School for real?!

Alhamdulillah--it looks like I will be able to go to school this semester!! So have to catch up on my homework! I'm still planning to help with the dawah table--inshaAllah, but I just can't afford to spend as much time as I did last semester on it. The coordinator wants us to have it every week... and while that's a noble intention, I just am not sure we have the manpower. Do people care? Will they even show up? I felt like last semester the burden fell almost squarely on myself and another sister, who by the end were the only ones helping. Not to mention at the beginning of the semester it was me and a brother doing most of the work after some original volunteers bailed. It's hard to be enthusiatic when you feel like you are doing extra work and most of the people you're working with don't seem to care.

My computer is currently under the weather... not sure if I mentioned this previously. A new power supply is on it's way and should arrive by early next week, inshaAllah, and then I suppose I can try my hand at replacing it. In the meantime, I am workign way too much this week. I think in total this week, from last Saturday through this Friday, I'll have worked 47 hours and gone to class, and on top of that Monday was a holiday. I am physically and mentally exhausted, not from anything that was especially taxing itself but just from the endurance of the entire weak. I've been getting up at 4 to go work in the lab, then going to class or work afterwards. And after work, going home basically. Last night I worked an extra hour for someone and then hung out up there a little bit longer. I want to sleep, I want to work out... anything but sit in front of a computer! So I guess it's a good thing mine's busted.

My Arabic class is coming along every so slowly... since Ramadan we've learned alif, baa, taa, thaa, haa, khaa, and jeem. And kasrah, fathah and dammah, plus a few conversational phrases like, ahlan wa sahlan, hadratuk(i) ismuk(i), and ana min medinat __. Seven letters though... this is kinda silly. There's a long way to go. Granted, I did try to learn most of the letters over the summer (yeah, last summer) so I can read a little bit better while my pronunciation is awful. I'm making a point to try to read out Arabic when I see it, to understand it... but that's not especially often.

The exam for ING speaker certification is coming up next Saturday, so I'm re-reading the booklet/kit with the guidelines, script, and FAQ's to practice up. It would be fun to try to teach the real basics of Islam in a school once in a while so I hope there is a demand here for speakers. InshaAllah I'll pass and be able to move along.

I spent most of the break certain that paying for this semester would be nearly impossible so ruled out participating in the sorority. Now that tuition isn't going to be a problem, I suppose I could still remain active, but my heart isn't really in it, I can't devote anything to it to really help--and I feel when I'm there that I should, and need to. So even though I could, I think I won't participate this time around. InshaAllah that will keep me relieved of extra stress. It used to be a kind of outlet--to go hang out with girls who actually understood how hard my classes were. Girls who were on the same level--especially when mostly I was seeing guys anyway. But now since I spend so much time with girls (granted, not usually the same kinds of conversations) in general, it's not important to me. And since I have pretty much stopped socializing with any guys here at school, I don't feel like I need a change. Yes, my classes are still full of boys, but I don't find myself talking to them as much.

That's quite a bit of catching up... I should finish the 'between extremes' thought before I forget it! So inshaAllah.......

Thanks for reading
Ma'salama :-)