Schedule, Speaking, Institute, and Pictures

So, I've had some questions about what a typical day is like for me, so here it is:

6 - Wake up, pray, shower, eat, scriptures
7-9 - Newspaper reading homework (we translate one article well and skim 3-5 articles for information)
10 - Issues class (Dr. Khalid speaks with us and teaches about current events and Jordanian stuff)
11 - Presentation class (we take turns giving a prepared, 3 minute presentation on an assigned topic which we record for later critiquing)
12ish-2ish - Speaking (I usually go to Jordanian University and talk to girls sitting around. I've met a lot of friends and talked about their families, mansaf the Friday family food, marriage celebrations, why i'm studying Arabic, and today how one lady wants to change the social system for girls here)
3-3:30 - Speaking or Writing appointment (Ibrahim listens to my presentation or reads a writing sample and helps me improve)
4 - Dil's class (my professor, we talk about logistics, colloquial stuff, news translations, and pep talks)
5-6:30 - break, email, and dinner
7-9 - homework to prepare for the next day's Issues and Presentation class
9 - Get ready for bed

So there's a lot to do, but the homework load is less than i was expecting. my favorite part of the day is speaking.

This has been a great week. I went to Haneen's house to practice Arabic and then English. Her family fed me an amazing rice and chicken dish, but it wasn't mansaf. I met and talked with a 37 year old freshman today. She smokes, which is looked down upon here if you're a woman, so I thought she'd be interesting to talk with. She was. She's a mom of four, but is getting her degree in social work because she wants to change the social outlook on women. She had so many opinions and ideas on materialism and the West creeping into Arab society, why Americans don't learn about the Middle East when her 4^th grader is learning about Thomas Jefferson right now, and how she thinks 90% of the young generation can't read the Qu'ran because they don't understand the old style of language, Fusha. It was great.

I also went to Institute this week. That was great for getting to know branch members and their stories. Ask Mom for more details, but it was really captivating to listen to Arupa's, a Phillipina, experiences with getting out of a really bad working situation and hear Salim's story with joining the church and his very sad story of how he's come to live in Amman. He was from Jerusalem but was picking up his father from the Amman airport with the 1967 war broke out. He has been separated from his family ever since and is only allowed to go back for one month every year. He skips some years because of the expense. 

Here's some random pics from the week and last weekend.

The black and white Abu Darwish Mosque. I talked to some girls out front. Everyone is so friendly and willing to talk here.

Three of my five roommates, Violeta, Kathlene, and Angie. Everyone thinks the former two are Arab. 

The most amazing place: Fruit Salad. So worth the 4 dinars to have fresh fruit, ice cream, and nuts. MWAH to the inventor of that. We ate here and then Angie and I waited for Jarom and his roommate/TA Randell to come try it out.

Hey, Cuz, s'up thug

Randell, Jarom, Angie, and I walking down Rainbow Street at night. One of  Randell's Coptic friends, Andrew, showed us a couple Christian book stores and I bought a dual language Bible, or, Al-Kitab Al-Muqadisa.

What really happens in the kitchen

There is a great inequality in ease of finding speaking partners for men and women in the Middle East. Men can strike up conversations easily with any man anywhere. Women are generally more reserved and at home. So Kirk, one of our teachers, tries to point out the perks women have in speaking here. "I've never gotten in the kitchen," he cries, "my daughter has been in the kitchen and she has gotten to hear things I've only dreamed of."

So, this is my first-hand experience of what REALLY goes on in the kitchen.

Apparently getting flashed and felt up isn't outside the realm of "what happens in the kitchen." :) :) :)

(Keep in mind I'm laughing every time I tell or type this story). Jessica and I went back to visit the Iraqi lady, Selma or Um Akhmad, we'd met on the street while asking for directions. We caught her cooking lunch, and when she sat down with us, she said she'd done house work all day. "I cleaned the house, the floors, the laundry isn't put away yet, I haven't even gotten dressed for the day, see!" Flash. Yep, she certainly hadn't gotten dress for the day yet. Crazy.

Later, we followed her into her room and finally figured out she was choosing her clothes for the day. I wasn't sure if she said she had underwear on or not, but seeing as how a lot of underwear was hanging up to dry and that she hadn't put a bra on that day, I didn't want to find out. We started to leave the room and she said, "Normal, normal" it's normal to drop your pants in front of people you just met. I said I was shy and we both left and waited outside the room. Phew, dodged that one.

But to nicely "round" out our first experience in the kitchen, Selma offered me one of her blouses. I tried to politely refuse her gift. She tried to tell and show me that the shirt was too small for her and indicated by sizing up her chest, then indicated to me, by sizing up my chest, that it'd for sure fit me.

I sat back and supressed a smile and thought, wow, that just happened. Ha ha hahah.

It was the funniest thing in the world. I told my roommates and friends, guys and girls, and we all had a good laugh. Here's a picture of my "bosom" friend.

Selma, me, and Jessica. We think she is just really lonely. She just has her one grown son and some neighbors and that's it. She's the most hospitable person I've been with here. We couldn't leave her "kitchen" until she'd cooked us a full meal and fed us a bunch of appetizers too. She's nice.

al Iraq al Emir

This weekend, my teacher, Dil, and decided to visit Wadi as-Seer and al Iraq al Emir and invited any students who wanted to go to come along. Wadi Seer is just a sub urb area with more trees where you can catch a bus to Al Iraq al Emir. (If my variation in spelling and capitalizing Arabic place names bugs you, just know that transliteration is not a correct science. Gaddafi's name used to be Qadafi :)  that blip was for Nancy). We started in these caves from before Christ where Isrealites had carved out the room and even sections that looked like crown molding. There were ancient Hebrew inscriptions in the walls too.

This is the countryside all this was set in. We were surrounded by pomegranite, olive, and fig trees. Figs are surprisingly delicious. Nothing like fig newtons.

This is the group. Notice Dil, our professor and resident legend with us. Andrew, you would love him. We love him, strictness and everything.

We visited a women's co-op where they made crafts and selling them supported their families. It was cool and hearing Dil translate obscure words only added to his mystique.

You can see the animals on the top frieze from here.  The corner is supposed to be an eagle.

The ruin at Iraq al Emir was a 1^st and 2^nd century villa or fortified palace. We scrambled around, ate lunch, and climbed them. There were large animal friezes on top that looked like the Babylonian ruins.

Food, Football, and Friends

So we've had a lot of fun. Arabs are completely open (to members of the same sex) and inclined to make friends. I have a lot of fun meeting new people, laughing with them, communicating bad and laughing with them until i get it right. A guy in the Jordanian Walmart spent 15 minutes helping understand milk fats. Here's some stuff i've been up to. if you have specific questions, let me know.

Us at Mustafa's house, a neighbor. He invited us for dinner because it was Jessica's birthday (far right). It was delicious

 The Jordanian national anthem at the game. Sorry for the shotty camera work. I liked the sense of how many shabab there were and how strange it must have been to be a family group there.

In the soccer stadium. One of Robert's shabab friends gave me the bandana.

Esra'a and Ghadeer, friends I met today on campus. Ghadeer lives in a neighboring town, but invited me over to learn to make mansaf and meet her friends and family

Hey 

Dead Sea and the Middle East's This is the Place

It's been brought to my attention by multiple sources that my comment that the first baptism ever didn't occur in Jordan River. Sorry. The thought in my head was that Christianity as its known today started with that baptism in Jordan. That's correct that the first baptism was not in Jordan.

Jarom and I with the Jordan at our backs. It's just a green-water ditch at this time of year with all the water usage upstream, but I got to touch the water. I have a thing with touching rivers that have been important or historical, so now Jordan's on the list :)

"This is the place?" Just a funny, non-sacreligous reference to God's promised lands being deserts. He wants us to work hard, I guess. This is from the top of Mt. Nebo looking down into Western Jordan and Eastern Israel. The large green patch is Jordan, beyond is probably not visible but it's the Jordan River, then Jericho.

It was effortless floating in the Dead Sea. I tried putting my feet down to flip over to my back but was too buoyant, so I just rolled over. Once on my back, I pretended to be a superhero and had a friend push on my feet to launch me forward. It was fun, but I got some salt water in my mouth and it was all kinds of nasty. ;)

In Jordan is a place called the Citadel where on one of the tallest hills, civilizations have built things from the Pre-Neolithic period to the Middle Ages. So there's a bunch of ruins. This is a Roman column. My favorite part was looking around at the city. It consists of packed, steep, rolling hills covered with low-rise, yellow residential buildings. You could see people's laundry on roof tops and a lot of other more well-known sites as well. 

I'm here and not so different

We had a long, site seeing tour in Frankfurt then boarded the plane for Amman. I arrived at my nicer-than-anything-I-had-in-Provo apartment Wednesday morning at 4 and the next day we went shopping in the Balad for apartment stuff. Today we're off to the Dead Sea and other sites. Friday is the Sabbath and Sunday we start classes. This is me outside a mosque in the Balad region of town.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

My friend, Coryse, is picking me up to go to the airport in a couple minutes. I'm excited! I don't have nearly as much fear or anxiety as I thought I would. I did another study abroad in London a few years ago and I was really nervous for that. I'm not nervous for Jordan, despite knowing it will be a lot harder and more rigorous due to studying Arabic. We'll be taking 16.5 credits of Arabic as part of our third year in the language, my major being Middle East Studies/Arabic. I want to work in diplomacy eventually.

Today, my body let me know I'm under a little bit of stress, but my sick stomach went away pretty fast. It reminded me of when I was serving a mission and suddenly got a lot of callings at the same time when I felt I was pretty young and inexperienced. I had an upset stomach all the way from Jackson to Rexburg and just sang "How Firm a Foundation" with my comp. I did it again today and it calmed me down quickly. I'm excited. My next post will be from Jordan!

This is a first and experimental blogpost. I'm flying out to Jordan in four days and will arrive there in 6 days! Here's a picture from the summer.