Qalam Wa Lawh

I'm going to give just a summary of the past few days because I don't have much time, I may fill in the details later :)

        On monday I took my test and finished the first page fine and struggled with the second page (Each page kind-of goes up a level or two to see where they should place students). So I'm ahead of Beginner 1 and slightly behind Beginner 2. Fabulous. They put me in Beginner 2 for the first half of the day and I didn't feel like I was up to the level I needed to be so the teacher talked to me and we agreed that I would go into the end of the Beginner 1 class for 2 weeks then move up to Beginner 2 (hopefully). Beginner 1 has been going for a few weeks and have finished the alphabet and begun on vocab. It's perfect timing because that's about where I left off in my summer Arabic class. The second half of the day, I joined the beginner class in calligraphy and then a bit of dictation which I did fine in. I was definitely a little rusty trying to remember things, but it was not over my head like the other class was. Frustrating to be back in beginner, but I can deal with it for now.
        My teacher's name is Sarah and she is absolutely awesome... full of enthusiasm and very patient. There are only three other students in the class: Samia, Walter, and a guy from romania (i think?) who's name I cannot even attempt to pronounce... I'll get back to you on that :D They all speak good English and French, and I'll tell you more later when I can remember everything. They are nice though, class involves a lot of laughing, so it's good. 
        Oh yeah and Mama Katoum rode the bus with me the first day so I would know how to get there. I take bus 37 and I have to tell the driver when I need to get off because they don't normally stop there hahah... gotta love it. After class I ride home alone and it's dark out so I was kind of nervous but I remembered basically where to get off and I almost forgot which door was the Marouazi's door but a french girl helped me and just rang the door bell for me hahha... Mama Katoum came to the door and was like "C'est ton amie?!" and the girl explained that I was lost or something and left. It was really funny. She made me dinner and we watched another Tommy Lee Jones movie on tv... they must like him here or something.

        Tuesday Mama Katoum walked me to the bus and yelled at the bus driver to let me off at Jacques De Songe which is a hair salon right across from the school. He made sure he let me off and told me to have a good day! hahah I felt like I was in a movie of some sort. I thoroughly confused the lady at the front desk by asking for the Beginner English book when I meant the Beginner Arabic book... Oh la la... that gave us a good laugh. Our class was short because we had a field trip to a big pottery workshop (which I believe is called pottery village for all the CCS people). I was in a bad mood the whole time for some reason. I was trying to shake it, but I just really really didn't want to be there for some reason. I think I was feeling the pressure of not being here for very long. I didn't want to spend class time going to touristy places when I needed to be learning. Weird attitude huh? I was being a total cranky-pants and I really just wanted to put myself in the corner hahah..
         I got a lot of good review in despite my crankiness and the little field trip. Samia told me about a halloween party at the school on Friday so that also helped me cheer up a little (lame, i know). We think we're going to get our class to dress up as a theme... possibly gypsies or something. We decided to all go shopping in the Medina together on Wednesday after class. Class got out 30 minutes late and I had to wait a long time for the bus that night, what's worse is that I was extremely hungry since I missed lunch. I think all of Rabat could hear my stomach rumbling. 
        I got Moroccan soup and an omelette when I got home. Mama Kartoum knew that I hate fish so she didn't try to serve me what they had for dinner. She always says "come tu voux ma petite!" I could smoke inside, I could have a dance party, I could do almost anything and she would say "come tu voux ma petite!" hahah I love her. Papa Ali helped me with my homework... or tried to. Since it's not Moroccan Arabic, sometimes he disagrees with the teacher, furrows his brow and grinds his jaw. It's when he's confused or thinking really hard I think. I was extremely tired, so I passed on the nightly movie and went to bed early.

Adieu!