Ahlan wa sahlan!
It's hard to believe that three weeks have come and gone. Even though my weeks are crammed-full of events including but not limited to: speaking sessions, cooking lessons, cultural understanding possession(s), and of course late night Arabic retention (hopefully that rhyme reads like it sounds in my mind, but alas it probably won't). It is currently Friday and thus it's the F***ing weekend! Holy crap am I relieved. So I haven't posted in a while and that's not ok. Most importantly, Anna I am so so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you and your family in these and the coming hard times. Unfortunately life is fleeting so we must enjoy every moment of it. It seems like your grandmother did just that and that should be celebrated.
Jenna, I am so happy you're having a great time in Paris! I am a bit jealous as it has been a while since I've been back there. But I will be there soon enough! I get into Charles De Gualle at 4:40pm on August 15th. Hopefully if all works out I might stay a night or two in the city before grabbing a train down to the south of France. I will email or facebook or smoke signal you soon to work out some details.
I'm happy to hear that everyone is doing well and enjoying their summers so far. I look forward to every new post to read about what's new and exciting in all of your lives.
It's hard to believe that three weeks have come and gone. Even though my weeks are crammed-full of events including but not limited to: speaking sessions, cooking lessons, cultural understanding possession(s), and of course late night Arabic retention (hopefully that rhyme reads like it sounds in my mind, but alas it probably won't). It is currently Friday and thus it's the F***ing weekend! Holy crap am I relieved. So I haven't posted in a while and that's not ok. Most importantly, Anna I am so so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you and your family in these and the coming hard times. Unfortunately life is fleeting so we must enjoy every moment of it. It seems like your grandmother did just that and that should be celebrated.
Jenna, I am so happy you're having a great time in Paris! I am a bit jealous as it has been a while since I've been back there. But I will be there soon enough! I get into Charles De Gualle at 4:40pm on August 15th. Hopefully if all works out I might stay a night or two in the city before grabbing a train down to the south of France. I will email or facebook or smoke signal you soon to work out some details.
I'm happy to hear that everyone is doing well and enjoying their summers so far. I look forward to every new post to read about what's new and exciting in all of your lives.
Here's what I've been up to for these past couple of weeks. Class, class, and more class, tests, mandatory culture clubs, excursions, and classes, Petra, tutoring Iraqi refugees, going to a wedding, hanging out with the elusive Fadi Hamati, joining the most intense gym I have ever seen, more class and tests, and enjoying every single moment of it (well maybe not the homework part).
School has gotten much better since the first week when I came face to face with the ugly truth that two years at Amherst College's Arabic department, or lack thereof, was on a completely different standard than the CLS. So after many late nights and early mornings of cramming and memorizing grammar rules that I should have known semesters ago, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in my Arabic class. While it's great that my teachers notice my improvement and comment on it, it would have been great to avoid this pseudo-underdog (maybe even pseudo-Cinderella) story by knowing some essential grammar rules that are the bare bones of this crazy language. I am extremely excited to share my thoughts on the curriculum when I return to Amherst in the spring. Cultural activities have been great too so far. Every Sunday after class and speaking partner sessions we have cultural outing activities. So far I've seen this really cool mosque called abu darweesh (مسجد أبو درويش for those Arabic speakers out there). It was beautiful check out these pictures!
I've also been taking a weekly cooking class as part of the cultural component of the program and it's been for the most part fun. There's a lot of standing and the occasional cutting or stirring and a lot of vocab being hurled at us that I am retaining maybe 8% of. On the upside, I'm learning tons of really great recipes that I cannot wait to bring back you all.
Fast forward a bit to last weekend which was amazing! As you may have guessed from my massive upload of pictures to facebook, I went to Petra last weekend. If you ever have the chance to go then go. There have never been so many times in one day where I have been breathless or in awe at the beauty and splendor of the capabilities of the human race. I spent a total of 16 hours in the old city over the two days we were there 12 one day and 4 on the other. My legs were dead after the weekend but a trip to the Turkish bath before coming back to Amman did just the trick. Check out these pics (of Petra not of the the bath...).
Petra ate up all of last weekend so when we got back on Saturday night it was straight back into school mode. Fortunately this week passed by quickly but it also alerted me to the impending midterms. School is school so I won't bore you with the details. However the most exciting thing that I did during the school week was definitely the tutoring of Iraqi refugees. One of the program organizers has an in or something and as a result we are so fortunate to be able to go tutor Iraqis and Palestinians on Wednesdays and Saturdays. If I can help it I want to go every week! This week I went on Wednesday and met a bunch of Iraqi men all ranging in age from 15-50. We are there to talk with them and help them improve their English which is already pretty damn good. This week was partnered with a man named Abdallah. I think he was the definite patriarch of the house/apartment they were living in. We talked about a lot of things. I got a great history lesson on the origin of Arabs and a pretty in depth understanding of the Qu'aran and MSA's role in it. It was an awesome time and I can't wait to hear about more of their stories. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all in the coming weeks.
It's Friday morning right now and the weekend is fleeting so I want to make the most of it before I have to go back to the school room for more intense Arabic sessions. Today at a round noon I am going to the city of Karak for the wedding ceremony of my speaking partner's brother. I am very interested to see what it is like. My speaking partner is Christian so I am interested in seeing what a Christian wedding ceremony is like in Jordan. Look forward to more pictures!
Much حب for all y'all!
-Josh
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