Literally, it's FREEZING here! Well, not really freezing, but it is rather chilly. Here in Jordan and places where the primary climate is desert, it gets chilly at night...
...Today has been a great day!
I worked from home today and hadn't planned on doing anything else but reading and studying a bit of Arabic (because I desparately need it). But I heard a knock at my door and it was one of the girls who lives in my apartment building. Her name is Aya and she is very nice. She said to me, "Do you want to go with me up to the serrrrrrvice?" Pretty much, I didn't understand what she was saying. Service? What service? I thought something was going on outside--I kept hearing cars flying by and people constantly blowing their car horns, more than usual--so I thought she said service. I really was thinking she said service, y'all. Since I didn't understand her, I just threw on my sweatpants and followed her out of my apartment, still wondering what service she was talking about...
...Well, I kept following and we ended up on the roof of our building...AHHHHHHH, SURFACE!! She was saying surface!! But what she really meant was roof!! So in an almost-Oprah inspired "Aha! moment," I said "Oooooh surface!" We sat out on the swinging chair thing and just talked over a beautiful Amman night.
It was so cold out there but it didn't really bother me much because I was occupied. Aya is from Israel, near Tel Aviv and she speaks Arabic and Hebrew and she wants badly to learn English. She and I sat outside and I taught her words, she taught me words and it was really great. We talked about the United States, her studies as a pharmacy student and even Disney movies! Her English is much better than she will admit! Aya said to me that she felt good because I was supporting her (helping her) to learn English and she wanted to do the same for me. At that moment, I didn't care that it was cold out. I finally feel like I have broken the crazy insane language barrier. I felt safe talking to Aya and I completely understood how she felt when she would try to say things in English but not really be able to articulate them. She is definitely another angel in my IPSP story.
P.S. I've noticed since I've been here that the Cokes (and when I say Coke, I mean, all sodas...Sprite, Pepsi, all of them!) are way different than in the States. First, they are smaller. Second, they taste way better (perhaps I really can't say this honestly because I don't drink a lot of Coke back home). And the most interesting thing is that the pull tabs come all the way off. Check it out!
...Today has been a great day!
I worked from home today and hadn't planned on doing anything else but reading and studying a bit of Arabic (because I desparately need it). But I heard a knock at my door and it was one of the girls who lives in my apartment building. Her name is Aya and she is very nice. She said to me, "Do you want to go with me up to the serrrrrrvice?" Pretty much, I didn't understand what she was saying. Service? What service? I thought something was going on outside--I kept hearing cars flying by and people constantly blowing their car horns, more than usual--so I thought she said service. I really was thinking she said service, y'all. Since I didn't understand her, I just threw on my sweatpants and followed her out of my apartment, still wondering what service she was talking about...
...Well, I kept following and we ended up on the roof of our building...AHHHHHHH, SURFACE!! She was saying surface!! But what she really meant was roof!! So in an almost-Oprah inspired "Aha! moment," I said "Oooooh surface!" We sat out on the swinging chair thing and just talked over a beautiful Amman night.
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| The view of Amman from the roof of my apartment building |
I'm just thinking, I never did talk about Jordanian Independence Day. Well it was low key, really. More than in the States. After I spent much of the day with Sara, my friend Arwa and I joined her sister and brother-in-law for dinner. That was another good experience. I felt welcome and honored to join my friend and her family. I did mostly listening that night because they communicated with each other mostly in Arabic, but I felt somehow that I followed it. Arwa's sister and brother-in-law took us back to our apartment building after dinner and the traffic was INSANE. People were everywhere, teenagers were running around waving Jordanian flags and instead of the about ten minutes it took us to get to dinner, it took us more like 35 to get back home!! That was probably the only similarity to our Independence Day back home--the crazy traffic and waving of flags!
These have for sure been the two best days here so far. I'm looking forward to more like this. And if there aren't, then I'm going to remember the compassion from Dr. Singhal's class...Compassion, jMed, compassion. So until my next adventure or feeling of homesickness or whatever I might say next, salaam!
-jMed
P.S. I've noticed since I've been here that the Cokes (and when I say Coke, I mean, all sodas...Sprite, Pepsi, all of them!) are way different than in the States. First, they are smaller. Second, they taste way better (perhaps I really can't say this honestly because I don't drink a lot of Coke back home). And the most interesting thing is that the pull tabs come all the way off. Check it out!
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