In Comparison...

I'm going to work on keeping my frequency of post up. This isn't going to be very useful if I never write anything, is it?

So I am back in Saudi and studying with the goal of getting a lot better at Arabic by the time I leave. And actually it's worked fairly well so far. I'm taking nothing but two translation classes, and I have one of the profs helping me once a week to improve my speaking. Or at least to force myself to speak a little.

In addition I've been working about an hour a half a day in the admin building learning all sorts of useful things about the way an office runs and talking to interesting people about Saudi Arabia and their impressions. I'm working for the Director of Accreditation, who is a new lady, from Texas, who's got some interesting perceptions on how Effat functions and knows a lot about how a school OUGHT to function. It's been great.

And this last weekend I went and hung out with family friends from Riyadh who were visiting with their 11mo. old baby who is ADORABLE. So i got some good beaching in. And I realized, while I was explaining some of my observations from living here, that I really have learned an amazing amount from my stay. Nothing helps you realize that like talking to people who aren't a part of it. Going back to the States will probably jar loose thousands of other things I don't even realize I know.

So anyway that's what I'm going to do right now: think and party. It's a good life.