chalas!! I'm done!! I can live again! :D
Summary of the past few days: Monday was fusha speaking with Aliya which went really well. I could actually understand her and speak this time. I can't believe how much better I've gotten since midterms.
The day actually sarted at 4:30 when I woke up because my stomach was bothering me. That's only important because by 12 it was hurting so much that I had my next final switched and went home. Thankfully I felt better by Tuesday because that's when I had Saleh's fusha exam. That was actually a disappointment, I didnt' feel like I had as good a handle on everything as I would've liked. But whatever, what's done is done, and hopefully I didn't do any worse than the other students.
Today, Wednesday: my make-up exam for Water was at 10:30. By just after 11 I had finished it, read it through, and handed it into Stewart (who was proctoring the exam because my professor was sick). But that's ok because it turns out the longest anyone took was 45 minutes. And this is 40% of my grade? oookay......I think I did pretty well though. Next was Amiyya at 12:30, which was a nice exam. Challenging but not too much and I knew almost everything. There are only 2 things that I know for sure I got wrong but that's because they weren't in the book and she told us to only learn the stuff from the book. At least one I know everyone got wrong/left blank. Third was Islam which we had to answer 5/7 short essay questions and I also think I did well on that one. We'll see of course, no guarantees, but I'm feeling pretty good about it all.
Now a few days of rest, packing, a christmas concert (insha'allah), a goodbye party, and mom and Molly come up the 20th! DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Dictionary of Lilahspeak
You thought it was hard to understand me before? Well now I have another language to add to the mix! So here's a little dictionary if you feel like it for when I come home. I'll be updating it randomly (ie whenever I need a study break in the next few days) so if you want to understand me when I come home, just check it out every now and then.
-yaani: um, like
-insha'allah: literally "god willing". For example, insha'allah I'll do well on my exams. Or I'm going to Turkey after this, insha'allah (assuming there's no war, natural disaster, etc. anything could happen.)
-alhamdulilleh (shortened hamdulilleh): thank god
-moomkin: maybe
-shwei: an all-around word; some translations include ish, sorta, a little, eh, etc.
-yalla: same as hebrew, hurry up!
-shookran: thank you
-afwan: welcome
-ahlan/marhaban: hi/hello/etc
-sahha!: bless you (for sneeze or cough. isn't it great? they actually have something to say for coughs!)
-walla!?: omg! truly/seriously?
-anjad?: are you serious?
-helu/helweh: cute/pretty
-zaki: tasty
-ma bidi: i don't want to (often followed by a pout)
-meen: literally who, probably will be "who's there?"
-harram: forbidden/can't
-wasta: connections. very very important.
-amiyya: colloquial dialect; one of my classes
-fusha: Modern Standard Arabic; 1 grade but 3 of my classes
...to be continued
-yaani: um, like
-insha'allah: literally "god willing". For example, insha'allah I'll do well on my exams. Or I'm going to Turkey after this, insha'allah (assuming there's no war, natural disaster, etc. anything could happen.)
-alhamdulilleh (shortened hamdulilleh): thank god
-moomkin: maybe
-shwei: an all-around word; some translations include ish, sorta, a little, eh, etc.
-yalla: same as hebrew, hurry up!
-shookran: thank you
-afwan: welcome
-ahlan/marhaban: hi/hello/etc
-sahha!: bless you (for sneeze or cough. isn't it great? they actually have something to say for coughs!)
-walla!?: omg! truly/seriously?
-anjad?: are you serious?
-helu/helweh: cute/pretty
-zaki: tasty
-ma bidi: i don't want to (often followed by a pout)
-meen: literally who, probably will be "who's there?"
-harram: forbidden/can't
-wasta: connections. very very important.
-amiyya: colloquial dialect; one of my classes
-fusha: Modern Standard Arabic; 1 grade but 3 of my classes
...to be continued
Thursday, December 10, 2009
b'sura
This really does need to be a quick update. Sooooo busy!! Ok, so the last update was the 4th...Friday...
Sunday was the 1st Host Family Dinner for the AL students (I'm in LC, language and culture. AL is purely language though I don't think it actually stands for All Language... :P ). It was also our 1st dabka show. Went sooo well!! In the regular Jordanian way, we all met at 6:30 or 6:45, and our leader, Ala, got there at like 7:15. Which meant no practicing beforehand. Then the dinner "started" at 8 and we danced after salads at...9, 9:15. We didn't have the space we were thinking of so we danced in the middle of the host families and did it twice so we could face everyone. Lot of fun. Lots of fun. Then tues was my 1st final in listening, which went terribly. It was NOTHING like the last one. But I don't feel like I failed any worse than anyone else, and everything here is on a curve, so I think I did acceptably. And anyway, it's really hard to do well in a class you hate and know you're gonna fail anyway. Then was MY host family dinner, which went FANTASTICALLY! But again, nothing like what was planned. We danced again, which was superb. [the next few names I'm going to throw out are other students at CIEE and my friends.] Then Rose sang and Joanna accompanied her; they were really good but we had no microphone and the restaurant was loud. So they had to sing 2 or 3 times; Yoo yoo (Joseph but called Yoo Yoo by my class thanks to Saleh) played his song in 2 of the sections, and I sang in 2 of them. I did well and everyone loved it, despite the fact that I had to practically scream it and because I was doing it without music I didn't have my starting notes. That made the song a bit interesting sometimes. But as I hear everyone was just so excited I knew the words and was singing this famous song that no one cared.
Today was the Re-entry orientation and Arabic post-test. The post-test was actually good because it showed me I actually learned something this semester! Of course there were questions that I had no idea, and by the end I just started circling the pretty letters cuz I was sick of it. But I understood much more than at the beginning of the semester. AND the speaking was MUCH easier. The speaking section was hilarious--I switched off almost every other word fusha-amiyya. But Najeh, the head of the department and a really sweet guy, didn't care. It was great.
As for re-entry orientation, Allison pointed out some good points, though not much that I didn't know already. It's gonna be HARD coming back! I'm kinda nervous about it, especially the Wes social life. But I'm still very very ready to be home. 10 days till mom and Molly get here!!!! and counting! :)
2 finals on Monday, 1 on Tues, 2 on Wednesday, and chalas!! Next update will be after that.
ps. ...I'm listening to a Daft Punk song on my computer and a child's toy playing "how much is that doggie in the window" outside my room.....really really weird mix....
Sunday was the 1st Host Family Dinner for the AL students (I'm in LC, language and culture. AL is purely language though I don't think it actually stands for All Language... :P ). It was also our 1st dabka show. Went sooo well!! In the regular Jordanian way, we all met at 6:30 or 6:45, and our leader, Ala, got there at like 7:15. Which meant no practicing beforehand. Then the dinner "started" at 8 and we danced after salads at...9, 9:15. We didn't have the space we were thinking of so we danced in the middle of the host families and did it twice so we could face everyone. Lot of fun. Lots of fun. Then tues was my 1st final in listening, which went terribly. It was NOTHING like the last one. But I don't feel like I failed any worse than anyone else, and everything here is on a curve, so I think I did acceptably. And anyway, it's really hard to do well in a class you hate and know you're gonna fail anyway. Then was MY host family dinner, which went FANTASTICALLY! But again, nothing like what was planned. We danced again, which was superb. [the next few names I'm going to throw out are other students at CIEE and my friends.] Then Rose sang and Joanna accompanied her; they were really good but we had no microphone and the restaurant was loud. So they had to sing 2 or 3 times; Yoo yoo (Joseph but called Yoo Yoo by my class thanks to Saleh) played his song in 2 of the sections, and I sang in 2 of them. I did well and everyone loved it, despite the fact that I had to practically scream it and because I was doing it without music I didn't have my starting notes. That made the song a bit interesting sometimes. But as I hear everyone was just so excited I knew the words and was singing this famous song that no one cared.
Today was the Re-entry orientation and Arabic post-test. The post-test was actually good because it showed me I actually learned something this semester! Of course there were questions that I had no idea, and by the end I just started circling the pretty letters cuz I was sick of it. But I understood much more than at the beginning of the semester. AND the speaking was MUCH easier. The speaking section was hilarious--I switched off almost every other word fusha-amiyya. But Najeh, the head of the department and a really sweet guy, didn't care. It was great.
As for re-entry orientation, Allison pointed out some good points, though not much that I didn't know already. It's gonna be HARD coming back! I'm kinda nervous about it, especially the Wes social life. But I'm still very very ready to be home. 10 days till mom and Molly get here!!!! and counting! :)
2 finals on Monday, 1 on Tues, 2 on Wednesday, and chalas!! Next update will be after that.
ps. ...I'm listening to a Daft Punk song on my computer and a child's toy playing "how much is that doggie in the window" outside my room.....really really weird mix....
Friday, December 4, 2009
2 more weeks!
Oh my god time flies!!!! First, Thanksgiving was SUCH a huge success!! A little under 25 people came, there was tons of delicious food, and everyone had a good time. After all the pre-stress, it was perfect.
Israel was also really good, though not amazing. It was SOOO nice seeing Rachel and the Schvimer's. It was also a breath of fresh air to celebrate Shabbat. If there's one thing I've learned while I'm here, it's that I can't live for a long period of time again without being Jewish. I've really really missed it. I also had 3-dimensional, fluffy bread! Not pitas! and bagels!!! Mmmmmmm P: There were a lot of striking differences between Israel and Jordan. That was one, all the GREEN was another. And all the sex shops and strip clubs. Tel Aviv has REALLY gotten out of control, there were at least one of those per street.
I was so out of place the first day! Turns out, in my dozen-plus years of learning Hebrew, I actually learned it. I could understand words, and on the whole understand people speaking in Hebrew almost better than I can in Jordan! But if I wanted to speak in Hebrew, even something as basic as "todah," I couldn't. It was SUCH a huge struggle to think of the Hebrew word. So I had to force myself to speak in English, which when I'm surrounded by a foreign language is not so easy. What was funny, though, was the realization that no one else could even read Hebrew! Never really occured to me that this was a completely foreign alphabet. The first night a group of us from CIEE who crossed the border together went to a Mexican restaurant and our check was completely in Hebrew. I had to sound out every little thing, and thank god it was all food like "fajita", but at least I could read it. Colin, my travel partner, and I ran into them again the next morning and they said "why weren't you with us for breakfast? we couldn't read the check!" It also got easier as we went along, and we spent a lot of time (too much time) in the Old City where probably 90% of the sellers were Palestinian. So we sp0ke to them in Arabic.
I came home Monday expecting people to be here, as usual, and to need to be social; I was not expecting 20 people at my house!! Hadil, Shireen's daughter who lives in Saudi Arabia, and her husband and child are in town. They came in for the Eid and are leaving I think on the 16th. Which means my house is crazy every day now. That also means I may be coming home later because I have work to do! The end of the year is completely crazy; Dabka dancing at the host family dinners Sun and Tues night, I'm also singing for my dinner on Tues; regular work; first final is this coming Tuesday and the next week I have 5 finals; dinner with Aamer (it's rude to refuse when someone offers you dinner, and I'm kind of ditching 2); being social and being a member of this family; a presentation in my Water class on Monday; and other stuff. CRAZY!! And then molly and mom come up I'm so excited!!! Off to Turkey!! But Hadil here also means there's an ADORABLE baby to play with. Zaid is so cute!!!! :) Up till god knows what hour, but adorable nonetheless.
The other night we had dinner at Tata Hana's house, where the Japanese exchange student Ayumi lives. She's afraid of balloons. This is a problem because next Saturday we're going to have a joint birthday party for Laith and goodbye party for me and Ayumi. And you can't have a bday party without balloons. Shireen and Hana both know a little broken English; enough to be understood but they're not good and don't really understand themselves. Ayumi's English is just as good, and although she's a level above me in Arabic her speaking skills are about as good as her English skills. So for some reason, they had me come over and Shireen and Hana spoke to me in broken English and told me to tell it to Ayumi. I guess it is easier for me because I can understand what they're trying to say and understand all the accents, and even if all parties are saying the EXACT same thing they can understand my accent the best. But oh my god I should not be a mediator for English to English!! It's annoying but also funny.
Cleaning time, and very few people in the house. Let's see if I can get a huge chunk of homework done. Ready, set, go!
Israel was also really good, though not amazing. It was SOOO nice seeing Rachel and the Schvimer's. It was also a breath of fresh air to celebrate Shabbat. If there's one thing I've learned while I'm here, it's that I can't live for a long period of time again without being Jewish. I've really really missed it. I also had 3-dimensional, fluffy bread! Not pitas! and bagels!!! Mmmmmmm P: There were a lot of striking differences between Israel and Jordan. That was one, all the GREEN was another. And all the sex shops and strip clubs. Tel Aviv has REALLY gotten out of control, there were at least one of those per street.
I was so out of place the first day! Turns out, in my dozen-plus years of learning Hebrew, I actually learned it. I could understand words, and on the whole understand people speaking in Hebrew almost better than I can in Jordan! But if I wanted to speak in Hebrew, even something as basic as "todah," I couldn't. It was SUCH a huge struggle to think of the Hebrew word. So I had to force myself to speak in English, which when I'm surrounded by a foreign language is not so easy. What was funny, though, was the realization that no one else could even read Hebrew! Never really occured to me that this was a completely foreign alphabet. The first night a group of us from CIEE who crossed the border together went to a Mexican restaurant and our check was completely in Hebrew. I had to sound out every little thing, and thank god it was all food like "fajita", but at least I could read it. Colin, my travel partner, and I ran into them again the next morning and they said "why weren't you with us for breakfast? we couldn't read the check!" It also got easier as we went along, and we spent a lot of time (too much time) in the Old City where probably 90% of the sellers were Palestinian. So we sp0ke to them in Arabic.
I came home Monday expecting people to be here, as usual, and to need to be social; I was not expecting 20 people at my house!! Hadil, Shireen's daughter who lives in Saudi Arabia, and her husband and child are in town. They came in for the Eid and are leaving I think on the 16th. Which means my house is crazy every day now. That also means I may be coming home later because I have work to do! The end of the year is completely crazy; Dabka dancing at the host family dinners Sun and Tues night, I'm also singing for my dinner on Tues; regular work; first final is this coming Tuesday and the next week I have 5 finals; dinner with Aamer (it's rude to refuse when someone offers you dinner, and I'm kind of ditching 2); being social and being a member of this family; a presentation in my Water class on Monday; and other stuff. CRAZY!! And then molly and mom come up I'm so excited!!! Off to Turkey!! But Hadil here also means there's an ADORABLE baby to play with. Zaid is so cute!!!! :) Up till god knows what hour, but adorable nonetheless.
The other night we had dinner at Tata Hana's house, where the Japanese exchange student Ayumi lives. She's afraid of balloons. This is a problem because next Saturday we're going to have a joint birthday party for Laith and goodbye party for me and Ayumi. And you can't have a bday party without balloons. Shireen and Hana both know a little broken English; enough to be understood but they're not good and don't really understand themselves. Ayumi's English is just as good, and although she's a level above me in Arabic her speaking skills are about as good as her English skills. So for some reason, they had me come over and Shireen and Hana spoke to me in broken English and told me to tell it to Ayumi. I guess it is easier for me because I can understand what they're trying to say and understand all the accents, and even if all parties are saying the EXACT same thing they can understand my accent the best. But oh my god I should not be a mediator for English to English!! It's annoying but also funny.
Cleaning time, and very few people in the house. Let's see if I can get a huge chunk of homework done. Ready, set, go!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I'm so ready for Thanksgiving.
Who would have thought that November came up so quickly this year? It still feels like early fall.
I've been having a successful semester so far. It's incredible to think about what I'm learning here--what I've learned about my students, my host teacher, teachers in grad school, all of it.
It's making me think a lot about post-college plans. People have been telling me to just go through with the idea of teaching. Go to a graduate school to get a master's degree in two years. I still have a lot to think about, though, so I'm not making any final plans yet.
I got all my classes for next semester! Very exciting. It'll be a good Spring.
This weekend I spent some time with family, walking around the West Side, eating a lot of tasty meals.
Last weekend Todd was here, and we had such a great time! We went to Katz' on the Lower East Side, and we also went to see Where the Wild Things Are. Max was able to drive him here and back home, which was great. It was also great to meet Max's family for their Sunday brunch.
My final projects look like this:
Modern Literacy: Research question -- How do interactive read alouds (read alouds that involve the listeners) affect reading comprehension?
---------I have to do a report on that, based on my "action research."
Family, Child, Teacher Interactions: Design a website for parents and teachers to use.
Practice & Theory: I get to make a video of my classroom and my final project. I'm having the students write their own ballads based on the historic figures that they've found in biographies. We've been reading ballads aloud and talking about themes in them as well as themes in the biographies. This has led to discussions on ballad structure, ballad storytelling, legends...it's been pretty great. My presentation will ultimately have a powerpoint, poster and everything.
Storytelling: Tell stories to the children!
Well, that's all. I'm hoping to be able to come back to Wes the weekend before my final project is due for the Practice & Theory. Also, if anyone wants to come see my presentation, it's on Wednesday, December 16. This, I believe, is during reading week. All are welcome, and please please please, let me know if you want more details.
I miss you all so much!
Moomkin
Moomkin means "maybe". For example, "maybe" I'll go to Israel this Eid. And "maybe" I'll see a sacrifice. I learned about 2 days ago that no one in my family is doing a sacrifice, they're all paying someone else to do it for them. (It's much cheaper; there's one group that you can pay them and they'll sacrifice in your honor.) Sooo, instead, I'm going to Israel with my friend Colin starting on Thursday. I'm going to stay with/see the Schvimers (family, you know them) and Rachel Berkowitz (Wessers, you know her). I'm excited!! I'm also really excited because the Thanksgiving dinner is REALLY pulling itself together. It's gonna be soo tasty!!! And we've got 20 or a few more people coming so it's gonna be big and glorious and I'm so happy! :) And everyone's bringing something so I dont' have to make everything. I'm just making apple pie and possibly stuffing.
Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Eid al Adha, this holiday, celebrates when Abraham proved his faith by offering his chosen son, Ishmael, as a sacrifice to God; at the last minute God sent an angel to stop Abraham and sent a ram to be sacrificed instead. So Muslims who can afford it sacrifice sheep. Something's a little different about this story...can you figure out what?
Soooo much happened this weekend! First, I believe I wrote how Shireen told me on Sunday there was a party on Thursday and will I come. I said yes, of course, and it was a little odd because she reminded me to save the date 2 times that week. So the day came, and she said "we're getting picked up at 5:15 I'm going to get dressed." I asked if the dress was "as you wish" like last time and she said "no, it's a wedding, so nice." OH!!!!! So I got to go to a wedding party after all. :) :) :) It was a LOT of fun. and SO JEWISH!!!!!
First off, as you can see in this picture, the family did a circle dance...where they circled, and spiraled in, and spiraled out, and went up and down the dance floor...sound familiar? There were also people who sat the entire time and those who couldn't get off the dance floor. I was dancing every time that Suher and Diana got up to dance. Shireen kept trying to get me to go every time ANYONE was on the dance floor; I'm not going to dance when it's just the bride's sisters!!!!!!
Another thing was there was a Syrian singing/chanting group that came at the beginning, and they were wearing kippahs!!!! Oh my god!!!!! You can kind of see them in the background of this picture, though not really. Ah well. Ask me when I get home. The BIG thing in the below picture is this is the bride's sister. Tell me again what's appropriate and what's not???
Pictures on here are really weird so I take no responsibility as to how this blog looks. I'm just not going to fight with it that much. Anyway, on Friday I was at school at 8 again to go on a field trip with my Islam class. We checked out a bunch of shrines/graves for 2 prophets (Joshua, the leader after Moses, and Moses' father-in-law) and a bunch of the Prophet's (Muhammad's) Companions. It was a LOT of fun!!! It was really relaxed and we went in a small bus (there were under 20 of us) and you never knew what you were going to get!! For example, in most of them the Imam (the head of the Mosque and caretaker of the shrine) greeted us and showed us around. But we had told the Ministry of Something we were coming and they told the imams; but they told all the imams we were coming in the morning. So one was just not around and we waited for a little, and the people who were sitting with us and watching us told us to go around back and look through the window at it. ooook. Another time, for I believe the 3rd shrine, we got there just as we heard the Call to Prayer. So we sat near the bus and waited for the prayer to end and the imam to be free and the bus driver to return. This was only vital because it was open, and while we were sitting a bunch of teenage guys came over and were being annoying. My teacher started yelling at him to go away and he gave some smart-alec answer I didn't really understand but I did understand him say "they're Israeli" and my teacher say "noo, American. Go! Go from here!" He finally did, as did his friends who were watching him from across the street. Boys will be boys.
The shrines were really grand. I posted 2 pictures, one of them with me standing next to it just so you can see the SIZE of these things!
And yes, all the girls wore headscarves when inside. It makes life SO much easier, and it's more respectful. Course, I was one of the only ones who knew how to put it on...for the others, it was only half covering their hair, or it was covering most of their hair but they didn't bother wrapping it around their neck; some people just put their hoods up. It was good enough, no one gave us grief. But it was still funny to see.
Saturday was Desert Castles tour with CIEE. I realized something--I do NOT like going in large groups!! I know this was the only way we could've seen the amount we did, and it was the only thing that made sense for CIEE to do, but I MUCH prefer the small, iffy trip on Friday to being shepherded from one castle to another with 40+ other people. The castles actually weren't castles, they were old hunting lodges. They were also Roman, Nebatean, and Ottoman, NOT Western/Crusader time period. Here are some pictures of the castles we saw just to give you an idea.
Also, a major difference between Jordan and the West: the way they treat artifacts is completely different. You can see in the pictures, we were climbing ALL OVER EVERYTHING!!! The most fun was when someone moved the "Pleas dont enter" sign (yes spelled that way) so we just went up and chilled on the roof of the building until the overseer yelled at us to come down. :) Oh and you need to see the picture on the left big, but I'm not floating on thin air. There are long bricks sticking out of the mosque and I'm walking up them. It was REALLY funny when a few people who aren't great with heights decided to go up. Then had to come back down. They made it, just weren't too happy about it.
This is mainly for the Lillinagels and Slerpstmans, but you'll all LOVE this last picture. For those of you who don't know, everywhere the 2 families go we take a picture with a sign. So we passed a roadsign and the bus stopped and everyone in the program took a picture with it. Enjoy!!
You know you love me. }:) NO, we were not anywhere near the boarder. We were just close enough for there to be signs starting to lead the way towards it.
Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Eid al Adha, this holiday, celebrates when Abraham proved his faith by offering his chosen son, Ishmael, as a sacrifice to God; at the last minute God sent an angel to stop Abraham and sent a ram to be sacrificed instead. So Muslims who can afford it sacrifice sheep. Something's a little different about this story...can you figure out what?
Soooo much happened this weekend! First, I believe I wrote how Shireen told me on Sunday there was a party on Thursday and will I come. I said yes, of course, and it was a little odd because she reminded me to save the date 2 times that week. So the day came, and she said "we're getting picked up at 5:15 I'm going to get dressed." I asked if the dress was "as you wish" like last time and she said "no, it's a wedding, so nice." OH!!!!! So I got to go to a wedding party after all. :) :) :) It was a LOT of fun. and SO JEWISH!!!!!
First off, as you can see in this picture, the family did a circle dance...where they circled, and spiraled in, and spiraled out, and went up and down the dance floor...sound familiar? There were also people who sat the entire time and those who couldn't get off the dance floor. I was dancing every time that Suher and Diana got up to dance. Shireen kept trying to get me to go every time ANYONE was on the dance floor; I'm not going to dance when it's just the bride's sisters!!!!!!Another thing was there was a Syrian singing/chanting group that came at the beginning, and they were wearing kippahs!!!! Oh my god!!!!! You can kind of see them in the background of this picture, though not really. Ah well. Ask me when I get home. The BIG thing in the below picture is this is the bride's sister. Tell me again what's appropriate and what's not???
Pictures on here are really weird so I take no responsibility as to how this blog looks. I'm just not going to fight with it that much. Anyway, on Friday I was at school at 8 again to go on a field trip with my Islam class. We checked out a bunch of shrines/graves for 2 prophets (Joshua, the leader after Moses, and Moses' father-in-law) and a bunch of the Prophet's (Muhammad's) Companions. It was a LOT of fun!!! It was really relaxed and we went in a small bus (there were under 20 of us) and you never knew what you were going to get!! For example, in most of them the Imam (the head of the Mosque and caretaker of the shrine) greeted us and showed us around. But we had told the Ministry of Something we were coming and they told the imams; but they told all the imams we were coming in the morning. So one was just not around and we waited for a little, and the people who were sitting with us and watching us told us to go around back and look through the window at it. ooook. Another time, for I believe the 3rd shrine, we got there just as we heard the Call to Prayer. So we sat near the bus and waited for the prayer to end and the imam to be free and the bus driver to return. This was only vital because it was open, and while we were sitting a bunch of teenage guys came over and were being annoying. My teacher started yelling at him to go away and he gave some smart-alec answer I didn't really understand but I did understand him say "they're Israeli" and my teacher say "noo, American. Go! Go from here!" He finally did, as did his friends who were watching him from across the street. Boys will be boys.
The shrines were really grand. I posted 2 pictures, one of them with me standing next to it just so you can see the SIZE of these things!
And yes, all the girls wore headscarves when inside. It makes life SO much easier, and it's more respectful. Course, I was one of the only ones who knew how to put it on...for the others, it was only half covering their hair, or it was covering most of their hair but they didn't bother wrapping it around their neck; some people just put their hoods up. It was good enough, no one gave us grief. But it was still funny to see.
Saturday was Desert Castles tour with CIEE. I realized something--I do NOT like going in large groups!! I know this was the only way we could've seen the amount we did, and it was the only thing that made sense for CIEE to do, but I MUCH prefer the small, iffy trip on Friday to being shepherded from one castle to another with 40+ other people. The castles actually weren't castles, they were old hunting lodges. They were also Roman, Nebatean, and Ottoman, NOT Western/Crusader time period. Here are some pictures of the castles we saw just to give you an idea.
Also, a major difference between Jordan and the West: the way they treat artifacts is completely different. You can see in the pictures, we were climbing ALL OVER EVERYTHING!!! The most fun was when someone moved the "Pleas dont enter" sign (yes spelled that way) so we just went up and chilled on the roof of the building until the overseer yelled at us to come down. :) Oh and you need to see the picture on the left big, but I'm not floating on thin air. There are long bricks sticking out of the mosque and I'm walking up them. It was REALLY funny when a few people who aren't great with heights decided to go up. Then had to come back down. They made it, just weren't too happy about it.
This is mainly for the Lillinagels and Slerpstmans, but you'll all LOVE this last picture. For those of you who don't know, everywhere the 2 families go we take a picture with a sign. So we passed a roadsign and the bus stopped and everyone in the program took a picture with it. Enjoy!!
You know you love me. }:) NO, we were not anywhere near the boarder. We were just close enough for there to be signs starting to lead the way towards it.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Words...they were only words
I wrote last time about how we learned songs in Arabic. Well, I sang the song Kalimat (Words) today. Sappy yet hilarious song, which is why I had so much fun singing it. It went really well considering I learned it in a weekend and it's a 12.5-min long song. The BAD part is I did well enough that Saleh said I'm singing it for all of CIEE at some point...craaaaap!.....we'll see if that actually happens, and just in case I'll keep it up and actually memorize it.
After a very dull and internet-free weekend last week (internet died for 2 or 3 days; so I got some prime "family time"...sitting in front of the tv watching painfully stupid shows), things are starting to pick up again. Tonight I'm going to a jazz concert; tomorrow is either a concert or watching the last game between Egypt and Algeria; Thursday I'm going to a party with Shireen (where I learned bellydancing last time; she's having another party); Friday I'm going to the university by 8 because my Islam class is touring the tombs of the Prophet's Companions; Saturday is the CIEE Desert Castles tour. Then the week after is Thanksgiving (I'm organizing a thanksgiving dinner for whoever wants to come; I think it's gonna be about 20) and Eid. I want to know when Eid is!!!!!! I can't plan whether or not I'm going to Israel until I know that!!! grrrrrrrrr. The official holiday will be announced some time between 1 week and 2 days before the holiday. So I'm making tentative plans and we'll see what happens. If it doesn't work I'm going to Karak and maybe a few other places around Jordan, so I won't just be sitting the entire time. And I'm gonna see a sacrifice which is gonna be the experience of a lifetime! I'm really excited. :)
On Dec. 8 there's a dinner for all the host families and hosted students. One of the things that's going to happen there is a couple of those students are going to perform Dabka, traditional Middle Eastern dance, for the families. Of COURSE, that includes me. :) :) It's gonna be fuuuun!!! The one downside is it means that for the rest of the semester I need to be at the university starting at 8 every day, but oh well. Sleep when you're dead. ;) Dabka is actually a lot like tap so it's pretty easy for me. It drove me NUTS when Ala' was teaching it in culture club; she has no idea how to count off or count with the music. But it'll be doable, and we'll have enough time to practice and learn it.
Sooo I do believe I found a sport I could really get into. I have now seen the Equador football (soccer) game in Equador, a Greek game in Greece, and the Egypt-Algerian game last Saturday. OOOH MY GOD THEY"RE CRAAAAAZY!!!!!!!! Egypt and Algeria define enemies; the Algerian bus got stoned so a bunch of the players were wearing bandages on their heads and hands; and there were so many fouls in that game I think the ref just stopped calling them. He also was obviously pro-Egyptian, so maybe one flag was played the entire time. It was a really dirty game. But Egypt one, got a point in the 1st minute and in the last. Which means the game on Wednesday is the decider who gets to go to the Cup (world cup? Just between Middle East teams? Not completely sure...) and it's gonna be even more nuts. Exciting! :)
I'm also getting things ready for when Molly and mom come up. God, that's actually soon! :-\ Oh this is a funny story--I went to Al Manar, the hotel I stayed at at the beginning of CIEE, to get a room. And of course, it's Jordan, the guy gave me a discount on the room ("Look at this sheet, right here, this is the price it's supposed to be. But I'm going to give you a special price. Special price.") and after he took down all the information he asked where I was from. Turns out he lived in Chicago for about 20 years and moved back because of his family (his dad was old, etc etc). And we compared America/Chicago and Jordan/Amman, and he told me a delicious Iranian place I need to eat, and it was just great. Only here.
Another "only here" story, I have a taxi that picks me up basically every day. He picked me up once, on a day it was POURING out; and after that "you're like my daughter. If I need a taxi anywhere, for anything, just call and I'll be there in half an hour." So yesterday or the day before we were listening to Middle Eastern music, and it just wasn't doing it for him. So he put on his son's cd/tape. The first song on that mix is "H hey you you I don't like your girlfriend. No way no way I think you need a new one..." I'm so glad I knew him because I'm not supposed to laugh in taxis. THEN, a few songs later, was "We are the champions" and I made some comment, and told him I know this song VERY well and like it, and so he blasted it at full volume. These are all the popular songs now in America, yes? I <3 Jordan.
Here's a pic from the race a while ago.
Ain't it sexy? you know it is ;)
After a very dull and internet-free weekend last week (internet died for 2 or 3 days; so I got some prime "family time"...sitting in front of the tv watching painfully stupid shows), things are starting to pick up again. Tonight I'm going to a jazz concert; tomorrow is either a concert or watching the last game between Egypt and Algeria; Thursday I'm going to a party with Shireen (where I learned bellydancing last time; she's having another party); Friday I'm going to the university by 8 because my Islam class is touring the tombs of the Prophet's Companions; Saturday is the CIEE Desert Castles tour. Then the week after is Thanksgiving (I'm organizing a thanksgiving dinner for whoever wants to come; I think it's gonna be about 20) and Eid. I want to know when Eid is!!!!!! I can't plan whether or not I'm going to Israel until I know that!!! grrrrrrrrr. The official holiday will be announced some time between 1 week and 2 days before the holiday. So I'm making tentative plans and we'll see what happens. If it doesn't work I'm going to Karak and maybe a few other places around Jordan, so I won't just be sitting the entire time. And I'm gonna see a sacrifice which is gonna be the experience of a lifetime! I'm really excited. :)
On Dec. 8 there's a dinner for all the host families and hosted students. One of the things that's going to happen there is a couple of those students are going to perform Dabka, traditional Middle Eastern dance, for the families. Of COURSE, that includes me. :) :) It's gonna be fuuuun!!! The one downside is it means that for the rest of the semester I need to be at the university starting at 8 every day, but oh well. Sleep when you're dead. ;) Dabka is actually a lot like tap so it's pretty easy for me. It drove me NUTS when Ala' was teaching it in culture club; she has no idea how to count off or count with the music. But it'll be doable, and we'll have enough time to practice and learn it.
Sooo I do believe I found a sport I could really get into. I have now seen the Equador football (soccer) game in Equador, a Greek game in Greece, and the Egypt-Algerian game last Saturday. OOOH MY GOD THEY"RE CRAAAAAZY!!!!!!!! Egypt and Algeria define enemies; the Algerian bus got stoned so a bunch of the players were wearing bandages on their heads and hands; and there were so many fouls in that game I think the ref just stopped calling them. He also was obviously pro-Egyptian, so maybe one flag was played the entire time. It was a really dirty game. But Egypt one, got a point in the 1st minute and in the last. Which means the game on Wednesday is the decider who gets to go to the Cup (world cup? Just between Middle East teams? Not completely sure...) and it's gonna be even more nuts. Exciting! :)
I'm also getting things ready for when Molly and mom come up. God, that's actually soon! :-\ Oh this is a funny story--I went to Al Manar, the hotel I stayed at at the beginning of CIEE, to get a room. And of course, it's Jordan, the guy gave me a discount on the room ("Look at this sheet, right here, this is the price it's supposed to be. But I'm going to give you a special price. Special price.") and after he took down all the information he asked where I was from. Turns out he lived in Chicago for about 20 years and moved back because of his family (his dad was old, etc etc). And we compared America/Chicago and Jordan/Amman, and he told me a delicious Iranian place I need to eat, and it was just great. Only here.
Another "only here" story, I have a taxi that picks me up basically every day. He picked me up once, on a day it was POURING out; and after that "you're like my daughter. If I need a taxi anywhere, for anything, just call and I'll be there in half an hour." So yesterday or the day before we were listening to Middle Eastern music, and it just wasn't doing it for him. So he put on his son's cd/tape. The first song on that mix is "H hey you you I don't like your girlfriend. No way no way I think you need a new one..." I'm so glad I knew him because I'm not supposed to laugh in taxis. THEN, a few songs later, was "We are the champions" and I made some comment, and told him I know this song VERY well and like it, and so he blasted it at full volume. These are all the popular songs now in America, yes? I <3 Jordan.
Here's a pic from the race a while ago.
Ain't it sexy? you know it is ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)