So the ARabic program is over and the real world awaits… ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So much catch up with ….
Right now, I am still trying to make sense of this experience. Was it worth it to spend 2 months studying Arabic in the states? eh.
Would I do it again? I think so, but not with a huge amount of enthusiasm.
It wasn’t as bad as my study abroad experience in Morocco, it wasn’t as short as “color ful” a dining experience as it was in Yemen (although the food service workers did get hairs in the pasta from time to time 
BUt it wasn’t oober great either.
Maybe I am a pessimist, or maybe I have heard to so much about this program before coming that I didn’t want to believe that the gaping holes within it exist. But they do.
On one hand, I speak Arabic. (woo hooo I can finally say that 
and I speak it quickly (even told someone off in Arabic this summer… woo hoo) There’s a certain comfortability with the language that I never had before.
On the other hand, I am wondering if this came because the program was so great (instructors in particular), or because of its Middleburyesque language pledge.
I actually have favorite Arabic songs and even news sources.
on the Other I still have so many gaps in my comprehension, or rather I don’t feel like I improved much. and not because I didn’t work hard, but because the program doesn’t really focus on developing other areas. oh well.
Maybe another factor is was the “group” culture of the program, which I am sooo not into.
oh well.
