My Arabic class is very nice. The students in the class seem friendlier than the ones in my Italian class. People talk across the room more and I even feel like at some point we might have a party or something! I like the opportunity I get after class to walk with Romina to the subte on Cordoba, which is about a 10 minute walk with a nice opportunity to speak Spanish. She is very sweet.
Today I didn't bring the book we had to buy originally because now I have a copy of the pirated book that has been floating around from one student to another. Of course Ybti decided to use the book I didn't bring. I should have just put it in my bag, but I forgot. Romina let me borrow her book and she shared with Fernando. It was very sweet.
We kind of just went through the book from one exercise to the next. We learned different structures which were useful and interesting and then went on to the next thing. There were no opportunities for us to practice and digest what we had just "learned" - I use it in quotes because we didn't learn it.
The funny thing about Ybti that I have noticed is that she sings her own praises a lot. She said what a nice class we had last night, and Fernando agreed with her, which is easy for him to say because he can read and write and speak Arabic. I don't know why he is in level 1. He's very nice though and very helpful and doesn't in any way dominate the class. He lets the rest of us control the pace and level. But today a lot of people were confused and Ybti just kind of ignored them and said it was because they were absent or weren't paying attention or some thing or other. The poor Lebanese woman, Paris, who misses a lot of classes and misses a lot when she is there, was really confused today. During the break, Ybti talked about her with the other students, kind of making fun of her. She said she was deaf and should be in the deaf level! I was moderately horrified,especially because I am half deaf and can really identify with what Paris must be experiencing!
We whizzed through the book I didn't have and then went on to the other pirated book to an exercise that Ybti thought was very "lindo" - nice, I guess. It wasn't that nice because most of us were confused.
I am learning, to my own surprise and delight. As I was in the bathroom during the break, I thought of the image of throwing shit at the wall and some sticking. That was my experience today. But really I learn because of repeated exposure to things, and my own efforts outside of class. If the repeat exposure were actually engineered in class, I might learn a little faster, but I am happy with my progress and confident that I will finish this semester with an ability to read and write some Arabic, even though it might be like a first grader.
I came home and expected to hear from Hernan. I was very hungry so I ate some of my leftover Arabic food from last night's delivery. The food was delicious by the way! I am definitely going to be getting more deliveries. One of my favorite things in the mix was a rice dish called myadara. I had it at the buffet I went to on Wednesday. It is lentils with rice with fried onions on top. It was so yummy. I want to learn how to make it. I think it is a great dish to bring to potlucks! I might try making some and bringing it to class.
After lunch I watched a little of Bill Moyers journal from last night. He had an incredible program as always. One guy talked about solutions to benefit the working poor in the US and another guy talked about the importance of looking at voter suppression and voter fraud during this upcoming election. Could it be possible for the Republicans to actually steal this election too? Will we allow them to get away with it again?
Halfway through Bill Moyers, I fell asleep (I was watching it on my computer while in bed, so it made sense that I would doze off). I've been taking these afternoon naps and having a really hard time waking up from them. I don't think it is a good thing. I really should try to limit the length of my naps. I think part of the problem is that I am taking meclizine and not sleeping too well at night.
Hernan and I spoke briefly after my nap. He invited me to a movie tonight. This will be my first time going to a movie in Argentina! I know it sounds kind of amazing that after 5 months I have never been to a movie here. It will be fun to see the differences, even though I know what they will be.
Tonight we spring forward one hour. That means it will be light later, and the birds will start singing in the morning one hour later as well (giving me an extra hour to sleep). I can still hear the bird that sounds like an ice cream truck. I was able to record it on my mp3 player but can't figure out how to link the voice file to my blog so that others can hear it. This morning, I heard two of these birds singing to each other, sort of call and response style. It was still dark out and a little too early to be singing, in my humble opinion.
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