انا لا اريد اكل امريكي، اريد اكل عربي!!!

Last night I slept 12 hours!  Can you believe this?!  Part of it is my blinds, which are totally legit- you don't even know!  To close them, I loosen a rope by the window and a metal grate comes down that keeps out all, and I mean ALL of the light.  So when I woke up this morning at 9am (and yes, for those of you doing the math, I was lame and went to bed at 9 last night) I thought that it was still the middle of the night.  It wasn't until a roommate came in to shower that I realized what time it was.  Crazy, eh?  But not as crazy as my roommate that slept until freaking 5pm!  Yeah, our body-clocks are still adjusting.  And then, as if my 12 hour sleepiness wasn't enough, today was shower day!!!  You see, water's an issue here.  Every week they come fill up our allotment of water, and if we go over, too bad.  We'd just have to wait until the beginning of the next week. So showers=every other day... and I've stocked up on body spray!

My roommate and I had to head to the mall for a few things today, and so I ate lunch there.  Now, I'm not sure if I've told you yet, but there's a ridiculous number of American restaurants here.  For example, our apartment is in between دجاج كنتاكيا (KFC) and Popeyes, and our neighbor works security at Safeway.  So, back to the mall.  Having not been in Jordan even a week, I really didn't want to eat lame American fast-food.  My options seemed hopeless: Hardees, McDonalds, Quiznos, Pizza Hut, Cinnabon, Sbarro, etc.  Downstairs was no better: Chili's, Applebees, TGI Fridays.  But then I saw it: Kababs!  However, it was the only place that was CLOSED at lunchtime.  Aaargh!  So I stuck my head up to the grate and asked when they'd be open, and found out they were just about to open.  So whilst my roommate had [lame] Quiznos for lunch, I had a spicy kabab, pitas with hummus, and Fanta.  Which reminds me, I'm going to be drinking so much soda here!  It's a much less risky alternative for water.  So, although it was still from a mall, I had good kabab at last!

Once we got home, there was a good 3-4 hours where I did nothing in particular, which sucked.  I can't wait until work starts, and with it a normal routine.  However, I eventually went out with some roommates, Austin and Skye. We took a taxi to the Abdullah mosque, which is beautiful!

Notice how right next to the mosque is a huge Christian church (I'm taking this picture from the steps of the mosque).  I LOVE this view, representing the brotherhood between Jordan's Muslims and Christians.  Sadly we got to the mosque once visiting hours were over, but it was still great to see it again (I visited last year with the BYU-JC program).  After that we decided to just wander around.  We passed a barbershop and Skye decided to get a haircut/shave.  One of the men working there was ecstatic to learn that we spoke Arabic (although he talked as if we were fluent already...).  He talked to us for a while about the rich history and heritage of the Arabic language, which developed into what seemed like the first discussion for Islam.  Lol.  It was very interesting, although as he got more passionate, he spoke more eloquently (and faster) so that my comprehension went out the window.  Somewhere in there he switched to politics.  Now, I agreed with a lot of what he said on both topics: religion and Islam.  However, because I don't possess the vocabulary to express that, he kept reiterating what he'd already said.  So, Austin and I just continued smiling and nodding until Skye was done.  After that, we got FALAFEL from an Egyptian man, wandered around some more, got MORE falafel (what can I say, I'm an addict), and eventually ended up at the King Hussein mosque, which is much older than the Abdullah one.  

AND THEN, as if our evening wasn't exciting enough already, on our way back into our apartment, our neighbors saw us and invited us inside for a bit.  I love spending time with them, not just because they're awesome, but because I feel that those situations help my Arabic the most.  They don't know much English, so we've gotta figure something out in Arabic.  To those of you (probably most of you) that aren't terribly familiar with Jordan, listen up.  Jordanians are AWESOME!  They're incredibly welcoming.  Today as we were wandering around, at least 3 or 4 people stopped or pulled over to make sure we weren't lost.  Everywhere we go we hear "Welcome to Jordan!  We love Americans!"  They seem to be very aware of the Middle East's reputation in the US, and make sure to distance themselves from it.  Each time we go over to our neighbors, we hear: "America and Jordan are brothers!"  I agree!  These people are amazing, they are children of God, and they possess immense quantities of charity and love.  So the next time you see or hear something negative in the news, please remember that these are real people who cannot be generalized just as Americans cannot be generalized.

And with that, ma'asalama!

يرمي