Adventures in Middle School

Marhaba!

So this past week/2 week/I've totally lost track of time has been great! Good news on the language front - I am finally gaining some confidence! Now I voluntarily sit in the front seat of a taxi (when it is all girls of course since boys have to sit in the front if there are any) and I can pick up a conversation with a taxi driver for a good 20 minutes! Better than that ... I can read a newspaper. Not every word of course but I can get all the major points as long as the article isn't too complicated. And I've also gotten very comfortable speaking in Arabic to our language partners and other Arab friends. I still don't understand a good amount but in order to combat that problem I carry my little notebook around with me. So the moment I hear a word I don't know, I ask the other person to write it for me and they try describing the meaning, usually without using English. "Oh Yasmine... always writing in her notebook..."

So last Sunday (talk about a century ago) we all were required, as the esteemed guests of Hashemite University, to go to a party for the King at the University's auditorium. I was excited to go because the Debka team had been telling us about it for a while and I wanted to see them perform! Although the idea of having a birthday party for the King a month after his actual birthday was a little odd. That is what I thought before I actually saw the party/performance. Talk about a little odd. It was the most outrageous hour of worship I have ever seen. There was dancing with knives. There was a bizarre play. There were performances by a whole group of students on the topic of how amazing the King is. There was a speech by the University president that reminded me of Mussolini. Did I mention I couldn't understand any of it? I spoke about the difference between Fusha (written language) and Amea (spoken dialect) before. Everything was in Fusha. But despite the fact that I couldn't understand anything... the point was obvious. Not to mention the powerpoint slide show of the King in various military uniforms in the background. At one point I looked over to our professor and he just had his head in his hands as though it was about it explode.

At least the dancing was good, right? My goodness though it was hard to believe something like that could still be happening in the world. Our other professor spoke about the idea of the King a little later in class. He is actually above the constitution in Jordan. Above the constitution! Talk about no rule of law. Munther was a bit more shocked than we were even... and there are probably better words for the way he felt about it that I won't write here. This might be also because he could understand everything in Arabic Fusha. He said the last time he was in Jordan, I think it was in the seventies, that it was the exact same thing. The idea of living in a Kingdom is just so foreign to me. Just the idea of ever worshiping Obama like that weirds me out.

But onto other topics... everything with our language parters has been going really well! We hang out with them every day so I really feel like I am pretty good friends with some of them. Especially Amel since I spend the most one on one time with her. Although I do spend a ton of time with Majdi, Heam and Abeer as well.

Here are a few pictures! This is from the left, Heam and Abeer.

Adorable, no? And this is a group of us, from the left top: Heam, Hanan, Majdi, Yacoub, (bottom row) me, Abeer, Selowa. This is probably the group I hang out with most after class.
All the girls! Selowa, me, Amel, Heam, Hanan and Abeer.
As I get to know them better, everything just gets more hilarious. We often compare the dynamic at the university to high school. Maybe even middle school. One of their favorite questions to ask, Heam in particular, is something like, "Who is the most beautiful in this picture?" In fact, after Yacoub took a picture of Heam, Abeer, Hanan and me, Heam asked him who was the most beautiful out of the four of us in the picture. Yacoub dodged the bullet and said the window. Smart kid.

They have also become a little possessive. They easily get upset when we hang out with people they don't know or people they think have a bad reputation. Although for us it is hard to know exactly since a bad reputation in Jordan may be a great guy in America. Hard to know exactly. But Ihave been told on a few occasions not to give my number out to strangers. Okay everyone, I am 20 now, thanks.

The Saturday before last four of the partners, Heam, Majdi, Abrahim and Muhammad, decided to give us a surprise visit at our apartment at 9AM Saturday morning. Boundaries, anyone? Although they did bring a big Arab breakfast so that made me happy. Watching them prepare the breakfast was hilarious. So I walked into the boys' apartment to see them pouring out every ingredient they brought onto its own plate. But this did not just include olives, cheese, hummus and yogurt. As Muhammad went to pour jelly out onto a plate from the jar, I tried to stop him saying that it was fine just in the jar but he was not having that. They even poured honey out onto a plate. Onto a plate!! I was a little horrified at first but quickly got over it. When everything was finally set up we all sat around the table with a huge piece of bread and just ripped pieces and dipped them into any plate we desired. It was kind of nice not to use silverware so maybe honey on the plate wasn't such a bad idea after all.

After the breakfast we played a game for a while. We were throwing a ball to each other and if the second person didn't catch it then the second person would have to do whatever the first person asked. This resulted in me making fresh orange juice twice, washing dishes, and making banana juice. For some reason Arabs love to punish people in games that they play. I was just glad that we didn't decide to play a game the guys had played the night before. I wasn't there but they told me it was set up like spin the bottle and truth and dare mixed - but just truth. So you might wonder... what type of questions would they ask? Just imagine what question you might ask your friend if you were in Middle School... you guessed it, "So... rank everyone here by who you think is the most good looking." What kind of sick game is that?!

Pretty much something weird happens every day. Something else that has stuck me as weird was the way they refer to black people. There are a few issues. Number one. I have heard the n-word used on about three different occasions when referring to black people in general or rappers. I had to explain how that wasn't quite appropriate to use after that each time. They also like using the word "slave" in Arabic. Again, that's a big no-no. It is likely just a lack of knowing English or American culture but it is a little shocking every time it happens none the less.

But despite their being territorial, a little jealous, a lot a bit like they are in Middle School - I love them! They may not know it but without them we would not be progressing nearly as quickly as I think we are currently. They are so wonderful and helpful for putting up with us when we don't understand and just in general being great company.


This past Wednesday was our first of many "adventure" days. Essentially instead of going to class every Wednesday, we split into groups of 2 or 3 and well, go on an adventure in Jordan! So for my first adventure, I went to Madaba with Hanan. It was a definite success!

Madaba has the largest population of Christians in Jordan - at about 30%. So for our adventure we explored a church, did some window shopping andwent to Mount Nebo.

This is the mosaic map from St. George's Church. The history of the map (seen below) is in 1884 Christian builders came across the remnants of an old Byzantine church on the site of their new construction. The Byzantine church was destroyed by wilful destruction, fire and neglect, but the mosaic was kept relatively intact! It now represents the oldest map of Palestine in existence. The map showed Palestine, part of Jordan and part of Egypt.


We also saw Mount Nebo when we were there. Here is the quote the guide book gives which indicates its significance:

"Go up unto...Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die." (Deuteronomy 32:49-50).

So this sight is where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land, a land he was forbidden to enter. So the story goes that he died on Mount Nebo and was later buried in the area but the exact location is up to conjecture. The sight was filled with tourists. Our taxi driver said that was very normal in Madaba because of Mount Nebo. In fact, Madaba had the most tourists I have seen in Jordan so far. I have a hunch there will be more in Petra though!

Hanan and I in front of the lookout of Mount Nebo.


While I did like the city a lot, the best part of Madaba was probably chilling in one of the stores with two of the owners just drinking chai. We talked to them a little bit in Arabic and they were impressed so they asked if we wanted to sit and drink chai - why not? They spoke to us the entire time in Arabic and we seemed to cover a lot of topics too. Then their friend came and talked to us too. He had just returned from India so we reminisced over how delicious this one restaurant in Old Delhi is and India in general. To me, as long as I am speaking Arabic with new people - I am happy!

As for my "Democracy and Human Rights" class with Doctor Jamal, I am constantly excited about it. It is really perfect since it is an introductory course with mostly freshman and also I basically took the same class (that was more challenging) at Cornell my freshman year - Intro to Political Philosophy. After the last class I spoke to the professor afterwards (he is so great!) to just ask a question. Somehow that led to me making a presentation in front of the class on Sunday on Hobbes. Mind you, there are over 150 people in this class. Oh... and I don't really speak Arabic. Eek!! Nonetheless, I love a good challenge so bring it on!

This weekend = Wadi Rum, Aqaba then Petra! This may mean nothing to some of you, but these are the three greatest things to do in Jordan! I am super excited. More importantly, the university is comping the trip entirely so all I will have to pay for is lunch I think! Get ready for some amazing pictures!

The Past Week - First Arabic Party included!

So much has happened in the past week! Now instead of boring you with words yet again I am going to try to sum up the millions of events that occurred in the past week with just a few stories and mostly pictures... sound good?

But first... look at the cat! I don't think I mentioned this before but there are cats everywhere roaming the street, similar to how there were tons of dogs and cows roaming the street in India. Cuter of course but still just as filthy.

Moz! (Bananas)


So after essentially just meeting my new language partner Amel, she invited me to her house on Saturday to tour Zarqa, hang out with her family and stay over night. She said I could bring some of the other girls so I invited Hana and Leyla and they came too. When we arrived in Zarqa Amel met us there and we then walked around the old market and the new market. It is amazing how wonderful Arabs treat their guests too because if one of us merely looked at something Amel would say, "You like that? Okay I'll buy it for you." And then she would! So about 2 hours later, full of falafel sandwiches and our hands full of candy we took a bus to her house. (A picture of Amel and me below at the university.)
At her house we first waited in her living room for I guess her mother to get the lunch ready. Of course, had we known we would be eating lunch at 4:30 we wouldn't have eaten falafel an hour before. So then her father came in the room with your typical "I've only been smoking for 40 years" voice and spoke to us for a bit. He immediately started using broken English so we asked him to speak in Arabic, mostly because we always want to practice too. But he decided he wanted to practice his English... great. About two questions in I think he asked us whether or not we supported the US in Iraq. Thank goodness Amel walked in just before I was about to answer that difficult (and potentially offensive in many ways) question! Saved.

So then we took off our coats and shoes and went into what seemed like her family room. Then we sat down on this cushioned area on the floor to eat lunch. It was then we immediately regretted taking off our coats - it was freezing!! Maybe ten degrees colder than it was outside. Of course women here rarely if ever take their coats off, but I think that is mostly a modesty thing. So I ran back and grabbed my coat. The lunch was delicious, however. I ate until I was in physical pain. Fairly normal for me.

Later on through the day I met Amel's entire family: her mother, father, two brothers (one in 4th grade and one a senior) and 4 sisters - huge family!! They were all fantastic though, especially her older sisters. We might not have spoke a word of English the entire time but her oldest sister is the headmistress of an English grade school so she is fluent and spoke in English quite often. Not because she wanted to but more because we seemed to need a translator at times.

After lunch Amel and her sisters taught the three of us how to dance Debka with her sister's wedding video (just two months married and pregnant!) in the background. And if that wasn't hilarious enough we then practiced "Eastern dancing" which is like a version of belly dancing that just girls do here at parties. Before we knew it we had a chance to show off our new skills when their family was invited to a friends party. Saturday was the day the Tawajihi scores came out (high school tests in which your score dictates your college major) so there were guns firing in the streets, fireworks, and of course, parties!

The party was incredible!! First of all, it was only women which is something entire new for us. The moment we walked in Amel and her sister took off their hijabs (headscarves) and most of the women in the room had their hair showing as well! Let the dancing begin! It was wonderful how the girl who the party was for was immediately accepting of us and danced with all of us! I feel like if three strangers came to a party in the US there might be a different reaction. So we danced Debka and eastern dance for about 2 hours straight with women ranging from 4 years old to probably over 70! Then they brought out Kanafi (the fried cheese desert) for us to eat and subsequently beckoned us to dance again immediately after. Needless to say I left with quite a cramp and Emily and Leyla already had heartburn and we hadn't even had dinner yet.

When we got back to her house the entire family sat in the family room and we all ate Busboosa (another incredibly sugar-filled dessert). I still remember the look I gave Hanan and Leyla when we were served the dessert... kind of like a "here we go again" look before I consumed another heart-attack. Then we talked all together with the family. Her dad went right back to politics and made the argument that the US president is just like Arab presidents in that he can declare war without the consent of the population. I argued the difference but I don't think I got to him. Difficult topic anyway... that seems to be all that he wanted to bring up. Worst part was he was actually really educated and lived abroad in Europe working at embassies for most of his earlier career.

Later on in the night we hung out with all the girls, ate sweet potatoes, played Uno, and we showed with around 10 rounds of different types of coffee and chai (tea). Without even moving the night was physically exhausting! Who knows how I was able to fall asleep with all that caffeine. Then we slept over and went to university in the morning with Amel. All in all it was an AWESOME experience and I'm pretty excited to stay over with her family again. She keeps saying they ask when I am coming back everyday so it shouldn't be too long from now!

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After a few days of school, Munther thought it would be beneficial for us to go to the University of Jordan t0 see the difference between the two universities. So we crossed the street in the morning (it is really just that far away) and explored for about an hour. It was the first university in Jordan and is certainly now the most distinguished. That is actually one of the reasons we are not going there because more students speak English and we wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

It is also the university that Munther went to when he lived in Jordan. I think it was weird for him to see it too since the area was much less developed when he was attending. All in all the place was very nice. I was especially excited to go though because Kat, a junior from Cornell in the Arabic program, is doing a CIEE program there. She really wanted to go to Lebanon instead but Cornell wouldn't let her so she ended up remarkably close to us. I was really interested in finding out how her program was different than ours and how she liked it. So she is stayed with a family here in a homestay which she seemed to speak highly of. Then she talked about all of her language classes along with a class on diplomacy in the Middle East and one on Economics in the Middle East. At that point I was pretty jealous considering I get frustrated with the Cornell program from time to time because we do not focus at all on the written language and the grammar and she had a three hour class on just that three times per week. Furthermore I was impressed that she was taking two interesting classes from the university with other Jordanian students in Arabic. But later that night after a few of the students went to talk with the director of the CIEE program with Munther, I found out that the situation is quite different. She actually only takes classes with other American students in the CIEE program and her diplomacy and economics courses are taught in English. Then Selowa also told me that Kat had not even been to the downtown area yet after living in Amman for over two weeks! All of a sudden I wasn't as impressed with the CIEE program. The students there are also assigned to language assistants but they seem to be quite different than our language partners because their assistants get a salary for their work and ours just wanted to be friends with us. So overall while I have my doubts about Cornell's program probably every other day, it may be the best possible situation given the other options. And although a homestay would be wonderful in my opinion, Kat does have an 8 PM curfew. Talk about lack of freedom.

After seeing the university we had the rest of the day free to explore so Hanan, Reem and I decided to go to the Citadel in downtown Amman. First, however, Reem and I decided to try out wearing the hijab to see whether or not we would be treated differently.


Do I look Arab? Unlikely... but I was treated differently! Certainly much less staring and no men shouted out "ohhh so beautifulllll" on the street. Thus... success! Although all in all I felt a little weird about doing it to be honest. Considering there are quite a bit of Christian girls here who do not wear the hijab, a felt a little like an impostor wearing something that represents Islam so obviously. Thus I will probably not wear it in the future unless I think safety-wise it would be best to blend into the crowd. Nonetheless... it was fun to change it up.

This is Reem and I at the Citadel (nice, no?). And props to Hanan and Reem for all the amazing pictures!
After exploring Amman, our entire group reunited once again at the restaurant "Cantaloupe" in Western Amman (aka swanky Amman). The reason we went there is because in Beginning Arabic we were required to memorize a song written by a guy from Amman, stage-name DJ Abu Yousef. And this isn't just any song... but a hilarious rap in Arabic about a cute girl running down the street. And I still remember it from when I memorized it first semester sophomore year! So guess who owned the restaurant? DJ Abu Yousef! We met the man himself - the first Cornell kids ever to do so! (DJ Abu Yousef on the left and our professor Munther on the right).

All of us awing at his awesomeness for writing mediocre rap songs and owning a swanky restaurant. The restaurant was a little more expensive, something like normal American lunch prices. But not to worry - Cornell paid for it all! So we all ordered fruit juices, appetizers, meals and desserts. Then after lunch DJ Abu Yousef asked us all to sign his Beginner Arabic textbook where his song lyrics are included! Then we also got a complimentary CD with all of his "new material".

On Friday (first day of the weekend) we had planned to take a trip to hot water springs in Irbid. Long story short... the trip was a huge fail. The hot water springs that we went to closed five years ago. Something that you just gotta let roll off your back here I guess. But on the upside - Irbid was quite nice! We actually went to the edge of the border, going through a security checkpoint, and went to this amazing view of Golan Heights which was Palestine, then a part of Syria, and now part of Israel. From the lookout point we could also see the Sea of Galilee. The area was very lush and gorgeous - perfect for a few pictures!

This is Abu Mousab (our ever-smiling and wonderful bus driver) with Munther.

Me! (Also note how I am reping my Anytown Arizona t-shirt under my jacket.)All of us! From the bottom left... Jafar, Munther, Ghawwar, Hanan, Ata, Nasr, Yacoub. Top left: Selowa, Reem, me, Sarah, Leyla. Oh and Khalid is in the bottom row with the Cornell hat.

So that may not have been quick - but I tried! I'll post again soon about how everything is going with our language partners and meeting people. I can't believe it has already been almost a month!

It is snowing in Jordan. I must be dreaming.

We have friends!

So this past week… was marvelous.

Before I begin… I must mention that while I write the majority of what I do here… I am refraining from writing everything. And by everything I don’t mean leaving out, “For breakfast today I ate bread.” Due to the nature of Jordan (aka gossip spreads like wildfire and who knows who might be reading this) I feel obligated to keep a few things private. Nothing too important I guess but just thought I should say that at times I strategically leave a few details out.

Onto my marvelous school week…

Sunday. The first day of school with all 18,000 students. I have to say, it was pretty exciting returning when there were actually people there. I was worried about how easy or difficult it would be to meet friends here but luckily it seems like a large majority of people want to talk to us. Hanan and Selowa left to find a mailbox and came back with two friends. Tesneem and Doaa. They are incredibly nice and we actually met up with them again for lunch today. Tesneem, like a lot of people here unfortunately for us, prefers to speak in English even if we talk to her in Arabic. That way, she says, she can improve here English at the same time that we are improving our Arabic. While that isn’t ideal for me, she does speak in Arabic half the time still and corrects the way I speak or my pronunciations – both of which I can’t get enough help in. Doaa, which means a specific prayer to God, is incredibly sweet too. Although I think it took me about 20 times to pronounce her name right. In fact I think she might have just lied and said I pronounced to right to make me stop trying. About 30 minutes after we met them we exchanged all of our information. It is hilarious to me that everyone exchanges phone numbers immediately, even if you don’t know them very well at all. Not just that either – they call you. Then if you don’t answer they ask why you didn’t answer last time they called. Wayyyy more forward than people would ever act in the US.

After eating lunch with the girls, Hanan, Selowa, Reem and I went over to the stage to try and see if we could dance Debka with the team again, ideally three days a week like they do if possible! So we went into the theater and they were practicing. We talked to a lot of them again – they all are super nice and welcoming. Then we sat for a while because they have to practice a performance for the king on the 6th of February. In an ideal world I would try out for the team, make it, then dance and make friends and speak Arabic. However, I have run into some problems. Number one, I don’t know how to say “Are there tryouts?” and I’m not even sure that they have tryouts or if I can tryout. Other problems include that we have been going there as a group (all 12 of us) more than once so they may think we are just there to hang out. Which I am too… except I also love to dance and really want to be involved at the university. Nearing the end we were up on stage and I attempted to ask the leader of the group if we (a few of us) could be on the team. She said yes… but with the language sometimes causing some misinterpretation I am not sure if that is true. We danced for a little but then we had to all go home on the bus together. Hopefully I can – if not though, I want to try to get involved with art or something else on campus. I’ll have to see what happens.

While the girls were off meeting other girls, the guys met other guys around the engineering area. One guy in particular, Hassam, invited them to go to “City Mol” (aka a mall) later during the night. I felt too overwhelmed with work so I didn’t go but later when they all came back he hung out in the girls apartment for a bit and later we hung out in the boys apartment. I enjoyed hanging out with him too because he spoke pretty clearly and was fun to hang out with. The next day in class when we were going around and saying what we did yesterday, we asked Munther if it was acceptable that he was in the girls apartment. Essentially he said no it wasn’t. Muhammad, our other teacher from the university, said that if we had lived in Zarqa under the supervision of the university, girls would not be allowed in the boys apartment and vice versa. So different here. So technically we are okay to go into the boys apartment now that we are in Amman and not under any supervision, but Muhammad said we should be careful when students from Hashemite are visiting because if it gets back to the university that we walk into each other’s apartments then we might get a bad reputation on campus. And they say that bad reputations spread like wild fire in the Middle East. Needless to say I think we will follow the gender-separation rules if anyone from the university visits. And if we want to hang out all together, we just have to go up to the lobby or another public area.

Monday. Friend fail. Apparently most people just have class on STT? (aka the MWF of Jordan) We tried to walk around asking useless questions to make friends but no luck.

Luckily, the day improved as it went on. At night our whole class went to see Amreeka at the City Mall movie theatre. I had only heard of the film once before we went to see it but Khalid watched it before and said 75% was in Arabic and it was worth going to see. The film is called Amreeka because that is the way “America” is pronounced in Arabic. The basic plot of the film is a woman (Muna) and her son (Fadi) living in the occupied territory of Palestine receive visas in the mail to go to America 20 years after the mother applied for them. Upon weighing her options, she decides that it would be best for her to move to America, both for the education opportunities for her son, and to escape the difficulties she faces living in an occupied territory every day. Everything seems fine when she first arrives in America and moves in with her sister and her family in Chicago, but she soon realizes that the grass is not greener on the other side. The film is set in 2003 right as America is invading Iraq. Muna’s sister’s husband is a doctor, but since he is Arab almost all of his patients are leaving him due to the intensified racism against Arabs following 9/11.

One part of the film that hit me more than others was Fadi’s (her son) experience in American high schools. To begin, his name is Fadi, which pronounced in Arabic is almost pronounced “fa-thee” but his teacher immediately pronounces it as “Fatty.” This paired with the fact that his clothes aren’t in style and he is picked on because he is new and Arab (especially by one boy whose brother is in Iraq) makes for a pretty bad situation. This just made me think about how hard it must be to move from another country to America for anyone young. You already are arriving without any friends, but to top it off you dress differently, eat different food, might have a strong accent and don’t understand the protocol of teenagers in America. Rough. It makes it so much easier to understand why students like that might isolate themselves or act irrationally if persecuted enough. While living now in Jordan isn’t exactly like that, I do stick out quite a bit at school. Okay so I stick out a lot, we all do. Just funny how I have known people in America who moved from another country and now I am the one who moved abroad i.e. my living situation is mukkloub (note: if you remember this word from my last post and remember what it means you win 20 points) and I am the one sticking out and living in another country where the culture and language is so different.

On a lighter note, one of the funnier jokes in the movie refers to the difference in names again. Muna ends up getting a job at White Castle and works with a boy who is a high school drop out with blue hair and a few piercings. When she asks him his name, he says Matt. She then starts to laugh and doesn’t believe him at first. She is laughing because the word mat in Arabic means “dead.” So she proceeds to tell him his name means “dead” and says, “So… you are Dead!” Hahaha. Something similar but not quite the same has happened here with our Arabic names. One of the boys, Ata, chose the name in America not knowing whether or not it was popular here. Now when he introduces himself pretty much everyone laughs because his name is incredibly old, like having the name “Mildred” now in the US for example.

Tuesday. WE FINALLY MET OUR LANGUAGE PARTNERS!!! So exciting! We actually gathered up with a bunch of them even before our official first meeting at two. They are so great! There are 6 girls and 6 guys and it is great to talk to people who understand that we want them to speak in Arabic. Not only that but they are also so excited (or least it seems this way) to meet us and hang out with us! In the beginning I spoke a bit with Abeer and Hiam who are both ADORABLE. Then I got to talking to Amel (meaning hope in Arabic) and spoke to her for almost the entire hour. It is amazing how much you can learn from a native Jordanian in an hour. She studies Arabic literature and told me about how she is also learning sign language and wants to teach deaf students in the future. She taught me to say things like “whatever,” “what’s wrong,” and “what’s up?” Then she yelled at me for saying “eyowa” too often. It means “yes” in Arabic so I pretty much had been saying it every 10 seconds when people talk to me so they know I am understanding them. Apparently this is bizarre though so she told me it was better to say “aa” or “nam” if I wanted to agree with someone or show that I understand. It is a little difficult to understand her at sometimes, especially because she speaks only maybe 10 words in English and can’t translate anything for me. But overall I am surprised at well I can speak to her! She also taught me how to say a few things in sign language – why not? Haha. Not sure if it is the same sign language as there is in the US but if not then now I know some Arabic sign language! And also she taught me how Arabs use the numbers we use in America as Arabic letters when typing transliterated texts in English script. So cool. To even make things better she paints too so hopefully she can show me the ropes in the art rooms and I can start doing a little art again if there is time.

Here is a picture of a group of us together: (from the left back) Maghlid, Yacoub, Majdi, me, Leyla, Sarah, Anis (bottom row) Abrahim, Selowa, Abeer, Hanan. Also note the portraits of the current and previous king in the background.

Also as a note so you all can form a mental picture before I upload more pictures – all of the girls but one wear a hijab (head scarf) of the language partners. Here it is almost always true that if you are Muslim you wear a hijab and girls without a hijab are Christian. I won’t write too much about Wednesday but essentially we met with all of our language partners again and I got a chance to talk to Amel some more (my official language partner now) as well as some of the other girls and the guys. I am pretty lucky in general to have Amel now because I can understand her. Some of the other guys and girls speak around approximately 38493874 words per minute in Arabic making it difficult to understand, I would say. But insha’allah (hopefully) in the future I will be able to understand everyone – no matter how fast they speak!

Quick culture lesson! Here the boys kiss other boys to greet them and the girls kiss other girls. It is in the form of three kisses on the cheek – one on the right cheek, then the left, then another on the left. This may sound easy but when you actually do it it isn’t just kiss, kiss, kiss. It is more of a kiss, kiss, (Pause! Wait for at least 2 seconds…) aaaaaand kiss.

As for my general skills in the language I am feeling pretty okay. Of course I have a ton still to learn, but I am trying to write down every word I learn and look over it later and I think it is working for the most part. At the very least I think I am on track. I may never be liked Yacoub (must have an incredible photographic memory, either that or he is a robot) who never forgets a word he learns… but I will succeed!

Book wise I finished “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.” SO GOOD. I definitely recommend it. I am sad that I don’t have access to the second book which is already out in hardback. I borrowed “Life of Pi” from Selowa to read next. I started reading about 50 pages and while the book is really good and I can tell I will love it I am slightly avoiding it now to focus on devoting all my time to Arabic-related things. Especially because the book is India related (which I love) but I am trying to not compare the two countries quite so much anymore. Plus, I found a good replacement! I am now reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde (wait for it) ...in Arabic! Munther said I shouldn’t get a book with the Arabic on one side and English on the other side but it has been incredibly rewarding I think. I don’t waste time looking up words since the translation is on the other side and it also helps me to see how the syntax of words is shaped differently in Arabic. Not to mention I really like the book so far.

So I just realized this post is 4 pages long in Word. Congrats to you who made it to the end without skimming most of it! You are my real friends - بمزا (just kidding)!

انشالله سأكتب مرة أخرى قريبا

BOOMALI

Ah, argela. Known more commonly as hooka in the US. It is quite common to see groups of men, couples or young people smoking it in a social setting like a cafe. Incredibly popular here. This is one of the stores in central Amman. Now onto what I have been up to...


Hold onto your seats... this is gonna be a long one. Somehow I just got incredibly busy between class, homework, yoga-ing... oh! and trying to master an incredibly difficult language. Mish mushkela (no problem).

So I believe last time I updated we just got settled into our apartment and started class, although there were no students at the university yet since we started a week before the rest of the students. Oh so much has happened since then. Where to begin.... Mazin. So we met Mazin on our first day at the university. We were all sitting in a room and waiting for Munther to finish talking with the president and he brought in juice for all of us. Then as we started going to class he was always sitting on a bench outside our classroom in the Language Center. Every day. And no... he wasn't just taking a break or reading a book, he was doing absolutely nothing. He does that. Everyday outside our class from the time before we get there to the time we leave. Munther said he is in the Muchabarat (aka Jordan's version of the CIA or secret service). We guess his job is solely to always be with us or around us when we are at the university. Besides the fact that this is moderately creepy that Mazin is just always there, he is a pretty nice guy. He knows all of us and we just greet him everyday and don't ask any questions. Hanan, Selowa and I are pretty sure when we go to Syria he is going to show up in the background in all of our pictures haha. Sarah is pretty sure that the Muchabarat is reading all of our emails too and thus know everything about our background and lives... if so... hey Mazin!

In general the fact that Mazin just sits around all day and does nothing says a lot about what most people do in Jordan - or at least this is how Munther takes it. It is as if every one who works needs a friend who sits behind him and smokes. Not to do paperwork or work behind the scenes, just for company. So essentially everyone is always just smoking and drinking coffee while nothing gets done. Not quite as bad as India in my opinion where everyone seemed to have a non-job. Aka someone opened the right door for you and someone opened the left door and another person greeted you. But it is certainly far from the case in America where one person works all day incredibly hard and has multiple responsibilities.

As for what has been happening at school... so much has happened! Our first week was relatively slow considering school hadn't started for the rest of the students. We started on Sunday as the school week runs from Sunday to Thursday considering Friday is a holy day for Muslims. So since school was relatively slow we decided to take Thursday off for the first half of the day and go to the Palestinian Refugee Camp. As I think I already mentioned before over 50% of the population in Jordan is Palestinian. So as a result a large group lives together in an area that spans about 12 blocks. In general it is known as a poorer area so at first my mind went to my experience touring the largest slum in Asia in Mumbai, India. Although this time I think I was more mentally prepared. In India I assumed, knowing nothing about slums, that most people were very very poor and did not have jobs - hence they had to live in a slum. Oh how I was wrong. The biggest slum in India (not to mention Asia) is a thriving city. Everyone works and pays relatively high rent for their small homes. So while I knew slums like those in India did not exist in Jordan, I also knew that the refugee camp wouldn't be just a congregation of Palestinians without jobs. ّ And like I thought it was just like another city or part of town. In fact, I really really liked it there.

We spent most of our time walking on the main street where there was open fruit and vegetable markets, cafes, clothing shops and small places to eat. What was even better was no one spoke English. YES! Finally I don't need to persuade someone not to speak English to me! So we split up into three groups and I walked around with Hanan, Jafar, Nasr and occasionally Munther. First things first, Hanan and I wanted to order some Arabic coffee - sounds like me, no? So we went to the nearest cafe (please do not picture something like a Starbucks here it is more like a hole in the wall) and asked for some coffee. Now in Arabic, coffee is Kahaweh. But there is something about the "caf" aka letter k sound that makes Arabic speakers want to pronounce it differently depending on the region. So as we were told before, most women say "Ahaweh" and do not pronounce the "K". So we said... Can we have some "Ahaweh". The man at the cafe did not understand us at all. So we repeated the word about three times, knowing that surely he must just be thinking we can't speak Arabic and thus is not listening. Finally it dawned on me to say "Kahaweh" and he said, "OHHHHH Gggahaweh." Yes, gahaweh. So if people don't understand me because they see me and assume I'm speaking English (when of course I am not!) it is comforting to know that they can't understand me even when they know I'm speaking Arabic. Eek.

Now for a few pictures from the camp! Here is a little boy who we marveled over - adorable, no?

These are the kids we talked to for a while. Okay, so mostly we just asked their names and they played with our cameras but still.
Hanan at the fruit and vegetable outdoor market.Ah! So we were lost after making a few wrong turns so Munther asked this little boy if he could be our tour guide and take us to the main street. He basically barely talked and just listened to his casette player with a huge smile on his face. After he helped us Munther gave him some change for his assistance which he tried very hard to refuse before Munther stuck it in his jacket pocket.

The rest of the morning at the camp was great. We talked to a group of kids who were absolutely adorable. We even talked to this older man who said he used to be a professor of English about the difference between Fusha (written Arabic) and Amea (spoken or street Arabic). Oh! And a man at the fruit market gave me a "Boomali" for free. For some reason I still haven't opened it but the fact that its name is "Boomali" made my day.

Over the weekend we had quite a treat. On Friday while all the boys went to the mosque to see all the men praying, Munther's brother's wife came over to the girls' apartment to cook with us. I learned so many Arabic words for food and cooking! She said we were cooking "Mukkloub." So first she put onions and chicken together and cooked it. Then in our other kitchen she poured a crap ton of olive oil into a pan and began frying cauliflower. They were literally swimming in olive oil. Next she fried the chicken. Then she put the cauliflower on top of the chicken and onions and a ton a rice on top of that. Then in one huge pot she cooked the rice while the chicken and cauliflower was in there. And what did she add? The remainder of an ENTIRE LITER of olive oil. I physically cringed when she poured it in. Then she had a bag of chopped almonds to put on top of the dish when it was done - but thought it would be a good idea to fry those too. When the rice was finished cooking I learned why the dish was called "Mukkloub" (translation: inverted). She took the entire pot and flipped it onto a huge dish so the rice was on the bottom and the cauliflower and chicken was on the top. To top it off we sprinkled the fried almonds on top. Amazing. And if it didn't already look delicious - oh man - you should have tasted it. The liter and a half of olive oil just might have been worth it minus the kabillion calories. I probably ate three dinners worth of food as did everyone else - and there was still about half or more left. Jafar didn't even stop to breathe he ate so much chicken. Note: all Jafar talks about is how he wants chicken. Overall it was a great experience talking with her and learning to cook Arabic food. Also I felt like it was a day in the life of a traditional Arab woman given the fact that the girls stayed and cooked the food while the men went to the mosque.

Mukkloub! The far dish was the one with chicken and the closer one was vegetarian. The picture doesn't do the amount of food justice, unfortunately.

Us together sitting at the table before we all ate. From the left: Jafar, Sarah, Ghawwar, Hanan, Khalid

As for my general experience here it has been quite a roller coaster. Near the beginning of last week I was feeling quite discouraged, and after talking to a few people they seemed to be in the same boat. I was feeling as though everything I had hoped for in conjunction with the Intensive Arabic Program was not going the way I planned. To begin, we are not living in Zarqa like we planned, so while Amman has more to do, more people speak English to us. More importantly, we do not have Jordanian roommates. I felt as though my Arabic was not improving. Thus, to create a picture in the form of a metaphor, I felt like as a class we were up in one of the minarets attached to the mosques. Peering down onto Jordanian culture from above with no way of actually ever knowing, in reality, what it is like to be Jordanian or live in Jordan. I moreover felt dissappointed at how well, subdued, Jordan seemed in comparison to India. India is this incredible country of constant shock and excitement that was bursting at the seams with issues, corruption, racism -- really anything a sociologist might wish for in life. But Jordan? Sure, there are Palestinians that may still feel a stronger connection to Palestine than Jordan, but there seemed to be no prominent issues, or any issues that were easily accessible to discover as a student from America.

Furthermore, I felt incredibly trapped by the program's organization. Something I learned about myself in India was that I hate, no despise, traveling in large groups. While I do have patience I tend to get frustrated when a big group cannot make a decision about something so simple as where to eat lunch. Meet Cornell in Jordan. Everyday I felt like I was on a class field trip. Newsflash - I am no longer in high school and have experienced far too much freedom being on my own in college and abroad in India to feel as though I need to answer to a teacher or follow along with a group. But since as a group we live together, eat together and go to school together, I am basically only on my own when I am taking a shower. Don't get me wrong, I really like all the Cornell kids and having some company, but I was feeling a bit like I was still at Cornell, just half a world away.

Thankfully, things started to change. First off, we discussed how many of us were feeling in class and Munther made an important point - it had only been a week and a half. Why I expected to be fluent, knowledgeable about all the intricacies of Jordanian society and street smart after only a week... I do not know. Second, I recognized that it is going to take some time for us to make friends and essentially go our own ways. I have to expect that in the beginning we really only have each other as a group. As we eventually make friends we hopefully will be able to hang out and do things in smaller groups. Lastly, I realized there actually is much more to Jordan that first appears to the eye. Maybe even as much "drama" as there is in India. Maybe. The issue might be that people are just more protective here of how they appear in order to make Jordan look like the best country as it can be. It is in its nature as a country to be difficult to infiltrate, psychologically and socially that is.

So for now I am working on my patience. My Arabic will get better. I will find friends (oh please let me meet some friends). In general, however, I am incredibly happy. Just speaking Arabic or understanding others speaking to me puts a huge smile on my face. What is more unbelievable, at least to me, is that I don't miss Cornell. I mean, I miss Cornell because it might just be the best place on earth (I am a tour guide after all) but I don't miss it like I thought I might. I would so much rather be here learning about a new country, culture and language. انا مبسوت كثيير

More to come, as usual. Salam.