I haven’t written in awhile which is bad because there is always so many things going on to keep the world updated with. A few nights ago i went to my first futbol (soccer) match. It was one of the biggest games of the year – us vs. Iran. Anyways we lost sadly, but we can still qualify for the World Cup apparently.

A big group of us from uni wanted to go .. so Carrie (a girl I hang with all the time) and I were late which meant we had to wait outside the stadium with all the others who couldn’t get in. There were probably 1,000 outside and over 25,000 inside. We didn’t realize that girls never go to the matches, so we were among no more than 100 girls – and I highly doubt there were even 50 in the entire crowd.

It took a lot of wasta (connections) to get us inside the initial gate and then past the other several gates with armed soldiers – complete with a military tank. Thankfully a muhabarat (secret police) guy came and led us through the crowd and stayed with us throughout the game in order to make sure nothing happened to us.

After the game it was pretty freaky I’ll admit – even with other American guys around there were 1,000s of guys. It was really fun to see what its like though – its one of the biggest events for Jordanians – futbol and Superstar (the Middle Eastern version of American Idol).

Yesterday I went with my family to my dad’s hometown – a village outside of a town about 90km away. There were probably 30 people there – he has 9 other siblings I believe. For Muslims, when a girl is born they sacrifice a lamb or goat 7 days after its born. For a boy they sacrifice two. The baby is 5mths old but they had not done it yet, so yesterday is when it happened.

It was definitely a cultural experience being there for the gathering. Of course the men and women were in separate rooms and we ate the national dish (Minsef) which tasted okay. People usually eat it with their right hand straight from the dish, but they offered me a plate and spoon as a way of trying to be accomodating.

We fit 6 adults and 3 children in a regular sized car. Thats how we got there. That in itself was interesting. I felt very claustrophic and hot thats for sure.

When I came home last night I had my 2nd official break down of crying. Its been a tough adjustment being the alien. The phrase “a stranger in a strange land” means ohh so much more to me now. I feel like I’m being stretched in every humanly way possible – and it hurts … a lot. I’m really glad to be here – its just tough at the same time.

Last night I was in bed weeping like a baby when the phrase “give up your small ambitions” hit me. The realization of what that meant here was so different from what it meant back home. A flood of questions hit me at once. Does it mean give up my language? The clothes I want to wear? The type of furniture I use? The bathroom facilities? My privacy? The individuality that is so American? The quote says “give up” – which implies maybe it will hurt. Maybe it won’t be simple … but maybe in return you’ll gain something else. A new perspective. A new vantage point. A new self. One that is more self-less than selfish.

I dunno what it all means… just that its new, its tough, but its good. I really do like it here though.

Hope everyones doing well – and wow! That video clip that is gonna be shown in the booth in the quad freaked me out. Bravo =)

I made it to the internet cafe in a taxi! This may sound so simple, but it was an amazing feat considering the cabby knew NO english .. seriously … and my Arabic is terrible … less than terrible actually. So I felt as if I’d just climbed Mt.Everest or something.

Getting to know the other students from the US has been really interesting and nice. Its like having a piece of home here …. except that they’re not like my friends back home …. its been awhile since I’ve been out of the XA bubble and I’m realizing what its like to be the one is the lone believer. Its okay though – they’re all really nice people.

One thing that just really has me rediculously excited is the fact that theres a girl here (Carrie) who is in our group who never got plugged into a college group .. but after talking to her she wanted to get together regularly and go through the PDL or some other thing like that in the mornings before class. Its sooo cool.

Anyways everyone moves into their host families tomorrow … except me. My family is gone so I’ll be at the hotel an extra day which I’m a bit bummed about because it’ll be pretty boring being here alone. Oh well though .. it’ll give me some good down time which I haven’t had much of since arriving.

One of the funniest scenes that I meant to tell before happened on the way home from the mall the other night. They have English radio stations that some of the cabbies will turn to as a way of being nice. And they play the most random stuff. For instance, the Titanic theme song is ALWAYS on! Its bizarre really. But anyways .. the other night the Lion King song “Hakuna Matata” was on and one of the girls I was with broke out and started belting it out and so Caroline and I joined in …lol …the cabby thought we were the weirdest/funniest people ever … I could tell that we’d be the talk of his family for awhile. lol

School starts on Sunday and we’ll be studying colloqial for the first month. I’m excited to learn more so that it won’t be so challenging trying to get around.

Tonight in a cafe this little boy kept staring at Carrie and I as we ate .. so I decided to start staring back at him… which of course startled him. It was sooo obvious him & his friends (they were all about 8yrs old) thought we were soo interesting. Eventually his mom turned to us and so i was like “marhaba” and she smiled and started to talk to us and was like wanting to know if we were American.

Since my Arabic was so poor and her English was just as bad we had to kinda stop there … but times like that is what will motivate me to push through in my studies. How awesome would it have been if I couldn’t engaged her in conversation longer? Thats how easy it is to make friends here! Just sit in a public place and someone will approach you because you’re a foreigner.. and they’re so friendly and hospitable.

Ok… signing off. =)