In November 2000, just before I graduated in December, I was in church and our priest began to read this letter from Metropolitan Philip. The letter described this great program at the University of Balamand in the Koura region, near Tripoli in Lebanon.  His words were encouraging young people to take advantage of this opportunity. This course would take place in July 2001. I immediately knew I would attend.

July quickly approached and I was off. I could hardly believe I was going to Lebanon. I arrived in Beirut at 4 a.m. on July 1^st. The airport was easy to navigate. I bought my visa in the airport and made it through customs and passport control in no time.

The university was supposed to have someone picking me up, but I had no clue who that would be or what he or she would look like. I was guessing someone Arab looking, you know, olive skin and almond shaped eyes. As I exited the airport, I stood there looking around wondering how I would find this person. Within a minute three guys came up to me and said "Philip Mauney?" It was Hisham, Ghazi and Bassel. I guess it was easy for them to find this obviously American looking guy with a baseball cap on his head.

We immediately loaded up the car and were off to the University of Balamand. The drive was about an hour long and it was great. I was looking out the window at all the signs in Arabic. It was strange because I could pronounce the words, but I had no clue what I was saying. On the way to the University, we managed to see the sunrise.  What a sight, my first sunrise on the other side of the world!

We arrived at the University at about 5:30 a.m. The guys showed us to our room and told us to try to get some rest and that we would meet at 10 a.m. for the group to get acquainted.

We met that morning and from then the four weeks flew by. We were on the go all the time. We all enrolled in our Arabic classes according to what level we spoke the language. We were all introduced to our seminar leaders.

We had class 2-3 times per week for an hour and a half depending on the week. The rest of the week was spent visiting historical and cultural sites in Lebanon and Syria. On the days that we did not have class, we would leave the campus between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. and would not return until late-night depending on where we were going that day.

We visited just about every region of Lebanon, as well as Homs, Maloola, Haleb and Damascus in Syria. All of our explorations coincided with our seminars. We attended seminars about the history, religions, and culture of the Arab world.

The tours were incredible. We studied the periods that Lebanon went through such as the Phoenician and Roman periods and the influence of the Ottoman Empire. We saw Crusader castles and hiked through the Cedars. We visited Mosques and Churches that were 700 to 800 years old.

We went as far north as Baalbeck where temples were built in honor of Greek Gods and as far south as Sidon and Tyre to visit Necropolis "City of the dead" and soap museums for which these regions are famous. We even spent time at the Gibran museum, where we saw all of Khalil Gibran's paintings and poetry as well as a replica of his New York studio apartment. Two of the CONNECT 2001 participants even earned 3 undergraduate semester credit hours for taking part in the program.

The faculty and staff of Balamand hosted our group in their homes for lunch and dinner. We attended a local wedding with the Tabla and Zamour. This really gave us an opportunity to experience the culture first hand. We enjoyed great food, music and dancing with our hosts. We even saw Fairouz and Majida el Roumi in concert.

We spent our free time in numerous ways. We enjoyed the beautiful campus of Balamand. We took full advantage of the sports complex that our very own archdiocese donated to the university. We played tennis, swam, lifted weights and played basketball. We even had full Internet access 24 hours a day seven days a week. However, I think that most of us will agree that our free time was best spent at Miramar Beach Club and Resort, where we had a one month membership included in the cost of the program. The Mediterranean was incredible!

The organizers of the CONNECT program and the faculty and staff of the university bent over backwards to make us feel at home. They treated us like kings and queens.

The month of July drew to an end just about as quickly as it started. One of the best parts of the program without a doubt is the friendships we developed. We didn't just make friends in Lebanon; we started relationships that would last a lifetime.

Looking back on July 2001, there is not a day that goes by that at some point I don't think to myself "wow, I actually experienced Lebanon and Syria." I recommend this trip to anyone between the age of 17 and 25 and to parents whose children are of that age group.  I know that someday, I'll be back.  There is no better way to connect with our roots, learn so much about the history and culture of the region and the origins of  two of the world's great religions.