Arabic Lessons

Last Sunday, I started Arabic lessons. I along with 7 other exchange students take our lessons at this place called Arabic Studies Academy. It is on Zemeleck which is the island in the Nile. Our lessons are in an apartment on the second floor of a building. It is really difficult to find, and everyday our taxi driver has to ask for directions. To get to my lesson, I leave my apartment at 10:30/10:45 and then walk to the end of a few roads to catch a microbus. Sometimes it is kind of difficult to catch one. The driver does not always understand what I am saying, and it may take a few tries. If I am lucky, the first one I ask lets me on. I ride the microbus for 5 to 10 minutes depending on the traffic. Then I walk to Courtney's apartment to meet her to go the rest of our journey. We then take the metro to opera station. After leaving the metro station, we take a taxi, always a black one because the white ones are too expensive. As mentioned before it takes a while for us to find the building where our lesson, so usually we are in the taxi for 20 or 30 minutes. Now, our lesson starts at 12. The first day we had to take a placement test. I couldn't answer anything. It was all written in arabic script, and the instructors wanted to respond in arabic. Other than a few key verbal phrases, I knew zero arabic. There were 4 other students in my situation. The other three have had some background in arabic. For the rest of the week, we were split into two groups. Our group has been working mainly on Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Our teacher is fun, and I have learned quite a few words. We have also learned the alphabet. It is pretty difficult. Our lessons are three hours long. After we are done, Courtney and I take a taxi back to the metro, and then I take a microbus back to my road. It is about an hour long journey so it can be pretty stressful. Because of the Eid holiday(feast for three days after Ramadan), we only have a lesson on Thursday this week . Also, we have an exam on which we are supposed to be able to read and write some words. Insha'allah I willl do ok. It will take some studying though. All of the 28 arabic characters change form depending on whether they are in the beginning, middle, or end of the word. Pretty soon, my group will switch to the other class, and the teacher will teach us modern standard arabic which is what most written texts are in. I am glad to have arabic because it gives me something to do. As I said, this week I have arabic only once, but next week I will have it everyday again. Once school starts we will have it three times a week.