My apologies for not writing much lately. With my move to Jordan less than two months away, I have tried to buckle down and really work on my Arabic, which means less time to write. The irony of studying Arabic at DLI (and most other schools in the US) is that students learn formal Modern Standard Arabic and hardly touch the dialects actually spoken in the Middle East. To learn the necessary dialect I've had to hire a private tutor and spend extensive hours outside of class. I'm essentially learning two difficult languages. Throw a six-month old into the mix, and life is busy.
My other excuse: I had last week off school. Friday afternoon I asked my wife, "What do you think about trying to Space A to Hawaii?" At 6:00 am the next morning we were on a KC-10 bound to Hickam AFB. I spent a wonderful week with my family lounging by the pool drinking Mai Tais and trying extremely hard not to think about foreign affairs. I didn't really succeed. My vacation reading consisted of a novel about an Iranian Jew arrested and tortured during the Iranian revolution, and Aaron David Miller's excellent but depressing account of American peacemaking efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Still, that was lighter fare than my usual daily intake. I stayed away from the news, my RSS reader, and my own blog. I can't say I missed any of it. Between the storm clouds gathering over Afghanistan and Pakistan, the political despair in Israel over its recent elections, and the economic death spiral at home and abroad, it's a depressing time to care about the world.
In any case, I'm back now. Arabic remains the top priority but I will try to write more soon.
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