Classes have begun

Well, it’s been a while since I posted. Not that I posted much before, but still, I’m trying to be consistent. The main thing that has happened is classes have started, and boy do they keep me busy! I’m here in Cairo, and most people are doing the AUC regular, but I opted for the Intensive Arabic section, which means I will be doing all Arabic, all the time! I think it’s a good deal, there is no better place to learn Arabic than in Egypt.

I took the placement test to find out what level I should be in. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously difficult, not just for me, but for everybody. I’m pretty sure that most people just guessed, but somehow, the ALI used their placement magic to determine everyone’s level. There was a lot of switching the first week of class, which is all we get to try to move. I wound up in intermediate, which was good, but a little too easy. I came here to really learn to speak Arabic and I want to get the most out of my year here. I went into the director’s office, intent on switching my level to high intermediate. When I got in there, it turned out that there were no spaces left. “But,” she said, “We have a space open in advanced.” Oh really? The highest level you offer in the entire Arabic Language Institute, why not? So, here I am in the advanced class, alongside the people who I think of as Arabic speaking gods. I feel like I snuck into their class when noone was looking, and I’m just waiting for someone to realize I’m a fraud and kick me out. But, the week of shifting is up and, for better or worse, I’m in this class for the whole semester. Remember that comic strip “For better of Worse” That thing was terrible, never once made me laugh. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. So the real concern now is how will I do? I’ve been doing well in school over all, but this could kill my academic standings. I looked into it, and study abroad students can take no more than 1/3 of the classes as pass/no pass, which equals one out of the four classes I’m taking. The good news is the classes do exactly what I’ve always wanted to do with Arabic. They just turn on the news and listen or they open the newspaper and read. That is the level I want to be at. The only bad news is that I’m not at that level yet, but I’m in the class where that’s what we do. Thus, I am spending all my time playing catch-up, madly trying to become fluent in the accursed language before I fail out of college. But the good news is if I actually pull this off, I know that I have really done something with my year here.

And in other news, Ramadan is starting tomorrow, so hopefully I will have much to report, except I'll probably be studying.