Orientation Begins

Neill and Charissa dropped me off this afternoon at the Stone Mountain Hampton Inn for orientation to METS. We began with a brief intro to the program and a brief overview of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean history. I began meeting everyone here. Its a little overwhelming trying to get to know all these new people. There are a little over 40 people all together. 20 students and 20 laypeople.

After orientation we went to a local Lebanese restaurant called Nicola's. The food was spectacular. It was a lot of food I was familiar with: tabolui, humus, babaganosh, dolmades, etc. (I have no idea how to spell most of that). After dinner the real spice began. Apparently at this restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights there is belly dancing. Two belly dancers came out and entertained the group (picture at left). It was quite an ironic moment watching these two young women sway their bellies in front of a bunch of seminary students getting ready to go to the Middle East!

Well, back to the hotel and I've roped a couple of people into doing morning prayer tomorrow at 7:30 AM.