La Vita Grassa: October 2006

The Cutest Niece in the World

Of course...I'm not biased at all... but I do believe I have the cutest, brightest little niece in the world. Gracia Virginia.

With her cousin

GG, Mommy and Daddy (my gorgeous sis-in-law Laura, and my dear bro Nathan)

War paint on for kitchen duty

Hayrides with her Momma

She's a born celebrity.

Somebody knows how to tie her shoes "all by myself".

Language test

In June we were supposed to take a language-proficiency test in Arabic. I tested at Intermediate-High. That was the same score I received six months previous, after 10 weeks in country. Not impressed.

I retook the test this past weekend. I scored an Advanced-Medium. "You're fluent, I feel like I'm speaking to a Moroccan!" Was the gentleman's comment after we got done with the formal discussion sessions. Yay! I can speak Arabic.

(Of course, there are always terrible days when I don't feel like I can articulate "How are you?" and vocabulary potential is endless when Classical Arabic is added to the picture, and some days I realize I don't know some silly word like "soft" and wonder how I think I can speak a language at all when I don't know such a basic word.)