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Ok so sadly I lost my original, and better, post. *sigh* Sunday was an interesting day – in a good way. Wendy, a girl I met through Keith & Christi who used to be in Lebanon, is now in my International Relations class! We’d been talking about the possibility, but it finally was approved yesterday. Its sweet because now she’ll be on campus more, and will get to know the other students I hang out with as well. At service last night we had communion. I had goosebumps the whole time – just realizing it was originally done only 30-40 miles away. Plus, having it in Arabic, surrounded by people from all over the world – it makes me choke up to just think about it to be honest. Then last night Keith, Christi and Wendy came over to my house for an hour and a half. My host dad, Zuhair, had asked me to invite them over because he wanted to meet the family I stayed with the week before I moved here. It went really well! It’d be impossible not to like them, but still, Zuhair and Keith got along really well. It was like a merging of my two worlds in a really nice way. |
This weekend has been really nice and relaxing – finally an entire weekend of doing nothing. I slept for probably 11hrs last night which is because on Thursday night I only slept a few hours. We all went out into the country to a dance – which was really strange to be honest. Afterwards I went and slept at the girls’ apartment … we had planned it to stay up to watch the Kerry v. Bush debate live, which started at 3:30am our time. Since it was all foreign policy issues we were pretty excited, but of course it all turned out to be very vague and similar positions on both sides.
Since being here my political beliefs are constantly called into question. Arabs have no problem expecting personal questions to be answered, whereas in the states its fairly taboo to ask political affiliations or specific questions about who you vote for. Here – its an expected question, and you better be ready to defend your answer.
I finally made some Jordanian friends by myself! A few days ago I was sitting in an internet cafe and noticed a group of people in the other room talking. One of the guys came over and asked me to join them in speaking english if I had the time. I did, and so I went in. There were two girls and two guys – they meet twice a week to practice speaking English .. and they were really excited to have someone with “an American accent” join them in pronouncing words.
They made me draw a map of the U.S. and tell them about Oregon and show them the locations of other cities/states they had heard about. It was really fun to just talk to them about all kinds of random topics.
One of the girls is seven months pregnant, and exactly my age.. so she wanted to know about my marriage plans – when and how many children I wanted to have, etc. I was trying to explain how I want to adopt after I get married .. but the concept was so foreign to her (adoption is harem [forbidden] in Islam so it just doesn’t occur here).
I was given an opportunity to do an internship next semester – CIEE will set it up for me at the location of my choice. The problem is in deciding where I’d want to intern. I’m really only interested in doing a few things after I graduate. I’m mostly interested in going to seminary – but – I’ve also always had an interest in law school. So… I’m considering maybe trying to get in with Shiari’a (Islamic law). Something along the lines of working in an attorney’s office and learning about the regulations are for Muslims and helping out in the courts. I don’t know for sure – but its definitely a crossing of my two interests in a unique way that might give me some wasta [influence] later on. I’m really not sure yet .. I don’t have to decide for another few weeks which direction to head towards.. I still need to think/pray more about it.
So…Ramadan is about to start in another two weeks I believe. We don’t know the exact date until like the night before because its based on a lunar system – so you wait to see when the new moon comes out – then you know for sure. Fasting the month of Ramadan is required by Muslims as one of the five pillars of Islam. They fast from sun up to sun down – no food OR water. The no liquids will be really challenging when you live in such an arid/hot climate. Apparently by the time it comes along the weather will have cooled down and we’re blessed that its in October rather than in August this year.
Everyone tells me that its really hard to fast the whole month, but I’m going to try – especially since I live with a Muslim family. Its against the law here, even for Non-Muslims to eat or drink in public during the month. Ironically though, more food is bought/consumed during the month than any other time of year. Apparently right at sun down when the call goes off – a huge feast is already prepared and waiting to be eaten, with cigarettes in hand (no smoking during the day either – which is a real killer in a society where 80%+ adults smoke).
Anyways, it’ll be an interesting cultural experience – and will hopefully make me more motivated to fast throughout the year – which is something I’m very apathetic about .. sad to say.
Keep me in your thoughts – you’re all in mine. Ma’ salaama.
