I seem to have misplaced some time somewhere. This entire week went by in a blur. I owe my blog 5 full days of recapping and just can't bring myself to dig back that far! So instead I shall mush it all together in one entry. I have decided this is not cheating - I make the rules around here.
I began Arabic classes on Sunday, July 31st and this is the reason for my negligence. Today, Thursday, (which again is like our Friday here) brings to a close my first week of classes. From 9:00 to 11:00 am each day I have been trying to cram as much information in as I can and then hoping like crazy that not too much falls out.
Success: I can now greet people, tell them how I'm doing (as long as the answer is "good!") and tell them my name and where I am from. With some peeking at my notes I can count to 100, tell time, and tell people my phone number and my address. I can read the number characters and know about 5 letters.
The only immediate application of my new found skills is that I can properly greet our apartment building Boab and say thank you and good bye. Our homework for the weekend is to place a food order for delivery in Arabic. I will write out what to say before I call in and then we'll see what food items I actually end up with. Our teacher is expecting some funny stories to come out of this assignment and we are to e-mail what happened to him so that he can share it with the class. The fact that he is anticipating us having tales to tell at all is not exactly a vote of confidence!
Besides school, I have been maintaining my rigorous routine of going for coffee, going to the Gezira club for gym-ing and pool-ing, and being around the apartment on occasion to let in the repair men and housekeeper. As a result, I am well-caffeinated, my muscles are sore, our apartment is clean, and our airconditioner is FINALLY fixed! I am very grateful for my pals Kazzu and Edena who are doing a lovely job of keeping me entertained and engaged. (I have to say nice things about them now since I recently told them about this blog...)
Plans for the weekend once again do not yet include seeing the pyramids: this may come as a shock to some, but it is still a wee bit too HOT!
I began Arabic classes on Sunday, July 31st and this is the reason for my negligence. Today, Thursday, (which again is like our Friday here) brings to a close my first week of classes. From 9:00 to 11:00 am each day I have been trying to cram as much information in as I can and then hoping like crazy that not too much falls out.
Success: I can now greet people, tell them how I'm doing (as long as the answer is "good!") and tell them my name and where I am from. With some peeking at my notes I can count to 100, tell time, and tell people my phone number and my address. I can read the number characters and know about 5 letters.
The only immediate application of my new found skills is that I can properly greet our apartment building Boab and say thank you and good bye. Our homework for the weekend is to place a food order for delivery in Arabic. I will write out what to say before I call in and then we'll see what food items I actually end up with. Our teacher is expecting some funny stories to come out of this assignment and we are to e-mail what happened to him so that he can share it with the class. The fact that he is anticipating us having tales to tell at all is not exactly a vote of confidence!
Besides school, I have been maintaining my rigorous routine of going for coffee, going to the Gezira club for gym-ing and pool-ing, and being around the apartment on occasion to let in the repair men and housekeeper. As a result, I am well-caffeinated, my muscles are sore, our apartment is clean, and our airconditioner is FINALLY fixed! I am very grateful for my pals Kazzu and Edena who are doing a lovely job of keeping me entertained and engaged. (I have to say nice things about them now since I recently told them about this blog...)
Plans for the weekend once again do not yet include seeing the pyramids: this may come as a shock to some, but it is still a wee bit too HOT!
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