Upswing

Much like a sine curve, learning a language is a series of ups and downs. I had been feeling rather down about my Arabic, especially last week. Jesus Christ, I will never learn this fucking language.

Then, the clouds parted (metaphorical clouds, there aren't that many literal clouds here). This past Friday I went to Jeramana to meet friends. I had planned to go home somewhat early, around midnight. But as we were hanging out the power went out in Jeramana, so I had an excuse to stay. Blackouts in different areas of the city is not rare, though I hear this summer it was happening all the time. We got candles and all sat around talking - rules: no English, which was surprising challenging for Ra'id but not the two Americans. Two candles later it was sohour, after which I finally left Jeremana to sneak in to my house with the risen sun.

Since, I've felt much better about my Arabic, not that I was rocking the candle circle, but I feel I'm getting better. I had a language exchange with my friend Monar, who doesn't speak much English - three hours of pretty much all Syrian. I even contributed quite a bit to a class discussion about drugs and addiction (I feel as though having been a resident of the Netherlands gives me liscense to weigh in on legalization), breaking the silence that had fallen over me since defending America.

Also, I'm mad popular. For language exchanges. Even my Arabic professor at school, yesterday she asked to see me after class. What did I do? Nothing, she just wants to have a languages exchange after al-eid. That's like free private lessons, with the only payment my status as a native speaker of English with a cool, sought-after American accent. Did she ask the Australian in my class? Hell no.