Thanksgiving Update...

Dear Family & Friends,
I just wanted to let you all know 2 small things...

The 1st, is that I passed my language exam that's needed to graduate from the Peace Corps Training Program. I'm by far, not the best, but I think I'm doing well personally. I'm truly surprised how much I already know, but equally humbled by how much I don't. In addition to that, the language spoken within the classroom is 100mphs slower than that spoken outside of the classroom. I've been courageous enough to start building friendships with local Moroccans, and I think that's what's paid off. Allowing myself to fail has helped me succeed.

Over the coming months, I will be searching for an Arabic tutor in Marrakesh to teach me both Darisa (common dialect of Arabic spoken here in Morocco) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). MSA is the formal Arabic that is written and spoken throughout the contemporary Arab world. Also known as Fus'ha, it is used in various forms by approximately 208 million Christian and Muslim Arabs. In the Arab world, MSA is the language of the news media, intellectual life, and literature from the Qur'an to the historian Ibn Khaldun and to the Nobel Prize winning author Nagib Mahfuz. MSA is the form of Arabic universally taught in schools of the Arab world. In addition, Modern Standard Arabic is the lingua franca used and respected by educated Muslims throughout the entire world.

If all goes as planned, I will be studying these two forms of Arabic for the next 370 days or so, which will give me full-access into a world that sometimes mis-understood by many Americans. Come next December, I will start learning French, which is also a language widely-spoken here in Morocco. Until then, it's heads down on this Arabic stuff.

The 2nd, is that I'll be updating my website bi-weekly, due now to the fact that I'll be moving out of my semi-large training site and into my little village in early December.

I've been pretty busy the last few weeks, so I haven't had a ton of time to post stuff to my website. However, because of this high-activity, I've experienced some really cool things that I'll soon share with each of you (as well as a ton of new pictures). I should have a bunch of time over the next week, so I'll use that time to get that all posted for you. Along with these past few weeks, I'll also be posting some of the backdated stories and pictures from September on. So you might want to revisit all the months and see if there's anything that you haven't yet read.

Miss you all and wish I could be spending Thanksgiving with you. Be at ease that everything is going smoothly, thus far. This goes without saying, but thanks for all your love and support.