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.