Week 16 of My Study Abroad Experience

Hello everyone I hope you all had a great week! I am currently writing this blog post from Malta. This week I finished my first semester studying abroad in Haifa, Israel on Wednesday. The week was very busy due to my final presentation and test for my Modern Standard Arabic class. I am confident that I did well on these finals. My break in between the two semesters has begun and I flew from Tel Aviv to Cyprus on Saturday and then from Cyprus to Malta today. Cyprus was amazing and I hope that I can visit again before I go back to the States. Cyprus is similar to Israel in many ways, but is also different in its own unique way. The food there was amazing and the weather was perfect so I was able to wear a t shirt outside for the first time in months. I am beyond impressed with Malta. The people here are very kind and the scenery is gorgeous. I recommend visiting the city of Valetta if you have the chance to come to Malta. I am looking forward to the rest of the week because I am going to Marrakech, Morocco tomorrow and to Paris, France after that. I am excited to have the opportunity to practice my Arabic language skills in Morocco tomorrow. I am very interested to learn the differences between the Palestinian dialect that I speak in Israel and the Moroccan dialect. I received a taste of a different Arabic dialect today in Malta. My taxi driver spoke Arabic and he was also listening to an Arabic radio station. I noticed slight differences in the accent spoke with and some of the words used but overall I was able understand a good portion of what was said. I also went to Jerusalem this week with my friend Chris from the states and I was able to give him a full tour of the city. Additionally, he was very impressed that I was able to order our food and bargain with the merchants at the market in Arabic. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week and I look forward to sharing more of my experiences with you all.

Valetta, Malta