Limada tandur ilay?!

So as you know (my devoted readers) I am currently in Doha, Qatar learning some fancy shmancy Arabic. Alhumdulilah, it is really a blessing to be here. I have been here since September, and now rounding off to 3 months.

When I first started the program, I felt absolutely lost. One of the teachers, Ustadh Ahmad only talks in Arabic and I felt panicked when I would think about his class. I thought maybe I wasn't cut out for this and how could I possibly understand him? All the girls in the class are way more advanced than me which is even more discouraging. But Alhumdulilah, I am finally finally finally starting to catch on! I struggle with speaking a bit, true, but I am understanding so much more. I also had a few dreams in Arabic since I have been here, so I am thinking that is more reassuring.

Also, initially when I had to translate our homework which usually comprises children's stories (as of now), it seemed like a very arduous and daunting task... it would take me awhile to go through it and I would be super glued to my kamoos the whole time. But now Alhumdulilah, I can zip through stories pretty quickly (with or without the kamoos) and understand most of the incumbent vocabulary. Even cooler, I can usually figure out the new vocabulary without the kamoos by using context clues in the other sentences! Who would have thought! :) I feel so cool, Alhumdulilah.

Last week, I gave my first presentation! I remember when I first started I panicked thinking about giving any presentation in Arabic or even getting up infront of the class (even though Ustadh Ahmad and Ustadha Rasha are always trying to put me up there!!!!) But Alhumdulilah the presentation went pretty well, given I stuttered and struggled through a few verbs with conjugating them in present and past tenses (there are 13 different ways to conjugate in present tense and 13 different ways to conjugate in past tense as well - in addition to learning the root of each individual verb!) So yeah, that is an update on things here after a jolly 3 months.

I like it here a lot, and the people I am in the program with have been a huge blessing for me. I can already see how sad it will be when the program will be over, but let's not think about that just yet ;)