School Days

Annie and Tigger (the camera was supposed to focus on Annie...)

Week one, check. Classes are pushing right along, and we both already see incredible gains. Conversations are quicker, negotiations are easier, and life is more comfortable in general thanks to this quick start. The timing has been just right - arrive and jump right in. Annie is picking up where she left off in Modern Standard Arabic, the dialect used in newscasts and Quranic education. She'll be able to better analyze textbooks, interview teachers, etc. I'm starting over, in a sense, by taking daraja (Moroccan colloquial Arabic), the dialect used on the streets, especially by the less formal musicians that I'll be dealing with. The days, though, are long. 8am to 6pm at the school, four hours of class for each of us and a few hours for doing the mid-day homework. My teachers couldn't be more different (or entertaining). Slowly getting to know the other students, most of whom have already been here for two months or so.

Annie still wants a riad. But she also wanted a canal house in Amsterdam. (She thinks that her "wanter" might be a bit broken.)

تهلا ف راسك
(Tahla f-rasik: Take care of your head.)

Studying hard, and sporting the new chapeau.