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!

_________________________________________

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!