The Holiday of Sacrafice begins Thursday night. What this means for me is a 10 day break from class before we come back and finish the last week of the semester and take our final exams. According to Islamic tradition, Abraham was commanded by God to sacrafice his son Ishmael, but at the last moment God had Abraham sacrafice a lamb that was caught in a nearby bush. So, in short a lot of unlucky lambs will be sacraficed in the coming week to commemorate this event and most everything in the country will be closed for four days while people visit with family and eat delicious lamb.
Luckily for us Americans who are living here, the supermarkets have turkeys, Butterball turkeys no less! The sign above the frozen turkeys reads, "imported just for you." How cool is that? So, Mel is going to cook her second Thanksgiving dinner in a couple of days and we are planning to have a couple of girls from class over. We've also seen plenty of Christmas stuff here so we plan to get a small artificial tree in the coming week or two.
We plan to do a lot of relaxing and take a trip to Petra and possibly some other quick trips within Jordan. Classes are going well, but I must admit that I am burnt out at the moment and need a break. Luckily, it will begin in less than 24 hours.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Beef Stew
People told me it would get cold here. I knew it would, but was surprised to wake up a few days ago to 46 degree temperatures and rain. I decided to go back to bed and did not leave the apartment for the entire day. I slept in, studied, hung out with Melanie, and ate the delicious beef stew that she made. It has since warmed up a bit with highs in the high 70's and lows in the 50's and it has stopped raining. Hopefully, that will last as I do not like cold, gloomy weather unless I can stay inside and eat chilli or stew.
Classes have accelerated and we are slated to complete the last five and a half chapters of Al Kitaab 3 in the remaining four weeks of class, which should be interesting. That's fine with me. I love learning all of the new vocabulary and grammar. I may be a nerd, but I love reading an article or watching the news and coming across a recently learned word or grammatical construction. Yesterday, I bought a book that my teacher recommended. It's an autobiography of Taha Hussein called, "The Days". Taha Hussein was an Egyptian writer and intellectual who earned a PhD at the Sorbonne in France despite being blind.
We had to go downtown to find the book, which was quite an adventure in itself. My teacher had given me general directions, saying that the bookstore was down an alleyway near the King Hussein Mosque. From there, I had to ask directions, which was fun and good language practice. We didn't find the bookstore my teacher had mentioned, but found another small bookstand. I asked the owner if he had the book. He didn't have it, but asked me to wait a few minutes. He darted down the street and came back with the book, which I bought for 2 JD's or about $2.80. We also bought Melanie a pashmina and chatted up the owner there who was very nice. Melanie also saw someone get tapped by a car as they tried crossing the street. She has more about that on her blog. Suffice to say that the lack of crosswalks makes running across the street a daily necesity for pedestrians here. Luckily this guy was "tapped" by a car going only a few miles per hour and was unhurt.
I read the first chapter of about 8 pages last night and this morning. It took about an hour and a half as I had to use the dictionary quite a bit. I've learned many of the high frequency words used in newspaper articles, but the word usage in this book was a mix of a lot of words I already know and more nuanced vocabulary as the author describes being picked up and carried by his older sister as if he were as light as a blade of grass or laying in bed, being careful to cover himself completely with his bedsheet so that the imaginary monsters can't get him. In any case, I'm hoping to reinforce the vocabulary I already know and learn some knew words along the way by reading the book. It may take two or three reads to fully appreciate what the author is saying.
We have a week long break around Thanksgiving and it will be nice to sleep in and relax a little. All in all, we're still having a great time here. I'm just anxious to keep learning until I can read books and newspapers easily and understand the news and television shows easily. Luckily I'm in the right place to make those things a reality.
Classes have accelerated and we are slated to complete the last five and a half chapters of Al Kitaab 3 in the remaining four weeks of class, which should be interesting. That's fine with me. I love learning all of the new vocabulary and grammar. I may be a nerd, but I love reading an article or watching the news and coming across a recently learned word or grammatical construction. Yesterday, I bought a book that my teacher recommended. It's an autobiography of Taha Hussein called, "The Days". Taha Hussein was an Egyptian writer and intellectual who earned a PhD at the Sorbonne in France despite being blind.
We had to go downtown to find the book, which was quite an adventure in itself. My teacher had given me general directions, saying that the bookstore was down an alleyway near the King Hussein Mosque. From there, I had to ask directions, which was fun and good language practice. We didn't find the bookstore my teacher had mentioned, but found another small bookstand. I asked the owner if he had the book. He didn't have it, but asked me to wait a few minutes. He darted down the street and came back with the book, which I bought for 2 JD's or about $2.80. We also bought Melanie a pashmina and chatted up the owner there who was very nice. Melanie also saw someone get tapped by a car as they tried crossing the street. She has more about that on her blog. Suffice to say that the lack of crosswalks makes running across the street a daily necesity for pedestrians here. Luckily this guy was "tapped" by a car going only a few miles per hour and was unhurt.
I read the first chapter of about 8 pages last night and this morning. It took about an hour and a half as I had to use the dictionary quite a bit. I've learned many of the high frequency words used in newspaper articles, but the word usage in this book was a mix of a lot of words I already know and more nuanced vocabulary as the author describes being picked up and carried by his older sister as if he were as light as a blade of grass or laying in bed, being careful to cover himself completely with his bedsheet so that the imaginary monsters can't get him. In any case, I'm hoping to reinforce the vocabulary I already know and learn some knew words along the way by reading the book. It may take two or three reads to fully appreciate what the author is saying.
We have a week long break around Thanksgiving and it will be nice to sleep in and relax a little. All in all, we're still having a great time here. I'm just anxious to keep learning until I can read books and newspapers easily and understand the news and television shows easily. Luckily I'm in the right place to make those things a reality.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Mid Terms
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Blending in, sort of.
"You are Italian?" No. "Are you Egyptian?" No, I'm American. "Really? But you look Arab." These are excerpts from a few conversations I've had with folks here about my nationality during the last few weeks. Walking around in the blazing sun has given me quite the tan and I haven't exactly been shaving every day either. I know people know I'm not from here when I'm sporting the backpack, but it feels good not to totally stick out. By the way, people here are very friendly. I think being able to eat during the day again is making a big difference. I know it is with me!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Eid Al-Fitr - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Ramadan is over and Eid Al-Fitr is here, which means we can eat during the day time. We could and did eat during the day time during Ramadan, but only indoors with the curtains drawn. Eid Al-Fitr is akin to Christmas time and the run up to New Years Eve from what I can tell. Most everyone is on vacation from work and school. One manifestation of this is tons of kids and teens running rampant in the malls. Others include seeing everyone dressed in their nicest clothes and driving to dinner with family and friends. Restaurants are open, but some shop keepers close their shops for the week so things won’t be completely back to normal until Sunday, which is the beginning of the work/school week here.
It’s kind of weird to have a week off after only one week of class, but I’m using the time to study and review and also to relax and see more of the city with Melanie. We scouted out one of the bus stations yesterday and found out about the bus schedules. Tomorrow we’re planning to return and catch a minibus to Jerash, which I heard is the largest, preserved Roman city outside of Italy. I went there the last time I was here and it’s pretty cool. It’s also only half a dinar bus fare and a little over an hour away so it should make for a good day trip.
Living here forces you to interact with people in their language, which is one of the obvious reasons we’re here. The tough thing is that I’ve spent most of my time studying formal Arabic and most people speak what I will call street Arabic, which is very different. I tried speaking with a guy in formal Arabic our first week here and he told me he didn’t speak English. Hmm, ok. Well, the good news is that I have taken a class or two that covered the basics of street Arabic so I’ve been reviewing those books and picking up words and phrases from where else? – the street.
The last few days I’ve become brave and have been striking up conversations with our taxi drivers during some of the longer rides we’ve taken. They’ve been able to understand me and I’ve been able to understand most of what they’re saying to me. They’ve even complemented me on how good my Arabic is. Now granted, these are small talk conversations about where I’m from, how long I’ve been studying Arabic, etc. However, I was able to drop a “thanks be to God for our safety”, in Arabic after the driver had to break hard to avoid hitting the car in front of him after a random tire rolled into the street a few cars ahead of us. He laughed and slapped my knee, responding with, “may God keep you safe”. I wanted to ask if he could please help God out with that during the remainder of our ride, but I couldn’t think of the words quickly enough.
It’s kind of weird to have a week off after only one week of class, but I’m using the time to study and review and also to relax and see more of the city with Melanie. We scouted out one of the bus stations yesterday and found out about the bus schedules. Tomorrow we’re planning to return and catch a minibus to Jerash, which I heard is the largest, preserved Roman city outside of Italy. I went there the last time I was here and it’s pretty cool. It’s also only half a dinar bus fare and a little over an hour away so it should make for a good day trip.
Living here forces you to interact with people in their language, which is one of the obvious reasons we’re here. The tough thing is that I’ve spent most of my time studying formal Arabic and most people speak what I will call street Arabic, which is very different. I tried speaking with a guy in formal Arabic our first week here and he told me he didn’t speak English. Hmm, ok. Well, the good news is that I have taken a class or two that covered the basics of street Arabic so I’ve been reviewing those books and picking up words and phrases from where else? – the street.
The last few days I’ve become brave and have been striking up conversations with our taxi drivers during some of the longer rides we’ve taken. They’ve been able to understand me and I’ve been able to understand most of what they’re saying to me. They’ve even complemented me on how good my Arabic is. Now granted, these are small talk conversations about where I’m from, how long I’ve been studying Arabic, etc. However, I was able to drop a “thanks be to God for our safety”, in Arabic after the driver had to break hard to avoid hitting the car in front of him after a random tire rolled into the street a few cars ahead of us. He laughed and slapped my knee, responding with, “may God keep you safe”. I wanted to ask if he could please help God out with that during the remainder of our ride, but I couldn’t think of the words quickly enough.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
First Week of Class
I have completed the first week of classes and they went well. There are about eight students in my class. The class is split into two sections – grammar and skills (vocabulary and conversation). Ustath Fadi teaches grammar and Ustath Muhammad teaches skills. They are both from Zarqa and very nice. The classes are taught exclusively in Arabic, which is great for improving our listening skills. So far, I’ve been able to follow along and understand everything they’re saying and it seems like I maybe one of the strongest students in the class in terms of listening and speaking. I have to thank my great friend Derar for that.
Sunday through Thursday Melanie and I wake up at 6AM and leave the apartment by 7:15 and walk 30 minutes to Qasid. The weather is pretty cool in the mornings – around 65 degrees, so it’s great walking weather. Classes begin at 8AM and each class is 75 minutes with a 15 minute break in between. Melanie hangs out in the ladies lounge and surfs the web or reads a book while I’m in class. The Mukhtar Mall is next door to Qasid and contains a grocery store and a houseware store so we often stop in there to buy food or items for the apartment before taking a $1.10 cab ride home.
The homework hasn’t been too bad – maybe two or three hours a night. I study for another two hours just to review and try to memorize the new vocabulary and grammar concepts. Melanie and I are enjoying the English language movie channels we get here, but I try to watch at least an hour of Al Jazeera every day to practice my listening skills.
This was also a big week because we finally got Internet for our apartment. The Internet signal is wireless so all you buy is a wireless router, plug the power cord into the wall and connect the router to the computer using an Ethernet cord. The router is not plugged into a phone or cable line. No Comcast man to install or set anything up.
We bought the router and the service at Mecca Mall, which is easily the largest indoor mall I’ve ever been in. We met a really nice guy about 27 years old who spoke perfect English. He said he and his wife had just moved to Amman that day. I asked where he was from and was surprised to hear he was from Ramadi, Iraq. They had lived in Lebanon the past year and decided to move to Jordan. We chatted for a bit and then Melanie and I went to Miles, an upscale grocery store in the Mecca Mall that reminded me of Fresh Market back in the States.
We returned to Mecca Mall today and bought Melanie a cell phone and some more groceries. I’ve been eating well thanks to Melanie’s great cooking. We are looking forward to the end of Ramadan so that we can check out some of the local restaurants. Today is Thursday, which is the end of the work/school week here and we have next week off for Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan and a return to eating, drinking, and life as normal during daylight hours. We are looking forward to eating, relaxing, and exploring the city more.
Sunday through Thursday Melanie and I wake up at 6AM and leave the apartment by 7:15 and walk 30 minutes to Qasid. The weather is pretty cool in the mornings – around 65 degrees, so it’s great walking weather. Classes begin at 8AM and each class is 75 minutes with a 15 minute break in between. Melanie hangs out in the ladies lounge and surfs the web or reads a book while I’m in class. The Mukhtar Mall is next door to Qasid and contains a grocery store and a houseware store so we often stop in there to buy food or items for the apartment before taking a $1.10 cab ride home.
The homework hasn’t been too bad – maybe two or three hours a night. I study for another two hours just to review and try to memorize the new vocabulary and grammar concepts. Melanie and I are enjoying the English language movie channels we get here, but I try to watch at least an hour of Al Jazeera every day to practice my listening skills.
This was also a big week because we finally got Internet for our apartment. The Internet signal is wireless so all you buy is a wireless router, plug the power cord into the wall and connect the router to the computer using an Ethernet cord. The router is not plugged into a phone or cable line. No Comcast man to install or set anything up.
We bought the router and the service at Mecca Mall, which is easily the largest indoor mall I’ve ever been in. We met a really nice guy about 27 years old who spoke perfect English. He said he and his wife had just moved to Amman that day. I asked where he was from and was surprised to hear he was from Ramadi, Iraq. They had lived in Lebanon the past year and decided to move to Jordan. We chatted for a bit and then Melanie and I went to Miles, an upscale grocery store in the Mecca Mall that reminded me of Fresh Market back in the States.
We returned to Mecca Mall today and bought Melanie a cell phone and some more groceries. I’ve been eating well thanks to Melanie’s great cooking. We are looking forward to the end of Ramadan so that we can check out some of the local restaurants. Today is Thursday, which is the end of the work/school week here and we have next week off for Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan and a return to eating, drinking, and life as normal during daylight hours. We are looking forward to eating, relaxing, and exploring the city more.
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