Letter in Arabic

Our homework for Arabic class last week was to write a letter in Arabic. This was pretty difficult, since this was our class's first attempt at authentic language use. Also, we haven't studied word forms; for example, I only know verbs in the first person and the third person masculine, so all of the verbs in my letter are in those forms (hopefully, if I even got them right). Nevertheless I am reproducing the letter here so you can see how miserably slow my progress has been.

In the name of God, the compassionate, the caring.	بسم اللّه الرحمن الرحيم
My dear,	عزيزي
Hello! How are you? My name is Marjorie Carlson. I am from America, but I live in Doha, Qatar. I am a teacher at Carnegie Mellon University.	السلام عليكم! كيف حالك؟ انا إسمي مارجري كارلسون. انا من أمريكه، لاكن انا أسكن في الدوحه، قطر. انا مدرّسة في الجامعة كارنيجي ميلون
In Doha, my address is (in?) _______ Compound. My husband Justin and I live on the second floor, and our friend David and our friend Lanny [he] lives on the first floor.	في الدوحه، عنوابي على(؟) مجمّع ______. زوجي جوستين وانا أسكن في الدور الثاني، و صدقنا داوود و صدقتنا لاني تسكن في الدور ألاوّل
My family lives in America. I have a father and a mother and a dog in a town in California. I also have [word that was meant to be the dual form of "sister," but failed -- no, I did get it right!] two sisters and a brother. Soon I will visit my family, God willing.	عائلتي تسكن في أمريكه. لي أب و أم و كلبي في قريه في كاليفورنيا. أيضاً لي أختين (؟) و أخ. قريبا سازور عائلتي، إن شاء اللّه
And you -- what is your name? Where are you from, and what do you do?	و انت - ما إسمك؟ من أين إنت، و ماذا تعمل؟
Goodbye!	!مع السلامة
-Marjorie	مارجري-

So that's it, folks! This is as far as I've gotten in two semesters of Arabic classes 2-4 times a week.

Laundronet

This is a flyer we were given at our hostel in Rome, for a local laundromat/internet cafe.



There are two reasons I find this amusing. The first is that every load of laundry gets you 15 minutes online, an Indian tea and, yes, a free shot. Because nothing goes with laundry like websurfing, chai and vodka.

The second reason I find the flyer amusing is that Rome Friendship Laundromat actually doesn't have any washing machines any more. You see, last summer Italy passed an anti-terrorism act that requires internet cafes to photocopy customers' passports, track their internet activity, and report that information to the police. This requires a substantial investment in both hardware and software, which naturally leads to there being fewer, larger internet cafes. Hostels like ours, that used to offer free internet access in-house but that can no longer do so legally, instead refer their business to places like Rome Friendship Laundromat. So out with the washers and dryers, and in with more computers -- if you can afford the initial outlay, it's much more lucrative.