Arabic and reality

This blog post will come to you in two lovely parts! Are you ready?
Part one: Arabic.
Do you remember when you where first learning to read and you would sit with a big book full of pictures sprawled across your lap and slowly trace the words, making each sound  carefully and individually? Finally you would end up with a cluster of letters, rrrrrr and uuuuuu and nnnnnnn but  despite the encouragement of teachers or parents you still couldn't quite understand that those little black marks were the same as the action of running?
It's okay, I don't really remember either, but if you can imagine how that would feel you can begin to imagine what it is like to learn Arabic. My typical reading pattern goes a little like this: first I painstakingly sound out each letter, sometimes flipping to the pronunciation guide for a little help. Then I finally figure out the sounds. Yay! But unlike reading my native language the battle doesn't end there. Instead I simple move on to figuring out what in the world the word means. Saa'iq? Did I even read it right? Could shubaak actually be a word? Once I've discovered the meaning of the word I have a little celebration. Yes! I am so awesome to have read that word in less than two minutes! Woohoo!
As I'm sure you can tell, I am totally a language prodigy. Watch out Arabic!
Part two: reality.
So, I'm leaving for Oman in about three weeks. Sitting here in my grandparents house, surrounded by family it doesn't seem real. Sometimes i still can't believe I even got the scholarship. Often I'm out of my mind with excitement, but in the back of my head there is a niggling seed of doubt. I know that by the end I won't want to leave Oman, but here and now  it just seems a little too hard to say goodbye to this family.
So that's my life right now. I am totally thrilled and completely terrified. I'm annoyed that I still have so much trouble pronouncing Arabic words and super proud that I've come as far as I have. I'm ready and I'm not. In short, I'm I little bipolar, a little hesitant and I lot excited. Stay tuned!