Busy days... and yet if someone asks what I do all day, I'm stumped. But people keep reassuring me that's quite normal here.

I do have my first official language lesson on Sunday morning-- that's certainly something for which to be very thankful. The proposed trip to the zoo last Wednesday morning was unfortunately never realised, due to inclement weather. Rain. Lots of it. Monsoon-style, almost.

I've met a German couple at the international fellowship I attend here, and there's been much mutual pleasure in my attempts to speak German. "Attempts" is definitely the correct word for it. I can understand most of what they say, but anything I try to say starts out in Arabic, fades into German (with a great deal of effort) around the middle of the sentence, and then slips back into Arabic by the end. Fortunately they've studied some Arabic too, so they at least can still understand me, despite my garbled speech patterns. But I've also found that if I do anything much in German, whether it's speaking to this couple or reading at home, then German creeps into my Arabic a bit... and very few people here know any German. In fact, I haven't yet met anyone who does. It really confuses people. I've been known to utter sentences such as, "Mumkin, ich 'aiza die shanta sehen"-- which exactly alternates between the two languages, word by word. And is, around here, simply incomprehensible, though to me (and I suppose also to the German couple) means, "Please, I'd like to look at that bag."
At least someone understands.