A Thursday Afternoon

So , the Rome posts that I keep promising to write on their way, I promise, so look forward to three entries full of roman adventures, silly pics of Alana and me, continuing tales of the POS green umbrella and lots of gelato and some pigeon pictures too… but the first of those will come tonight when I am at my computer that has the pics on it. Right now I have a little bit of down time at work so I thought I would write a little update about how my second week of my internship is going, and some plans I have made for the upcoming weeks etc.

So it is Thursday afternoon, and I am almost through the second week of my internship at the IMA. This week I have worked a lot on my independently assigned and conducted research project having to do with Saladin… and there was an article in the periodical I was reading by Carole Hillenbrand who we read during my class with Anne, which I thought was pretty cool. I am not sure what I want to do with all of my new found information about Saladin… but I might use it for my memoir du stage depending on what sort of a topic I decide to pursue. Saladin represents a really interesting character in the Arab world and the three main films that were created about him and the third crusade and Richard the Lion Hearted provide a very interesting look at how the east and the west represent each other to each other, and it would be interesting perhaps to see how those representations have changed… if they have. But I have my first meeting with my tutor this weekend about my memoir, his name is Steve, but don’t say anything to him about it because he is a little sensitive about not having a very French name… seriously. But he and I will hopefully have a good conversation which can point me in the right direction, and maybe help me to direct my ideas and my self-assigned research project a little bit more.

But in other news, this week at the IMA has been a success so far. On Tuesday, rather out of the blue, Mme Findakly looks at me and says, “I am glad you are here. Let’s get you a computer.” It has actually been rather frustrating not having a computer since I could do things a lot easier with one… but I hadn’t said anything… but on Wednesday morning a computer appeared on my desk, and by the afternoon it was up and running, connected to the printer and everything… And I had been assigned a new project and I was on my way. Yesterday was the first day that it was 5:30 (time for me to leave) and I just wasn’t ready to leave… which I felt like was a grand success! And to celebrate the successes of the week, Matt and I went and checked out a little hole in the wall bar that Johnny Depp is known to frequent on occasion… but sadly we did not see him.

Then I arrived at work this morning to finish my project, and to begin working with a woman named Eva on my next project… which is preparing for the stages intensifs (the week long Arabic classes one of which I will be taking! If 30 hours of Arabic in one week doesn’t kill me… nothing can) which is a rather large on going project. Then we finished for a lunch break, and Mme Findakly invited me to go to the market with her, and to pick up some lunch… which might not seem like much, but she and I are making excellent strides in our relationship! I am sure after today that she likes me, and is genuinely glad that I am here, to help and to learn, which makes me very happy. She showed me the market that is here on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and she showed me all of her favourite organic shops. She also invited me over to dinner at her house to meet her family sometime (which is a big step) since she has a daughter who is my age and a son who is 26. I look forward to meeting her family whenever she officially invites me over… anyway after our adventure today and her invitation, I have decided that she likes me, and that she thinks things are going well! Which is good for everyone involved…

I can’t believe how right on track Thomas was about how things would go… The first day slow, the first week kind of awkward, and by the end of the second week things would pick up and be just fine. Which is exactly where I am now, thankfully! I know some other kids in my program whose internships aren’t going quite as expected, so I feel really lucky to have found this one! Tomorrow I am working all day with Mme Chouick… which will be interesting as well, even though I have no idea what we are doing…on verra!

I will tell you all one more little anecdote/interesting thing that I have encountered in my time here at the IMA… and that is what happens when I introduce myself to people, and tell them my name. The first thing people will say is, “ça c’est de quelle origine?” (Where does that come from?) Which seems to me to be a more PC way of saying, Where are you from? Rather than asking the ever loaded question, “D’ou venez vous?” But what I think is funny is that I can always tell the difference between a person whose first language was French and a person whose first language was Arabic because those who spoke Arabic first have no trouble with the aspirated ‘H’ and those who spoke French first, invariably pronounce it ‘allie because they just don’t have the aspirated ‘H’ sound down… so funny! I also have been asked a few times why I have a boy’s name… because Ali is a very common arab name… for men. And if you hear ‘allie from a French person with out the aspirated ‘H’ of course it is going to sound like Ali… and that just cracks me up! Then always follows… ça c’est de quelle origine?

So anyway, that is all I have for this Thursday afternoon… things are going well, and in a couple hours when I go home you can look forward to the at least the first Rome entry…

A toute!