A Note on Saudi Organizational Skills

So, literally as I was sitting writing my previous post about the dirty plumber, Liz Cheney arrived and began talking. I should have expected it simply because nobody told me about it, but unfortunately I haven't adapted properly. I wasn't on campus because I didn't have class until 11am, so I missed what everybody who was on campus discovered - that she came early. Did anyone think of calling me? not until 10:30. Apparently they were even talking about me and I wasn't there. And then, to make it better, nobody told me there would be tons of men around, so I didn't bring my abaya, and then had to rush back to my dorm to find it. So I caught the last 7 minutes of her talk, and didn't get to ask any questions. I did get to shake her hand and briefly say hi, so that was impressive, I guess, but I didn't get a good feel for how she thinks or anything, and I didn't get to talk to her, so I was a little upset about that.

Pissy is probably a better word. I was downright pissy about that. Why is there no way of informing people? Everybody knows I live right here. It's absurd to think I would hang around on campus when I don't have class just in case something happens that I'm not going to be informed about. And, because I was afraid something like this would happen, I was even checking email obsessively, but noooooo... nobody thought to send an email. This school, as I was telling Mona, "has terrible organization" when it comes to information distribution, an assertion to which she replied, "oh, so you think it has organization?" A cogent point. I stand corrected.

So I was a little disappointed, but I survived. This would have really irritated me earlier this year, but now I take it in stride. Patience, young grasshopper, all good things in time.

And in more positive news, I spent a lot of time today feeling like I belonged here. First, I brought my essay to Mrs. S and she seemed pleased with my results and I may actually have a hope of doing well tomorrow, not just of passing.

Second, D and I went swimming for about an hour and chatted, and then she came along to translation because her teacher for her class didn't show and she was bored. Third, Mona was over reviewing for the Arabic exam with me, and D was here getting some stuff she left pre-swimming, so I had three different people in my room hanging out! It was almost like a party!

AND, we're definitely on for tomorrow's Toys R Us shopping adventure.

Will the fun never end??

An interesting thought - it must be awfully strange for people like Mona, Arabs by birth and by family, and who consider Arabic their native language, who still feel more comfortable in English. We were talking about her Arabic classes today, and how she can generally remember the Arabic only if she thinks about it in English first. She learns the information in English and that helps her remember the Arabic. She also said she has trouble because she talks and writes as though she's translating directly from English, even though she's generally not thinking about it that way. It must be very weird to feel more comfortable in a language you don't think of as 'yours'.

Now that my busy busy social life is momentarily at a lull, I can focus on the Arabic material, and nap. I think perhaps the Nap, with a capital N, is more significant at the moment, since I can feel a headache starting. I filched a Pepsi for later (caffeine is sometimes very useful) and so if I sleep until dinner I can see possibly getting three or four hours of studying in before I collapse for good. And three or four hours of studying Arabic should give me SOME idea what's going on. And I already know much of it. I'm also tempted to go searching for the Girls Down the Hall since I haven't seen any of them but one since we all got back, and i want them to know I'm not a total loser. Also, I want to try out my cool Arabic skills on them. I've started saying things like "keefik?" (how are you?) and "feyn inti?" (where are you?) and "keyfa kana eidik?" (how was your eid?) INSTEAD of the English versions, so even though they're extremely simplistic and easy phrases, it's good to see that I'm slowly becoming acclimatized to the language and now occasionally even use it naturally without sounding like a total moron.

And people are starting to understand all of that and to help me a lot - some people by talking to me in Arabic, some people by letting me talk to them. And generally if I think of a phrase I want to say, I'll ask a couple of people to help me with it. And most of them are willing to correct me in a way which isn't snotty. There's one girl in particular in my Parenting for Muslims class who is really really fantastic. If only I knew her name...

Ah, me, it is so difficult when you finally get a life....