Authored by Alex Bare

When I say I’m “out here in the desert,” I’m not kidding. Someone told me the last time it rained was 10 months ago, but it HAS sprinkled a couple times. All the mosques are constantly praying for rain. Ibri is located just outside the largest sand desert in the world, the Empty Quarter, and as one of my instructors put it, “Ibri is famous for the color brown.”

I am now deep into my intensive Arabic language studies at the Noor Majan Training Institute (pronounced “Noor Magán”), so it’s about time I give a glimpse into academic life here in the sultanate.

It’s 4 a.m. Omani time and I just finished suhoor, a.k.a. pre-sunrise breakfast. With some encouragement from Muslim friends back in the U.S., I have dedicated myself to abstaining from eating or drinking from sun up to sun down, as the whole Muslim world does during the Ramadan holy month.

After three days of orientation, 18 hours on planes, and two hours driving, I am finally in Ibri, Sultanate of Oman! This summer, I will be studying intensive Arabic (both Modern Standard and Omani Dialect) at the Noor Majan Institute after being awarded a Critical Language Scholarship through the U.S. State Department.

After disappearing from my weekly blog for two months (sorry, UI International Programs!!), I wanted to leave some final thoughts on my time in Bolivia.

Although my daily life in Bolivia is so much more than a class schedule, I want to describe what college is like in Cochabamba. It’s (almost) perfect and I (almost) never speak English. From indigenous languages to week-long field trips, my class schedule is anything but dull. Here’s a look at my classes

I know I promised to deliver a blog about my classes this week, but consider that cancelled for the moment. Instead, I feel it is necessary to discuss my past week in Potosí. I’m fortunate to be studying here on a program that takes us to 6 major cities of Bolivia and even into parts of the countryside. I was not, however, mentally prepared for Potosí.

It’s now been a week since I moved in with my host family and began classes in Cochabamba! Much has changed in this short time both for me and Bolivia as a whole. With that, I want to take a moment to touch on what’s been going on in the heart of South America.

Bolivia is not even close to being a popular study abroad location for American students. You will seldom see it advertised at study abroad fairs (although the number of programs for American students recently increased from one to two). Rarer yet will you hear from actual alumni of such a program.