Leaving Arabia

The time has finally come to leave my current country and return HOME. What a beautiful word and feeling to return to something that always brings a feeling of comfort and welcoming. As I've mentioned before, I can't wait to see green again, feel a breeze, and not have to drink 3 liters of water a day. I cannot wait to see friends and family and visit with one who is now gone (Maggie). I want to eat Domino's pizza and go to Cracker Barrel. (We have Domino's, but it tastes differently here). Believe it or not, living in the Middle East has provided me with a few interesting skills that may not ever be useful in the future, but they are INTERESTING, to say the least.

Here we go:

-I can now read all of the Arabic letters, so if an Arabic word is given to me, I can read it, I just won't know what it means. I practice by reading all of the store signs, and have learned that if the word is an English name like McDonald's, they just write the letters that make the same sounds in Arabic. I started learning Arabic a few months back. I can now say some words and phrases and write and say the letters. 28 letters and many of the letters have a different way they look at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end. Great. And some letters are changed by the adding, moving, or removing of one dot. Insane. It's a fascinating language and I hope to learn more!

-I can now tell the difference between someone who is Arab, or from India, or from Pakistan. These are common mistakes (especially between India and Pakistan). I'd say this is a pretty cool skill. It frustrates me that people will say about Indians and Pakistanis that they're all the same, so it doesn't matter. Whoops, sorry, no dice. Not the case. How would we feel if someone said to us that we are the same as people from Canada or from Europe, and it just "doesn't matter"?

-I can name all of the countries and capitals on the Arabian Peninsula (where I am located). I can say Qatar properly.
-I own a Qu'ran and occasionally read it, and I know more about Islam than I ever did before! (which was my goal)
-I've learned that I don't have to accept bad behavior from other people. It doesn't say something about me when people act poorly. It says something about them.
-I've learned to start to not be "too nice". If someone tries to get you to do their work for them, you fight back. If you have ideas to share and they talk over you, you talk over back. If someone tries to get in front of you in line, you say something!
-I've developed an intense liking of hummus and cucumbers. Great snack.
-I've developed a slight tea addiction. It's all of these Europeans I'm with. I've had to pull back a bit from the tea thing. I've realized, that's why Americans have such white teeth. We don't drink as much tea.
-I am the boss of my students, not the other way around.
-I am learning this, and it's the toughest thing to learn: project yourself the way you want to be viewed (for example, confident), and that is the way you will be viewed.
-It's just me now, so I've got to do things that are good for me.
-Oh, and lastly, I've learned how to drink a lot of water in one day.

So, those are just a sampling of some of the random skills the Middle East has taught me. It has been an amazing yet incredibly difficult experience in so many ways. Even after 10 months, I've just recently started to feel closer to these girls here. It's taken a while! I've met some fun and interesting people, and have learned a lot about teaching, and I hope next year will be bigger and better! Who knows what will happen next?