Hello Pigee,
I am in the same situation as you. I will be here for 4 years, and I am trying to study some Arabic basic stuff. I found a good website for self-stuy madinaarabic.com you should check it out. It's step by step and free. All you need is to put some time and effort into it. I think Arabic isdifficult and time-consuming but I will try as much as possible to memorize the words. I plan to finish all the 27 lessons on offer, which should keep me occupied for a couple more months, then I plan to find some language tuition instructors or maybe language exchange with some people on this board. In any case, let's keep in touch and maybe we can help each other in the future. I also know a Libyan guy from this board who used to live in Italy for 20 years and speaks fluent Italian. Maybe he would be interested in teaching you some Arabic, but I'll ask him about it first.
Cheers,
Vee