First Impressions

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Hmmm...

As my friend Jenny would say. I attended her beautiful wedding picnic today to celebrate her union with Khalid. It filled me with peace and happiness for her, and encouragement for my summer at the Qasid Institute in Amman. Khalid knows of the school and has wonderful things to say about the owners. It was nostalgic to be back in the East Bay, driving through my old haunts and thinking how odd it is that college seems so far away, yet I hardly experienced it, it seems. I was in such a fog of re-entry that much of it feels like a halfway space between worlds. I'm studying Arabic to prepare for the summer, which I know will be intensive and really hard. The more I can get under my belt now, the better off I'll be in June. I took a four-week crash course at Pacific Arabic Resources in SF, which I couldn't recommend more highly.
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115 Cedar Street

Where we lay our scene. It has been more than three months since I've blogged, owing to a prohibitively busy schedule and the campaign's "no blogging" policy. I'm sitting at a "Caribou Coffee" in Avon, Ohio, enjoying the rather abrupt holiday atmosphere. The last time I luxuriated at a coffee place was mid-summer, without a reindeer or tinsel in sight. I appreciate the fact that it's not a Starbuck's, but at the same time bemoan the telltale signs of a coffee franchise. Emerging from the campaign feels like being deposited by a time machine into new circumstances and surroundings, like the steam escaping a pressure-cooker and a vise grip being relaxed. I feel like I've hit culture shock in a new county, and am slowly re-gaining my bearings. I can hardly identify with three-dimensional space, after having spent interminable days and weeks perched at my desk, in front of a computer screen, looking up only to greet visitors or field questi...
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