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!