Mother of invention . . .

Hey everyone!

We've been studying a lot of Arabic proverbs in class lately. Well, idioms that you can't really translate directly. There's one that says "An onion from a friend is mutton." What it basically means is that even the smallest gift from a loved one is of great value. I think the closest thing we have to that is "It's the thought that counts." There's a ton more, some of which are really fun.

Anyway, all of the thinking about proverbs reminded me of one that we have in English. "Necessity is the mother of invention." I was mulling over that one a couple of days ago, and decided to try something. My roommate and I decided that we would try to speak to each other only in Arabic. If we have something that we can't say in Arabic, we're allowed to use English. But beyond that, we're in Arabic all the time. It's actually been a lot of fun, and I'm surprised how much we're able to communicate. Although our Arabic is always a little rough early in the morning. :)

Oh, I also had an exam in Arabic class yesterday. It was funny. I think I studied for this exam the least out of all the exams I've taken so far, but I got the best grade on this one that I've gotten on any exam up to this point. I keep hoping to get 100%, but not yet. (Short Arabic lesson - the word "lissa" means "not yet." It's a really useful word!)

We've got a festival coming up on Monday next week. It's called "Sham el'neseem," which roughly translates to "The smell of Spring." It's always the day after Easter, and marks the first day of summer here in Egypt. I've been told by my Egyptian friends that I need to go to a park and eat eggs and fish on Sham el'neseem. So, I'll let you know how that goes!