Maa shaa' Allah!

I've never kept a blog before, but I'm starting one now to keep friends and family updated throughout my travels as well as to provide advice and inspiration for potential NSLI-Y applicants.

I landed in DC yesterday and met my eighteen classmates who come from high schools around the country and our Resident Director. We already feel like old friends. We're all language nerds and many of us are at least bilingual. When I got to the airport and met the group I talked to a classmate in Spanish, just because it was fun. Then, our bus driver who took us to the hotel introduced himself and said "...et parlez-vous français ?" to which the majority of the passengers responded "mais, oui !" The students who took French at their school were talking to him, and I tried to hang on to their conversation, but they were talking about the geography of France, and I am not familiar with it. I explained to him in my timid Americanized French that I study French all by myself because we have no classes at my school, and he was so excited, he told me it was "joli." I was so excited to be able to say that I spoke Spanish, French, and Arabic all in the same day.

Our Resident Director doesn't expect us to know much Arabic, but there are some phrases that have become quite popular with my group:

Masha'Allah (ما شاء الله) = Literally, God has willed. It can be used whenever a good thing has happened. Masha'Allah, I have arrived safely in D.C.

Insha'Allah (إن شاء الله) = If God allows it. It's used in the same situations that we would say, "hopefully!" Insha'Allah, we will all have a good time with our host families.

Yallah (يالله) = Let's go!

We are told that these 'Allah' phrases in Arabic can be used by anyone regardless of religious background.

Today was a full day of orientation sessions, and tomorrow in the afternoon we will set off on our 9 hour flight, which is followed by another 3 hour flight, and then we will be staying in a hostel in Jordan for a couple nights before meeting our host families.

I'm going to bed early so I can be more awake tomorrow than I was today.

Ma'a salama! Goodbye!