A Day in the Life

Hi Everyone,

I've been in Amman for about 3 weeks now, and I'm definitely settling in. My arabic is shockingly good given the tiny amount of experience I have, so much so that I'm moving from level 1 to level 2 today. Wish me luck--I'm going to need it.

My family is amazing. They force feed me amazing food, help me with my homework, keep me laughing all the time (especially my little brothers), and appreciate the fact that I can help them with their english homework. I have value.

During the week (Sunday through Thursday), I have school. This means I do the following:

I get up in the morning, get dressed, and go into the dining area. My family leaves out a breakfast consisting of pita, zatar, olive oil, and some combination of cheese, yogurt, meat, and the homemade jam I brought them from Oakland. I then leave the house to meet a friend from my program at the circle to get a cab to school. Walking to the circle is an experience every day, as crossing the street is always a near death experience. There are no stop signs or stop lights, and the traffic police that try to keep the cars from going crazy are generally very passive. You have to cross the street in a way that both is assertive and not suicidal. I haven't died yet; inshallah, I won't

During the daily cab ride, I see the transition from the less affluent part of Amman in which I live (East Amman) into the wealthy West Amman neighborhood of Abdoun where I go to school. I study across the street from the British Embassy. It's the area where all the diplomats live, and consequently, all of the cars on the street are Ferraris, BMWs, Audis, etc. The culture shock is hysterical, especially because some of my peers at SIT live with families that are associated with this more wealthy culture. One friend can see the palace from his bedroom, another lives with a high up guy in the secret police, etc. To say the least, I don't get that.

Once at school, I have 3 hours of Arabic classes, broken down into spoken and formal language. The formal language is the same throughout the whole arab world, and newspapers, TV news stations, etc all use it. However, on the street no one uses it because it sounds like Shakespearean english. Instead, people use the local dialect, which differs by country. It's really confusing to learn two languages at once, especially when no one actually speaks one of them and you get laughed at whenever you use it.

The other classes I take consist of research methods and various guest speakers that come in to speak about issues in the Arab world. They are super interesting, but I've been typing forever and am not in the mood to talk about them now.

After school, I hang out and do work with peers, get coffee, sometimes get a beer (which is SUPER haram with my family), see things, or just go home and hang out with my family. Every day is different, but I still feel like I have a pretty good routine.

That's all for now!
B