Beirut Day 2-June 25

With internet access came use of one of its most important functions: Skype. I Skyped Mike at 7:30am local time, 9:30pm (the previous day) Pacific time. We managed to get the video working but unfortunately there was a problem. All CAMES students are obliged to use this one wireless network and the reception is pretty poor. I usually have 1-2 bars (I am insanely jealous of my classmates that can sometimes get 3 or 4) but if the signal drops to one bar then Skype, especially video Skyping will drop. In any case our standing appointment for skyping or IMing is at this time, which works out well. I think the 10 hours difference is actually a bit easier than the 7 hours difference it is with my family on the East Coast. There was a consensus among West Coasters that it was definitely an advantage when trying to acclimatize to the timezone.

Although it was promised that the class assignments were going to be posted before 7pm they weren’t when we left campus (around 8:30) so consequently I got up earlier than usually to check my assignment. Much to my (continuous) surprise, I was placed in the “superior” level, i.e. the highest one. Apparently I had guessed really well on the test. I had brought book 2 with me because I expected to start with that (my class at UW had finished with Ch. 6 Book 2) but it turns out we were going to start with Chapter 1 Book 3. So far it hasn’t been too bad but I really need to find time to review the vocab and grammar from those 4 chapters that I missed/have studied previously but don’t remember. I took 3 years of Arabic at Maryland and went up to Chapter 5 of Book 3 but I didn’t have a good grasp of it and consequently in grad school at UW, I restarted with the second year and feel like I actually understand (mostly anyway) the grammar that was taught there. We were introduced to our teachers, Hussein and Sara who are really nice and adorable. There were a total of 6 of us in the class (then it was 7, then 8, now 7 again). It wasn’t a bad first day and mostly consisted of introductions.

The normal schedule is:
Monday-Friday
8:30a-9:30a – dialect class (different groups and teachers than MSA class)
9:30a-9:40a – 10 minute break
9:40a-11:10 – MSA class
11:10-11:30 – 20 minute break
11:30-1:00 – MSA Class
1:00-2:00 Lunch
On Mondays and Wednesdays there is another hour and a half of class from 2:00-3:30. On Tuesdays in that timeslot there are lectures/activities with the entire CAMES group, like films or something. On Thursdays in that timeslot there are “clubs”, which we haven’t started yet so I don’t know much about them but if the tales of a cooking class are true, I’ll take that. On some Fridays there are field trips within Beirut and those last from 1 until 5:30. Then on two Saturdays we have trips outside of Beirut with the whole group. Because it was the first week we did not have clubs this first day of classes and we also did not have dialect class and wouldn’t have it until Monday.

I had figured out by this point that it was going to be a bit costly if I bought breakfast every morning so after class Stephanie (who is in my class and was in the airport taxi with me) and I went to Dekkenah which is a little store which also happens to have a lot of western things, which is good especially for hair products and laundry detergent. I bought some breakfast things and some snacks. I bought some cereal, laundry detergent and corn cakes. On the way to Dekkenah we passed a small fruit seller and we bought some fruit. She bought apricots and cherries and I bought bananas. I was exceedingly and undeservingly proud of conducting my entire exchange in Arabic. It was really my first complete exchange in Arabic without any native Lebanese around (the thing with the taxi driver did contain some English). I have no idea what I did the rest of the day, presumably I went back to my room and did homework.