Language School and other random stuff

I started language school yesterday. I had loads of fun. It was great to finally begin making sense of what I've been hearing for so many years. My teacher was amazed at how quickly I was "getting it." She's used to teaching Americans who have zero experience with learning any language, much less Arabic. Having already studied languages proved to be a great help (so far), as well as already knowing alot of basic words.

It didn't phase me that they write from right to left.

It didn't phase me that to negate something you have to put half the word in the front and half the word in the back of what's being negated.

It didn't phase me that nouns have a gender.

It didn't even phase me that there is no "to be" verb in the present tense. (I was actually thrilled; one less thing to learn! So instead of saying, "I am American," I just say "I American.")

You know what did phase me? Singular/plural!

I already knew the word, "bled" for city/country/home (kinda like "chez" in French). So Teacher wrote bled/bolden on the board and I asked her what bolden is. She explained that it's the plural of bled. WHAT? I have to memorize a whole new word for the plural?! You don't just add some ending to it? Yuck.

So day 1 of language school was fun. I'm going for 15 hours a week for this first month. The commute is 1.5-2 hours ONE WAY, so we're hoping that after a month, I won't need the intensive course and can cut back to traveling to the capital city just two days a week, and use a tutor here in my town the rest of the week.

Yeah, if you didn't know--I'm not in the capital city, but in a "suburb" town about 30 minutes by car from the capital. But I'm taking public transport, so it takes me about 1.5 hours to get there, and 2 hours to get back (traffic). I walk for about 15 minutes to the bus. The bus ride is 40 minutes, and everyone gets their own seat, so it's not bad at all. Then, I either take the metro or a taxi to the school. The metro is cheaper and faster, but oh-so-crowded.

My little town is nice. I'm so glad I'm not in the city. It's pleasant out here, and I'm walking distance to the beach. Happiness.

I won't have internet at my place for at least another month, so please be patient if you don't hear from me. Also, I think I have my Skype set up that if you have the special number I gave you recently, you should be able to call it and it will forward to my cell phone. We'll see if that works.

Let me hear from you!