1. A place in the article where you have a question - try to make the question relevant to things we've been talking about in class, or relevant to your own life and interests.

One of the most significant interests I have is colonial studies. To paraphrase a famous quote from Malcom X, I find it incredibly interesting to examine the wound left by the knife of colonialism, and how it still effects the global south, in spite of the fact that many people refuse to admit that there is a wound. Through this interest I have learned a decent amount of history about many countries, like Botswana, Egypt, Chile; but what's funny to me (as someone who is Arab) is that I have a huge gap in knowledge when it comes to the history (in particular post-ottoman history) of the Arab world, especially the Levant. So the entire time I was reading this article I was searching in my brain to say if there were any particular conflicts in the area, unfortunately there is a nearly infinite amount of those, that she could be referencing but I couldn't put a finger on it.

All this to say, I am very interested to know which conflicts she has personally experienced in the region.

1. A sentence, expression, or paragraph that you felt told a very important and deep truth - what makes this truth important or special to you?

I think this particular quote really hits at something I consider to be very true and does so in a very literarily rich way. Everyone in our class is bilingual but I'm not sure how many people in our class have dual identities like I do. English and Arabic are not just languages to me they represent two very different parts of my identitity and my life, and so her description of the sometimes visceral nature of translation. I experience it every day, I would say about 50% of the Arabic I understand I don't undertsand through the Arabic language itself, it has to be filtered through and translated into English in my head for me to properly understand it. As for when I am speaking, I would say 80% of the Arabic I speak does not come from words or feelings that naturally come to me from the Arabic language, they come to me in English and I have to translate it. In the process, I feel like the words lose their ability to express my emotions, this stripping of their true meaning is what this quote really captures very well.

1. A sentence, expression, or paragraph that you found beautiful - why is it personally beautiful to you?

I found this particular quote beautiful b/c for whatever reason styrofoam is one of those things thats very tactile-ally memorable to me. Its one of those things whose feeling i can instantly imagine once its called to my attention, and the way the auhor uses it here is really beautiful in my opinion. Its such a great way to convey this unique feeling she is describing, where something is both light but still is a burden and awkard to move with.