First day of classes

My classes start this evening at 5 PM. This means that now the school office is open. The school is just up a set of stairs. It seems very small. I went there and Manal in the reception remembered my name - she said because she would see it when she emailed me. Funny how it makes me happy to be remembered. I bought my books $30 each. 

Here's a photo of the school reception area with its Christmas tree. 

  

Class started tonight. We are seven students. I'm the only American. There are two Dutch women (not together), a German woman, a Greek guy, and a married couple where one is from Panama and one is from Mexico. There was another guy from London who is married to a Palestinian. He understood a lot of things, but couldn't conjugate the verbs. After about 40 minutes, my teacher looked at his book and told him he was in the wrong class. He's supposed to be in Beginner. He said that he was getting worried when he saw everyone else writing in Arabic. Now he is in a class where he is learning the alphabet. I like my teacher a lot. Her name is Sara and she has a little boy who is two years old. She is very funny and also patient. I often say something in standard Arabic and she just tells me the way to say it in Levantine. The other students seem to have only studied Levantine. Most have been here longer than I have and everyone is staying longer than I am. 

I was worried that the class might be too hard because I don't know Levantine, but it's the right level for me - not too hard and not too easy. Now, I do have lots to study, so I'll start on that.