Classes

Done with the second day of the week! Classes started on Saturday, and consist of three classes and a personal facilitator session. George, the guy who I am doing a semester abroad with, and I are in the same classes. First class is a one-hour media class with a guy named Jaleel. You would think that in media class we would watch some movies and eat popcorn. No, not the case. Instead, we have been discussing various political and economic issues in the Middle East and we usually take an excerpt from the El-Watan, an Omani newspaper, translate it and discuss. Next is a one-hour grammar class with Ustadhah Kather.  She is a terrific teacher, and this may be my favorite class, because it’s more on my level, that is, the “Arabic for Dummies” level. Following grammar, we have conversation hour with Sultan. He’s a great guy, but he chooses the most unusual topics. Yesterday the topic was “magic and sorcery” and today “handicapped people.” Today, for example, we went around the room and shared about people we knew who are handicapped. It is good Arabic practice and we are learning plenty of new vocabulary. In the future, however, maybe we’ll talk about more practical subjects like travel and food. These three classes are entirely in Arabic, and I am learning quickly. We break for lunch and afterwards have two hours with a peer facilitator (PF) – an Omani in your age group to talk with and answer questions. My PF is a twenty-year old girl named El-Anud who is studying English literature at the University of Sultan Qaboos. She is one of ten kids, and she invited me to meet her family some weekend. One interesting fact is that she can’t call say that I’m her friend. I’m her colleague. For a woman to say a man is her friend, or vice versa, is not acceptable, because the title of friend has the connotation of a person who you can spend time with and do fun things with, and guys and gals cannot do that here.

The past couple days it has been a bit unusual talking with a foreign girl who has had an entirely different upbringing than you. We have already had two 2-hour conversations on topics ranging from Arabic culture to the military to dating and how much money a young man will have to pay her father in order to have the permission to get married.

Everything has been going splendid so far. As you can see, the Internet’s working fine. Although it’s not dial-up, we are becoming accustomed to the much slower connection status here at the hotel and at the Center. Sultan Qaboos’s government has placed many filters on questionable websites, but mesh Allah, the Chive still works like a charm!