I add an afterthought

Two things about my homestay that I thought were funny:

On the first day, when walking about town, I ran into one of the other students doing a homestay who is in the intermediate class and had a better idea about what was going on. We were each being led around by a rather large group of children. She told me, "they're laughing because they have two of us!"

Also, I had a bonding moment with my "mom" Zoha on Saturday when we laughed at the fact that we both had really big holes in our shoes. That was one of my favorite moments I think. We were sort of sitting out on the stoop... by which I mean the end of the alley where the family's rooms were. We did that a lot, and a lot of other people were sitting out their stoops as well. There's not a lot to do in such a small town as that, and the women don't really work per se, so there's a lot of socializing with the neighbors and relatives. Apparently pretty much everyone in that town is related. Zoha held my hand a lot too, whenever we went anywhere. People hold hands a lot here, and personal space is pretty much reduced to nothing compared with the U.S.

Anyway, I was going to keep a written journal while I was here, but that didn't last more than three days, so this has become my journal of my trip as well as a way of sharing my adventures with everyone. Sorry if I'm writing boring stuff, but I want to be able to remember it later.