Arabic Word of the Day, and I want to be a Newfoundlander!

My EFL-teaching brother-in-law and sister have been helping me break through my uni-lingual-ness with an "Arabic Word of the Day" program. Here's the formal list of what we've succeeded with so far. (Thanks wikibook!)

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       as salaamu alaikum

        Syllable breakdown: as-sa-laa-mu a-lai-kum

        May Peace be with you Islamic Religious origins and a very common greeting.

wa alaikumu èl salaamu

Syllable breakdown: wa-a-lai-ku-mus-sa-laam

And may peace be with you. It is the response to the above phrase.

 

sħukrân

Syllable breakdown: sħuk-ran

Thank You

yalla

Syllable breakdown: yell-a

Hurry Up!/Let's go

 

kaifa hžaalu-ka

Syllable breakdown: kay-fa-haa-luk

How are you? (informal)

        1 - wahid (١), 2 - ithnan (٢), 3 - thalatha (٣), 4 - arba'a (٤), 5 - khamsa (٥) 

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We also succeeded in using the wrap this week - kangaroo style! I felt that I took one small step to becoming a nanny as baby-savvy as Emilie Taylor, which is a big dream of mine. This is Caleb & I post-afternoon nap. (You know life is pretty sweet when Leona gets a regular afternoon nap!)

Another interesting quality of life in Qatar is the difference in weekly schedules: Friday and Saturday make up the weekend, and Friday is the day when most religious gatherings occur. Isn't that nice! So today we shared a delicious turkey potluck lunch in the home of some of my sister & her husband's colleagues from the College of the North Atlantic. Many/most of those gathered are from Newfoundland (pronounced "NufunLAND"), and I fell deeply in love with Newfoundlander hospitality within the first few minutes of meeting them. The Newfoundlander accents were also pretty charming.
Great conversation. Great turkey (with gravy... mmm!). Great pumpkin pie.

As we sipped freshly ground Starbucks coffee and washed our hands with personally-imported Bath & Body Works hand soap, I marvelled as how much a Canadian world can be re-created in a country as dissimilar to it as Qatar. Several families I am meeting have more than "stinted" in Doha - actually raising their children as ex-pats. It is an interesting experience to learn about Canadian & American schools, and how the sweet children here have responded to relative culture change. I actually have yet to speak with a citizen of Qatar, although I have met Moms from Denmark, the U.K., TEXAS (self-differentiated highlighting is intentional on that one), France and across Canada. Quite neat.