Additionally, I’ve had a few people who work for the Flagship program here undermine my Arabic abilities just because I’m only here for the summer and not the whole year. Many of the students in my program - including myself - have already qualified for the full-year program according to our testing scores, so if anything they should be encouraging us to come back next year by interacting with us as they would the full-year students! The summer program here definitely needs more attention and organization, although my classes are still great and the homework load has gotten better.
I questioned myself today as to why I was doing this after a disheartening experience on the train back home to Meknes: Why am I studying Arabic? And why in Morocco? Did I make the right decision concerning what I want to do with my life? And then I remembered that the victories - meeting a new friend, getting complimented on my abilities after working hard, pleasantly surprising people with my knowledge, learning from people and laughing with people - far outweigh what I feel to be my failures. I just need to remember to take the hard times in stride in order to make the most of my first experience in the Arab world.