Lebanon is known for its breath-taking scenery, for its delicious food, its beautiful language, music, clothing, wonderful hospitality, man-made locations, and so much more. Being Lebanese, my family likes to vacation in Lebanon, to not only see our other family, but for me and my siblings, to experience the beautiful country my parents grew up in. In 2006, my family and I vacationed to Lebanon thinking it was going to be a normal trip like the one we took in 2004.

I remember the day like it was yesterday. My family and I]were driving from Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and going back to my grandma’s house in the village. My mother got a call on her cell phone and instantly the tone of her voice dropped. She started explaining to us what my aunt had just told her. After what seemed like the longest car ride ever, we got home and turned the TV on to see headlines explaining the start of a war.

It was July 12, 2006 that marked the start of the war between Hezbollah and Israel. It was unexpected to almost everybody. My siblings and I had been the most scared and we did not uunderstand what exactly was happening. My parents grew up in Lebanon and had lived through some of the toughest wars in Lebanese history. All my relatives had kept trying to explain to us how this was not going to last long, and how we would be able to resume our activities in no time. Unfortunately, they were wrong. The war between Hezbollah and Israel went on for 35 days ending August 16, 2006.

Meanwhile, we were stuck in Lebanon. It was too dangerous for any flights to leave and enter the country. The only way for us to get out of the country was to be evacuated. President Bush ordered all American citizens to be evacuated from the country. The day we left Lebanon marked the first week of war.

The place that we had to meet at was in a little village a couple hours from where we were staying with my grandma. There were close to a 100 people at the site; people from all overAmerica. After spending a couple hours there, they began to split us all into different buses. On a bus with almost 30 other people, we spent the next couple hours moving to our next destination. We reached the port to board a ship (we were lucky to be boarding a cruise ship) to our next destination: an eight-hour boat ride to Cypress.

After a boat ride to Cypress, we were put into a big room with well over 1,000 people. All of us wanted one thing: to take the next plane to America. After spending a full day in this crowed room, our family’s name was called to take the first flight to America. We could not believe that we were five of the luckiest people there.

After a 17-hour plane ride, we arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. When we got into the airport, soldiers and reporters welcomed us. I remember looking over to my mother and saw her crying tears of joy. It took us three days to get home. We could not be happier to know that we are finally safe.

It had been six years since our last trip to Lebanon. We had gone through so much to get out of Lebanon safely and we were hoping to not have to go through that again. However, last month my family and I we took the risk to visit our family as neighboring countries, such as Syria, have been experiencing civil unrest. Luckily, everything went smoothly.

Spending two weeks in Lebanon made me fall in love with it again. It was interesting to see how my relatives lived their lives. They do not have as many resources as we have here. For example, they drink all of their water out of water bottles because the water that comes out faucet is not safe to drink. They also do not always have hot water for showers and electricity is not always present. My grandma’s village loses electricity every three days for four hours at a time.

Everybody is used to all of this; it is part of their daily routine. They do not complain about their lifestyle because they realize that there are things that are more important. I have everything I need. I have clean water, electricity, hot water, and so much more. I have come to appreciate what I have after being on this trip. I learned to manage my time and get what I needed done before we lost power or before the hot water ran out. It was definitely a life lesson and I would enjoy living it again.