Air Liban

Well if u ever travelled back on a MEA flight back to lebanon you'll know exactly what i am talking about. For those of u who have not, let me enlighten you.
I have just came back from London last night and i had an interesting trip
After spending many many hours trying really hard to sleep, and of course in vain since we lebanese would "loudly" chat with our own shadow if we had to, the plane is about to land. That's when usually the lights go dim and Fairus's songs are played. That's when usually silence reins preparing to land. But not on Air Liban.
Everyone became like a corn seed popping left and right trying to glimpse at the windows pointing out "ramlet el bayda" and "raouche"and the famous holiday inn and and and...They didnt fail to happily notice that the electricity was on for that night because unlike other countries, electricity isn't a "ca va sans dire" specially in certain areas. And then all i hear are comments like "how beautiful is lebanon"or "nothing like lebanon" or "äre you prepared to give teta and jiddo a hug?". And of course, then comes the famous cheerful clap after a successful landing in appreciation to the captain followed by "bravo"s.
I have been so annoyed my whole life by that clap. i never understood it. just like never understood why can't we just stay seated till the belt signs go off. Or why can't we wait till we open our phones till we get out of the plane. why can't we just respect the plane's rules??!! and for God's sake...why can't we just...NOT CLAP?
but yest i tried to be the annoying chatter, the clapper, the excited lebanese happy to come back home. and for once i understood what those lebanese feel. I have landed in cyprus with cypriotes, in greece with greeks, in turkey with turkish, in tanzania with tanzanian, in india with indian, in america with americans, in france with french, in UK with british, in tunisia with tunisians, even in egypt with egyptians, in emirates, in saudi arabia and so on...Not once i have ever experienced this.not once i felt the enthusiasm and the over excitement to just get out of the plane and be in the country. This love we lebanese have for our country is to be cherished. And, about that clap, our pilots are kick ass pilots after all. Don't they deserve a little cheerful clap? Why not? And do we really really need to have our belts on even after the plane has landed and is moving at the slowest pace ever to park? and does our cell phones really really interfere with a sophisticated airplane software?
next time you travel, remember to be the clapper...not the annoyed person going "tsk tsk tsk"...trust me it is much more fun!