#sinarc

So I haven't filled in the blanks from Oman; my 33 days in America were a bit busier than I expected.

I got to Beirut on Saturday. The first person I met in my program was Sam. He was on my flight but due to the fact that my stuffy nose and sore throat had made my ears and voice useless, I didn't talk to him til we were getting off the plane. If you could call it talking, my voice was pretty much MIA. 

We took a LAU van to the apartment (which is the apartment owned by Sam -a different Sam- that I stayed in last year). Neither of us could find our roommates so we hung out, went and met a girl I knew at UT, Laura, for dinner. We also stopped at my favorite Hamra liquor store and had a beer with Sam (yup its a popular name) who owns the place. 

Eventually we learned his roommate Paul and my roommate and flatmates were all together in the mountains with Paul's family. My roommate, Emma, graduated last spring from UToronto but she also lived in Shaker for the summer of 2008, small world. The two other girls, Natasha and Jessica, are from Wayne State and so is Paul. 

Sunday I slept all day trying to get the pressure in my ears to readjust. 

Monday we went to LAU for the placement test. I'm in "Advanced II" formal Arabic class, Writing Skills II, Principles of Translation, and Lebanese Dialect II. 

Tuesday was the first day of class. I only have FusHa (formal Arabic) on Mondays and Wednesday so today was my first day of that. 

I feel like my classes went pretty well and that they will be challenging as well as enjoyable. I don't know if my peers feel the same. 

The group I've been hanging out with has been all those previously mentioned as well as an Australian girl Noor who is living in university housing. 

Dana my camp friend is hopefully coming into Beirut this weekend from Damascus to see me.