To recap some of the cliffhangers (will Traveling Sarah become Employed Sarah?) of last blog post:
- I did get offered the summer position at Georgetown but had to turn it down. One of my friends was subsequently offered the position though, so it worked out! They also seemed to like me enough to be interested in having me work for them next summer too, after I return :)
- I didn't confirm a position with my internship site, because I wanted to wait for scholarship news before trying to work something out with them. I am hoping to stay in touch though so that I can return when I get back! I was really lucky to a) work on interesting projects there that b) allowed me to use Arabic and c) meet fascinating people with all types of Arabic experience.
- I deferred my graduate school admission to Fall 2016, assuming I want to pick it up then!
Right now, as I prepare to go, I'm just trying to make sure I rest up and stay healthy! I got my wisdom teeth out May 1st and was in pain for a bit but I'm finally almost back to normal now, one month later. I then went and broke my foot on the last day of classes, May 12th, and treated it as a bad sprain until I finally got X-ray confirmation three days later. I've been in a walking boot ever since (and yes, I walked across the stage at graduation in it). Now I'm afraid that I may have some sort of cold or worse - I need to start drinking lots of tea and honey!
Other than that, I've been organizing my room at home and trying to get rid of excess stuff as well as spending time with friends and family. I'm happy to have this opportunity but I'm going to miss everyone so much! I know that a year is going to fly by though, and I'm so excited to see my progress in Arabic within that amount of time.
I'll be staying in the same city as last time (see my first blog post for details), but what I'll be doing while I'm there is a little different. My activities will include ...
- studying MSA, Moroccan Arabic, and Egyptian Arabic (our teachers are from Egypt, where the full-year program originally was) at AALIM
- taking direct enrollment classes with Moroccan students at University Moulay Ismail
- working in an internship (site TBD)
- exploring the country with my classmates
- living with a host family at least for the summer (after that I have the option to move into my own apartment)
I will definitely be busy, but please feel free to reach out to me via Facebook/What's App/Skype while I'm there! I will be posting here regularly as well, so stay tuned :)