A New Kind of First Day of School

It’s been a week since I last posted, I’ll try to be a little more consistent and only go 4-5 days without blogging.  A lot has been going on, however, and I’ve been wicked busy.

So I started at Jordan U, officially, last Sunday.  Yes I know that sounds weird but the weekend here is Friday and Saturday (we get Thursday off as well, nice little 3-day weekend).  I’m going to be honest and say that I pretty much failed the proficiency test, which had a lot of grammar concepts that I had learned and subsequently forgotten, but I’m starting here where I left off in the States which is good.  It will be a challenge to say the least, but I’m excited for it!  We actually have a vocab test tomorrow… I should probably start studying.  It’s tough to accept that my mini-break/vacation is over…-[

I have two language classes – 1 in MSA fusha and the other in the local Jordanian dialect.  Both happen to be with the same professor, a very nice woman named Nadia.  My other classes focus on political transformations in the Middle East and the water/environmental situation here (it’s not good by any means, if you were wondering).  They’re going to be a pretty good challenge – I pretty much have to read everything twice – I read the first time without a dictionary and then the second time with dictionary in hand, looking up all the words I couldn’t figure out the first time around.  It’s quite time-consuming, but I’m excited and I’m already learning a lot, but I will say it’s difficult to shift from knowing words in your head to being able to used them in conversation. 

 

I’ve been to the gym every day this week, which feels great (my shoulder feels fine as well!).  I preached last time about how the gym has great showers, but in addition they also have toilet paper.  This may seem like a very mundane thing, but in Jordan toilet paper is rare.  Bidets are preferred.  Not my favorite invention in the world.  Jordanians use them (they are even present in public bathrooms).  I don’t particularly like them.  Half of my motivation to go to the gym comes from showers and toilet paper, half from wanting to work out.  I shower there, I shave there, it all works out.  Strange though. 

While we’re at it, here are a couple pictures of my living accommodations.  I’ve got the bed on the right (yes Mom, I do keep the room clean) and Tyler is on the left.  OK fine, I took the picture after we cleaned, it’s not usually this neat.

Bego and Jamal are still great, and this might give you an idea of breakfast here.  It’s pretty damn good, not going to lie.  I’m trying a lot of foods I don’t usually eat (tomatoes, onions), which is good I guess.  Tomatoes are starting to grow on me, I like them more and more every day.  Mostly I have no clue what the food is, but it gets served so I eat it.  I’m starting slowly to learn names of food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I know what’s in it. 

Family pictures came out again before one meal, and this is a little bit of Jamal’s family tree.  At the top are his paternal grandparents (apparently his grandmother taught herself to read, they were from a bedouin family), followed by his parents, Jamal and Begonia (Jamal is not visible due to the glare, my flaws as a photographer are quite apparent), and then three of their four children (Baker, Othman, and Sharaf). 

Well I’m still getting settled in and adjusted, but I’m starting to get the hang of life here I think!  There’s still a significant language barrier but I’m working on it, it just takes time.  


Until next time, inshallah.