Traveling, Arabic...and more Arabic

Alex and I have taken Morocco by storm. We are sticking to the same mentality that we had in Beirut, which is to get our shit done during the week and then take off on the weekends. In Beirut we were absolutely successful and we hit all the spots outlined for Lebanon in our Middle East travel guide, and more.

In our couple of weeks in North Africa, we have been able to travel to the mountain village of Chefchaouen, explore the sights and old city of Meknes and tour the Vilubolis Roman ruins. This weekend we will be traveling to the port city of Tangiers. The weekend after Austen, our roommate, will be joining us for an extended weekend in Marrakesh. The weekend after that we are riding on the back of camels into the desert with students from ALIF, for an exciting desert camp out. We have no other plans as of yet, but I am super excited to find out what is in store for us!

I really have no idea what I will do when we return to the States. Of course I have been waiting eagerly for our repatriation, but I know I will miss traveling so much. I have come to realize, however, that I have traveled more outside of America than within. I have come up with a list of places I want to travel, and they include many places on the West Coast as well as Northern East Coast and the Grand Canyon. Sometime soon I need to hit South America and Canada.

The weekdays spent in Fez are no less exciting. My life is now consumed with Arabic courses. I only have two, but I have spent all my free time the last two weeks reviewing the first six chapters of Al Kitab (our textbook), and simultaneously completing all the homework given to us by our two professors.

I absolutely love the courses, and I have two great teachers. Sometimes the studying gets hectic, but it is so worth it. I am excelling in my classes, and I am enjoying it so much. On the other hand, I am beginning to notice a couple of bothersome things. I fall asleep repeating Arabic words and conjugations in my head, and I wake up thinking of them. Last night my Arabic teacher was in my dream, and I distinctly remember that during my dream I was conjugating the noun homework (wajib) with suffix endings. Like his homework (wajibuhu) and my homework (wajibee).

I am sure that it is normal due to my current overexposure to classical Arabic, but still scary nevertheless. In all honesty, I could not think of a better way to spend my time – in the Middle East or North Africa. Undoubtedly all my hard work will pay off.

In other news, I am eagerly waiting to hear back from the universities I applied to for this coming fall semester. I applied to George Washington University, Georgetown University, American University, Johns Hopkins and the University of Virginia. It will probably be an interesting mix of acceptances and rejections – but we shall see. Alex is also waiting for the results of his applications to American, Georgetown and George Washington. Of course when we know, you will know.

I am going to get back to my ridiculous amount of Arabic homework, and will update soon.