صف اللغة العربية

i made it safely to beirut @ about 11:50p or so tuesday night, & arrived in my room on AUB's campus sometime after 12:30a on june 29, after enlisting help to hunt down the taxi driver CAMES sent for me to the airport.

v

view of lebanon's coast from the airplane, 29 june 2010

yesterday we took placement exams after our program orientation. everyone took the same test, regardless of proficiency, so there was obviously a lot of vocabulary on the exam i didn't recognize. my oral exam was pretty rough, i thought, because it was difficult for me to understand what the examiner was saying -- native arabic speaker asking me questions, & about all i know how to say is that i'm studying middle eastern politics & comparative religion/islam @ miami university in the state of ohio & that i like chicken.

still, i somehow ended up in the intermediate class, which is smack in the middle of the seven or so different sections offered in the program.

???

i was expecting low intermediate @ best, but wouldn't even have been devastated by a high introductory placement since it wouldn't kill me to review. today was the first day of classes, beginning @ 8:30a & lasting until 3:30p (with a one-hour lunch break). wow. i think i caught about a third of what was said, i had to resort to english a couple of times to indicate what i wanted to ask (even though the language pledge says NO ENGLISH), & i just began to feel very overwhelmed. the jet lag wasn't helping, as my roommate & i had both been up chatting until about 2:30a since neither of us could sleep & "counting the sheeps" wasn't working. the conversation with her was fabulous, but we both paid the price for the semi-sleepless night all day today. my body was dragging, my mind lagging even further behind... & i began to worry that i just wasn't in the right section. i decided to talk to my instructors after class to make sure i didn't belong in the lower intermediate class, & i kind of thought they'd go along with that since it seemed they noticed me struggling. but they said they were convinced i would be fine, that i was in the right place, & that most of my classmates were feeling the same way right now, that it would get better. i know this will be difficult -- one of the most challenging experiences of my life, @ least academically speaking -- but i was afraid i was so wrongly placed i wouldn't be able to keep up. anyway, they think i should stay, so hopefully i begin to feel a little more confident about my placement over the next week or so.

now, it's off to the three to five hours of homework (with a break to buy batteries & a power converter, & a scarf for tomorrow's mosque visit).