I recently returned from my first trip to the motherland…aka, Lebanon…aka, Liban…aka, Paris of the Middle East…aka if you’re the person I talked to at REI, oh-I’ve-never-heard-of-that-place. While I was getting ready for the trip, my sister advised me of the road conditions and that I should try to pack more lightly and use more of a backpacking approach for this trip. As I got everything organized (check out these organizing bags from amazon here) I had a fleeting moment of realization that thankfully some of the items I’d be taking wouldn’t be returning with me because they were consumables. Although that was a relief at the time since it would lighten my load, later it became a sobering/somber moment of sadness with a dash of panic. Specifically, it occured when I was nearing the end of the trip: I was getting ready one morning and noticed I had only three pairs left of my dailies contacts. In that moment, my mind raced with thoughts like, “Oh crap, have I done everything I wanted to do?!” “Have I seen all the things?!” “Have I had enough knefe, manoushe and street fatayah???!” In that moment, I reflected back to my childhood self, who used to always ask my mom what we were going to do on the weekend…would we see our cousins? Would we be going to a movie? Would we be getting pizza? I always enjoyed the countdown to the fun-thing. As an adult, however, in this moment in Lebanon, I was very aware of the countdown in the opposite direction…the finale of the fun-thing. Which started my thinking about the name for this site. Days earlier, I had a desire to help Lebanon and give back to the country where my relatives immigrated from so many years ago (more about this desire later). These two nagging ideas, in conjunction with the realization that I am a wordy-person, and understanding that most people don’t care for word-heavy posts on Instagram or Facebook, I thought this would be a nice platform to share my experiences and thoughts, and hopefully impart some useful information for you, dear reader. So, whether you have three pairs left (of anything–i.e., contacts, socks, underwear, anything that is able to deplete) either before you leave for your trip, or until it comes to an end, I hope my stories help you feel like you are going to, or did experience, all-the-things on your excursion. Or perhaps you really don’t care to journey to any of these places, but like looking at photos and videos about these places, then I welcome you to enjoy them! (Note- all views, comments, photos/videos, and thoughts are my own, unless noted permission to include those of others. Background photo taken from Our Lady of Lebanon–view of Lebanon coastline.)