Oh my goodness. Each day here has felt like eons, good eons, but eons nonetheless. My brain is not used to this barrage of new information from language to place to people, etc, etc.
I should deal firstly with my homestay family, whom I met today and have begun to live with. They are amazing in every way. I couldn't have asked for a more lovely welcome or a better first night with them than this one. As anyone would suggest in this situation, I tried not to have any preconceived notions of what it would be like but I was secretly hoping for this and it's awesome. I'm sharing a room with my "sister" and it's great so far. We (me and Biff, an SIT student whose host family is out of the country tonight so we shared today) went out to a cafe downtown and sat for three hours and talked and chilled, it was great. We then went to her friends home and hung out for awhile and watched some funny movie of which I could understand nothing except what was interpreted from time to time. Speaking of speaking, thank goodness for my host family's patience. I know no Arabic whatsoever but they only have been helping me learn new words and things. I can't wait to start classes so I can start to speak more to them in Arabic and understand more of the Al-Jazeera news that's on in the family room.
And now to the worrisome title of this post. So, in some sort of flip flop that was inevitable when dealing with a countries and information and transferring things miles away, my information got flip flopped with Molly's information so my host family originally thought I was from California and could write in Arabic (way to go Molly!) and had brothers. This is of course not the case. Molly's papers also failed to mention that she was vegetarian (because she's not) so my host family had no idea. So here I come all excited and the first meal at home is rice and chicken and some cucumber tomato salad thing. 2 years of vegetarianism down the drain today. It was great that Biff was here because I was definitely not ready for this. I had definitely made it up in my mind that the first time I ate meat (if ever) it was going to be strictly on my own terms (if you couldn't guess I'm a bit of a control freak- not debilitating, just annoying to me). Anyhow, Biff helped me rationalize quickly and I took a delicious bite of chicken that I am at least sure had nothing to do with Tyson or Oscar Meyer and was of course, Halal. This, along with Biff telling me to chill out, was pretty calming and I must say it was great. Then at my host sister's friends house I had some more pita with some sort of meat in it, also delicious. I have surrendered. Note to all vegetarian friends, don't try to do it in the Middle East, just give in, it's worth it and it's better meat than in the U.S. anyway. I fully plan to return to my splendid vegetarian roots upon my return to the states and I'm pretty sad I broke my 2-year run, but it was worth it to be appreciative and eat well while here.
Also, I have never been offered so much tea and food in my life. It doesn't stop. My host Dad said to me today at dinner as I picked gingerly at the food that 'it's okay to be fat in Jordan!' ........Oh my....... must combat this somehow, do not know how yet. Will report back on efforts.
What else to say....I'm definitely still in the honeymoon period of "oh my gosh, everything's great!" and I'm kind of waiting for the crash but I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts. We have been given quite a lot of reading to do for our first day of school on Sunday (weekends here are on Friday and Saturday) so I've got my work cut out for me and three hours of arabic a day, while trying, is going to be great- I want to speak it so badly. Note to self, never travel where you don't know the language already a bit, it's infuriating. All I want to do is speak! And the only languages that keep coming to my mind are snippets of French and Chinese. So today I asked a little girl, "Ni Hao, ma?" and then accidentally asked someone at one point "Qui est la probleme?" it's tragic. I have a renewed urge to go to France. I miss speaking French a lot and it's surprising that once I re-activated that area of my brain with a tid bit of Arabic how much French came flooding back into my mind.
There are two cats and a bird in my host family's house and their precious. It's great.
Okay, I believe that is my update for the night, photos coming, I promise, I need to break out the camera soon. It's just so annoying because it definitely makes you reek of 'tourist' but I will suffer for the blog soon in this fashion (along with my terrible memory). Pictures will be worth the annoyance, must keep telling self.
Oh god, I ate meat today. must not think about it too much.
Insh'Allah I will learn Arabic quickly and the animals I'll be eating in the coming months will forgive me.
Until next time my friends and family I'm lovingly yours and hoping your day was beautiful.
I should deal firstly with my homestay family, whom I met today and have begun to live with. They are amazing in every way. I couldn't have asked for a more lovely welcome or a better first night with them than this one. As anyone would suggest in this situation, I tried not to have any preconceived notions of what it would be like but I was secretly hoping for this and it's awesome. I'm sharing a room with my "sister" and it's great so far. We (me and Biff, an SIT student whose host family is out of the country tonight so we shared today) went out to a cafe downtown and sat for three hours and talked and chilled, it was great. We then went to her friends home and hung out for awhile and watched some funny movie of which I could understand nothing except what was interpreted from time to time. Speaking of speaking, thank goodness for my host family's patience. I know no Arabic whatsoever but they only have been helping me learn new words and things. I can't wait to start classes so I can start to speak more to them in Arabic and understand more of the Al-Jazeera news that's on in the family room.
And now to the worrisome title of this post. So, in some sort of flip flop that was inevitable when dealing with a countries and information and transferring things miles away, my information got flip flopped with Molly's information so my host family originally thought I was from California and could write in Arabic (way to go Molly!) and had brothers. This is of course not the case. Molly's papers also failed to mention that she was vegetarian (because she's not) so my host family had no idea. So here I come all excited and the first meal at home is rice and chicken and some cucumber tomato salad thing. 2 years of vegetarianism down the drain today. It was great that Biff was here because I was definitely not ready for this. I had definitely made it up in my mind that the first time I ate meat (if ever) it was going to be strictly on my own terms (if you couldn't guess I'm a bit of a control freak- not debilitating, just annoying to me). Anyhow, Biff helped me rationalize quickly and I took a delicious bite of chicken that I am at least sure had nothing to do with Tyson or Oscar Meyer and was of course, Halal. This, along with Biff telling me to chill out, was pretty calming and I must say it was great. Then at my host sister's friends house I had some more pita with some sort of meat in it, also delicious. I have surrendered. Note to all vegetarian friends, don't try to do it in the Middle East, just give in, it's worth it and it's better meat than in the U.S. anyway. I fully plan to return to my splendid vegetarian roots upon my return to the states and I'm pretty sad I broke my 2-year run, but it was worth it to be appreciative and eat well while here.
Also, I have never been offered so much tea and food in my life. It doesn't stop. My host Dad said to me today at dinner as I picked gingerly at the food that 'it's okay to be fat in Jordan!' ........Oh my....... must combat this somehow, do not know how yet. Will report back on efforts.
What else to say....I'm definitely still in the honeymoon period of "oh my gosh, everything's great!" and I'm kind of waiting for the crash but I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts. We have been given quite a lot of reading to do for our first day of school on Sunday (weekends here are on Friday and Saturday) so I've got my work cut out for me and three hours of arabic a day, while trying, is going to be great- I want to speak it so badly. Note to self, never travel where you don't know the language already a bit, it's infuriating. All I want to do is speak! And the only languages that keep coming to my mind are snippets of French and Chinese. So today I asked a little girl, "Ni Hao, ma?" and then accidentally asked someone at one point "Qui est la probleme?" it's tragic. I have a renewed urge to go to France. I miss speaking French a lot and it's surprising that once I re-activated that area of my brain with a tid bit of Arabic how much French came flooding back into my mind.
There are two cats and a bird in my host family's house and their precious. It's great.
Okay, I believe that is my update for the night, photos coming, I promise, I need to break out the camera soon. It's just so annoying because it definitely makes you reek of 'tourist' but I will suffer for the blog soon in this fashion (along with my terrible memory). Pictures will be worth the annoyance, must keep telling self.
Oh god, I ate meat today. must not think about it too much.
Insh'Allah I will learn Arabic quickly and the animals I'll be eating in the coming months will forgive me.
Until next time my friends and family I'm lovingly yours and hoping your day was beautiful.
2 comments:
The French and Arabic thing.....languages are stored near each other in the brain....seperate but close :)
You'll learn quick enough! I had people in my study abroad program that didnt know the language and they did great :)
<3 from Houston
oooooh interesting. the brain fascinates me. and thank you! I only hope it happens quickly and it sticks!
So much Love!!!! Miss you!!!
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