“Make sure you sit on the left side of the plane,” said Edwina. After checking into my connecting flight from Istanbul to Beirut, I realized I had an aisle seat in the third row on the right side of the plane, much to my dismay. The attendant at the flight counter looked at me, perplexed as I insisted on switching to a seat on the left side of the plane, even though the only remaining seat was in the back row, adjacent to the bathroom.
I woke from my nap in the clouds to the announcement of our imminent descent into Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport. As I gazed out the window, the Mediterranean stretched before me, its azure waters sparkling.