Week Three

September 8th 2008

Well I had classes again today, as I will for the rest of this week, until Friday when my weekend begins. Did I mention that a weekend in Jordan is Friday and Saturday? For some reason this makes a difference to me. I am so used to having Sunday off that it feels like a new sort of punishment to have to get up on a Sunday and go to school!
Moving on so today I met my third Arabic teacher. She seems cool. And she like all the others speaks only in Arabic, but she is so animated that it is hard to miss her meanings with things.
After Arabic courses today I did the most American thing that could be done in Jordan and that was go to Subway and eat during Ramadan. Okay I was really hungry. And I ate the ice. Needless to say it caught up with me. Not too badly, but I won't eat the ice again! (If you don't know what this means, well just never eat the Ice in Jordan, or drink the water for that matter.)
So I started my two Area studies courses today as well. Both courses seem like they are going to be a blast. My first course is Arab women writers and it is a look at fictional novels and how they represent feminism in the Arab world. There is a lot of reading for the class like seven novels, but it sounds really interesting. And my teacher well she seems very nice and really wants people to learn. Also we have Arab women writers come in as guest speakers and we even get to write our own stories and such. My second area studies course is Islam in the Modern Context. This is going to be a great class. This will be my first religion studies course that is taught from the perspective of a believer. And she is the cutest woman ever. I can't help but smile at her. She is an older lady, but you can tell she has such faith that it really touches me. And she talks so passionately. Anyways, this course seems like it will be cool as well. We even have some field trips and guest speakers in it.
Overall I am really looking forward to my semester in Amman.
I am planning a few things for this weekend. And I found a different horse riding place that lets you take the horses out for an hour for only 12 US dollars!!! Tell me that isn't great!!!
Oh and I am looking into going Ballooning in Wadi Rum. I just sent an email asking for prices. That would be so awesome if it isn't expensive. Seriously it seems like nothing is too expensive in Jordan.

Setember 9 2008

Now that it is Tuesday and I am fully settling into my class schedules and such. I can offically say I am bored. Actually today I did meet someone. A native Jordanian. She is a grad student in Math. She wants me to help her with English and says she will help me in return with my Arabic. And let me tell you after we did the stupid listening exercise today in Arabic I swear I need help. Of course everybody in that class was lost. It was like going to an auction where the guy was saying words instead of numbers. CRAZY!!!!! Anyways, Tuesday was kind of boring. Later in the night Kat and Elizabeth and I all went to our favorite little hookah haunt. Haha Oh and the weirdiest thing happened. We were walking down the road, and mind you Kat is blonde so it isn't like I look like the strangest thing these dark Jordanians have ever seen, but anyways, we were walking from al manar and this guy who was walking with a group of his friends. Stops in his tracks when he sees me and only about two feet from me stares at me with the oddest look in the world on his face like he just didn't understand. I of course just keep walking and then about 10 feet down the road Elizabeth busts out laughing and says so silly little obnoxious little comment.
Oh and the Taxi driver pissed me off a bit on the way home. But all was well in the end. Always they trying to take my money!!!!

September 10th 2008

Another round of classes seriously I love my classes but sometimes I just get so bored with having almost three hours of Arabic at once. My Arab Women Writers class got cancelled which didn't do me much good since I still had to stick around for my other class after that.
Anyways later in the night a group of us went out for Lisa's birthday. It was fun. We went to a place called Jabri and had wicked mad crazy good dessert. Like chocolate death!!!! And then we went to a place on Rainbow street that sold alcohol during Ramadan so that Lisa could have herself a very expensive "I just turned 24" drink! We hung out there for a while and just talked about this that and the other thing. It was all pretty chill nothing to special.

September 11th 2008

Thank Allah it is Thursday!!! Okay so I had Arabic courses in the morning and then in the after noon I really did nothing. I found this site online were I could read books on the computer for free. So mostly I read the Twilight series. Anyways, so later that night Tanya, Lisa, Elizabeth, Jackie, and I all got together and we went to Wakalat and just chilled out around there. Mostly we were making plans for Friday. We had decided to nixe the horses this weekend and decided to make a sure trip. Elizabeth, Lisa and I decided to go to Jerash. Tanya and Jackie had already been. So nothing really great to report for Thursday.

September 12th 2008

Okay so today we got on a bus and we went to Jerash. Let me start with...mom you would not be able to ride a bus in this country. Mr. Toad's wild ride has nothing and I do mean nothing on the bus rides around here. They move in and out of cars honking their horns every five seconds. It was so scary!!!! I thought I was going to die. One guy actually fell out of his seat and smacked his head against the metal of the other seat. However, I was already creeped out by this guy expecting that he was going to kill us all at anytime. I am not kidding I am glad we got off the bus when we did and Lisa was having the same feeling about him as I did. He also pissed off the bus guy when he didn't pay when it was time. Some tourist woman paid for him. It was all a bit weird.
Anyways so we got to Jerash and once at the ruins we walked through the market-tourist like shops. And everybody there kept promising to give me the Jordanian price because I spoke Arabic and I went to the University, not the tourist price. Oh and I got to bargin that down to which is what I do. Haha at least in this country.
Moving on...we got horribly hussled by a group of kids at the ruins. But they were so cute. We had to take pictures with them. Seriously I refused to buy anything from them. Lisa gave them a dollar after we got annoyed with them and told them to go away. Of course it was the police that really scared them off. After that this other kid decided he wanted to be our unwanted tour guide. I told the girls he was gonna want money and we had to get rid of him. He didn't take suttle hints. Finally I got bitchy and told him to leave. He asked for a tip and I told him I wasn't tipping him and he got mad and said maybe my friends wanted to tip him. I told him they couldn't cause I had all the money. I told him if he wanted a tip that badly I could ask the police if it was okay. He didn't like that much. But he still stood and argued. Finally I scared him off cause I kept talking about the patrol and as he left he told me I was a horrible person. (Seriously what is it with me and beggars at tourist spots. First france and now here!!!! haha)
Moving on, we went to this other ruin where we met some really nice Jordanians. We talked to them for awhile and they were impressed that we were students here. My friend Lisa actually walked on the wall of on of the ruins. I did not do this because let us face it I do not have the greatest balance and with all the uneven stones on the thing I knew I was going to fall to my death. Hell I was scared to death for Lisa. She didn't look like she was all that confident about it, but she made it across with the help of the Jordanian. And they gave her a cheap little braclet because they said she was so brave. I agree! She was wearing flip flops and she was about 40 feet up on top of this ruined wall!!!!!
Anyways, after that we took a bus home from Jerash and that was basically the end of the day.

September 13th

Because I am a lazy bum after yesterday I did nothing today but hang out around the house. Seriously I think I did a bit of homework and then remained lazy and just read my silly look book all day long. And tried not to get too hot. The weather here is horrible. Seriously, I am so glad though that it isn't too bad at night. Actually it has really started to cool down at night. Anyways I went to be early because I had class on Sunday.

September 14th

Class!!!!! I can't stress to you how boring it feels to sit in the same classroom for three hours. I mean I love Arabic...but it is just too much at once I think. The teacher drags on and on and by the end of it I am ready to hang myself. But that is okay...I guess that is what I came to this country for. So anyways Sundays are my slow days. I only have Arabic on this day. So after class I went home for a while and then I decided to go down town. Which would have been a fine idea if it wasn't for my damn taxi cab driver. My host mom is right...they are monkeys!!! So I get all the way down town and the meter reads that I owe 1.89 JD. I hand him two JD and ask for my change, but he refuses to give me my change saying that his meter is set lower than it should be. This irritates me, but after making on discussed noise I just go out it was only 10 quarish anyways. I slam the door of his car in my anger and he yells at me, "Don't slam my fucking door." (mind you this is right in the middle of down town) well this pisses me off. So I get into a fight with me taxi cab driver. Of course he knows he is in the wrong so he can't do much but yell. I turn around when he yells at me and my American kicks in. Let me tell you. I scream "Fuck you...If you are so damn worried about people's reactions then fix your fucking meter." He yells back at me and then I look back at him and spit out something like "Asshole" as I walk away. The people are staring and one man is laughing his ass off. Of course at this point American Alisha dies off and I remember where I am. But still so pissed I called my host mom and she was like why didn't you say "Kis ummku" which means like "Go fuck your mother" haha I love my host mom!!!!
That was my exciting day.