overwhelming family breakfasts, and lunches, and dinners<\/b>

Basically everything was overwhelming.


Sleeping on your distant aunt’s pull-out couch<\/b>

With your siblings.


You’d be confused by the amount of housekeepers there were for every household<\/b>

And your cousins would laugh when you told them that back home you had to do house chores like washing the dishes and cleaning your room.


A lot of lost in translation moments with your cousins<\/b>




Thinking that Hamra was Lebanon’s equivalent to Times Square<\/b>

So loud, so many cars, so many people, so much noise, always.


Crying every time you had to eat malfouf<\/i><\/b>




Your teta<\/i> forcing you to try a bit of everything on the table<\/B>

Which would consist of at least 5 different meals, with several side dishes and a variety of salads. She’ll look at you with the sweetest, most concerned eyes, and say “Habibte<\/i> please try the kibbe<\/i>, it’s nice. Please, for me?”


You spent a lot of time on these with your cousins, and your ankles took most of the damage<\/b>




Your parents would all-of-a-sudden become really, really Lebanese<\/b>