Esther Brady Crawford - faintstarlite

Today is the end of my 3rd day, although its strange how it feels as if I’ve been here as long as I can remember. The U.S. seems like a distant dream… and I realllly like it here.. granted I will have rough times and some negative experiences I’m sure .. but all in all .. I know its going to be great – it already is.

Last night we all went to the International meeting and it was nice to meet everyone from the different companies who get together. This morning we went to the Arab meeting and it was really cool to experience everything in Arabic and see things from a different perspective – I wish I could say everything I want to about how neat it was. 

Then all the girls (the “nuns” who teach at the school and Christi and the wife of another guy in the company and myself) all went to a Turkish bath. Wow! If you’ve never been to an Arab country and been to one there is no way to really describe it. First off, its 15JDs ($20 US) for TWO HOURS! They have you sit in a sauna, then a hot tub, serve you pomegrande juice, then .. scrub you … from head to toe.. and I mean SCRUB you.  Then they wash your body off with warm water and massage you for the remainder of the time. Its all pretty intimidating the first time its done though. So maybe the next time I go I’ll be more relaxed about the whole thing, cuz this time I was a bit sketched out. But it was fun hanging with just the girls

Just now the last call to prayer is going off. That reminded me that this morning I actually slept through the second one and got 7hrs of sleep! The first one still woke me up, but I’m getting used to it – and I find myself humming the tune of the gas guy. Did I tell about that? Probably but anyways, every morning a truck goes through the entire city selling natural gas (everyone buys it for their stove) and it plays a sound similar to an ice cream truck).

Tomorrow will be my first tour of the campus .. and then on Wednesday I start orientation with the study abroad. I’m starting to feel more normal since the jet lag is wearing off and I’m recognizing landmarks around the city which is encouraging since its SOO huge. I thought it was about the size of Portland but its like twice the size.

I haven’t gone there yet, but Christi pointed out on top of one of the hills a group of ruins .. and she told me thats where David sent Uriah to fight and die. Isn’t that just incredible?!? Wow. Its seriously so amazing to be here where so much of the worlds history has taken place.

One last thing thats exciting news - a girl who was in Lebanon but is temporarily here, and myself plan on having a get together with college students and start a regular hang out time which is really awesome.

Keep me in your thoughts ..

Oh and the food is heavenly!

Ma salaama