Chronic mishmash

It would seem that I have become obsessed with this whole bullet-point-instead-of-a-fluid-blog thing. It's true. One main reason is that I've been blogging less frequently and have less new things to share. So, here we go, in no particular order...

• I have left Sabha for the last time. My stuff is packed, the apartment is [mostly] empty, the squatter is terrifying full.
• I really didn't have too much stuff in Sabha. I was all packed within 30 minutes, and I didn't even have to try very hard to close the suitcases!
• I was able to sell back both my fan and my carpet, both for about 50% of what I bought them for!
• When I rolled up the carpet I was reminded of why I loved it so much... my tile floor was terrible!
• The squatter had put me in quite the predicament. It was full! And stinky! I rejoice that in Amman I have access to a mostly normal toilet that flushes!
• Of course, in leaving, I had a lot of goodbyes to say. I have never kissed so many men (clarification: on the cheeks, you sickos!) in one day in my life! I will miss Mohammed (bubbs) from work the most, others I will kind of miss, and some people I won't miss at all! ;)
• Austin came on Tuesday to visit me, but mostly to visit his friend in Defyana that he'd met earlier. We were both invited to his house for dinner, so we walked part of the way (about a 30 minute walk). We were trying to get a ride, but since we were two guys (shebab alert!) it was hard. I heard a car coming behind us and we turned to see a red sedan driving really slowly about 20 feet behind us. Creepy! So he pulled up to us and we told him where we were going. He told us that he wasn't going all of the way there, but he could drive us part way. The first thing he said when we got in was "I hate the American government." Uhhh... right. That's not the most uncommon opinion here, but it was weird to have him be so blunt right off of the bat. Anyhoo... we tried making small talk, and semi-succeeded. After a few minutes he told us that he wasn't feeling well, and so I asked him if he was sick. He said "Yes... psychologically." CREEPY!!! He let us off at his supposed destination, which was a half-built building in the middle of nowhere. We happily exited his vehicle as he suggested we could pay him money to take us the rest of the way. We politely declined and continued our walk until Austin's friend, Hani, came and picked us up.
• Dinner at Hani's was really good, and the conversation was awesome. We were there for six hours, talking politics for most of the time. And since he was the one that brought everything up, we didn't have to feel guilty about it. In fact, at one point he stopped and made sure we weren't uncomfortable talking about politics. (Anyone who has seen my Facebook recently knows the answer to that question). He is a pretty conservative guy, but also has some progressive views in areas such as education. Basically, he wants Jordan to progress, but on their own terms; he doesn't want the international community or western culture to determine their future. He also had some off the wall views which were interesting to listen to. I'm glad that Austin was there; his Arabic is better than mine (he's taken through 202) and so the more we delved into the discussion (and the more tired I got) the more I needed to rely on him.
• TANGENT! So I mentioned earlier that a lot of people in this area are not a fan of the American government.  (I won't get into it because this isn't the proper place, but it shouldn't at all come as a surprise that Arabs tend to not be fans of American foreign policy.) I should clarify that, although this is true, they love Americans. They are good at divorcing their opinions of our people and culture from their observations of our foreign policy. I have noticed that the opposite tends to be true when Americans observe the rest of the world. Perhaps it's because we are more insulated of a society and aren't constantly meeting foreigners, but we tend to carry our negative views of a government to their people. It's true that there are several Arab governments which are not our friends, and even some that are our enemies. It's also true that there are some extremist groups from the region that have done harm to our nation. However, the actions of a few shouldn't determine our opinions of millions of people. The Arabs have it figured out, let's get on that bandwagon.
• Last night we went to the screening of a new movie. It seemed like it was really good but there were no English subtitles, so although I got the big picture, I can't be sure about the specifics. Basically it was about Iraq, and the millions of people that went missing as a result of Saddam Hussein's massacres of the Kurdish people. Even though I couldn't understand it, it depressed me.
• On Tuesday I taught my last Tawjihi class. I made them a 3 page chart/cheat sheet with all of the tenses (some of which I didn't even realize existed!) and examples of how to use them. Then to practice, we wrote stories together. I would write up a sentence on the board to start out, and then we'd go around the room having everyone add a sentence. For the second one they had to use an irregular verb in their sentence. I must now tell you what their stories were about: The first one was about a man named Khaled who worked at a factory. His friend got stuck in one of the machines, so Khaled called the police. The police helped his friend out, but then Khaled fell in the machine and he died. Yeah. Then, the second story was about a man named John who was a photographer. He goes on a walk with his friend Mark, and then acid falls on John's eyes. Mark takes him to the hospital, where the doctors tell John that he'll never be able to see again... unless someone gives him their eyes. So Mark volunteers and gives John his eyes, but then John is sad that Mark is blind. Yup, those are the stories. And to think that I was worried when I shared my scary stories with them before...
• Last night I ate a hot dog and it was marvelous. It had tomatoes, onions, cheese, relish, ketchup, and mayo. Mmmmmmm... Afterwards I had snickers ice cream. It was a night of delicious indulgence
• This week when I was hanging out at Anas' shop, his brother was playing some terribly violent car racing (slash running over people) computer game. However, all of the in-game instruction was in English. So they asked me to try and translate. Now, you should know, I never really played video games at all, so I wouldn't even be much help if they had been fluent in English! I tried to pantomime, but it was to no avail. A few minutes later, Anas was playing an Eminem song, and asked me to translate it for him. I told him that (thank goodness) I didn't know the words in Arabic for that. He raised his eyebrow, and then told me [essentially] that my Arabic sucks. And this because I can't translate Eminem (I should just say it's all about sex. That pretty much sums that up, right?) or violent video games. Oh well...
• I met some awesome people on Monday night, and I'm really bummed that I didn't meet them earlier. Khalef is in his 30's and is from Sabha originally. However, he received his education in Qatar and Europe. He has a PhD in European Studies. His wife has a PhD in Economics. They were all set to move to Canada, visas and all, when they felt like they should come back to Sabha. They both understand the intricacies of the bedouin culture, and they want to work within that to help the Badia progress. It was really refreshing to talk to him; he has a lot of liberal and progressive ideas, but he understands that the best way to implement lasting change is to work within the current cultural infrastructure. His brother, Mohammed, was just as cool. Since he was the youngest (I'd guess he's about my age), he was the one who served tea to all of the guests. When I told him that I don't drink tea or coffee, he asked "Oh, are you Mormon?" ?!?!?! I was shocked... I learned that he is a tour guide at Petra, and has worked with a lot of LDS groups, including students from the JC! His English was great, and he learned it just from talking with foreigners. He can also speak some German, French, Italian, and Spanish... all from listening. It almost makes me want to rethink my career goals! But really... it was very interesting in the context of my work, which is assessing the English education program here. The more I experience, and the more people I meet who do speak English, the more I think that student motivation/dedication is a really important element that must be focused on here.
• I was hanging out somewhere and in an hour I watched a cat eat 5 cockroaches. Slimy, yet satisfying, eh?
• Yesterday I kind of lost my temper with a taxi driver. Austin and I were trying to catch a taxi from the bus station back home. Because we had my suitcases with us, people assumed that we were newcomers/tourists and that they could rip us off because we didn't know anything about the city. I deal with that every weekend as I travel back and forth, and this week I let it get to me. One taxi driver pulled over, and said 6JD for the ride (It should be 2.5 tops). I just waved him on. Then another stopped and wanted 4JD, and was being persistent. He was the unfortunate soul. I told him "No, I've lived here for a while, I know it should be around 2JD". He told me I was crazy and that it was 4JD. That's when I started yelling about how he was crazy and I didn't arrive yesterday and how I really do know my way around and he was just trying to rip me off. So, I put on my mean face and waved him on.
• I have less than a week left in Jordan. How weird is that? 

يرمي

PS- Happy Birthday tomorrow to my Dad, who is turning 50. He's the best, coolest Dad in the world, and I respect him a lot. I love you Dad!!!

A Typical Day in Sabha

The title pretty much says what this is all about. Here we go:

Every night I am quite optimistic about how amazing the next morning will be; I see visions of manly workouts, amazing vocab study, and wonderful thinking time. However, 9 times out of 10, when my iPhone's annoying sci-fi alarm clock erupts each morning at 8am, those dreams pale in comparison to the dream of another hour of sleep. So, after resetting my alarm clock, 9am it is. I get up and check my profoundly wonderful emails while trying to convince myself to do, at least, a semi-manly workout. (Plenty of pushups and ab stuff, but no running. It's hot!). I am usually successful in my endeavors of self-persuasion, and make sure to keep the fan on me while I'm exercising. Afterwards as I head to the shower I have to peek my head around the bathroom wall to make sure there's no one who could see my nakedness through the huge window in my bathroom. (Who designed this place?!) Shower time here is completely utilitarian— no relaxation or joy comes from the experience— but it could be far worse, so I won't complain. After washing my hair and my face I turn off the water to soap up, thereby saving the precious water in my tank, and allowing me to shower each day that I'm here. Oh yeah. Once I'm done I repeat the stealth window-peek on my way back to my room where lies (or hangs, I suppose) my towel. Once I'm dressed and ready I gather some of my things and head out to work.

I bolt my apartment door on the way out, walking through the corridor of the building toward the heavy green door. As I step out into the street, I'm greeted by the bright hot sunlight, as well as by several random men who have gathered in front of my building to talk to my shopkeeper friend Khaled. After politely greeting them I cross the street and stand close to the bus stop, a few feet away from the curb. Here begins each morning's hitchhiking adventure. As each car drives by I reach out my arm like I'm hailing a taxi. Some people gesture that they're staying in town, others that they're full, others have women in the car, etc. Most mornings I find a ride within 5 minutes, and sometimes I end up taking the bus. It kinda depends on the morning. At any rate, after a 10 minute drive and a polite conversation with my host (sometimes followed up by a dinner invitation) I arrive at "work". On a typical day, this is at 10:15am. The building I work in is the same design as the one I live in: apartments on the first story and offices on the second. Once up the stairs I turn left and begin the long yet enjoyable process of greeting everyone. I peek into each office; they see me and stand up to greet me. Everyone has their own greeting that they pretty much stick to; Mohammad's face lights up as he asks "Where have you been?". "I'm right here!" I'll say, and he gets a kick out of it every time. With Anwar, I started doing that thing where you smile really big and show as much teeth as you can. His interpretation is more dog-ish, growl and everything, but oh well. And of course, each of these involves a lot of man-kissing. Once I've greeted everyone I go into Mohammed's (bubbs) office, and there I stay for a few hours. Mohammed is finishing his bachelors degree in law, and a lot of the study guides he gets have English on them as well. So, we spend some time going through those words and practicing them. I've found that this helps my Arabic as much as (or more than) it does his English. During this time, he usually sends someone to buy some Pepsi or something. (Hehe, this reminds me of a tangent, remind me to talk about it later. Anyhoo... ) Once he leaves for class (usually around noon) I embark on the rest of my lonely time at work. For most of the other people, the novelty of having a foreigner there has worn off, and they have no interest in trying to speak slowly enough to involve me in any conversation. For a while I tried to still participate, but it was clear that I was being more annoying than endearing, so now I stay in the office and use the 3G internet (as opposed to the Flinstone internet at my apt) to check my email and to read the news. Most days I'm able to do some vocab study, and I also use the time to prepare lessons for my Tawjihi class. Occasionally someone will come in to talk to me, which I love, but for the most part I'm on my own. By 2pm I'm pretty bored— most days by this time my productivity has devolved into my playing 'Settlers of Catan' or 'Plants vs. Zombies' on my iPhone. There are drivers employed by the ministry to drive us home, so we squish into a little white truck and make the trek back to Sabha. Usually the driver buys some fruit or pita or something for us to snack on on the way home.

Once I'm home, I'm in the mood for a bit of alone time. You'd think I'd be fine, seeing how I spend half my time at "work" doing my own thing, but it's nice to just relax a bit and unwind. It's also my only smoke-free time during the day. During this time I usually listen to a few podcasts while playing SimCity (don't judge!), read, update my blog (like right now!), finish preparing for my Tawjihi class, study vocab, and occasionally nap. I'm usually practicing my hermit face for about 2-3 hours, maybe from 3-6. (This also ensures that I'm inside for the hottest part of the day. I'm a smart one, eh?) And then...

I wander. Yup, it's about as detailed of a plan as it sounds. OK... I'll admit, most days I have the end-goal of being invited to dinner. Conniving? Nah... Smart? Thrifty? Hungry for rich cultural experience that just so happens to also fill my tummy? You betcha. The shopkeepers call out from each of the stores I pass, each inviting me to sit and talk; at this point I've done so with most of them. If they're especially persistent I'll stay for a bit before continuing on my walk; Annus is always especially persistent (and he's become my friend, and he usually feeds me, hehe) so that's why I see him quite often. When I sit down to talk with someone, it's normally at least an hour commitment. They always offer coffee and tea, and they are always confused when I tell them that I drink neither. Usually once I tell them why they're very understanding, so Pepsi it is. At the very least, this always jump starts our conversation. There are two types of talkers: the dead fish and the jet ski. The dead fish just sits there and waits for me to drive the conversation. These people soon find me boring, as my ability to inspire exciting conversation in Arabic is not quite up to par. Conversely, the jet ski talkers are the ones who direct the conversation and let me come along for the ride. I can often understand enough of what they're saying to have quite engaging conversations. You would think that my dinner invitations come primarily from the jet skiers, but such an assumption would be false! It's about even; when I'm with the dead fish our conversation has completely dried up by the time dinner comes, so we'll eat while continuing the ritual of asking "How are you?" every few minutes. After sticking around for a bit after dinner, I'll keep wandering around talking to people until around 10pm when I head home. Sometimes the walk can take a while, I have to once again greet everyone on the way home and convince them that I really am not hungry and no, I don't want to spend the night and yes, I really do need to be going home.

Once at home, I once again take time to unwind. I'll put on some music, read, work on some HW, and generally bask in my fan's cool breeze. This is also when the biggest mosquito battles occur, with fatalities averaging 5 a night. I have a spray that I spray in my room each night; I seal my room for 10 minutes and it kills all of the bugs in there. Then I open the door, move my fan, and let it air out before I go to sleep. I usually hit the hay at around midnight, although it usually takes me a bit to fall asleep (I think it's all of the Pepsi people give me throughout the day). As I lay there, trying to go to sleep, I think optimistic thoughts about the next day, envisioning that manly workout and productive vocab study...

يرمي

The perpetuation of mishmash

Wow! It's been almost a week. Sorry to leave y'all hanging. (In actuality, I realize that there were most likely zero tears shed over the break. But I'm trying to butter myself up. Deal with it!). Once again, we're going to go with the bullet-points format. You see, as time goes on, my weeks are filled less and less with new and/or different things. It's not that they're not interesting or exciting; they're becoming more routine. Now, I could use this blog as an after-the-fact day planner: "First I had breakfast, then I showered, then I left, etc.", but I think both you and I would be bored to tears. I couldn't write then, let alone read it! So... here we go:

• On the bus from Mufraq to Sabha Monday I saw an acquaintance and waved to him. He moved from the front seat to sit right next to me, which was nice of him, but since both of us have rather broad shoulders it was a bit squishy. I don't remember if I told you about him when I met him about 2 months ago; he's Farah's nephew (Farah is my clingy friend who took me to Irbid last week), and speaks with a major lisp. That makes his Arabic nearly impossible to understand. He speaks English OK, but between his abominable grammar and lisp, I can barely even understand that. We talked for a few minutes, and then I took advantage of some awkward silence to put my earphones back in and kept listening to my Freakanomics podcast. But Arabs, I've found, tend to be impressively immune to hints. He kept on talking to me every few minutes, wanting to practice some English. Normally I'd be down, but his idea of practicing English was reading his IT Systems textbook to me. So I put my earphones in and looked at him like I was listening. Thinking back, I could have been more polite and could have been better at pretending, but I was not in the mood. 
• When I was at the Ministry this week, Mohammed came into the office I was working in. He told me to close my eyes, and when I opened them there was a watch in my hands, which was a birthday gift from him. Have I told you how awesome he is? Definitely my best friend here in Jordan. 
• My Tawjihi class on Tuesday went OK. One of the student's wanted me to teach differently (more of a focus on grammar), and she's the daughter of the people that own the school. She didn't say it in a mean way, just in a "we want to learn different things" way. I gave up on trying to come up with a creative lesson plan. Rather, I just went through the book with them and went through different grammar principles. I would write examples up on the board and have them complete the sentences (mostly focused on tenses). I told them to ask questions if they didn't understand, and that if they didn't ask questions I'd just assume they understood and move on. I don't think that's too big of an expectation for high school seniors, right? Well, the plan was to go for two hours, but after an hour and a half I could feel both mine and their attention weaning, so I ended class early, gave them some HW, and headed home. I believe I made grammar class sufficiently boring, yes? :P
• I met a man this week from Saudi Arabia. He's the first person that I've talked to from there, and so I asked him a lot of stuff about it. He was there visiting family to escape the heat. I didn't realize how hot it got there- 130°!!! 
• This week at the Ministry I was in an office by myself doing work, and so other people started to assume that I worked there for realsies. They would ask me where someone was, and I'd direct them. It made me feel totally legit. And it seems like they assume I'm Arab, cuz they talk to me crazy fast, and then seem surprised at my labored response. Bad lighting, perhaps? Or do I seriously look like a bedouin?
• I have some new clingy friends! I was wandering around Wednesday evening and they invited me into their beyt shar (the tent everyone has by their house where they hang out). I talked to them for a while, but then my stomach started to feel funny so I came up with an excuse and left. A few hours later, the man called me to see if I was coming back. Now, I didn't give him my phone number! That means that he must've asked his neighbors who do have it. Talk about persistence! Since then he's called me four times!!! Holy clingy!
• Thursday night after dinner, I went to the mall with Annie, Kaiti, and Skye to see Cars 2. However, it was only playing in 3D which is stoopid AND more expensive, so we decided not to. We ended up grocery shopping (I know, WOOT WOOT!) and then going to a cafe for some drinks afterwards. I got a really yummy strawberry banana cocktail (it's awesome here. Since Muslims don't drink alcohol, you can get really great non-alcoholic drinks) and Kaiti and I split a WONDERFUL quesadilla. It had guacamole and everything. It was beautiful.
• The elevator. Oh. My. Gosh. After we'd gone grocery shopping we were trying to take an elevator with our cart upstairs to eat. We were first in line for one elevator, but after 5 minutes of it not moving, we determined to switch to the line for the other elevator. Roughly 30 seconds later the elevator we'd been waiting for came. Figures. I'll console myself in knowing that someone in a wheelchair got on instead of us. We got up to be first in line for the other one. The elevator arrived, but it was full. The elevator went up and came back down, stopping again at our floor. It was full... with the same people. The elevator went down and then came back up. Yup, they were still there. This happened a few more times, each time infuriating us a bit more. After what felt like forever (but was seriously about 10 minutes) we determined we were done. We picked up all of our bags and took the escalator. Boo.
• Last night I met up with the girls at the mall to hang out at the bookstore (they play really good music there). Afterwards we went to grab some dinner. We settled on a burger place, and they had a chocolate chip cheeseburger on their menu. I was intrigued and am always a bit adventurous when it comes to weird combinations (ex: chili with peanut butter tastes beautiful. Don't believe me? Try it. It will change your life.). So I tried the burger. It wasn't bad. It was slightly good. I won't pay money for it again.
• The elevators at THIS mall were beautiful.

I'll be in FL in 2 weeks! How crazy is that?!?! I won't say that time has flown by, because it hasn't, but I still can't believe that it's almost over! Crazy talk.

يرمي

Birthday weekend

Breaking News! This blog is totally legit! We're international! I checked the stats for the last month, and I have readers in: the USA, Jordan, France, Germany, Cambodia, Thailand, and Yemen! How totally awesome is that?! There were also at least 150 unique readers! I'm know that that has to go beyond my family and close friends, so here's a major shout-out to any readers I have that I don't know personally. Send me an email and tell me about yourself. I'd love to know more, and maybe even give a shout out!

This weekend was, overall, really good. On Thursday after arriving in Amman, we had our weekly dinner at the girls place. As usual, it was delicious! We had wrapped grape leaves and zucchini stuffed with rice, really good bread, and delicious juice. (Why has the US not caught on to the beauty of lemon-mint juice? Mmmmmm) THEN, for Austin's and my birthdays, we had cake and ice cream. After dinner we went to the mall to see the new movie 'Super 8'. I thought it was pretty good, although it didn't quite live up to the hype I observed when it came out in the States. Friday was relatively uneventful. Church was good. I lazed about for quite a bit once we were home. And some of us met up for dinner at an Italian restaurant we'd heard of, not too far from our apt. The food was delicious, and I'd been majorly craving some Italian.

Saturday was our trip to Jerash and Umm Qays, which was really fun. Both are ruins of ancient Roman decapolis cities, and both are really cool. Jerash is better preserved, and so there was much more to see. We got to climb all over everything (I found a random staircase and went up it to find myself on a ledge with a fantastic view!). We tried to watch the gladiator show for free (6 JD? Psht!) but we were discovered, so we just wandered more. We found a restaurant where we got OK hummus, OK bread, and really cold drinks. Thus, I consider it a success. It was really hot; my tan definitely improved! (I didn't think that I'd gotten burnt at all until the next day I put on a collared shirt. Yup, definitely burned my neck). One fun moment was when we were taking an amazingly touristy picture: Katie and I were posing mermaid style... ahem, self-serving dynast style... at the top of a staircase, Annie was standing in a fountain, and Skye & Austin were up on pillars. When we started, no one was there. But by the time the picture was taken, we had an audience, including a police officer who was not terrible excited about our climbing on pillars. We felt kinda embarrassed at our silliness, but oh well.  Once we'd conquered Jerash we took off for Umm Qays. I slept in the car for most of the way, but I do know that we got lost in Irbid for a bit. We got there and immediately the view was gorgeous. It was very green, and from our vantage point we could see the Sea of Galilee, Israeli occupied Golan Heights, and Syria. We were all pretty hungry, so we went to the restaurant there (which has a great view... and luxurious bathrooms!) which served really good food (Italian two days in a row!). It was nice to just sit and talk with good friends. Once we'd finished eating and dillydallying, we took off to take some sweet pics and wander about. We found even better views, an amphitheater, and Annie found millions of lizards (she is now known as the lizard oracle). On the drive back, we turned a corner and saw an incredible view of Irbid, the city lights against the night sky. It was breathtaking. I muttered "Wow" and the driver was like "Finally! I've been trying all day to get you to say 'Wow' but all you do is sleep!" Hehe...

Sunday was my birthday. 24 years old... I'm old! It was a really fun day. In the morning we all met at the Ministry of Social Development (where everyone else works) to catch a ride to the Parliament. We were ushered into a conference room, and I felt totally legit. Each seat had one of those mics where you pressed the button to talk to everyone else. There we had a Q&A session with members of Parliament who are on the committee for Social Development. They told us about their work, and we asked questions. It was a pretty good discussion, and if nothing else made me feel very official for about an hour. They invited us to observe a session of Parliament later on in the day. We accepted, but had a few hours to kill before it began. First we grabbed some lunch: kabab and falafel. Mmmmmm. Have I mentioned how much I love the food here?! From there we headed to the Abdullah bin-Hussein mosque, which is beautiful. (It's the one I mentioned a few months ago as being across the street from a huge Christian church). After wandering around the mosque, we went to the museum next door, which focuses on the Islamic aspect of Jordanian history. It had a lot of beautiful pictures (lots of Jerusalem, which made me long for it badly), and models of beautiful mosques throughout Jordan that I really wanna go see before I leave. After that it was time to go to Parliament. The session was interesting for a while, but since they were talking really fast in all Arabic (duh!) I was finished after about an hour. I left the group and headed over to get a haircut and a shave. The guy trimmed my facial hair, and even trimmed my nose hair... interesting! (I suppose I can now say that a stranger has stuck scissors up my nose. Can you say that? I don't think so...)  We met up again for dinner, which was one of the most delicious things that has ever happened to me. We made french toast and topped it with homemade whipped cream, sliced bananas, and honey. It was amazing!!! The cool night breeze felt wonderful, and it was great to just relax and talk with friends. So I count my birthday as a major success. If I take this as an hyper-literal omen, 24 is gonna be a good year. :)

And with that, friends, I find myself once again at home in Sabha. Thanks for the emails, they really make my day.

يرمي

Holy OhMyGosh It's Hot!

So yes, as the title suggests, this past week was freaking hot. Luckily it's cooling down and we're back in the 90's, but towards the beginning of the week it was hot as, well, ya know... Thank GOODNESS for my fan. Not only does it keep mosquitos from draining all of my blood as I sleep, but it keeps things [semi]-cool. When people in Sabha hear that I only have a fan, they tell me I'm crazy 'cuz it doesn't do much (It just blows hot air!). But then I tell them that it's better than nothing, and they shrug their agreement.

So on Monday I was kind of a hermit for a few hours after work. I was tired, and it was HOT; I didn't want to leave the comfort of my fan. However, I eventually determined to stop being lame and go outside. As I left, Shlash was walking by, so he talked to me for a while to see what I've been up to. Then he decided he wanted me to meet someone, and so I got in his car and we drove over to his friend Reyada's home. Reyada works for the Ministry of Education, and apparently has the hookups when it comes to English education. I went to his office and met with him on Tuesday. And by "met with him", what I really mean is that I sat in his office, politely declined tea and had to explain why, made small talk, sat awkwardly for forever, talked about work for 5 minutes, and then left. That's how all business is done here. I'm not going to be able to have a direct conversation to save my life once I'm home. I'll sit down with someone, they'll start talking, and I'll be like, "Ahem, aren't you supposed to be offering me tea or something? And will you please ask me how I'm doing, what's new, how's my health, how am I doing, how's my family, how's work, how am I doing, Welcome to Jordan." Anyhoo... he has a great idea, which I plan on implementing. Rather than trying to meet with each English teacher, we'll send out a questionnaire through the Ministry to all of the English teachers in the Badia. That way we can plan our future involvement better.

My tawjihi class on Tuesday went OK. I read them the story of the dog choking on human fingers. Oh yeah... Then I tried to teach them about adverbs and verb tenses. I'm gonna confess, I think I'm sucking at this whole English grammar teaching. Part of it is that I don't know grammar that well anyways (and I'm an English major! I know, I know, shame on me, spare me the ridicule...), and another part of it is that I don't really have any materials. So, I'm trying to teach what I don't really know by winging it. And they want me to do that for 2 hours twice a week. Sooooo... we'll see how this keeps going. 

So I have a profound cultural observation to make. Prepare yourself. I believe that it may be the root of why Arab culture and Western culture have clashed so much. Americans tend be blunt in areas that Arabs dance around the subject. The opposite is also true, Arabs can be cuttingly blunt in areas where Americans would rather not go. A few examples:

• If someone asks a favor of you, you never say "no". It's more rude to say "no" than to not follow through. So, you answer vaguely. "If God wills it" or "After a while" or "I'll call you" all work, and most Arabs I've met get the point.
• When talking about money, Arabs have no qualms about talking about how much something cost, which would be rude in American culture. I've had a few friends get a new phone or a new computer, and they tell me right away how much it cost and how expensive it was. Also, everyone asks me what my salary is here (my answer shocks them: zip!) and what an average American's salary is. Anyone that sees my laptop or my iPhone asks how much it cost.
• When Arabs have come to visit me, when they're done they're done and they make it known. Usually after 20-30 minutes of sitting with me in my apt, they say "I want to go now", and then go. It's actually quite refreshing. In American culture we come up with a reason "Oh I really do have a ton of HW. I'd love to stay, but we'll catch up later", which we all know translates to "I am so done with being here. See ya!"

And now for the experience that brings this observation on. Remember the story I told last time about my friend who wants my iPod shuffle? When he was at my house he kept picking it up to examine it quite dramatically (for my sake, I'm sure) and talking about how beautiful it is. That is the cue in Arabic culture for me to offer it to him, whether or not I want to. However, since I am not an Arab, I didn't. Since that experience he's been quite persistent. The next day he told me that he'd had a dream that I'd given him my iPod. I understood perfectly, but I pretended to have no clue what he was saying (which is quite believable, since it happens all the time) and then changed the subject. Then yesterday I was walking with him and he said that he wanted to talk to me. He reminded me that he'd given me a ring a few days before (which he had since taken back and broken) and wanted to know when I would give him a present. [Thus, the observation of how Arabs can be blunt] Then he specifically told me that he wanted my iPod. He kind of made it an ultimatum; he asked me "yes or no?" I told him no, reassured him that I would give him something (albeit non-iPod-ish) before I left, and told him to stop asking me. That's another difference in our cultures, in terms of gift giving: Arabs give you something which they own, American go out and buy something for you.

Last night my friend Farah picked me up and took me to dinner. It was at the home of the mechanic (named Mohammed) who fixed his car last week. He lives in a town (I can't remember what it's called) right outside of Irbid, which is a good hour drive away. Farah had not met Mohammed before getting his car fixed, so we'd both had the same amount of contact with him (although Farah definitely had the upper hand, him being fluent in Arabic and all that jazz). I'm pretty sure he invited us because he wanted to talk to me about getting help immigrating to the United States. (This has so far been my only experience where someone invited me to their home exclusively to ask a favor from me) When it became clear that my poor student non-connected self would be useless in that endeavor, the hospitality took a nose dive. He talked some politics with me (with Farah translating), although we disagreed on quite a bit. He was was the first Arab I've spoken to that had anything bad to say about Obama. (Everyone here loves Obama and hates Bush, which is not entirely surprising) Of course he disliked Bush, blaming him for the Iraq war which was devastated the economy. But he also disliked Obama. I asked him why, and he started listing off a bunch of things that have gone wrong under his presidency: "Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, etc.". I was feeling a bit bold, and told him that he couldn't blame Obama or America for every single thing that goes wrong in the world. I explained how everything he had listed had happened on it's own, even if some (namely Libya) had eventually produced a US response. He just changed the subject, which was probably for the best. And by change the subject, I mean that he spent the next two hours talking on the phone while Farah played with my pen and notebook and I played Bounce on my phone. I was so bored I just wanted to kick a parakeet. However, we eventually (at 11pm... we arrived ay 7) did eat dinner: mansaf, which made everything worth it! ;) After dinner a neighbor came in and started arguing with him, so Farah and I took that as our cue to leave. We had an uneventful ride home; Farah kept asking me the names of each village we drove through, and teased me for not remembering them all. ("Ummm, excuse me, but they're weird names in Arabic. I can't remember") Occasionally we'd pass a sign with the village name on it so I could escape his jests.

And now I'm in Amman! It's been a great day thus far; as I was walking to the bus this morning a friend bought me a sandwich and a Mountain Dew, and I listened to some wonderful podcasts on the way here. I'm pretty excited for this weekend; we're visiting Jerash and Um Qais. Um Qais is in the Golan Heights and overlooks the Sea of Galilee, which is my favorite place on earth. A large part of my heart still resides in my memories of being there. So, we're going for my birthday. Be excited. And with that, I'm-a-gunna-let you go! See ya!

يرمي

A Hodgepodge of Mishmash

Well it's been several days since I've blogged, so I suppose it's time for an update. Usually there's some big happening, something quite newsworthy, which prompts me to blog. But the past four days have not contained such a moment. Now don't get me wrong, this has been a great week— but nothing out of the ordinary has happened. So, I'm going to blog in a bit of an unconventional way. I'm going to write bullet points, arranged in nor particular order (well, I suppose they'll be arranged based on when they erupted out of the recesses of my foggy mind), chronicling my life for the past few days.

• A man who I got a ride from this week asked me if I was Japanese. I was considerably confused. A few people have asked me if I'm Arab, which really feeds my ego. I'm tan enough to maybe pass for an Arab, but as soon as I open my mouth and try to speak Arabic, there goes that idea. A lot of people think that I'm European, mostly German. Weird, eh?
• We watched a fantastic Egyptian movie last night. It was really funny, but it also had a really good message. It was promoting peace between the Christians and Muslims there.
• When I go back to the States, food is going to seem exorbitantly expensive. For lunch in Sabha, I can get a falafel AND a soda for 50¢! Of course, it will be great to have free, cold water again.
• When I was hanging out with my clingy friend Farah, we ran out of gas. I'd never been in a car that ran out of gas before, so chalk that up for another lifetime experience had in Jordan.
• This week I discovered a bus running from the Amman bus station to an intersection close to the Amman apartment. So, instead of a taxi for 3JD, I can ride the bus for 40¢. Of course, it takes a lot longer, but that's OK. I've started using my bus time to listen to podcasts. So this week, I've learned about: clouds, the life of Elder Cook, sleepwalking, a couple that almost died in a plane crash, hypnosis, how much power the President of the US actually has, and adoption, among other things. I still have a backlog of 500+ podcasts on my laptop. Hopefully I can take a nice little chunk out with my bus time.
• Also, I was taking a music break from my podcasts when I arrived in Mufraq. The song '16 Tons' (the song at the beginning of Joe vs. the Volcano) came on while I was walking through the crowded market. I felt like I was in a movie with a totally legit soundtrack. Oh yeah baby, I'm legit!
• My friend Annus came to my apartment to show me his new CD. It was all Eminem... Bleckh. Then he saw my ipod shuffle, and he really liked it, and I'm pretty sure he wanted me to give it to him. If I was obedient to Arabic cultural norms, I would've offered it to him. But PSHT I didn't want to. I'll find something else to give him sometime...
• I've decided how to teach my new tawjihi prep class. Every week, I'm going to give them a practice test. Each test will have reading comprehension, a writing portion, and then a section focusing on what we'll talk about that day. So for this next time, conjunctions and derivation. Yay!!! I found a website that had reading comprehension stories with questions, AND grammar lessons to go along with them. I was thrilled. Then I read the stories. Each of them are terrifying stories from American folklore. Check them out. I'm still going to use them, though, because the way that they're linked with grammar lessons is too good to pass up. I'll just warn them, and maybe even use it as an opportunity to teach them a bit about American culture through folklore. Either that, or they'll just remember me as the creepy American.
• I. Freaking. Love. Arab. Pastries.

So that's about it for now. Time is really starting to fly! I'm going home in 4 weeks, crazy talk!!!

يرمي

Happy Fourth of July... Jordanian Style

So the night before last (mere hours before my aforementioned tragedy of a near-sleepless night) Annie called me to invite me to our group's Fourth of July festivities. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make the trek back to Amman less than 24 hours after I had arrived, but then they mentioned pie and steak; I was sold. So yesterday I left work a bit early to ride the bus into Amman. My friend Mohammed left at the same time as me, and rode with me all the way to Zarqa (almost all the way home) on his way to class. He refused to let me pay anything for the bus. I assumed he was just trying to be polite by offering, but when I tried to make a dash for my wallet he grabbed my arm and held it there until he was through paying for me. He meant business. He turned and looked at me semi-sternly, "انت أخي" which means "You're my brother". I'll have to make it up to him by buying him a soda next time I'm at work. Once I was at the bus station in Amman, I determined that I didn't feel like paying the 3JD to get to the apt, so I asked around to see if there was a bus that went there. There was! It took a while since traffic was horrific and we went through the old (narrow roads) part of the city, but it cost me 40¢. Worth it? Most definitely. Here's how busses work here: you pay to get on, and then you sit there until enough people are on that the driver feels justified in leaving. There's no schedule. So as we were waiting to leave, a little boy came by selling gum, and he had the most ingenious approach: he walked down the hallway and threw pieces of gum into your lap, then came by and collected either money for the gum, or (as in my case) a reject piece of gum. But part of me almost felt obliged to just pay for it; after all, it was already in my hands!

A little bit after arriving at the apartment, everyone else showed up and we commences making a delicious independence feast! We had steak (cut up into snack size bits of deliciousness), potatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon (I don't like watermelon, and thus didn't partake, but I felt like being thorough in my blogging), chips & salsa, soda, better-than-sex-cake (not that I can verify the validity of it's name, but it was delicious), and blueberry pie. We had a few mishaps during the preparations; the oven/stove produced a fireball (complete with sonic boon and small leftover fires) twice, the oven then overcompensated by roasting the top of the BTS cake (perhaps that's because a certain someone had the oven on grill mode... weirdo), and we almost ran out of gas for the stove in the midst of cooking the steaks. But we were not to be discouraged, nor would we shirk our desire, nay, our responsibility to create a 4th of July meal worth remembering. And we succeeded. All of the food was delicious, and we had a great time together eating it and bluegrass music played in the background (Rock on, Nickel Creek, rock on).

After we'd finished attacking the better-than-sex cake, we settled down and started to watch Iron Man. Halfway through, we found out that the American embassy was meeting up in town to shoot off fireworks. We hurriedly got a taxi and headed over. However, since our driver took the looooooong way, we missed the fireworks. [insert dramatically pouty face here] Still, we sat down at an outdoor restaurant to listen to some great (mostly American) music. It was really relaxing, and really fun. Even halfway around the world, I'm still proud to be an American.

يرمي

And in other news...

I can't sleep. And in the past few hours, I have killed 5 mosquitos. With my bare hands. As they were flying in mid-air. Mr. Myagi style. Oh yeah.

Happy 4th of July! I'm going into Amman tomorrow for a par-tay of epic proportions. We're gonna have blueberry pie. And steak. Mmmmmm.

Wait for it... there goes mosquito number 6. Dead.

Correction on my last post: Katie's name is, in actuality, spelled Kaiti. So now you know, and knowing's have the battle.

Have I mentioned that I can't sleep?

يرمي

Aqaba, Part 2: Great Expectations

This past weekend our group went to Aqaba for a relaxing weekend. Normally, we try to avoid having expectations so that they're not dashed. But we'd been to Aqaba before and had a pretty good time, so this time we assumed that expectations were safe. Oops! Now, before I go on, I have a bit of a disclaimer. You see, I really did have a great weekend, it just didn't pan out at all like I expected. For some segments of this post, I may sound whiny; know that I'm just being over-dramatic for the sake of telling the story. 90% of the time, I was laughing hysterically as things were falling apart. In actuality, I hate whininess. Negativity is like a terribly contagious disease, which our group has had more than it's fair share of. And now, enough with the legalities... on to our weekend in Aqaba!

Friday morning we met for the bus at 7am. We went with the same tour company that we used on our Petra/Wadi Rum/Aqaba trip a few weeks ago. Somehow, the bus ride seemed much longer this time. Last time we broke it up into different segments; this time it was a straight shot, taking about 4.5 hours. (I didn't think Jordan was even big enough to drive for that long!) It was all Arabs, except for the eight of us. Our bus was quite the happening place: Arabic dance music being blasted at an impressive volume, and A/C that didn't work (adding to the sweaty party effect. It was a nice touch). I had, idealistically, planned on sleeping on the bus ride, since our 7am meeting time had deprived me of my weekend slumber. However, our bus, erm, captain (?) said that he didn't want anyone sleeping. He wanted us to par-tay! Now, Arabs seem to have WPS (white person syndrome) when it comes to rhythm, so I tried to just ignore the painfully off-tempo clapping. But every time he came back through the bus to make sure we were actually partying, I'd quickly start clapping enthusiastically to the music. One of these times, my feigned enthusiasm seemed to fill our noble captain with awe and inspiration. The inspiration, as it were, led him to try and force me to dance before a bus full of Arabs. He was quite insistent, not letting go of my arm as he tried to pull me [from my awkward non-aisle seat] into the aisle. However, much to his chagrin, I succeeded in my non-dancing desires, and he returned to his perch at the front of the bus with no chubby white boy in tow. After some more partying, we began what seemed to be a road-trip game. The bus was broken into two teams as we played a trivia game. It was all in Arabic (of course), and our team seemed less than thrilled with our ability to contribute. Annie translated what questions she could, but even when we knew the answer, we were wrong. "Who was the first man on the moon?" "Neil Armstrong!" "No, it was some Russian guy" "Uhhhhh...". Some of the questions were outright weird: "What's the one country in the world where it's north is uglier than it's south?" "Who was the first person ever to drive a car?" Once more, "Uhhhhh...". Of course we made a stop at the obligatory tourist trap. Not wanting to spend 2 JD on a snickers bar, I opted to sit on the steps outside and enjoy the A/C-like breeze. However, we ended up getting caught in the cross-current of really enthusiastic Indonesian tourists. One man came up to me, and seemingly asked if I could take a picture for him. After I agreed, it became quite clear that I had misunderstood; we were quickly joined by the man and his friends as we all posed for a picture together. He put his arm around me like we were childhood chumps, and another woman practically laid across Katie. It was really exciting, and I'm honored to know that somewhere there's a random Indonesian man with my picture. 

After one more leg of our bus ride, we were in Aqaba. We stayed in a different hotel than last time, because it was a bit cheaper. As it turns out, you get what you pay for. Our hotel was nowhere near the water, instead being situated conveniently next to a vacant lot. We got our massive room-keys (which kind of reminded me of when you have to get a key for a gas-station bathroom, and it has something like unto a fly swatter taped to it) and headed to our rooms. But wait! We had quite sillily expected our rooms to be marked, and so we had to wait until one of the workers could tell us which rooms were which. As it turns out, he was applying the number signs right then! Maybe the hotel was new! If that's the case, I finally know what a new hotel room smells like: sweaty balls. But it did have a toilet, a shower, and clean beds. Heck, it even had a TV with four channels on it!

We quickly changed and headed out to the pool, which was actually pretty nice. It was a bit on the chilly side, but it was really hot, so I was cool with that. (Pun most definitely intended). After hanging out there for a bit, we determined that we were starving and wanted to find something to eat. We wandered around for a bit and found a really good restaurant. In fact, it's probably the best restaurant I've eaten at in Jordan. We went up the the roof where we sat right next to the balcony; the breeze blowing luxuriously upon our soon-to-be-not-so-sweaty faces. We ordered drinks which were delicious, they brought us FREE soup which was delicious, I ordered a caesar salad and hummus, both of which were delicious, and the service was wonderful. It was, all in all, a fantastic experience that made my day. 

After lunch we headed to the beach for a bit. However, because it was really hot, it was really crowded. Shebab everywhere. At one point I was talking to Katie and a guy came over and squatted down in between us, looked me squarely in the eye, and yelled "Hello! How are you?!" I stared at him for a sec, and then responded in Arabic. I basically said "I'm great, thanks, goodbye!" I think he was a bit surprised to have the chubby white tourist boy respond in OKish Arabic, and so after giving me a funny look he just sauntered off. After laying on Austin's towel for a bit (I'm a mooch like that) I determined that I would go back to the hotel, chillax for a bit, and read by the pool. I ended up napping for a bit, reading for a bit in my room, and then conversating with Skye and Austin for a while. That's one thing I really liked about coming to Aqaba for a second time; I didn't feel the need to constantly be doing something (being at the beach, shopping, snorkelling, etc.) and so I really took the time to just relax. The room was pretty cool (temp), which felt really nice. So, after relaxing for a while, Skye and I went out to wander about, and to meet up with Annie and eventually the rest of the group for dinner. We decided to go to the same place as we went for lunch, with the, ahem, expected free soup as quite the motivating factor. Silly Jeremy, having more expectations. Dinner was delicious, but alas, it was a soup-less experience. 

Towards the end of dinner is where the true excitement started! As we got ready to go, Annie couldn't find her wallet. We looked under the cushions of the tables we'd been at (over the course of dinner we'd been at three different tables) but we found nothing. Annie and Katie went down to check the bathroom, and didn't come back for a really long time. After a while, we sent Janae down for a reconnaissance mission, namely, to find out where the freak the other girls had gone. As it turns out, some shifty looking women had stolen Annie's wallet (with her camera inside) from the bathroom; Annie and Katie had gone up to the security office to see the security video and to figure out what to do. We were done with our dinner, and the rest of the group was ready to go. Everyone else left, and I stayed with the girls so they could have a guy with them. With that decision, I embarked upon one of the more exciting experiences I've had in Jordan. Katie led me to the office of a very large security man, who was showing us the restaurant security video. I won't bore you with the details, but it essentially proved that Annie had left her wallet in the bathroom and it had been found and taken by two shifty looking women who had arrive with two shifty looking men (thus enhancing the shiftyness). Since none of us had a USB flash drive, the man used my camera to record the video off of his screen so we could show it to the police later on. As I sat there, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move in the hallway. I looked and beheld a cockroach of healthy size, scurrying about the hallway. I told Katie and she looked just as it hid. She wanted to see it, since I had described it's size, and so I kept my eye out for it. Whenever I saw it, I'd try to get her attention, and that apparently annoyed the crap out of our large security man. Eventually, the cockroach couldn't ignore my attention, and so it made a beeline from the hallway, into the room, just past my feet, and under the couch. Shortly thereafter, with security video footage in tow, we headed off for the Aqaba Tourist Police. Once at the station we entered through the barred gate into a courtyard, where we were led into an office. Once there, Annie gave her account of the wallet-caper. It was like what I imagine a Provo police experience would be like ("Oh-my-gosh-you-mean-something-is-actually-happening?!?!?!"). Soon there were five or six officers in the room. They got quite the kick out of the fact that Annie could speak Arabic, and somewhat less of a kick out of mine and Katie's somewhat limited Arabic. I kept on trying to joke with Annie and Katie about our quite awesome situation, but tried to do so quietly, as to not offend our gun-toting hosts. However, I was a bit too quiet, and they never heard me. They'd just look at me and say "Huh?", I'd repeat it, they'd say "Huh?", and I'd give up. After the third time, jokes just aren't that funny. The officers crowded around my camera as I played them the security video. Note that I didn't say "as they watched", because, as it happens, they didn't. Mostly they let the video play, draining the life from my weak-sauce camera battery, as they argued about the name of our restaurant. Each time that Annie was through explaining her story, someone else would come in and request the story from her once more. Each time she told it, the police officers got more riled up, seemingly determined to help her. They asked us about ourselves, and were really interested to find out that Annie is half Jordanian. They quizzed her about her life story, even asking if she'd prefer to marry an American or Jordanian. This, of course, led to them joking about marrying her. Oh the excitement, eh? The excitement and enthusiasm grew, until Mr. negative-old-man walked in. He systematically drained the room of all of it's excitement, glaring at Annie and us as if we were somehow guilty of interrupting his otherwise quiet 1am nap time. Once Annie explained her story to him (that made 4 or 5 times, I think), one of the other officers stood up, looked at Annie, and asked "So do you want to make a complaint about your wallet?" "?!?!?!" The color drained from my face and I held back a momentous eye-roll. (Uh, why yes we would. That's why we've been here FOR FREAKING TWO HOURS!) Luckily he quickly clarified... if the wallet were to be found, would she want to press charges? OK, now that makes more sense. One of the officers typed up Annie's statement in Arabic. We stayed for a while longer, finally leaving at 2:30 am (three hours later) with the understanding that we'd come back in the morning to finish up. I arrived in my hotel room at 3am, and it was miserably hot. You see, I'd had the expectation that since it'd been cool in the middle of the afternoon, it would remain cool for the middle of the night. Oops again. Additionally, I kept on hearing something rustling the curtain. I determined that it was not Skye, nor his feet. I went over to the curtain to investigate and, finding nothing, went to bed and fell asleep quickly, before any more rustling could stress me out more.

Saturday night I slept roughly 5.5 hours. I woke up at 9, went downstairs to grab some breakfast, and then Katie, Annie, and I were off once more to the police station. We went through the oh-so-familiar barred gate, through the same courtyard, into the same office as the night before, right back into the exact same seats, talking to the same officers. I looked over at Katie, telling her that it felt like we'd never left. On the itinerary for that morning was a lecture, given by one of the officers, about the difference between losing something and having something stolen. In his opinion, Annie's wallet had been stolen. He made this case at least six or seven times. Each time, I tried to show great understanding in my eyes, trying to avoid a repeat lecture. We went to another office, where Annie once again told the story. We were ushered out of the office, back into the oh-so-familiar one, where we recommenced sitting in our chairs. One of the officers (the same one who had talked about marrying Annie) found out that I work by Mufrak, which is where he's from. He made sure to get my phone number, offer me a mansaf dinner at his home (inshah allah), and then served us all really sweet tea. Soon afterwards, Katie and I checked out, needing to pack our stuff to check out of our luxurious hotel. Annie stayed behind in the now-vain pursuit of her wallet.

From the hotel, we all (sans Annie) went to a pretty nice beach where we rented snorkeling gear and, you guessed it, snorkeled. That marks the second time that I've snorkeled in the Red Sea, in two different countries! I enjoyed it, but it reiterated to me that I wouldn't like scuba diving. From time to time I'd have a little panic moment (oh no! there's water in my mask! oh no! I really have to sneeze! etc.) and I was able to surface quite easily. Scuba diving? Not so much. So, as beautiful as it is underwater, I think I'm just too much of a wimp to do much more. But, with that being said, I had a marvelous time. I saw a lot of cool fish. There were a bunch of little fish swimming near the surface; they kept clear of me, but it made me feel like I was swimming with them! Totally legit! I swim with fish! Anyhoo... After the snorkeling experience, I headed to the private pool area where I laid out in the sun for a bit. It was really relaxing (I even fell asleep for a bit) and hopefully I evened out my farmers tan a bit. Towards the end, Skye and I talked with a British lady whose husband is a diplomat here. Both of us are thinking about doing the foreign service, and so it was cool to get the perspective of a family member being dragged along. Her thoughts: "Yeah, it's terrible, we have to sit out here on the beach and go scuba diving. But I suppose someone has to do it!"

As evening approached we headed back to Aqaba to meet up with Annie and the bus. We grabbed some food (Shawarma, mmmmm) and headed to a bench to wait for the bus. The bus ended up being two hours late, and so we had plenty of time to chill. Katie and I went to a store to buy some water bottles, and passed an actual fistfight happening between a cook and a cashier! The people from the neighboring stores went to see what was going on, including the guy we wanted to buy water from. So, we grabbed the water bottles, decided how much we thought they were worth, and left the money by the cash register. I suppose that's one way to barter effectively!

We finally got on the bus at 8:30. Having not slept much, I looked forward to sleeping my way home. Yet again, another expectation: that the late night bus ride would be calmer than the daytime one down. Wrong again. They blasted the music seemingly louder than before, and our jolly captain patrolled the bus, making sure we were all partying as expected. After a bit, either the music got turned down or I got used to it, and I dozed off for a bit. I woke up a bit later as the music turned off completely. I waited. Could it be so? Could they finally have figured out that it's unreasonable to blast dance music past 10pm on a bus with people trying to sleep? Cue the loud obnoxious Arabic movie, complete with screaming women and nightclub scenes. For seriously? At that point, I kinda lost my mind. I turned to my bus buddy Katie and just started laughing hysterically. I couldn't breathe, and tears were streaming down my face. As it were, the hilarity of the moment passed, and soon I was sitting in my seat practicing my Jordanian scowl. I tried a new sleeping position, resting my head on the seat in front of me. However, the bus driver swerved occasionally, causing me to either veer into the aisle or almost hit Katie with my head. That position=fail. I tried slouching so my head could reach the headrest, but then my butt fell asleep. Once again, fail. So I sat upright and waited, trying to understand the strange movie that was keeping me awake. After the movie ended just as abruptly as it had started, the music came back on, quieter this time. I used it as an opportunity to try and sleep. That lasted roughly 10 minutes, until midnight. Over the speakers, an "It's-a-small-world-after-all"-esque midi song came on... an introduction to a happy birthday song. We (meaning the bus, but not including myself) sang happy birthday and happy anniversary to all who we could. Then the tour company gave a small gift to every family on the bus, announcing their names loudly and enthusiastically over the speakers. We were treated as a family, and were given a candle holder. We finally arrived in Amman at roughly 1am and, with our spirits *cough* high, we grabbed taxis home.

This morning I slept until 11:30, which was glorious! I quickly got my stuff together, went by an ATM, and headed off for home. The taxi driver to the bus station totally ripped me off, which is kind of a recurring theme in my life. I think it's because when I'm headed to the bus station I have a suitcase, plus I'm white, so the drivers assume I just arrived and don't know anything. This driver took the long way all around town, ignoring my comments that suggested in increasingly strong language that he take a different route. Once we got there, it was almost 2JD more than usual. I yelled and argued with him, holding my ground. I went to my bus, and the poor boy in charge of bags tried to joke with me. First he pretended like he was going to run away with my bag, and then he left me holding the side door up. I was in no mood, and simply glared until he stopped. On the bus, I wrote the first half of this post, before arriving in Mufrak. Since there wasn't much room for my legs, let alone my laptop, I had to adopt the dinosaur arms position to be able to type. I'm sure everyone by me thought I was plenty weird. The bus to Sabha was fun. I got the last seat, which is by the drivers seat facing the rest of the bus passengers. Most of them were women in hijab, so I just stared out the window the whole time. In the midst of the ride, my phone started ringing, and so I answered. It was a number I didn't recognize. I told the man I was on the bus to Sabha, and he told me that he was as well. I looked up to see a young man (about my age) at the back of the bus, on his phone, and laughing at me with his shabab friends. I'd never met the chap, but apparently I'd met a family member of his who had given him my phone number. He'd made the [safe] assumption that I was the same chubby white guy who lives in Sabha that his friend had told him about, and so called to say hi. 

I got back home just in time to gather my stuff and head to the school down the street for a new English class. It's the same school where I taught the little kids before, but this time I'm helping high schoolers with their English before their big, life altering test. In the Middle East, at the end of high school, students take a big test called the tawgeehee. It serves roughly the same purpose as the SAT or ACT, but is much more ridiculous. A student's score essentially determines the rest of their life: what schools they can attend, what jobs they can have, etc. A tawgeehee score is permanent, and remains with you for the rest of your life. If an Arab student did poorly, came to the US and shaped up and got a Doctorate, and then returned to the Middle East, the first thing they'd look at would be the tawgeehee score. So, it's kind of a big deal. No pressure, right? I had been under the impression that I'd be working with two students who already spoke really good English. So I was prepared to help with conversation practice. However, when I got there today, my class had ten girls. There was a big range in English fluency; they expected me to work with them on grammar. Yikes! So I winged it today, putting together a semi-effective lesson. Then, before the next class, I'm going to get a copy of their grammar textbooks. I need to see what kind of stuff they're expected to know so I can help them!

And with that, my friends, I am finished. I'm now sitting in my apartment, getting ready to do my daily wanderings. Who know, if I'm lucky, I may be eating mansaf tonight! Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to ya soon!

يرمي

PS: Happy Fourth of July to my stateside friends! Eat a polish sausage for me!!!