first week

in this first week, we've learned about a half a semester worth of Modern Standard Arabic.  basically, this means that we have learned the entire alphabet and all the new sounds that go with it, and a couple of handfuls of useful words and phrases.  and some relatively useless ones, too.   for example, in this first chapter of the second textbook, we've learned the word for united nations (al-uumam al-muTAHida) which is pretty bizarre for this early in a language.  but, oh well.  everything's been going well.  the prof I have for the first three hours of the day calls me pantalontaki  which means smarty pants. it's vindicating.

this town isn't nearly as tiny and awful as expected, but it's reeeeally small.  I'm looking forward to getting into the city next weekend to see Nornen ( :) ).  apparently the programme is supposed to go on some arabic excursion next weekend, too, so hopefully I can meet up with them there.  still trying to work on the details there. 

addendum: 

total injuries suffered in one week of arabic intensive: 4

times fallen down the stairs: 2

times leg ripped open by vicious picnic table: 1

times head whacked on open dresser drawer while doing sit ups: 1

moving day

moved into the new room alllll by myself.  be proud of me. 

I have a double single (CAN I GET AN AMEN?!) in a suite with a girl named Lauren (another Lauren!  don't worry: one will never replace the other), who I already like a lot.  We're going to get along very very well, I think.  my room looks very very good right now; it's very very very big and I liiiike it.  I also made friends with a kid named Max, and he's awesome so... good news. 

also I said something dumb today and someone I like very much is mad at me.  brought it upon myself, but that doesn't make it any easier.  and it's hard being far away from him, and far away from home and in a new place at the same as this little issue.  so, even though it was almost a  perfect day, it is now a really bad one.  

dust to dust

On top of everything else that amounted to a rough day, my grandfather's ashes arrived in the mail today.  What a strange, sad thing.  I miss him everyday.

tornado room

packing for summer school. my room looks like a tornado passed through.  it must have been a fairly organized tornado, though, because the it left piles everywhere. I googled the town that the institute is in and it looks soooo boring.  I hope I can find things to do.  all I'm really asking for, though, is a coffee shop to study and read in.  maybe some place with live music, even if it's usually bad. 

spencer got his mission call.  I'm processing the fact that after tomorrow I won't see him for two years.  overwhelming.  two years is a long time to not have a best friend.  beautiful spencer, I love you.

made sushi with margie and jesse tonight.  that was good.  we also made palmiers.  that was a strange but delicious combination.

this is the funniest thing

this is the funniest thing I have seen in a long long time:

The Daily Show- Arizona State University

cooking over the fire

had a lovely lovely camping trip with joshy.  he forgot the stove, though, so we ended up cooking over an open fire, which was a first.  it was rather fun, though.  we found a nicely isolated campsite in a campground in the mountains.  incidentally, it was in bear territory so we had to put our food in a bear box, and joshy brought an airhorn to scare away any bears we might run across.  we didn't see any bears, though, and on the last day, we decided to try it out since we hadn't needed it, and it turned out it didn't work.  so, it was perfectly alright with me that we didn't see any bears. 

today was ruby's goodbye breakfast.  she leaves tomorrow for london for a year.  I woke up early to get there in time, which wasn't much fun. and then I found a dead mouse drowned in my toilet.  I didn't know what to do and it wouldn't flush down...  I was afraid I'd have to get the plunger and, then what?  I don't know.  but, it turned out that it just needed a good long flush to get rid of it.  seriously, though, I have no idea how it got in there.  and that's not something to wake up to in the morning.  

leaving for summer of arabic in one week.  we're going down to the city to an art opening for my mother, spending the night, and then I'll be flying off.  I started packing this morning.  dylan came over and read me my packing list and I threw things an a duffel.  then we sat around showing each other the facebook pictures of cute boys and girls we'd met at college this year.  I adore that kid.  we had a good time, and we found this.  and it made me wish there was more drag king culture in the world.