DOOOOONE!!!!!

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

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

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....

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!

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.

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 ;)

ترك البندقية. تتخذالكانولي Taraka al-bandqiyya, tatachath al-cannoli

Godfather was GREAT!!!!!! I have finally seen all of Godfather I (and understood it, swei...) and next week I'm going to see Part II. I love seeing all these movies in Arabic!! I think this is the best way to learn Arabic, by watching stuff that I know (or is easy to understand) in the other language. I'd say watch TV shows or movies, which works as well, but it's harder first off because all the old movies are from Egypt (very different pronunciation) and they just don't catch my interest as much. I DO like that in the mornings, Shireen and Maher watch the news. I still don't understand it but at least I'm listening and watching. Especially in the morning on weekends, I'm not doing homework.

Guess what!! I'm done with midterms!! Took long enough? And the greatest thing is finals are in a month. Whatever; as Allison (the head of CIEE) always says, you're in Jordan [not in America]. And at least they're done. I did pretty well too; minus listening, they're coming back with very acceptable grades. And I'm learning, much more than I have a college so far, so if my grades aren't at my usual par I don't care. I've said it once and I'll say it again; it's more important to me to sit with the family at night and listen to them talk than to lock myself in my room and study. One of the big things I've learned from abroad is school isn't everything. (And anyway, I AM studying. I'm increasing my Arabic listening skills and my knitting skills. :P )

My classes this past week have been great. First, on Sunday we started learning a song in Saleh's class called "Words" (Kalimat). My homework this week has been to learn the song, and next sunday I'm performing it. What a shame, me having to sing for extra credit! :) :) Also, Saleh is NUTS! When we learned about...something a bunch of units ago we learned the word locusts and he acted it by looking like Godzilla. So this week, in the song, our words included feather ("you make me feel like a feather floating in the breeze") and stars ("you say I'm your treature, better than a thousand stars"). To show us stars, Saleh enacted Godzilla with his hands clawing the air above his ears, and feather was the same thing except the hands were kind of floating side-to-side together.
Then in Ghadeer's class (amiyya/colloquial) we listened to 2 songs yesterday and will listen to more on monday. Yesterday we had one kid's song "Shater Shater" about how to be a good boy (listen to your parents, don't fidget, don't anger your teacher, etc). Then we learned another fully Jordanian song about this girl, well this guy was stricken by a girl. So her barette made his heart beat faster; her sideburns made him go weak at the knees; her sassy walk with the shiny skirt (I learned how to say shiny in Arabic!!!)...stop, you're going to kill me!!! And of course, all the pent-up sexual tension people feel come out in songs. The class was rolling the entire time. Especially when my teacher spent 5 minutes trying to come up with the right words because if she didn't get the exact literal translation that would be BAD. It was a very good class.

This past weekend was both great and terrible. It was great because last Tuesday(?) Maher said "Lilah, Aala' (Suher's oldest son) is racing on Friday. Come with, sign up for it too." And I said OK. I had no idea what it was, whether it was an actual race or what kind of cars (go-karts) or anything, but hey why not. Maher kept jumping between saying I was gonna get 1st place and I he was gonna come watch to laugh at me (to which I said "me too!!!") Turns out it was a regular go-kart track, and you signed up and 6-10 people at a time raced and at the end of the day the fastest speeds got prizes (like a laptop and a ps3). I raced twice; the 1st time i wasn't last (so proud!) and the second time i beat my old time (31 sec instead of 32) but everyone else had been going for a while so they got under 30 sec. Tons of fun. The bad part of the weekend was I also got a cold which is FINALLY going away, alhamdulilleh.

"All the leaves are brown...

This is why I love autumn. I went home over the weekend, where the trees outside my window are blushing all kinds of yellow & crimson.

Things are picking up around here! I'm totally buried in work at this point. In fact, I shouldn't be writing this blog. (But I just have to try out my brand new Macbook, you know.)

Monday was a great class, with a visit from none other than my mother. She did a read aloud with the class and we all sat up, spread out, and did much-needed stretches. I think the kids really loved it.

I was able to videotape Thursday's class, which was great. I'm so happy with the footage! We had a great discussion about book-choice. Instead of bogging them down with the jargon of "good readers do this" and "good readers do that" (well, I tried not to use it), I talked about what we really do when we make a commitment to a book. That's a great word. Several students had big ideas about what the word "commit" meant, and we talked about how relating to a book helps us understand + make a commitment.

More students have discovered their books, and we'll definitely start writing by Monday (I hope.)

I'm writing a ballad about Frederick Douglass as an example. It goes:

“A century and some years ago, when people were oppressed,

A candle in a cabin glowed for a man who had no rest.

He studied all the night, though it was disallowed—

His name was Frederick Dougless, a brave man who had vowed:

“I will learn to read, although

You tell me it is a danger.

I will learn to read, I swear

To knowledge, I am no stranger.”

It's been changed now by editing it with the students. We're still sticking with danger + stranger as our rhyming words.

This coming weekend I'll be with my family again, which is nice. Both of my little brothers are going to be in NYC tomorrow and need to be shown some of the cool things around here. Any ideas? I'm clueless for the most part, although I'd love to go to a museum. Don't know how into that they would be.

Off I go to do more work! I might stop and get some gelato in one of the delicious gelato places I spotted on my walk home today.

people make plans and god laughs

That's been this entire past week. Tuesday, we had a meeting about our residency cards...which were not completed yet, but soooo close. Actually, we've been able to pick them up since yesterday (but the CIEE office is closed during the weekend so I now need to wait till Sunday)

On Wed, I went on a field trip with my Water class to the largest wastewater treatment plant in Jordan, which treats the water for about 50% of the population. It was REALLY interesting. After that, we headed up to Irbid, way up north, to the highest point in North Jordan to see the Tiberias Lake (the Sea of Galilee). We were maybe half an hour's walk (and a canyon river and a few minefields) away from the Golan Heights. That was great to see. BEAUTIFUL view, though striking the difference between the Israeli side and the Jordinian---from where we were standing, it was desert, desert, desert, GREEN (Israel). Then we went as close to the King Talal Dam as we could but by that point it was sunset so we couldn't see anything. And it was too far away and around a bend. But the rest of the field trip was good.

Around 1:15, during the field trip, I got a call from my Dana partner saying she was really sick and not up to hiking. But I joined a group to go to Wadi Mujib so that was disappointing but still good. Later we got a call from Steward, one of the heads of CIEE, saying one of the students had the flu, possibly the swine flu, so no school Thursday or Sunday. Islam midterm is pushed forward more! After that everyone was planning their trips to Lebanon and Syria and possibly Jerusalem and everyone was NUTS! I decided to stay for various reasons. But long weekend and I FINALLY get to relax some!

Yesterday (thursday) was spent writing a paper, planning what I'm going to do for the long weekend and with who, writing a paper, and listening to the downpour. Tis winter, tis the rainy season! But that also meant that Wadi Mujib was canceled. SERIOUSLY??? Sooooooo instead we decided to visit Madaba today which was fine. Last time was better but it was still fun. A relaxing day. And now I'm sitting partially watching tv, mostly reading Sherlock Holmes in Arabic and English (happy Lilah :) ).
Every Thursday they play American movies in Arabic and last night was Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers. GLORIOUS!!!!!! I understood none of it yet all of it. Next week is the Godfather trilogy I'm so excited. Absolutely gonna stay up for that. Won't it be great, the first time I'm seeing the rest of those movies it's in Arabic.

Mawiage

This past short time has been a whirlwind. First, on the title, I was supposed to go to a marriage party tomorrow night but it got canceled. The bride's cousin died so she's having the ceremony (signing the paper) but only the groom is celebrating with his family. It's good for me because I have a midterm Monday, Tuesday (at 8:00am), and Thursday, but it's still really sad. And I really wanted to go to a wedding! Maybe later in the semester. And may our thoughts be with the mourners.

Also on the title, for those of you who don't know, I am "married" for the semester. I have had 3 run-ins so far:

1. I was praying at the Mosque with Amal during Ramadan, and afterwards this lady started talking to me about if I was a convert ("I'm learning"), and going on and on about how Islam is such a wonderful religion and it's the only way to reach God etc etc. Amal finally came over, and the lady turned to her and in Arabic said she wished I was a Muslim because she would marry me to her son. After that I moved around my rings so I'm wearing one on my ring finger.

2. I got into a taxi one night to go home; he offered me a cigarette and after I refused asked permission to smoke. (Most taxi drivers don't ask.) Then he started asking me questions--what's my name, where am I from, what's my age ("What? What? Sorry, I don't know Arabic."); then he said "I love America. I want to learn English. Where?" He didn't like my answer of University or College and kept asking. FInally he came out and asked me if I was married. After I said yes and showed him I had a ring on, he didn't speak to me for the rest of the ride.

3. Today, my taxi driver home was talking to me and also asking questions, but started with "Are you studying Arabic at the university?" (Because I needed him to ask me his questions twice because it took me a bit to understand. I'm getting better, he was only speaking in Arabic, but it still takes me a while to comprehend.) He actually asked me early on if I was married; and when I said yes the questions were "Is your husband here or there?" (there) "Do you have children?" (No) "Why not?" (After I return) "What's your age?" [usually I get this BEFORE he asks me if i'm married!] (the age to go to University) "What's your age? Like I'm 24." (Not young not old) "You don't understand?" [Seriously? You can't get that I just don't want to answer your question? Ok, then yeah I just dont' understand.] "You're cute/pretty. You're cute/pretty." Luckily at that point we got to where I get off. OH MY GOD THICK ONE!!

Thank you Jeffrey and whoever else suggested to me that I should be "married" for the semester. For most people it's a wonderful deterrent. Though it IS amusing when after living with me for a month, I was sitting next to Maher and he just noticed the ring. I'm of course telling my family and people close to me it's just a deterrent; but not some others!

As for the rest of my life, these past two weeks have been the hell that go along with midterms. I've had 2 so far, which went relatively well. I got one exam back today and it was REALLY good; now I'm just hoping I did acceptable on the oral exam because those 2 grades are averaged together. And since the other half of the class is being tested tomorrow, I won't know till at least wednesday. Tomorrow is my enviro class, which will either be great or terrible. Our instructions were to memorize as much information as we can; which is AWFUL for me; but at the same time if I don't need to give numbers it's easy--it's all environmental water and pollution stuff I've learned before, and "Israel is evil and destroying the lives of all Arabs around it." As long as I remember that it'll be easy. (I've gotten SO mad while reading over the powerpoints you have no idea!) Tuesday's exam is in listening, which I hate the class so I don't really care about the midterm. Terrible way to think about it I know. I'll do the best I can, it just won't be that good and I don't mind. Wednesday I'm taking a field trip with my Waterways class to one of the major dams in Jordan, and Thursday I'll take my Islam exam. I actually did well on the last part of the Islam midterm! And we don't have that much new material so I think I'll actually do well in this class! :D

Also on Thursday will be the long-awaited trip to Dana Nature Reserve. My friend Joanna and I are going to go after my exam is done on Thursday and go hiking Friday. I've heard really good things about Dana, and this is the last weekend it's open. REALLY looking forward to this. It's gonna be a GREAT way to unwind after midterms, and we'll still be able to work on our paper together on Saturday. (Our paper in Islam is due next Wednesday.)

As for other news, I've been dancing up a storm the past few days. Culture club last Thursday was on bellydancing so I learned the basics; then in preparation for the wedding I asked Suher and Diana to teach me how to dance, so Suher invited me to her friend's birthday party on Thurs night. That was mainly me being draged onto the dance floor, copying them, and getting laughed at because I looked RIDICULOUS. But I learned, and it was a lot of fun. Then Friday night there was a huge party of a host brother and host mother, and all the students in my "family" and their families were there. There were 10 of us I believe. It was a BLAST!!! And of course, when there's music playing, you can't get me off the dance floor. There was both American music (actually popular music; one of the Abroad students put that together) and Arabic music. It was a mixed crowd, very relaxed, all-around craziness, and in general a wonderful time. Oh, and ps--EVERYONE WAS SOBER! A few people smoked cigarettes but that's it. It IS possible to go crazy and have a good time on no substances. I love this country!

Friday and Saturday during the day I basically locked myself in my room to study. But Saturday afternoon/night Amal, Tala and I went shopping for some new shirts and shoes for the wedding. A minor difference between here and America: Amal told me to tell people that we went to the mall and these shirts cost...oh 35 Dinar and these name-brand stores, but I'm a college student so I got them on sale for 15 or 20 JD (1 JD is about $1.4). Of course they're not even close to that; we went to thrift stores. And in the US that's much better then going to fancy stores. I love going places with Amal! I'm really bonding with her more than anyone else here, though I love all the members of my family. It's just easier to do stuff with her, and unlike Shireen she likes going out and shopping/looking at stores and seeing movies etc. It is just a constant reminder she's really not that much older than me, even though she has 2 kids. I see the age closeness in Maher too, but I barely spend time with him simply because he's a guy and there's a huge gender sparation in this country.

This is long enough and I'm done with my Water notes. On to the next subject!

Long Days & Delays

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The Good News first:

Thursday of last week went really well. The students were engaged, active, and asking questions. We talked about ballads, and I wrote some facts about ballads in our big ballad spiral notebook (I love using visuals). I began the lesson by talking about their own "small moment" stories. We talked about the word embellish, and the funniest part of the lesson was when the kids got to embellish my shared story about being interviewed for a job this summer. The lesson carried over into this week, when we talked about historical fiction as a way of embellishing the true facts of history to create an interesting story.

The Bad News now: Substitute teachers are such a downer! I mean, I know it's tough to come into a classroom as a new person, but you have to at least treat the students with the dignity they deserve. I think the tension in the classroom escalated to a point I could not have foreseen. Fortunately the students recognized that this was just a different kind of teaching style (one that involves yelling and saying "Heads down!" a lot), and they weren't going to have to deal with it forever. I'm amazed that no one cried. We were able to move forward with the ballad project, and did a whole lesson on historical fiction. My read aloud got "cancelled" quite abruptly: Before I could even begin reading, the sub got so frustrated with certain students not listening to her directives that she ordered the whole class back to their seats to write her notes of apology.

I wish I could have said something, but I know that undermining the sub's power would not have been the solution. I just felt like such a pawn in this whole thing, and I hope I didn't do anything to make the day more unpleasant.

Anyhow, more happy news is: I had a great assignment for one of my Bank Street classes. We had to find books depicting a non-traditional family structure, so I picked Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley. It's wonderful! It's got beautiful watercolor illustrations and is set in Venice. There's an emphasis on the fact that men can be nurturing and still teach young children good lessons, especially curious children. Piccolo is a single father cat raising two kittens he adopted from off the street. Talk about non-typical! Single parent, male-headed, and adopted children.

I will leave you all with a comforting image, one that makes me feel better too:

I hate midterms

I really do. Especially when I get 4 grades but have to take 6 midterms. WHY DO I HAVE 3 FUSHA CLASSES!?!? grumble. I have that, and a full week this week, and a wedding on Monday, and a paper due the next week. STRESSSSSS.

Otherwise, things are looking crazy but really good. Aya's birthday party was yesterday so we had balloons and cake and Hana made chocolate again (though they weren't as good as Eid's chocolates). Quick reminder, Maher's sister is Diana; her younger child is Aya. And I was wrong--Aya just TURNED 3 yesterday, so she was 2 before. Which explains a lot about her! I mean, she's a wonderful and adorable girl and I love her, buuut she acted like she was 2. On Monday I'm going to a wedding so I need to find something to wear to that. It's not that fancy so I'm going to wear a skirt I have and borrow a shirt. But Amal, the kids and I are still going to go to the suk on Saturday so I can go shopping for myself. For funsies. :) I'm really excited for the wedding! Oh also to prep for it, I was over at Suher's house the other day and I watched one of her sister's wedding shower movie. And I saw that the dancing here, especially by the girls, is a lot of belly-dancing/shimmying...not something i'm particularly good at. So i asked Suher and Diana to teach me, and got an invite to Suher's friend's birthday party on Thursday night. And I'll get lessons there. I love how this connection stuff works.

Today CIEE brought in a special speaker for those who wanted to hear about a certain topic. So I got to hear about LGBT issues in Jordan by one of the few openly gay men in the country. It was REALLY interesting. It was seriously a different mindset then what we're used to. Unfortunately, there's no way I can explain everything appropriately on a blog, so you'll have to ask me in person. And expect to have a long conversation.

The next big trip is gonna be Donna National Park. I'm going with 2 or 3 friends and we're going hiking in a nature preserve, right after finals are done. Perfect way to de-stress! I can't wait!

So much to do, so little time

I've been SUPER busy since I last wrote (when did I last update?) and it doesn't look like that's gonna let up for the rest of the semester. I'm going to give a few big things that I remember off the top of my head.

Prince Ra'ad:
There's something insanely important in Jordan called wasta, translated to "connections". A good example is Maher's step-mother's son from her first marriage is named Ibrahim. He's is good friends with my host family, and was over one night and said he was planning a meeting at the university soon for his boss the Prince; would I like to come to the meeting and meet him? So I went to a meeting on People with Disabilities in Jordan and didn't really get to meet the prince, but I got to shake his hand. I have shaken hands with royalty. The meeting was really interesting, mainly because I was able to read what the speakers were saying off their powerpoint presentation and tried to understand what they were talking about. I caught stuff now and then and recognized a lot of words, which I think is a plus.

Classes:
1. My Waterways class is moving!!!! I no longer have to walk the 20 minutes uphill and the 15-20 min back and still be late for my afternoon classes; now all my classes are in one building! Yay!
2. My Amiyya teacher is pregnant (4 months in? maybe 5) and last class she left half an hour early because she was in extreme pain and went to the hospital. It was seriously painful watching her we all felt so bad that we were keeping her there. But she's had a small surgery, and alhamdulilleh she and her baby are fine. This coming week Najah, the head of the Arabic dept, is going to teach our classes.
3.Wednesday was a REAL eye opener for me. First, in Waterways, we started on the main focus of the class, the conflicts in the Middle East. The time we're dealing with begins around WWI when Great Britian controlled the area now known as Palestine, through Britian's promise to 2 different groups of people that they could have that land, and into the time when Israel became a state. Now I've known for years and years that what Hamas did could be seen, and is seen by many, as terrorism. But getting people to admit that in the States is like pulling teeth. And although I've been prepared for attacks on Israel my entire time here, it was still a slap in the face to see the slide that described how the "Jewish terrorist gangs" forced Palestinians off their land, followed by the slide that said "In 1948 Israel declared its independence" with a gunshot sound to make the point. Whoopee, this is gonna be the rest of the semester! Also, my teacher kept saying "the Jews" and then correcting himself to "the Israelis"; it's kind of him to correct himself but that does show his opinion; which means I'm doing my best to speak from a historical American point of view and not a Jewish one. Thank god I'm good at keeping my mouth shut.

There's more, there's always more, but I need to go. So the one last thing is family! Rana wanted a picture of our family for the next group of students so I have a really good pic.

This is: Maher and Laith, Shireen and Tala, and Amaal.

This one is Amaal's kids and Diana's kids (Diana is Maher's sister). Jude is raising her hand, Aya is squatting, and Laith and Tala you can recognize. As I've heard almost every day, Aya looks a lot like me.

Wesleyan Wishlist

Hi Everybody!

I want to extend courage and patience to Lilah for her visa troubles and anything else that may be affecting her stay in Jordan. I hope you work it all out soon!

For the past two weekends I've felt like a Wesleyan student on some sort of extended trip to the city. Not so! I am an Urban Education Semester student, and I will maintain that. After this weekend's Pledging visit (yes, I am returning to Wesleyan again this Friday), I have no more officially scheduled visits back to the school.

It's been nice to see Todd and have him get to know my life here in the city. We went to the Columbia pledging ceremony, which was a great experience. I am so happy to have siblings here, right at 116th and Broadway : ) Besides going to the lower east side + alphabet city, we ran into Michelle Katz! Great fun and great Wesleyan reunions seem to happen spontaneously.

My UES project is developing smoothly. I'm making a timeline for it now, which should be done by tomorrow. Basically, I'm introducing historical fiction to the students by having them read and listen to ballads. We've read a children's book about women pirates (The Ballad of the Pirate Queens), and we've discussed what we think makes a ballad.
- Who writes them?

- What kind of stories do ballads tell?

- What makes them easy or hard to understand?

- Can you read them, sing them, or both?

- What do you notice about the language?

Next, I'll give them handouts explaining the components of a ballad. One may be about subject matter, one may be about verse, and one may be about rhyme scheme. I have to play around with what makes sense. Hopefully I can get some fun ballads on CD's. After we've talked about what ballads are (maybe two to three weeks), we will embark on our own mission: To create a ballad based on a piece of history that the students are drawn to. This will link to their study of historical fiction. I am really enjoying the study of their interactive read-alouds. It's a treat to hear their conversations about the text.

Writing and illustrating these ballads should be super exciting, and I have confidence that the students are capable of it. We've already discussed how to make illustrations informative, and I think they will use this knowledge in their books.

Classes at Bank Street are going well. I can feel the reading and the work a-piling up, especially now that I have a more active role in the classroom. After this weekend of merriment, the work really begins.

Cheerio,

Becky

Don't worry be happy now

To start out, so everyone knows, so far the issues across the border haven't really affected me (knock on wood). Except that I received an email from both CIEE and the US Embassy giving me a heads up on what's going on and reminding the students to stay away from rallies and keep a low profile. They're on top of it and I'm trying to read NY Times World and Al Jazeera daily (or at least skim it).

Wednesday I went with my Arabic class to the different mosques around town. We visited King Hussein Mosque in the middle of the city but couldn't go in because men were praying and barely let the boys in our class go in. We left that soon after and traveled to King Abdullah Mosque, the beautiful blue one. The girls had to wear these robes, it was really funny.


We walked around inside and saw their museum and then went into the praying area (it is NOT called the main sanctuary XP) which was BEAUTIFUL. We also went into the parliament house and the women's quarters, which were very nice. Much nicer than the next mosque we went to, which was acceptable. Then we traveled to the last mosque, I believe the mosque of King Abdullah II. It was breathtaking. You walked in and there were trees and birds singing; the main space was GORGEOUS (we got to go in, also after donning the robes, because it was before men came to pray) with soft carpeted floors and the walls and everything were pieces of wood that were fitted together without glue or nails. It was really a work of art and fit for a king. Here, we saw the sunset over the city through trees and listened to the call to prayer. It was the best sunset I've seen in a very long time.

Today, Jordan held a Centennial Parade celebrating 100 years. It was the 1st parade they've ever had where they closed off streets, and I must say they did an amazing job. There were people from the schools and Boy Scouts and from the army and giant cars with I guess floats on them (covered in stuff, not actually floating; what are they called? I'm tired.) and it was just tons of fun. I went with Amal, Tala, Colin, and Dan. I'm probably roasted at the moment; I was out in the sun w/o sunscreen from 2:30 till sunset. But it was soooo worth it! :)

Tomorrow is Wadi Hassa, a hike through water and up/down a waterfall, lots of fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Illegal Immigrants

Guess what! For the past three days, I've been staying here illegally! Usually, CIEE receives our residency visas a week or two after we arrive, but this semester it hasn't worked out. So everyone who hasn't left the country has been here illegally for a bit. Whoops! I got a text and a call from Ahmad (one of the CIEE coordinators) saying meet him at the Laungage Center NOW. Then 6 other students and I went to the Shmesani police station and got a visa extention. It took FOREVER! But I got it and I'm legal for another month; hopefully by then I'll have a real student visa. (I'll be a real boy!) All in all, there are about 30 students with this problem. He decided to get my group today and the rest are leaving classes tomorrow. Best of luck to them!

Otherwise, things have been good. It was great seeing Becca last Friday night; I REALLY enjoyed her work partners. And I got to meet a Jordanian billionaire (multi-millionaire?) which is something to boast about. :)
Saturday I went with people to Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, or the site where John baptized Jesus. It was really nice. Tho it was amusing how I was standing in a Muslim country (with armed guards all over), at a Christian holy site, with the Israeli flag flying big and strong across from me.

No!!! Maher just, and I mean just, got a job offer from another country (Saudi Arabia) to work there until May. And the whole family (minus Shireen) will be leaving in a few weeks. BOO!! It's gonna be VERY different without the children here. I'm glad I'm here to keep Shireen company, but still...I'm gonna miss them like CRAZY.

Quick update (quick being a relative term...)

I DESPERATELY need to do homework but I'm a few days overdue so I'll be quick.

JERASH--I went on wednesday with Jourdan, Colin, and Dan. Notice something about that group? But it was fine; because we were going to such a touristy area I didn't feel awkward travelling with all guys. It was a BLAST!!!!! The bus ride was good and uneventful; you really do feel looked after as a woman in this country. Like whenever a woman walks onto a public bus, the men move around so she's not sitting next to an unrelated man (not in the family/married). It actually feels quite safe. Jerash had some AMAZING ruins and it was a lot of fun walking around with the 3 boys. It was amusing how we knew we were being very touristy, and made fun of ourselves every time we posed for a picture etc, but it was fun and we did it and enjoyed it. We also saw an...education reenactment of the Romans, learning about the army's formations and weapons, saw a gladiator fight, and a chariott race. All for the bargain price of JD 5! not a tourist attraction at all, nooooo, the real thing! It was one of those things that you have to see once in your life, and it's so godawful it's hilariously wonderful. I'm going back here with Molly and mom when they come up (though I'm not seeing the show again; once is enough!).

SUK--the next day was the first day the suk was open since Eid and like every other family in Amman, we had no fresh fruits and vegetables. So I went with Amal, Shireen, Laith and Tala to al-Balad (downtown) which includes the largest and oldest produce suk. It was NUTS!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so glad I wasn't the one doing the buying; I couldn't do anything but stare around wide-eyed and meekly follow Shireen and Amal as they bargained and bought. I can't WAIT until I can understand what everyone's saying! It drives me nuts that I can't! I also had the first falafel; Shireen bought us all some from a small hole-in-the-wall shop that "she knows is clean so they're very good." Cleanliness, especially from restaurants, is very important either here or to this family. I've heard many times that I should only go to certain restaurants/food joints because Shireen knows that they wash their hands and wash the vegetables etc; some places don't.

MADABA--also wonderful. This time the group was me, Jourdan, Colin, Jo, Rose, Joanna, and Simone. We caught the bus and then had to wait 20 minutes for another to come because ours broke down en-route; quite the experience. Then bargained for a taxi to take us up to Mt. Nebo (where Moses died), and it waited for an hour while we looked around then took us back. Nebo's really nice; has a great view of Jordan and Israel. OH MY GOD you can tell why the Jews wanted it. Even though it doesn't look as impressive as it once did I'm sure, it's still very green compared to Jordan. I can imagine, after wandering in the desert for 40 years, it would've looked really appealing. We got back to Madaba, saw St. George's Cathedral, and the rest of us wandered around looking at shops while Jourdan prayed in the Mosque. Until all the Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqian, etc refugees came in to Jordan, Madaba was a completely Christian town. I think that's really cool. Anyway, I didn't want to look into the store everyone was shopping at, so I wandered into next door and was invited to tea by the owner. And when everyone came looking for me he invited them in as well. And we talked and spent the rest of the time while Jourdan was praying socializing with him and looking around his shop. He sold mainly hand-embroidered clothes and tableclothes and scarves and etc. They were really works of art. When I go back to Madaba (we didn't come close to seeing everything that was there) I'm going to visit him again. We had lunch, and tried to see the mosque. To do so all the girls covered our heads with various scarves; but it didn't matter because the mosque was locked. Turns out they close 10 minutes after prayer ends so the building's not taken over by various groups. Country policy I believe.

Today I was back in school *sigh*. My MSA class has gotten MUCH better, though that may be because I'm more used to his accent, teaching style, and handwriting; and also because I worked on our new reading over break with Amal. The two of us sat down and I read each paragraph, then she helped me translate it by giving me single words I didn't know and then full sections only if I couldn't figure it out myself. I wrote it all down so I'll be able to know for the next quiz. Yay I did something he asked for but most people forgot about, and showed him and he said I'll get extra points next class when he checks it! That'll make up for the first quiz we took, where I got 1.5/5 points. (Ouch!) I got really annoyed afterwards because I went to The Ten Forms club, which is supposed to teach gramar and the 10 forms of Arabic, and instead we had to listen to a boring passage and did NO grammar and the teacher didn't speak English! Supposedly this is only because our real teacher is out of town, so I'm going to give the club one more week before I drop it. I want to and need to learn this stuff but I refuse to sit for an hour and be confused and frustrated when I have to do the same thing on Tuesdays at 8 in the morning!! No!! I'm so excited, though; clubs start this week which means I'll learn calligraphy!! I've been looking forward to this since I learned this club was an option. And then on Thursday there's the culture club, which will teach everything from cooking to dancing and I don't know what else. That one you don't have to sign up for so I'll go when I'm interested in the topic.




Jerash

Columbia, Bank Street, and Regulations

It's been an exciting week!

My mom came to visit me on Tuesday, which was absolutely lovely. She and I made an air-mattress fit into my tiny little room, and we went grocery shopping on Wednesday. We had dinner that night, which has lasted me just about all week. (Of course now I'm resorting to coffee and snacks.)
New York seems to trap all of its heat and store it in the subway, but today it's finally cooling down.

On Thursday I saw Mike & Ruthy, two fantastic folk-rockers who now have a young toddler. They played in a tiny little venue somewhere in the vicinity of 4th ave. I squeezed in with all of these young couples and ordered my one-drink minimum. Their new album comes out at the end of the month, and I can't wait!

Congestion (read: traffic) is unfortunate, but it seems to be getting better once I learn to avoid peak hours. I finally had a breakthrough in navigating the subways: I can take an express train that cuts about 20 minutes out of my commute. Unfortunately, my Metro card stopped working, and I don't know if I'll be reimbursed for the days I've lost. It may be gone forever.

Two of my classes at Bank Street overlap quite a bit. They even have the same article on their syllabi. Both require me to interview parents and subjects who are different from me socioeconomically and culturally. I'm really enjoying my experiences with interviewing people about their children. Some parents are very invested and bring a sense of academic learning right into their homes. One mother gives her children homework of her own, and if they don't come home with work assigned by their teacher, the mother will make them write a reflective essay. A father I interviewed says he teaches his children math at home.

Erev Yom Kippur is tomorrow night. I will probably be fasting, which shouldn't be a problem this year. I am ecstatic about coming to Wes next week! Oh boy. If I can work it out with Vicky Zwelling, I might be able to give an individual info session on my own on Friday. This also means I'd get reimbursed for my travel expenses....!!!

Anyhow, maybe I should get back to my academic pursuits, seeing as I am in the Columbia library with a guest pass laboriously acquired after Jack so generously checked me in as his guest. Tonight there will be food and a rush event at the Columbia Alpha Delt, so I will most definitely be mooching off of and socializing with my siblings.

More updates about the teaching later!

Eid Mubarak

Happy end-of-Ramadan everyone! Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim Christmas, officially started yesterday. The night before the new moon was sighted and EVERYBODY cheered. People were over late into the night. The next morning Tala and Laith were up at 6 finding presents from Mr. Eid, ie the Muslim version of Santa Claus. In the morning (10:30?) Maher's father and brothers came over and the boys, Tala, Laith and I visited Maher's sisters to give them seasons greetings. All the women in the family got a special gift from the men. After a tiny lunch I went with Shireen to her sister's house, to her niece's (with another CIEE student that I didn't really know; she couldn't have acted more bored if she TRIED), to another family member's, to Hana (Maher's father's house), and back home where the rest of the family joined. At every house they serve chocolates (in a few it's homemade; Hana's chocolate is DELICIOUS!) as well as these cookies filled with date paste or nuts. It's really good and I have the recipe for them; but when it's your breakfast lunch dinner and snack you start wishing for real and healthy food. Also served at every stop was coffee (Turkish or Nescafe) or tea.

It was a lot of fun seeing people's houses and listening to the conversation, even if I don't really understand it. There are a few husbands that I especially enjoy spending time with because they talk to me slowly and deliberately in Arabic. The two I'm thinking of are/were teachers and have been to the US so they know how to help me along. I'm still having a lot of trouble understanding and speaking but that's the way I'm going to learn. They let me struggle through sentences and give me time to translate what they say instead of speaking to others quickly in Arabic and then speaking to me in English/broken English.

Today we stayed at home and people came here. It was fun! I couldn't believe it, the TV was off for a huge chunk of the time! We made a complete circle around the living room; we could've fit a few more people but not easily and not inclusively. It included Jourdan. And after everyone but Suher and Zaina left Shireen whipped up some Ful (reeeeally yummy). real food yay! :)

tomorrow's still eid; the day after that i'm going wiht people to Jeresh. Friday's going to be Madaba. Looking forward to it!

The best of America?

There are some things I will never understand. Why, for example, the first music that my host family plays is on the car radio, "meet me in the hotel room". And during one dinner, my "niece" was playing a diva game on the computer, had headphones on, and sang the chorus to "Barbie Girl" for at least 10 minutes. Here I am trying to be as appropriate as possible, and THIS is the part of America they know!

Add to that if people here want to go out to a special dinner, they dress up and go to Burger King, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, etc.

I knew before I came that mainly the worst parts of America make it overseas; but no wonder the world hates us.

I'm a real teacher!

Oh boy. I taught my first lesson today. It was only my fourth day in class, but I felt pretty confident about it. Isabel and I discussed what the kids need to learn in terms of grammar. They're going to be forced into a much more rigorous writing climate once they get to middle school English class, so they definitely need to learn types of sentences. I started off the lesson by handing out a worksheet on complete vs. incomplete sentences.

First lesson I learned: The kids don't know what the definition of a verb is! They also had trouble identifying the subject of the sentence. I have a feeling that it will come back to them (hopefully), but for now we've got our work cut out. Luckily, I had my wits about me, and I realized I had to backtrack about halfway through the period. Instead of plowing onward, we went over some examples of verbs, nouns, and how to find what the sentence is "all about."

The kids loved the activity, which was a bonus. I had them match pieces of sentences together to make "silly sentences that still make sense." They came up with some pretty goofy things!

I also help with math homework, math worksheets, and general class information.

A picture's worth a thousand words

This past week was the program trip to Wadi Rum, Aqaba, and Petra. But it's high time for me to upload some pictures so instead of describing everything I'm going to make this a massive picture post with a little description. Enjoy! :)


The first part of the trip was in the desert of Wadi Rum. We bussed from the university to here, then got on camels and off we went! Other people took pictures of me which I dont' have so this is one I took. It was quite an experience, one I enjoyed but won't go out of my way to do again. We slept at a Bedouin camp, very touristy but very nice. We slept in beds in 3 or 6-person tents; there was very good food and dancing; and afterwards a few of us went and stargazed. You just dont' get those kinds of stars on the East Coast! or the Midwest, for that matter. It was BEAUTIFUL!


The next morning was a jeep ride to Aqaba. (Is there a difference between jeeps and 4x4's? we took the latter if there is.) We stopped off at a couple of places, like a brick wall dubbed Lawrence of Arabia's house and a great place to climb (this picture is from the top of the ridge). It was lotta fun. At Aqaba we ate lunch and got on a boat to snorkel. It was decent snorkeling but I've been spoiled. What was a lot of fun was jumping off the boat afterwards. whoopee! :) Some of the guys were doing dives and backflips; i just jumped straight. We slept in another Bedouin camp right outside of Petra.

Petra was by far my favorite part of the trip. We woke up with the sun and took a 3-hour hike to get to the ruins. It was a difficult and awe-inspiring hike that reminded me of the Grand Canyon. I got all my excess energy out that came from sitting in class or in front of a TV with my host family. I feel really bad for some people; they didn't tell us beforehand we'd be scaling a cliff face, and there were a few people who are afraid of heights. But everyone did it! I can't believe but am really grateful CIEE took us on a hike like that. The ruins themselves were a lot of fun. The Nebeteans carved tombs etc into the cliff face so they're not extremely deep but as elaborate as anything the Greeks and Romans did. We spent the day there and then went back to the university/home.

Otherwise, I'm still having a great time. I actually understood my Arabic teacher today, which was a major plus. The other classes are shaping up nicely. It's a LOT of work, though. Not quite as much as Wes but they try. Not like other programs. At night I sit with Shireen's family outside and listen to them talk. I'm learning, slowly but surely. Laiz is being weird right now; he's sitting outside my room and making noises. odddddddd boy. gotta love him. Anyway, I've also been going to a couple of Muslim services. Last night Amal took me to an all-woman's one. Now that the novelty's worn off I'm MUCH happier at that one! I felt somewhat of a connection plus there was singing. You definitely don't get that when the women are a floor above the men and there's a small wall blocking your sight. But this one was really nice and afterwards I inendated Amal with questions about the services.


The picture you've all been waiting for, this is me! Amal just bought me my own today which is a little less ugly, it's purple with small purple and blue flowers and white lace around the edge. Better. :) and now I have my own.

Food rationing and the first day of school

I have a few observations I just want to put out there:

1) In the real world, without a meal plan, pizza is a better option than any other food. That, and intermittent meals of indulgence will get you through the week.

2) As a Jew, I can't believe I've been missing NY bagels all my life.

3) Use discretion in everything you do, be it cooking or lying to the doorman.

Enough of that. Thursday was my first day of public school revisited. The school is immaculate, and their head janitor/handyman/superman is capable of amazing feats. For example: I walked into the classroom on my first day, met with the teacher, and put my belongings in the closet she uses for storing her purse. It was a bit cramped, so I put my backpack on the floor of the closet behind the boxes she had stacked up. I heard her say something like, "Oh, don't put it there, there's paper--" so I quickly picked it up and realized a piece of sticky mouse trap paper was on the bottom. As I started to peel it off, we both heard a squeaking, and I saw a pair of little eyes and a furry round body was stuck to the paper. Well, I almost screamed, Isabel screamed, and we called the aforementioned man to help us (which he did, and quickly.)

But that was only in the first 10 minutes. The rest of the day was far less chaotic, and as soon as I met the students, I realized how perfect this placement is.

They are very responsive, respectful students. They chatter a little bit when they're full of energy at the beginning of the day. But Isabel is good at getting them to focus and to think "deeper" (her word.) I forgot how much bigger the girls are than the boys at this age! Maybe I never noticed? We have some very quiet students with a tendency to play with their pencils or tap their fingers. Some students hardly say anything, then light up at a joke from one of their friends. Several students have hall/classroom jobs, such as holding the door while the class moves through the halls, being a classroom secretary, and passing out papers. I'm still reeling from the fact that there are so many "progressive" (I use the word loosely because I'm still not sure what it means) approaches here. The principal (who is also wonderful) made an announcement on Friday that my fifth graders will have a special privilege this year. Instead of their teachers walking them from class to class, they will be able to walk themselves.

I would like to add a picture of a bronze frog donated to the school by Tom Otterness, a sculptor who believed that the kids were so jumpy they needed a frog in their playground:

Everything is new and shiny right now, even the rug I got from Target (It really ties the room together.) Last night we went to a Jazz concert at the Society of Unique Artists. It was an art gallery doing a tribute to 9/11 firefighters and rescuers. Pretty neat stuff.

That's all for now!

Madama Butterfly and other things...

The biggest problem with New York City is that as soon as you think to yourself, "Hey, I know what I'm doing," someone bumps into you and you spill your coffee and turn around so that your bag whacks a woman in the face. Okay, so that's an exaggeration (I didn't actually spill my coffee, but I did have problems keeping my bag from knocking into people), but seriously, this place is like an amoeba.

Today we drove around with Maggie and Betsy to our school placements. The schools are in three different neighborhoods: The Lower East Side, Washington Heights, and Jackson Heights. I'm going to be working at the one in the Lower East Side. Somehow I felt more comfortable being chauffeured by experienced New York drivers in bumper to bumper traffic than being a passenger on the bus this morning with a student driver who had difficulty making right turns. My school will be a mix of progressive and traditional education. I have really good feelings about the environment it provides for the students.

Soon, this blog will stop being all about me and my subway mishaps. I will probably give the kids pseudonyms and talk about my day to day life with them. They're in a fifth grade classroom with a wonderful teacher who has hosted a lot of UES students(another reason for why I'm so happy with my placement.) The kids always make experiences like this worthwhile, especially when they come highly praised by teachers who have been at the same school for twenty years (true story.)

Side story: I went to see the play "Madama Butterfly" this past Monday night. It was incredible!!! Free seating outside the Lincoln Square Theatre with a projection of the opera on a huge (nearly half the size of a movie screen) HDTV. This is a new initiative that started this summer, and it was the last show of the season. Kayla and I picnicked on the lovely New York sidewalk and watched an incredible performance for zero US dollars.

More info later. Thursday can't come soon enough!

(Or maybe I want to postpone it a little longer.)

First week in the city

Has everyone else been having insanely beautiful weather? I guess this makes up for the fact that June was a bust.

I am so happy to be in the city with other students who are interested in education. There are six total UES students: Two are from Wesleyan (Sara Quinn is the other Wes student), two from Brown, and two from Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. I love this group. Last week we began our orientation by meeting for dinner on Tuesday. It was the first of many take-out Chinese dinners for me. It's been an adventure to navigate the subway system, but I'm happy to say that we haven't yet taken the wrong bus/train.

On Wednesday and Thursday the six of us traveled to the Bank Street School of Education to meet the program directors. Maggie and Betsy have been doing this program for many years, and they're wonderful. I feel like anything could happen and they would know how to respond (or what emergency equipment to bring, be it a fire-extinguisher or a lawyer.) Both of them are teachers, and boy, have they got that teacher-way-of-talking down. We were given the assignment to record our personal learning histories, and I chose to write it out on several sheets of paper, graphing, doodling, making lines and boxes and arrows.

Friday, we went to Central Park to observe people. This is like really intense mall-watching, but you actually have to take notes based on all your sensory inputs. Instead of following that one person who you think might have picked her nose or has particularly tacky looking fishnets, we've been trying to get the whole scene and use our peripheral vision. It is really interesting to follow kids and notice the way they walk, hold their arms to their face or fling them out really fast, or even the way they hover far or close to their parents. There's this really cool playground in the middle of Central Park with plastic hippos sunk into the ground for the kids to play on, and that's where I took most of my notes.

Yesterday we went to the Brooklyn botanical gardens. I'm sensing a pattern of group field trips, and I know for a fact that on Fridays we're being treated to explorations of the city. May, a recent Brown graduate who works for the program (and is also a UES alum), takes us out and helps us figure out where to go.

I love my room! I will post pictures as soon as I can get a computer cable for my printer. I will also post pictures of us UES kids at our host sites. I have a couple of plants set up on my windowsill who are not dead yet.

Tuesday we take a tour of all of the schools at which we'll be working. I don't know where I'm being placed! It's a little frustrating. We should find out by the end of today or tomorrow at the latest. My classes for Bank Street are (I'm so excited, did I mention that?)

1. Storytelling for children

2. Family/Child/Teacher Interactions

3. The Influence of Culture and Politics on Literary Theory and Practice

4. Learning Practice and Theory (only UES students.)

My schedule will be:

- Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays: Working at my school placement

- Monday + Wednesday morning, I have class with the other UES students

- Thursdays I have my elective classes.

That's all for now. Tune in next week for more fun facts and "observations."

I miss you all so much. I'll be reading Wesleying to see what's going on.

Bye!