arabic again

i just got back from arabic class. next class is my last--at least at penn. i've tapped out the classes they offer at night. i've spent the last month or two lobbying to have a 3rd year evening class added to the schedule. first, the asian and middle eastern studies department told me there was not enough interest, then after i found 7 people who were interested in a class, i won them over. but then the college of general studies (the place in the penn bureaucracy where these night classes live) nixed the idea saying they didn't have the budget to add another class. i tried appealing that further (i got in a brief email exchange with the CGS office), but basically once people start saying they can't git it in the budget, i've basically lost. the arabic department gave me a list of tutors as a consolation prize, so my latest project is to find one to meet with a group of us over the summer. i've written before about the periodic roadblocks i have run into in my arabic studies. the further i go the more unthinkable it is to stop. basically, i know enought to feel like i am on the cusp of real understanding. at the same time i am well aware that it would only take a few months before i forget almost everything i have learned so far if i stop.