Der Schule=Die Nostalgie?

I'm writing an email right now, as I write this blog. It's to an old friend of mine from across the sea, Matthias Emmer. Matthias is one of the more human people I've ever met. The same sort of general humanity that makes a character like Homer Simpson somehow acceptable. Only, in addition to these human frailties (gluttony, lust, etc.) Matthias is extremely intelligent, likable, kindish, funny, confident, and mildly attractive. He and I are returning to email contact after more than a year of silence.

Jon sitze auf ein stuhl. Er schriebst ein E-mail nach der Matthias. Matthias ist ein altes Freund von Deustchland. Matthias hat ein qualitat wie Homer Simpson, aber nicht so faul und dumm, mehr intelligent.

I'm listening to the Libertines, a band I never really listen to. I'm in a mood of sorts, and it's hard to place. It has some nostalgie, and other feelings, the sort of thing that is woken by contact with a past that seemed lost to the mists. Matthias is moving temporarily to Spain to study there for this semester. I'm really happy to hear from him. Also I've heard news about another former major influence in my life, Hisham Khalek.

Hisham is the man who shepherded me through two solid years of Arabic Instruction. He taught me the beauty of the Fus'ha (modern standard Arabic), the poetry of Ancient songs, and the haunting voice of Umm Kul'thum. He's a great professor, who truly knows how to teach, and sees the value in cultural connections.

My news of Hisham came today in my Teaching English as a Second Language class. One of the activities that we had was one of those hideous fake networking things. So, I wandered about the class, asking people what language teaching experience they had, what their L2s were, and their contact information. One of the guys, Nick I think, mentioned taking Arabic. So, I immediately wanted to know if he had taken it in the Twin Cities.

He had, and we proceeded to talk about Hisham. Nick was among the few students to travel with Hisham to his native Lebanon this summer. He lived there at the American University in Beirut, but traveled throughout the country with Hisham. He went from the fundamentalist controlled areas in the North to the Druze mountain villages of Hisham's home, then heading south to view the devastation wrought by the recent wave of Israeli bombing.

This kind of story is the sort to make one jealous. But, that kind of jealousy had little place or time in my heart. The second bit of news about Hisham was significantly more interesting. Hisham Khalek is apparently a virile or quite lucky man. He and his wife conceived another child (at least their 3rd, I know of a high school age daughter and a young son). Conceiving and having a child when in your late 30s or 40s is difficult enough. What makes this more interesting to me, is that his wife had actually just had her tubes tied. He still managed a hat trick though.

School has been pretty amazing so far though. No problems. No alarms, no surprises.

Yeah



song of the day: "Last Post on The Bugle"-The Libertines