I am surprised to hear you say that you speak more Arabic in this area than anywhere else in the US. I think MI, NJ, and CA have much larger Arab communities. At any rate, I think immigrants in general should move to areas where they are forced to learn more about their "new" country to better integrate than isolate themselves within these communities.
Well, I also had a long-term relationship with a Lebanese-American person. That might have skewed it. I also studied it as a major, which helped self-select my friends.
In Virginia, you meet many new immigrants. And in Bethesda area of Maryland and the surrounding area of DC, there are many established Lebanese families (gathering from the church events and more formal social events I was invited to).
