Three weeks spent in Lebanon became a kaleidoscope of amazing experiences for us.
Dinara Yanbekova, who is the 2nd year student of School of Asian Studies, shared her impressions of summer school in Lebanon.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of non-stop practice both during classes with highly qualified teachers, which were organized by the international language center Dar As-Salam, and on the streets of one of the most beautiful countries of the Middle East. However, we also managed to gain a lot of wonderful experiences apart from studying.
After classes we had a lot of fun deciding where to spend the rest of our day. We could choose between going to the beach or center of the city (Beirut, the capital of Lebanon) and visiting ancient cities. Thus, we managed to travel almost the entire country for those three weeks.
The versatility of Beirut, which is sometimes called "the Paris of the Middle East", will impress any traveller. Modern buildings and extremely autentic slums coexist on the territory of the same city. Beaches and business centers harmoniously complement each other, while mosques create the city’s cacophony with all its busy fairs, traffic jams and voices of unbelievably kind people. Islamic culture differs from usual european outlook unobtrusively, but still noticeably.
We were also greatly impressed by visiting the Druze community. Those friendly, hospitable and open people, who are able to combine the strict rules of this ethno religious group with modern lifestyle, welcomed us in an overwhelmingly beautiful lagoon.
It is also worth mentioning that we were fascinated by underwater rock cave grottos, caves with stalactites and stalagmites. This tiny part of a fantasy world, which is forbidden to shoot, is hidden in the suburbs of a small town in the heart of Lebanon.
More than 15 km long walks at 35 degrees Celsius, countless wonderful beaches, different visitors who belong to various spheres of human activity, who expressed great interest towards Russian students, amazingly warm, almost home atmosphere of Dar As-Salam, astonishing cuisine, a lot of good memories from various cities and, what is more important, the priceless opportunity to learn about culture – all these things discribe the 20 days, which were gone in the blink of an eye.
The trip to Lebanon gave us much more than any other travel would ever be able to give. I would like to say thank you to the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs and personally to the manager of our trip, who is also our beloved teacher – Ajjawi Hussein Ahmed.
Everyone of us hopes to come back again and wants to keep these memories forever.