Yay! I got A's for both summer sessions of Arabic! Not like it was surprising or anything (hehe), but I'm gonna take pride in these grades now 'cause I don't expect to see many A's this upcoming semester in any of my non-language courses. Even though I already pre-registered way back when, I still haven't figured out my fall schedule. This sucks. I already know I have to take Arabic and this other course that's required for my major. But that leaves me two other courses I must take and I'm tryna figure do I wanna do both of those in my concentration or one in my elective or what. And then I wanna squeeze Hebrew in there, which I would be auditing. Ugh, I'm dreading this all. One of the classes I'm taking has these certain pre-reqs which I didn't actually fulfill. Hope I don't fail!

Enough of that... I saw this Brazilian film on World Link TV the other day called "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands." Kinda weird. It was a fantasy flick made in 1977 in Portuguese (English subtitles). Something about it reminded me of the movie "Como Agua Para Chocolate". Anyway, the main actress who played Flor is still on TV today. She's on the PBS program called "American Family."

I also watched on the same channel a Tunisian film called "The Silences of the Palace." My Arabic professor had mentioned it in class this summer and said it was good. It was okay. Maybe I just didn't understand the significance of certain things. But I like "Dona Flor" better.

Then, last night (yeah, I'm doing a TV marathon, lol), I watched this kinda documentary called "Naji al-Ali: An Artist with Vision". Naji was a Palestinian cartoonist born in Palestine in the late 30s. His family ended up in a refugee camp in Lebanon with the formation of the racist state of Israel. He was assassinated in London and they still don't know who did it. Scotland Yard didn't figure it out, but speculation points fingers at the Mossad or the PLO. But his cartoons were good. He had a way of portraying social and political situations and sentiments in the Arab world. His works are characterized by this one figure named Hanthala which he places in all of his drawings. Hanthala is a boy and you only see his backside. While everyone may ask, why does he have his back to us? In actuality, he's facing Palestine or he's just turning his back to those have turned their backs on the Palestinians. He's a really great symbol. You should read up on this cartoonist and his works. Just, like, do a Google search for "Naji al-Ali" (there are variations on the spelling of his name).

Man - only 6 more days 'til school starts and I haven't gotten my act together. Damnit. Is it almost winter break yet? 'Cause when it is, I'm gettin' the hell outta here! Just 126 more days ('til I skip town)... :Þ