I hope your move went well. I can't wait to see your reaction. Liza, I believe most of the conference speakers were North American. As you note, origins don't matter as much as content. Interestingly, most Americans who come to Lebanon like to criticize Lebanese who lived abroad as not being "truly" Lebanese. These critics contend that Lebanese who've lived abroad cannot be real voices for Lebanon. The irony is that the majority of members of the Lebanese parliament and the cabinet of ministers lived abroad and carry foreign passports. Leaders of the major political parties spent their formative years in countries as diverse as France, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United States, Sierra Leone, and Brazil.