Just kidding, it's not that bad. But, it is sure going to be hard work. We were just putting away the trash and packaging from the 2 foot high pile of textbooks we were issued when the instructor quit speaking english and started instructing the alphabet. Yikes. Truthfully, the sound and script I know very well from tutoring, but it's still difficult because the little english that is used isbroken---they are all native speakers...really native. Najilla, the team leader is from Iraq, Michael, from Egypt two from the Sudan and one from..Morocco. Different accents, pronunciations, just very unclear what they are asking me to say sometimes. During every break you could just feel the shock in the air among my section. There's a good dynamic, though. I'm in a class of 9 divided into sections of 5 and 4. It's a good mix: one JUNIOR enlisted airman (E-2), two army captains, and a wife of an officer in the other section. It's really exciting to finally be doing it and not talking about how hard it is going to be. I have to keep in mind it's a marathon, not a sprint. I think Joy is getting used to the idea that I'm always going to have the Ipod they issued me in my ear listening to phrases and vocabulary. So this weekend we're going to have a little fun as a family, and at some point I need to come up with a routine for the week to stay on top of this because it's going to take a lot of effort.
In other news, I found two great links you should look at. This first book review in the NYT is about why people pay for bottled water. It's stupid, but as Joy can attest, this is just one of those weird pet peeves for me. I just refuse to do it except in extremis: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/books/review/Margonelli-t.html?l_r=1&ref=review&oref=slogin
The second is for my buddy Jon Blanchard (one of my good friends and high school teammates). It eloquently states the case for the absurdity of comparing Kobe Bryant to Michael:
http://www.tiricosuave.com/2008/06/13/please-never-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-never-ever-never-ever-ever-ever-ever-never-ever-never-ever-ever-never-ever-ever-ever-never-ever-compare-kobe-and-michael-jordan-again-thank-you/
Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Stay in touch with Joy at least...I think I'll be busy for the next 13 months!
Salam,
Nur aka Daniel
p.s. Nur is my Arabic name, not the Arabic transliteration of Daniel. It means brightness, or brightness of faith, which coincidentally is what I'm going to need a lot of here!
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