Stories from Last Week

Due to the massive amount of coffee I just drank to keep awake to study for my test tomorrow, I can not stop twitching, so sleep is out of the question for another couple hours.

This being the case, I will try to wear myself out by the telling stories from last week.

Ticket Hoopla
I have made friends with a guy that works for a travel agency, so I usually get pretty good deals on airfare. Izan, (therefore) I have been deemed the "lets get everyone's ticket" guy. There are several of us headed to Kenya in a couple of weeks (be jealous) for a language conference, so I've been working on getting all the dates and tickets and money together for everyone. Thursday I finally get everything together and head off to buy the tickets and .....dun Dun DUN!! (shocking music)

Several of our ticket reservations got cancelled. Yeah, me ain't happy! Well turns out that all but two of the tickets were rebooked and paid for with no problem, but the kick in the teeth was that my ticket and another guy's ticket weren't able to be rebooked. The airline had cancelled our reservations and weren't letting us rebook. I told my friend to keep working on it and call me when it is all worked out.

I got a call this evening saying that everything with the other guy's ticket worked out, but mine is still up in the air. Yaba Yay (Arab expression for Geez!)


The Arabic Bear
Language has been tough. Language learning goes on what people call “plateaus.” You learn alot and then level off for a while. It’s normal. Sometimes you seem to hit walls and you feel like you are going backwards instead of forwards. Well, I think I ran up the hill pretty fast and ran smack dab into a big wall.

The more I study the more I forget. The more I learn the stupider I feel. Apparently the other people in my class hit it and moved on or just aren't there yet. My class it divided half and half. Half of us don't enjoy studying, but we endure it. We live for that moment when we are done and can go run outside and talk with people. The other half...well, they are really pale. They don't get enough sun. So one day last week, I was the only one from the "fun half" in class, but all the “good students” were there. Lucky for me, we were in our grammar class and I so do enjoy a good grammar discussion! Oh Boy!

Anyways, I didn't know an answer and judging by the faces of everyone else in the room it must have been easy. Truthfully, I didn't even know what to call the thing in English much less in Arabic. It was one of those reflexive, passive, direct object, niner, participle thingies. So needless to say my pride was hurt and I felt stupid.

So last week not only was the Arabic bear eating me, but he was taunting me and calling me stupid too! Yaba Yah!


It's Raining It's Pouring
I live in a city of mountains. Level ground doesn't happen here. The rain tends to match the same extremes as the terrain. When it rains, it pours, and because of the lack of flat land the water doesn't collect anywhere. It just flows. Streets turn into rivers. Small children and household pets beware!

We had just finished group and about to leave when "Noah: Part 2" came. If I had a car it wouldn't have been a problem, but since I have to walk two blocks to get to the main street to catch a cab, it was a problem. By the time I got to the street I was dripping. It didn't help that no taxi was there for 15 minutes and all the cars took pleasure in driving by and splashing gutter water on me.

I finally grab a cab and head back to the house to pick up B (I wasn't going to make her stand in the rain). I am soaked and ready for the 15 minute ride back to the house to change clothes and take a nap. Well, Arabs don't deal with rain or water on the streets very well. So many Arabs drove too fast through the water and sucked up water into their engines that there were traffic jams on every street due to stalled out cars! What should have been a quick trip took forever. Yaba Yah!


So.. the coffee is wearing off a bit. I am going to post this and get some sleep.