There's an old joke among those who study Arabic as a second language. "Every word in Arabic means what it refers to, its opposite, and camel." I didn't think it was that funny until tonight, when I found out that at least the first part is true -- it remains to be seen about the camel part.
I'm worried about how quickly time is passing: I'll have been in Yemen 2 months by the end of the week, and ... I feel like I should know more, or have some kind of plan for after Yemen. I "decided" to wait another year before grad. school, meaning that I got lazy and didn't feel prepaired enough to apply. I've been thinking about applying for a Fulbright scholarship next fall, but I have done little to prepair for it. I need a laptop, desperately. The fact that I have to go to a computer lab four flights down from my room means that I rarely do things that require the internet, like research things, write emails, read the news. I've only read the news two or three times since I've been here!
I'm going to try and spend the winter break in Oman. Insha Allah, by then my Arabic will be good enough to travel for a long period of time (and Insha Allah I get off my ass). I might end up traveling alone again, but we'll see if anybody else is gung-ho about going. Right now, I'm feeling pretty apathetic towards most of the people at the center: either their insanity drives me to stay away from them, or their unpleasentness.
I have to prepair a report on a food my state is known for. I didn't choose to do WI but unfortunately it's "where I'm from," so, I'm going to introduce Yemen to the cheese curd.
I walked in on two students at the center making-out in the kitchen -- I hate them.
Yemen's Flag
Map of Yemen