Sorry I haven’t written for such a long time .. time has just been flying by. I can’t believe that we’re already halfway through Ramadan. Last week I had my first Arabic exam and did pretty well on it. We don’t get graded A-F like in the states – but I basically got about a B, but I was impressed I did that well since they make the tests really challenging. It was two pages of JUST Arabic .. even the directions were in Arabic! After only studying it for two months, thats a pretty scary thing to see, lol.

This weekend I went with four other girls down to Aqaba to take a break from Amman. It was really beautiful, Amazingly it has been raining off and on for the last three days, even one of the days in Aqaba it rained. It’s such a great location – its right where Egypt, Israel, Saudi and Jordan meet along the Red Sea. To look across and see the hotel that was blown up a couple of weeks ago was really crazy. It’s so easy to forget those things happen because it feels (and to a large extent is) so safe here.

Theres a big debate going on within our exchange group about this upcoming election. There are big election parties being thrown at two of the major hotels here in Amman – and several of us are going to the one put on by the U.S. Embassy. However, some people in our group are reallllly paranoid about it and feel like its the perfect target. I dunno though, its just like in the states where they issue all these very vague warnings about nearly every location (hotels, buses, taxis, touristy locations, malls, McDonalds, etc etc) that if you actually avoided all those places you’d never leave your house. I decided to go – 1) I’m interested in seeing the live coverage as the election results come in .. 2) There will be heavy security .. 3) Its free since I’m an American abroad ..4) If the Embassy is hosting it, they can’t really think its going to be a target.. yano?

Anyways, I’m also excited about going West at the Eid. At the end of Ramadan they have an extended holiday from school, which is the perfect opportunity to travel in the region – and its next weekend. I found out that the director of our program is going to be driving to Ramallah for Eid and is willing to take some of us.. so thats my plan – unless of course Arafat dies between now and then, in which case the situation might not warrant a trip to the city he lives in.

So one more crazy fact – apparently I have a VERY THICK accent! Who knew?!? I don’t really believe it …. but everyone says so. The people who know English here are constantly complaining that my accent is too strong and they can’t understand anything I’m saying. This completely goes against everything I think .. afterall I’ve lived my whole life on the West coast, where there isn’t an accent and where TV shows are produced – it just seems strange, but its true.. they don’t understand me at all.

Anyways.. the call to prayer & breaking of the fast is just now sounding so I need to go join Nisreen in the kitchen for dates and juice. =) B’bye