While expats tend to form a natural community abroad, being in the relatively similar position of being an outsider in a foreign place, it take a little more effort to meet locals. I happen to think that Beirut provides plenty of opportunity to meet locals as the Lebanese tend to be friendly, outgoing and welcoming. Not to mention most people speak English, so there isn’t much of a language barrier to contend with.

Missy Gluckmann, of Melibee Global started a series on her blog called ”How To Meet People Abroad” after one commenter on a post said she couldn’t meet locals in England. So far there have been posts on London, Argentina, Honduras, and others, giving advice on how to meet locals in that country. Missy asked to me write a guest post to contribute to the series based on my experience in Lebanon.  Click on over if you want to read my tips for meeting people in Beirut.

If you have your own tips for meeting locals in Beirut (or elsewhere), feel free to leave them in the comments.

The pattern is from Burda from 2/2010.

I spent a lot of time finishing the inside to make it nice. I know that no one but me will see it, but it makes me happy to have the inside looks a good as the outside.

I love the stripey fabric on the waist band and pockets.

Here’s what it looks like with a tucked in shirt.

Since I washed the skirt, I’ve had a few problems. First, the skirt faded quite a bit with the first washing so it doesn’t look quite as crisp as it does in the photos. I don’t mind it so much, but it does make it look more casual. Second, it got a small, inexplicable hole just near the zipper. It wasn’t on a seam or anything so I can’t figure out how it got there. It’s been sewn up so it’s wearable, but for a minute I thought I might just have to throw the whole skirt away. Third, the binding was really thin and it has started to come off in some places because of fraying in the fabric. I definitely learned that a wider binding is a must. Finally, I made a major change to the fit. I didn’t like how the waist band went just above my belly button so today I unpicked the seam at the skirt top/waist band and lowered it by an inch in the middle and then graded it out to the side seams. The fit is much better now (it sits just below my belly button now), but isn’t quite as neat.

Over all, I like this pattern a lot. I’m a little disappointed that it’s not as perfectly executed as I had hoped, but I think it’s still wearable. If I make it again, I’ll know to lower the waist from the beginning.

I’m currently working on a new summer skirt that I can’t wait to show you!

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The thing about language learning is that it’s not at all permanent. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Simple. I have a B.A. in Italian but when you go stretches of time without using the language you start to forget the most basic things. (Case in point: the other day I was looking at the Italian version of DuoLingo to see what it was all about and it took me a good 30 seconds to remember the word for boy. Seriously.)

I definitely want to maintain my Italian language skills, but not having lived there in the past 8 years, it can be a challenge. Or not even a challenge, but just simply set aside until one day you realized that you’ve lost it. So when Christine of Almost Fearless proposed creating your own “Bilingual Summer” to study the language of your choice, I knew right away that I was in. This is just the push and the accountability that I need to commit to a summer of brushing up on my Italian. (Not to mention I then immediately announced it to several people that I was recruiting for the project so I had to follow through.)

This project is also coming at the perfect time for me. I’m headed back to the U.S. this summer and it will be the first time in quite a while that I will be in an all English-speaking environment. Not that I’ve been actively studying Arabic for a while now, but being around it constantly, I find I pick up new words and phrases all the time. Attempting to immerse myself in Italian while in the U.S. will give me a chance to activate that part of my brain even though I’m not abroad.

Here are Christine’s steps for creating your own Bilingual Summer.

1. Pick a language

2. Set an intention to learn it

3. Create an immersive environment this summer full of movies, music, books and other media in that language. Reach out to native speakers on sites like LiveMocha.com for language exchanges. Find local resources. Be creative.

4. Do a little bit, at least, every day.

5. Keep yourself motivated, by participating in our summer long language love-fest.

So I’ve come up with a list of ways that I will try to immerse myself in Italian for the months of June, July, and August this year.

My Goals for the Summer:

1. Read three novels in Italian.

I have several on my bookshelf: one half-finished, a few that have never been cracked, and one that I’d love to re-read. This will be a big challenge as I’ll have to really keep up daily in order to read one per month.

2. Watch two movies in Italian per month.

I sometimes check out movies at the Italian Cultural Center here in Beirut, so at least for the month of June this won’t be a problem.

3. Buy a new CD in Italian and listen to it often/learn all the words.

My aunt introduced me to Laura Pausini on my first trip to Italy and it was from her music that I learned words such as love, soul, tears, and a slew of other romantic words. It think listening to music is a great way to increase vocabulary. My friend will be in Italy this summer so I’ll have to get her recommendations for new music.

4. Read at least one article or blog post in Italian per day.

This shouldn’t be hard since I’m online a ridiculous amount. I’ll just have to, uh, clear some room in my current blog reading schedule.

5. Attend one cultural event per month. (Hopefully some that involve speaking Italian.)

I’m hoping to find some interesting activities both in Beirut before I leave and in Chicago once I get there. This will probably be my best chance at getting to actually practice speaking Italian. When I lived in NYC I used to go to Italian speaking Meet Up groups, so that’s another option.

6. Involve the BF and his kiddos in the project by teaching them some words/phrases.

I’ll be living with my boyfriend and his kids and I think it will be fun to involve them a bit as well. I’m imagining Italian games, picture books, online apps, etc. We’ll see how it goes.

Whew! That’s a lot! Well, the goal is to do something everyday so I guess I have enough to work with here.

If you’re keen to join in, I’d love to follow your updates, be they via blog, Twitter, Instagram or elsewhere. Let me know in the comments where to find you.

I’m Lindsay_NYC on Twitter and l_leigh on Instagram. #BilingualSummer

The start of my Bilingual Summer.

Well, part of that statement is true anyway. It was a short, but sweet six days, and I would have loved to stay longer.

I went without researching at all as I was relying on my friend Samantha who has lived there for the last year to plan something fun for us and she did not disappoint.

We spent the first two days at her house in Nairobi and she took me to all of her favorite places around town to eat and shop. We also went to the Giraffe Center in Karen to, you know, see some giraffes. You could feed them little pellets of food either by hand or by holding it in your teeth so the giraffe would lick your face. That method looked way too slimy for me so I opted out of that one.

I was amazed at how green and lush the area around Nairobi is. (Such a change from Beirut!) It was the rainy season as well, so it think I was seeing Nairobi at it’s greenest. I loved all of the roadside nurseries all around town.

We spent a morning wandering around Kangemi market near Samantha’s house. We were particularly interested in the tailors and seamstresses making clothing out of bright, patterned fabrics. Most had a wall of photographs showing you what they could make for you, though they didn’t have fabric for sale.

Friday we headed up north for a little road trip to Lake Elementaita to relax on the lake and see some animals. It was about a two-hour drive up the Nairobi-Nakuru Road.

We finally made it to the Sunbird Lodge and it was breathtaking. Samantha really knows how to pick accommodations, I tell you.

After a day of relaxing in the sunshine, we headed out the next day to Lake Naivasha to see some animals on a “walking safari” of sorts.

On our final day, we stopped at the Little Owl Sanctuary on the way home to see some owls. We were surprised to also see a very frightening vulture on the back patio of the house at the sanctuary. (Well, I’m really scared of big birds so it was frightening to me!) I thought the owls were quite cute as long as they didn’t open their wings and start flying around.

Our final stop on the way home was a lookout point over the Great Rift Valley and we were lucky enough that the clouds parted and the rain stopped just in time for us to get a few pictures.

I felt like I saw so much in the short time I was in Kenya, but there’s so much that I could have seen had there only been more time. I’m looking forward to making my way back at some point to see more.

My bags are all packed and my cab will be here to take me to the airport for my flight to Kenya in an hour and a half, but there’s one thing I’ve left to do, and that is get my last post about Turkey up! In a week I’ll be bogged down with another large batch of photos so I thought I should at least get to this chunk of photos that has so far gone untouched!

As I mentioned in the last Turkey post, we had a few days to fill in Selçuk and one of those days was spent in Şirince, an old (originally) Greek village of 600 inhabitants, 8km east of Selçuk. Some reviews that we had read online said that it was completely overrun with tourists, but they seemed to be mostly from summertime visitors. While the village was a bit touristy, we found it charming nonetheless and a pleasant way to spend the better part of a day.

There were plenty of handicrafts and homemade goodies to look at (and taste!).

There was natural beauty literally surrounding this village nestled into the hills.

We had lunch in an old building that used to be a school-house.

We visited an old Orthodox church . . .

. . . tasted the local wine . . .

. . . and found charming little gems hidden around every corner.

And with that, it’s off to Kenya I go!

The prompts this month were: morning, color, music, and “big world, tiny you.”

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I finished my Cambie a few weeks ago and I’ve been waiting for some warm weather to give it a test run. This week the rain finally let up so I was able to wear it to work.

This is probably the first thing that I have made that I really don’t have any complaints about. I truly love everything about it. (On the first wear it was feeling a bit big, but I’ve since washed it and it shrunk up perfectly. Phew!)

I was determined to make this dress look as good on the inside as it does on the outside. It took a little longer to finish but it was totally worth it.

Here’s a look at the inside . . .

Here’s a look at the invisible zipper in back. The waist band isn’t quite perfect but somehow it doesn’t bother me.

The bit of gape in the neck line and extra room at the waist is all gone now that I’ve washed it.

I love this dress.

If you live in Beirut and you want to make this dress (or any other for that matter), check out The Old Fashioned Way sewing workshops and Layla will get you sorted.

I leave you with a shot I took for my 52 of You self-portrait project.

Without thinking it through too much, we planned for three whole days in Selçuk (just near Ephesus) so we had time to see more than we had originally thought. We ended up spending a day at Ephesus with the evening in Kuşadası, a day visiting the village of Sirince, and a day taking a road trip (we rented a car, yay!) visiting various ruins along the way and ending at the coastal town of Güllük.

Ephesus

Arcadian Way

Library of Celsus

The Library of Celsus peeking through the archway with bonus Cypress trees.

A sleepy cat at the amphitheater

What some people wear to visit ancient ruins. (Actually, it was my second choice of footwear, but I went with my first choice of tennis shoes instead.)

Gorgeous mosaic floor

Details

Road Trip Highlights

Pausing on the long stairway up to Priene

Ionic columns at Priene

Roadside juice stand

Spring in Priene

Miletus amphitheater

Corinthian capitals at Miletus

Final destination: Güllük

Perfect end to a lovely day . . .

Cold beer at sunset overlooking the water. What more could you want?

Today’s post is dedicated to the Istanbul portion of the trip; I’ll do a separate one of the Ephesus part.

Istanbul from the Bosphorus.

Natural and artificial light in the Blue Mosque.

Push cart vendor

Lovely tea for sale in the spice market.

The Basilica Cistern, deep below the streets of Istanbul.

Ah, the cats of Istanbul, even cuter when paired with beautiful tile. (And if you’ve been following my travels, you know how much I love tile.

The view from the Galeta Tower. The best of Europe.

The nostalgic tram.

Busy street in Istanbul with very few tourists, yet only blocks away from the major sites.

Shopkeeper in what appeared to be textile row.

Lovely view from the Bosphorus.

Inside the walls of the Hagia Sofia.

Bowls, bowls, bowls! I wanted them all!

Happy travelers!

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N.B. I’m going to go ahead and classify this as Europe for the sake of the index seeing as we were mostly on the European side.