University, Eyebrows, Rain, and Nouns (didn't think you could make a title out of those things did ya?)

Yesterday, I took advantage of my day off of language. I spent the morning cleaning the apartment, then in the afternoon I got a tour of one of the major universities in the city. It was beautiful. It was definitly different than the rest of the city here. The university is spacious, and has lots of nice landscape and big trees and a great view. It was odd, cause usually when I am at places like this, dad is taking lots of plant pictures. I almost stopped to take some for him, but then I would definitly look out of place.


Afterwards we went and got our eyebrows done. I know the stereotype here is that everyone has a unibrow, but not at all the case in my country. Although the men's may be a little bushy, all the ladies' are very defined and beautiful. They "thread" here, which means they use this thread to remove the hair. Really hard to describe.

Today, it rained. Have you ever walked in a busy city in the rain with an umbrella? It was definitly a learning process for me. Trying to keep myself dry, not step in the odd puddles formed by uneven sidewalks, and watch to make sure that my umbrella did not poke someone else's eye out all at the same time (in addition to the traffic)!

In Arabic, there are not any rules for pluralization of nouns (ie, tree => trees, box=>boxes). Well actually there is kinda one rule for anytime you have 2 of something. There is a singular noun, a 2 noun, and a plural noun used for nouns 3-10. So, since there are no rules, I have to memorize at least the singular and plural forms of all the nouns. So I get to use my handy-dandy flashcards! (I do admit, that I did have some fun making multicolor flashcards, nerdy, huh?)
For example:
1 house = beit
2 houses = beitein
3-10 houses = byuut

1 brother = xayy
2 brothers = xayyein
3 brothers= Aiwa

1 sister = Aixit
2 sisters = Aixtein
3 sisters = Aixweet