Arabic Class

The good news is I have just about learned most of the Arabic alphabet. The hard part is figuring out how to join the letters together, since they change their shape if they are in the beginning of the word, in the middle or at the end. And then there are those that only join with other letters to the right, but to the left they stand alone, or have start a new chain of letters. It is quite a complicated system and makes me wonder how language was developed in the first place and how this one in particular developed.

I took a taxi to class and arrived at the CUI Bar (the cafeteria) before anyone else. I wasn't sure if they were even open. I wanted to sit and clean up my notebook. I decided I needed separate notebooks for Italian and Arabic, and wanted to make a page with some of the common expressions that I thought we were going to practice today. I got my usual cafe con leche and medialunas and got down to work and the bar filled up quickly.

When I went up to class, I was the first one there besides the teacher. I kissed her good morning and other students trickled in. Everyone pretty much kisses everyone else now(could this be how I am getting sick?), but I was glad I was the first one in class so that I didn't have to go around and kiss everyone when I entered. Instead, they came to me.

We pretty much reviewed again the worksheets we've been working on for the past few weeks. A lot of time was spent repeating the news that we have a phonetics class on Friday evenings now that is being offered for free that will help us a lot. I don't know what that means, but I'm going to go since I have nothing else to do on Friday evenings. Because everyone was trickling in, each time someone new came in, Ybtissaim would explain this. As many times as she explained it, I was never really clear on the details. Did we have to go somewhere to sign up? It kind of sounded like it? What time was the class? I wasn't sure. During the break, I asked about the time and it took her several times saying 1800 for me to get that. Rowena, one of the newer students, who is very sweet, invited me to go with her to the Department of Students on the first floor to sign up - turns out we did have to do this. It's a good thing I went with her, because it was not a simple affair.

We first went to the ground floor to the Departmento de Alumnos, but they sent us up to the first floor (really the second floor) to the caja (cashier). At the caja, we had to tell her what we were there for and then she asked us for our documents and also the course number. There were four of us there and the other three students had a hard time with all of these requests, but if I was alone it would have been a disaster.

We returned to the classroom and waited for the other few students who were late from the break. One guy never returned.

While we were waiting, because Ybtissaim didn't want to start without Paris, the older Syrian woman who apparently is still in the class even though she seems to miss every other week, and Antonio Nicolas, the guy who asks constant questions. I could see why. If she had started and they came, she would have to start all over again. So while we were waiting, she and the other students talked about Paris.

I was right that Ybtissaim took her out in the hallway the second week and talked to her. She told us that she did this. She even said something like, "I told her she needs to knock that shit off" - well, this is a rough translation, but I heard "mierda", so I know she said "shit". I was quite surprised that a teacher would have this kind of a conversation about a student with the whole class like this. I kind of get the impression that gossip is a big thing here. This is not the first time I've been around people who were talking about other people. Blas and his conversation with Matias the other day was also bordering on gossiping, if a male teacher talking about the babes in his class could be considered gossip. I know that I would never have such a discussion with a student unless I was really good friends with one particular student. Again, maybe it's a different teaching philosophy. If a student came to me and complained that another student asked too many questions, I'd suggest to the complaining student to try to be patient and maybe try to find a way to help the questioning student understand.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it through the full class and was thinking about leaving during the break. I was feeling really hot, but when the other students started complaining, I realized it wasn't a fever, it was that the heat was on in the classroom and it was really stuffy. After they turned the heat off and opened a window I felt better.

I was glad when the class was over. I came home and had some soup, took a nap and went to the chino to get some stuff for dinner. I just finished watching some TV and taking another nap and now I'm going to try making something substantial and healthy for dinner.

I am tired of being sick. I hope this is the last episode and the remaining three months here are healthy, vertigo free and full of energy!