were interesting. The culture classes were fascinating. The history of the Arab people and their near- conquest of the entire Christian world made one’s head spin. Until now, Joseph had no idea that the majority of people on earth were Muslims, and that at one time they had just about controlled all of Europe. Their empire had spread from the Middle East westward across North Africa to include all of Spain and part of southern France. The empire also spread east to China and north through most of southeastern Europe until Austria. They were an enlightened people interested in science and poetry. He was also taught about several differences within Islam. Learning to read threw him for a loop. He had trouble absorbing not only the different alphabet, but also having to "read backwards." His eyes wanted to go to the upper left hand side of the page. Joseph was not the only one afflicted with in this problem. Most of the students had this problem. Most of them thought that it was silly, and the instructor had to point out that western languages were new to writing using an alphabet. Until they came in contact with the Semitic sea traders, they had no written alphabet of their own. The Semitic alphabet was developed before the use of paper and pen. It was carved into stone, and as most people are right handed, it was hard to carve the letters from left to right. Arabic, being a Semitic language, is still written the old Semitic way, right to left. When the Greeks, and later the Romans, adopted the Semitic alphabet, they changed certain letters, and, after a while, the direction of reading and writing. In fact, as the instructor pointed out, old Greek at one time was written starting in the upper right hand part of the page and going to left. Instead of going back to the right side and starting another line at the end of a line, they just moved down one line and continued to the right. After a while, with the introduction of clay tablets and stylists, it became easier to write and read left to right.

Anyway, by the end of the day, most of the students were in 'culture shock' and had headaches. On top of all this, there was plenty of homework to do. After school let out, Joseph made a few inquiries and was told that he could leave the base at night, as long as he gave them a telephone number where he could be reached in case they had an alert or other emergency. He just had to get a pass and be back by morning roll call at 0800 hours. The telephone number worried him until his next conversation with Richard later that evening, when Rich suggested that he get a cell phone.

"Look don't worry about it, I'll pick up one for you and bring it with me when I come to see you," Richard told him. "Besides, it's a great idea for you to have one, this way we will be able to talk and leave messages for each other. Everything is going to work out fine."

"Yes, but you can't call me when I'm in class, unless it's a real emergency."

"That's one of the real beauties of this thing. You can turn off the ringer and use the caller