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!

i'm beginning before you do--I DON"T WANNA DO MY HW!!

1st day of class today, an hour 1/2 of Advanced Arabic (and only that class, S, T, Th!!) My teacher is really funny, EXTREMELY animated. it's great. It makes up for the fact that i can't understand a word he's saying. Today we got a small packet and read outloud and i learned something very important--everyone in my class sucks as much as i do! :) We're all terrible readers and very nervous so i'm not the only one. (and for those of you who think i'm being modest, i'm not.) Tomorrow, instead of having just arabic still, we're starting all of our classes. Fuuun! minus the fact that M &W are gonna be insanely painful. After class I hung out wiht people and then went with a few to the gym nearish me. But its not actually convenient for me to get there so i'm just gonna go to the all-girl's gym just up the block from school. (literally up; it's so hilly here! i mean, yes i'm from chicago, but it's hilly!)

So i ask Shireen and Amal if they would teach me to pray because I wanted to know. So Friday night Amal brough me to the mosque with her. I borrowed the proper clothes (a long, loose skirt and head-to-torso covering) and looked like i was wearing a flowery curtain or bedspread you find in old lady's homes. It was...well, the best way to describe it is holy. At first i felt like a complete imposter and my mere presence was rude. but then i got into the mindset and stopped sneaking glances around so much and i felt like a student who just needed the proper lessons. At one point i did something wrong and Amal explained to me what to do; the lady next to me started asking questions about me and offered to bring some books in English on Islam for me to read. So sweet!! And yesterday when Amal came home from work she bought me a Qur'an with the Arabic, transliteration, and English side by side. That same night after we came back Amal, her sister-in-law, and her 2 next door neighbors/friends sat outside with me (i sat with them while they smoked hookah) and taught me 5 pages worth of arabic words. it was fun! :) now i should know all that damn basic stuff like the colors, articles of clothing, etc. They kept telling me words and then correcting eachother saying, "that's colloquial, not fusha!".

i really should do this hw before hte kids decide they can't wait to play with me again. adorable, but still young kids. i need to define words that i have no idea what they mean using arabic words i don't actually know. fun! XP

the big news

What a day!!!! In order: first, I got my class schedule and i'm in advanced arabic I (higher than i thought i'd be) for both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Jordanian. I also got both classes I wanted, one on the environment and waterways and the other Contemporary Thought in Islamic Thought. SOOO EXCITED!!!!!! :) Next, I'm curently in my host family's house. They're a really lovely family, very liberal Muslims. They were told when they agreed to host me that I was Jewish; thank GOD i didn't have to tell them!! i was not looking forward to that. no surprise to anyone, i placed myself immediately--when i was on the bus when i arrived in jordan, i was talking and said "feh!" Not a very arab thing to say. Good god i'm so jewish!! :P Anyway, my host mother is the grandmother; she lives with her son, his wife, and their two children (a 9-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl). THe kids dont know english so i'll be able to practice on them and the parents want to practice their english so i'll speak a mix of arabic and english. I'm still insanely nervous but so excited and really happy.

that's it, just a quick post. this weekend (Friday and Sat, not Sat and Sun) we're spending with our host families; Sunday we start Arabic on a special Ramadan schedule; next weekend will be a trip to Wadi Rum, Aqaba, and Petra, then the other classes start next sunday. Dinner

Ahlan wa Sahlan min Al-Urdun!

ie hello from jordan!! Jordan is WONDERFUL, i'm loving it! The plane ride was ok, but a little too long for someone who was lonely and slept i think 2 out of 12 hours. But i had a bunch of books and music so i was good. When we got there, there were 15 or so people from my program and SIT on my plane so we all went through customs together chatting. Luggage wasn't an issue, and then we joined a large group of other CIEE students. Drove to the hotel, got my room and current roommate (Audra), and it was like orientation all over again--we mingled and chatted and introduced ourselves to the other 70+ students.

Today we went to the Dead Sea. SOOO MUCH FUN!!!!! 1st off we went to the Dead Sea observatory and had our orientation. we played the best "getting to know you" game: Allison Hodgkins, the resident director, took all the info we wrote in our "well-polished essays" and when she called out something that applied to us we had to stand up and look around at who else was standing. Then for the next half of the day we floated in the Dead Sea, covered ourselves with mud (free spa! and lots of fun!) and swam in the pool that the resort had. It was a ton of fun.

Tomorrow is our Arabic placement exam, signing up for classes, and other odds and ends to get us ready. There's going to be a study group tonight to review Level 2; we're all afraid of being placed in a too low level cuz none of us studied over the summer. oops. Also, i have a homestay!!!!!!!! yes!!!!!!!! all the girls have one and most of the boys that asked for it.

I'm as excited as i can be and having a WONDERFUL time!!!

last note--internet is AWWFUL here so i won't be checking it extremely often. but i'll update when i can.