belated post

I wrote this post on my computer on Wednesday of last week but haven't gotten a chance to use the Internet until now...soooo here it is, a little late.


Umm so that short-lived pleasant weather spell is definitely gone for good. Now I know why the Lonely Planet series tells you not to travel in the Middle East during the summer. The problem with the heat here is that there really isn’t any place we can go to cool down again as there is obviously no air conditioning in the apartments or in the Merkaz al-lugat (Language Center), and we all leave our classes in the afternoon dripping with sweat and probably exuding a putrid collective odor. I also now understand why violence always escalates in the summer season- I think heat just generally pisses people off, especially when you’re stuck in a class room for four or five hours attempting to speak a language that’s totally foreign to you! To further my rant, I am beginning to think that it is impossible to study Arabic without totally drowning in work. I basically don’t sleep any more than 4 hours a night anymore and even still I feel like my professors think I’m an idiot and like I haven’t fully grasped all the concepts in the readings. Oh and tomorrow we have a HUGE test which will assess our grammar, writing, conversation, listening, and reading skills thus far. Fortunately I can keep reminding myself that my grades don’t matter that much here given that I’ve already graduated and it’s not like I’m trying to use these courses for credit later. I’m really just trying to do the best I can- despite all the pressure around me from the Ivy Leaguers and perfectionists who want to make the highest grade in the class- and I figure I’ve spent so much of my life competing with other people that I’m really just ready to chill, learn some Arabic, and make some awesome friends. Life is way too short to obsess about getting the perfect grade or impressing your professor. I wish I had learned that lesson earlier in life, but at least now I am finally able to separate myself from that airtight little bell jar of academia’s pressures.

Anyway, I’ve been meeting some Jordanian girls and trying to practice my Arabic conversation…not quite sure how that is going. I really did think my Arabic accent was pretty decent, but today one of my Jordanian friends told me that “my vowel sounds were really strange”, and I asked what she meant and she responded by teaching me all the basic stuff you learn in Arabic 101 which was pretty degrading. I didn’t want to be rude and explain that I know words like “terrorism” and “paradox” and “nuclear proliferation” but geez if my accent is really that bad maybe I just need to be humbled. Yesterday my friend Brittany from the program (who also studied here last year) introduced Ola and I to some of her Jordanian friends and we had fatayer at a restaurant that my American friends haven’t yet invaded. And of course today I had my Intro to Arabic lesson, which by the way I totally wasn’t expecting- one of the Jordanian students majoring in English who I met last week just showed up outside my classroom this afternoon and next thing I know I’m in a cab riding through some hilly residential roads in a part of Irbid I hadn’t yet seen. Given that her father is an engineer in the Gulf and judging by the size of her house, I’d say she’s at least upper middle class or possibly wealthier. The coolest part about her place was all the greenery outside. I got to sample fruit from all the trees in her yard- figs, blackberries (which were REALLY good), raspberries, and plums. They have olives and cactus too but they weren’t ripe enough to eat. We had mango juice and tea (which I actually like in Jordan, by the way) and she told me how she is Palestinian and her grandmother came here in the late 1950’s. She is definitely not a fan of Jordan, I think due to the discrimination Palestinians face here, but I’m sure I’ll find out more later.

My computer battery’s about to run out but I also wanted to mention that I am doing poetry and music clubs (as we have to do at least one club as part of the program) and we started the poetry today. I can’t believe I ever complained about the difficulty of readings in LAC class- we read some medieval poem that NONE of us understood- but our teacher says we’ll be reading modern poetry the rest of the time and next week is Mahmoud Darwish (yaaaay).

Salaam for now!
Suzy