The best summers are those that I spent in Lebanon. We would spend the weeks in Lebanon going sightseeing, going to beach resorts, and visiting family. The trips are always relaxing and carefree because all one can do is have fun in such a beautiful and lively place. Being of Middle Eastern descent comes with having a large extended family on my mom's and dad's side. I have so much family that every visit to Lebanon, I discover new family members I have never met before. My dad's side of the family lives in the outskirts of Beirut and my mom's side of the family live in the suburbs directly south of Beirut. .
Two days after our arrival, we decided to visit my mom's side of the family for the day. A complex political controversy was taking place and dangerous militias were causing havoc, without notice, when they felt like it. My mom's side resides in the Dahieh, which is the extremely crowded and dangerous part of the country where the spiteful mayhem occurs left and right. My mom wanted to pay her visit to her sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My sister, brother, mom, and I took a taxi to the Dahieh where there was not even room for a person to stand in between two cars on the road. The Dahieh was filled with locals walking around , hundreds of rundown apartment buildings, unpaved roads that were probably not safe to drive on, side streets who's names could not be found through a GPS system, and stores and shops at the ground of each building.
We arrived at the building where my aunts and cousins lived in located deep in the city. If we were to drive there on our own, we most likely would have not found the apartment; there are barely any street names or street lights to help with guidance, just side streets. We were greeted with warm hugs and kisses because we had not seen all of them in such a long time. Right away, one of my aunts, Hanan, said that she wanted to take us bowling while my mom took the opportunity to make her way around the surrounding neighborhoods and visit more of our extended family.
