Eating out in Jordan

Listen: Going out to eat American or Western food in Jordan is just plain silly, with very few exceptions, in my humble opinion. It is usually of average to bad quality and double the price. This has at least been my experience for the most part, although I must admit that I've had a few good pizzas and Melanie has had a few good salads. Yesterday I paid about $12 for a crappy burger and fries at some hoity toity, wanna be French restaurant. I was not happy, but luckily we had a good cab ride home during which the cabby blasted a mixed tape of some of my childhood 80's favorites. That night we went to Al Quds restaurant to eat some local food that was twice as good and half as much. We both ordered mansaf with meat, which means lamb here. Mansaf is basically a dish of yummy rice with pie nuts topped with a tender piece of lamb. The lamb is so tender they don't even bother to give you a knife because you don't need it. We also ordered hummus and two waters. We walked out paying $15 for two people. The most important thing is that the food was yummy and I was stuffed. Usually after eating mansaf the only thing you can do is sleep, which is what we did shortly after getting home.

MSA Level 5

I'm four weeks into my new semester at Qasid so I suppose I should tell you how it is. It's great! There are two 75 minute sections, Sunday - Thursday. The first one is focused on Media Arabic, meaning that we read a new article every day or so and then discuss and write papers on it. In my second class, we read short stories or chapters from Arabic novels and then write about and discuss them. I like the literature class better because reading stories is a bit more exciting than reading newspaper articles in my opinion. I feel like my ability to read has reached a very high level and I am enjoying the classes a great deal. There is alot of discussion in the classes, which gives me a good amount of speaking practice. The problem is very few people speak Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) outside of a school setting. To that end I have hired a tutor to practice speaking the local dialect. She is very good and I feel like I am picking it up quickly. After studying MSA for 5 years, speaking the dialect just feels plain wrong. It's very different from the written language, almost like ebonics, but it's a necessity if you want to be able to understand and speak with most people you interact with outside of class. Luckily, I still have seven more months to practice it and hopefully get proficient.

Happy New Year

Mel and quietly celebrated the New Year last night, watching movies and reflecting on 2009. It was the year that my dream of coming to Jordan to complete my Arabic studies came true. We have had a great time so far living in Amman and exploring other parts of the country and travelling to Syria. I am looking forward to spending the bulk of 2010 continuing my studies and exploring new places in the country and region.