Days 2, 3, 4, and 5 have been pretty much the same, starting and ending in my room at 2 am when I can't fall asleep and at 10:30 or 11 am when I overslept my alarm.
I've been getting up around 10:30 and walking over to the coffee shop before lunch and class.
The coffee shop is nestled in a corner among academic buildings, as seen from the dorm. Walking to those buildings is the most we have to walk all day, and is only about 50 yards...but it feels much longer at 11 am when it's humid and 100 degrees.
There's not much green in the desert, but I did manage to find the one blooming bush on campus.
Every morning I walk by the rec center on the way to the coffee shop, and think about how if I only got up a little earlier I could have gone. It's really nice--there's a pool, aerobics room, and a basketball court outside that I so wish people would play on in the evenings.
The coffee shop, from my seat this morning. The coffee shop men are incredibly friendly. and remember how I like my coffee every morning. And every afternoon.
The inside of the buildings are all open, with beige-toned walls, marble floors, and many windows. The canteen below usually has more tables set up, but I think they were practicing for graduation (which is actually next week...on my birthday!).
After leadership class from 1-4, which happens in a regular classroom next to where the above picture was taken, we go to learn how to speak some way super basic Arabic. We meet our teacher in the coffee shop, which is to the left of the arch below (there's a hair salon to the right), and learn how to greet people and order food and ask for a pencil.
After Arabic, we get ready for dinner, and on most nights go to Bapco. Tonight, though, some girls from Lebanon and Syria took us to a Lebanese restaurant. It was absolutely delicious, and makes me want to start a food journal. They ordered five different appetizers and just as many different dishes for us to share. I think that it may have been the best food I have ever eaten.
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