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!