When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. - Job
Well, it is hard to believe that we have been here for six weeks and that I have completed four weeks of class. Mid terms are a week from tomorrow. The classes are quite intense and I feel that I have learned a lot. We have covered the first two and a half chapters of Al-Kitaab 3 and each chapter has about 100 new vocabularly words, grammar points, and a couple of three page texts that contain even more new vocabulary words. Needless to say, it has been challenging, but I am loving it. The teachers and staff at Qasid have been very helpful and professional, which has made the experience that much better.
Mel and I have been working out at our new gym, which has been a great release. Speaking of stress releases, I just found out that Dubai One shows Curb Your Enthusiam on Tuesday nights (satellite tv is awesome). I am looking forward to checking that out this week. I just finished reading "The Winter of Our Discontent" by Steinbeck and it was good. Yesterday I bought "The Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut. It's already made me laugh out loud a few times and provided me the quote from the book of Job so it looks like it's going to be good.
Well, got to get back to the books.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Yalla Sweileh! Yalla Sweileh!
I am having a blast here. My classes are challenging and keeping me very busy, but I am loving it. Melanie and I have met some very interesting people since we've been here and that has been cool. We participated in a pub crawl last weekend (yes, they have bars here) and went to a party last night. I feel like my Arabic skills are getting better and that I am learning a lot, but I don't think I'll feel satisfied until I am proficient. I guess that's the point of why I'm here.
I am not a fan of big cities, but I am enjoying Amman. The way people drive here is pretty wild. A taxi driver told me today that there is no system or organization to the way people drive here and I heartily agreed. I prefer to ride the minibuses when possible. They are cheaper and entertaining. You stand at the bus stop and wait for a minibus to pull up. The driver stays in the bus, but another guy jumps out onto the sidewalk and begins yelling, "Yalla, Sweileh. Yalla, Sweileh." Yalla just means let's go and Sweileh is the final destination of this particular bus. He herds people onto the bus, but we can't leave until the bus is full so we sit on the bus listening to music or Quranic recitation, which can be relaxing after a long day. Each time someone passes by the bus the guy asks, "Sweileh, Sweileh?" Finally the bus is full and we set off. He then begins collecting bus fare from the passengers. It's only 50 qirsh for Melanie and I, which is about 70 cents. This is a flat rate regardless of which stop you get off on between the starting point and final destination. After collecting the fares, he begins yelling out the stops that are coming up, "Dustour, Ra'ie, Shabab." Once someone nods or raises their hand to signal they need to get off at the stop he mentioned, he tells the driver. The driver typically swerves over two lanes at the last minute to pull over to the stop and we get off and walk the rest of the way home laughing.
Things are different here in a way that I find interesting, if not entertaining. The other day we were taking a taxi home and the driver was becoming impatient with the slow car in front of him. Usually when this happens, the driver beeps his horn or flashes his lights, but this guy had a police siren. He put it on for a few seconds and the car moved out of the way. He repeated this a few more times. I was trying not to laugh and asked him if he was a police officer, which he obviously was not. He laughed and said no, but that the siren worked better than the horn. This is just a small sample of the things that make me laugh or smile each day here.
Above all the people are very nice. Melanie mentioned in her blog about our adventure to the post office that we got very lost, which is probably an understatment. Just when things seemed hopeless (we had walked for an hour and had ended up in a random residential area), we found a small cafe and asked the owner if he knew how to get to the post office. He rambled off a log series of rights and lefts that left me dizzy. He saw a friend of his walking by and called out to him and told him to walk us the rest of the way to the post office. We chatted in Arabic while he walked us left and right and left again and down a hill for about 10 or 15 minutes until we reached our destination. To say the least we were very grateful.
I am not a fan of big cities, but I am enjoying Amman. The way people drive here is pretty wild. A taxi driver told me today that there is no system or organization to the way people drive here and I heartily agreed. I prefer to ride the minibuses when possible. They are cheaper and entertaining. You stand at the bus stop and wait for a minibus to pull up. The driver stays in the bus, but another guy jumps out onto the sidewalk and begins yelling, "Yalla, Sweileh. Yalla, Sweileh." Yalla just means let's go and Sweileh is the final destination of this particular bus. He herds people onto the bus, but we can't leave until the bus is full so we sit on the bus listening to music or Quranic recitation, which can be relaxing after a long day. Each time someone passes by the bus the guy asks, "Sweileh, Sweileh?" Finally the bus is full and we set off. He then begins collecting bus fare from the passengers. It's only 50 qirsh for Melanie and I, which is about 70 cents. This is a flat rate regardless of which stop you get off on between the starting point and final destination. After collecting the fares, he begins yelling out the stops that are coming up, "Dustour, Ra'ie, Shabab." Once someone nods or raises their hand to signal they need to get off at the stop he mentioned, he tells the driver. The driver typically swerves over two lanes at the last minute to pull over to the stop and we get off and walk the rest of the way home laughing.
Things are different here in a way that I find interesting, if not entertaining. The other day we were taking a taxi home and the driver was becoming impatient with the slow car in front of him. Usually when this happens, the driver beeps his horn or flashes his lights, but this guy had a police siren. He put it on for a few seconds and the car moved out of the way. He repeated this a few more times. I was trying not to laugh and asked him if he was a police officer, which he obviously was not. He laughed and said no, but that the siren worked better than the horn. This is just a small sample of the things that make me laugh or smile each day here.
Above all the people are very nice. Melanie mentioned in her blog about our adventure to the post office that we got very lost, which is probably an understatment. Just when things seemed hopeless (we had walked for an hour and had ended up in a random residential area), we found a small cafe and asked the owner if he knew how to get to the post office. He rambled off a log series of rights and lefts that left me dizzy. He saw a friend of his walking by and called out to him and told him to walk us the rest of the way to the post office. We chatted in Arabic while he walked us left and right and left again and down a hill for about 10 or 15 minutes until we reached our destination. To say the least we were very grateful.
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