I felt the cold, dry air go into my mouth as I got on to the ski lift and that’s when I realized a lot of things I hadn’t seen before. As I passed the first electric pole, I saw the rave going on in the parking lot seemed to intrigue me, as the group of Lebanese teenagers were dancing to the dabkeh, I realized that they had giant speakers in the back of a truck and were just sitting there; this was something that you wouldn’t see anywhere but Lebanon. The funny part about that was that random people would just walk over, sit down, and join in the singing. A part of me wanted to go down and dance with them, but that would definitely be out of place since, I was a child and; it wasn’t that ‘cool’. I wondered why they had come all the way up here just to sit down and sing; anyway that wasn’t any of my business.

When I passed the second pole I realized that there had been a ski lift power cut, it wasn’t a very usual thing but I took the time to look around for any more unusual things that were happening. I looked right down under me and, what do you know it, there’s a young adult sitting inside a car driving straight up the hill; another Lebanese thing, if that had happened in another country, the police would have been all over him. The ski lift suddenly began moving again, but due to the large amount of kids, it was really slow; yes it was unfair to older people but I can’t do anything about it, can I? I thought about a lot of things on the ski lift; I thought of spitting on a guy on the side of the slopes taking a rest, but I thought twice there. Really, I had the spit in my mouth all ready but I thought about what would be better for me. I curiously looked behind me and realized that the man that checks our ski passes was no longer there and people were going up for free, this was determined when the line for the ski lift became a lot bigger what an impression we give to tourists. Something also very Lebanese was that I noticed people without any skis; I finally came to the conclusion that they were just riding the lift for fun.

Pole number 3, I looked at the slopes I noticed that there were a lot of people falling down a lot; they all had their matching ski clothes, and their custom skis and snowboards but the only problem was that they didn’t know how to ride them; I dislike these kind of people, they think they know everything and they consider it not cool to have an instructor teaching you how to ski. It seems to me that some Lebanese people don’t like to be seen learning, they always want to be the best. I had hired an instructor that day for an hour and had re taught my-self how to snowboard. It wouldn’t hurt somebody to learn; then again some people are just thick headed. As I got closer to the end of my ski lift ride I saw a group of people smoking arguileh on the slopes and thought: is there no other place where they can smoke? If they want to enjoy the view of the snow then they can find a restaurant near the slopes and sit there, as I said before, welcome to Lebanon. I had wondered why the ski instructor sitting next to me hadn’t said anything but when I took a good look at him, well what do you know he was smoking a cigarette too. Ok maybe my instructor wasn’t that bad, my dad had told me that day that in America people would take a can of Pepsi up on the ski lift with them, but the only difference in America is that they know how to throw their garbage in the trash cans.
Skiing in Lebanon is pretty dangerous with the smoking on the side of the slope and the beginners falling down every 5 meters, but the most ridicule thing that I saw from the ski lift, this was towards the 5th pole was the slope security going straight up the slope at full speed, and some people might have thought that he was going to find someone who was injured or stuck, but when he got to the top of the slope, which I could see, he would get off his snowmobile, shake hands with the lift monitor and have a nice cup of hot coffee. What occurred to me was, what if he had hit somebody on his way up to his picnic, he would be held responsible and would almost certainly be fired from his job. Some people think risk=reward but I, on the other hand, think the complete opposite. Some Lebanese people are really crazy, but the only way they will learn is by actually making a mistake in what they are good at.

Now, while I approached the last pole of the ski lift, and slowly lifted the metal rod that kept me and the instructor from falling, I then noticed that the whole mechanism wasn’t in place and was very cheap. You had to use all your strength to lift it because either it hadn’t been oiled, or it was broken or damaged. If they couldn’t fix it right away, then they could probably fix it the next day, but the next day when somebody decides to ride the lift, it’s the same thing all over again. As the ski lift finally sped up I felt the wind going through my hair and I remembered those cheap movies they shoot in Bollywood where the actor stands there with a fan in front of him, so they can simulate a storm or, so that they can make him look good. So, I lifted my feet and braced myself so that I wouldn’t fall when I got off the ski lift and that’s when I noticed two things: firstly I noticed that the maintenance team fixing the generator were all smoking while doing that; and, there were people who were just standing right in the way of people coming of the ski lift, and talking. What I am basically trying to say is that: is there no consideration to people, I mean, this could lead to a massive pile up which may include fatal injuries or even death. Some people think that they are the only people in the world, as if no one is there and the whole slope is for them; and the funny part is when you hit them they get angry and tell you to watch where you are going when it’s actually their fault.

As you have probably noticed there are a lot of bad things that happen in Lebanon, but when you think about it, if these things were taken away, what would Lebanon be? If you take away the rave in the parking lot, what could you possibly laugh about on the ski lift, and if you take away the rusty old metal bars, what would you be able to laugh about in the hotel. Every bad or good thing in Lebanon makes it unique and one of a kind, take them away and Lebanon wouldn’t be Lebanon. It’s like taking away the liver from a human, you can’t live without it; just remember, you can’t take Lebanon from Lebanon.