Through a bad Michelle Pfeiffer movie and with Cadbury bars will it end?

At least that is how my comrades who didn't depart on tonight's British Airways flight to Heathrow (like it seems everyone did) are taking it downstairs before the television. Moping, devouring chocolate, listlessly rising and returning to some random film otherwise unpalatable. Many of us are sad to go, certainly, but there is a general consensus going home is just what everyone needs at this point. Or, in more blunt terms, whenever anyone asks when someone is going home, the response is typically "Hell (or insertive another expletive) yeah! Friday night!" A very intangible mingling of contradicting emotions is taking place.

Whatever the case, I will sorely miss those within this program. Emails and numbers exchanged today if they hadn't already been, and a steady realization we were to disperse back across Europe and the United States, into the little pockets from which we came to Egypt. To learn Arabic. Let's not forget that. I received my certificate today, qualifying me as an intermediate student. Hopefully, I would like to continue at Harvard Extension in the fall, and definitely into college. One of our teachers following our final applauded our efforts by printing out numerous articles stating the extreme difficulty of Arabic, and commended us on excelling beyond such claims and beating the statistics. For a quick summary...Arabic is a "class IV" language according to the Department of State and US military, a ranking occupied by just Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin. It requires the highest of cut-off scores on the Defense Language Aptitude Battery in order to train in. It is a Semitic language with 28 consonants, many of which entirely foreign to Romance or Germanic language speakers. Script is from right to left, which is the foundation of Urdu, Malay, and Persian. Over 200 million people speak Arabic, dialects varying widely. The United States has one of the most shameful representations of Arabic speakers, only nine graduating last year from US institutions certified as fluent by the standard of an exam whose name I am now forgetting. I guess Shereen's point was, Arabic is not so hard. If you dedicate yourself to the seemingly (and often legitimately) mind-blowing language. Which I love. All are forewarned I will likely be injecting Arabic into English conversation in the coming weeks. I will need to unclutter my brain. One must think exclusively in Arabic to function. Now, back to English.


Arabic...Language beyond the perimeter. Beyond the norm. In an endangered state. Exposed to traffic and scrutiny.

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