Ketchup

Alright, finally sitting down to this gigantic task of catching up on the last...2 weeks? I'll focus on weekends since that's what most of the more interesting things happen. Sunday-Thursday is typically just school, and my either spending the evening in the house or going to the grocery story, meeting folks at a hookah lounge, etc. Classes are going well, feeling fully comfortable in Advanced One Arabic and have completely caught up through the chapters I had to skip. Not sure if i mentioned this before, but i'm in the same class as the other two girls from IU, Jamie and Ella, both of whom have had the equivalent of 2 years of Arabic, whereas I've had one. If I may gloat a little, i think I have a bit of a knack for this Arrrr-bick thing!
In amiyya class we've been going over different social contexts and the vocabulary involved. In "Alternative Perspectives of the Middle East", we've been reading some essays, as well as watching the movie Salt of this Sea, and just having discussions about our reactions to these different views on aspects of life in the Middle East. And Intro to Islam, having a grand ol' time listening to our Sheikh professor ramble on about God Amighty and talk about how he hates music because it creates unrealistic fantasies, which he says is sinful.
Anywho...last last weekend, spent Thursday night chilling with my girlfriends; we ended up going to a dance club at a hotel to let off some steam from the week, and met some interesting characters!! The next morning I ventured out to Rainbow Street to check out the Souk Jara, a Friday craft and knick-knack market. Found a couple cute things, but it was very small, and I hope sometime to go to the Souk Juma'a (Friday Souk), which is a big flea market (that sounds nasty, but it's a lot of new things too, at extremely low prices). That afternoon, I hit up the gym, and then spent the evening in working, or pretending to work, on some homework. Saturday morning I woke up and went to Makkah Mall to meet with my peer tutor, Farah. She's super sweet, and tries hard to communicate in Araglish (hehe get it?). We wandered around and ended up in a donut shop where she treated me to some scrumptious treats ("ahlan wa sahlan! please please!"). We discussed some of the grammar questions I had, and then we just chatted about cultural stuff for a while.
Can't remember what I did that night, blast! Perhaps the soiree at Jafra?
Week goes by, mish mushkila (no problem)...Thursday night we were supposed to go with Noor to a club thingy at the same hotel as the previous weekend, but that fell through. Luckily, I was invited to go to an engagement party with this girl we'd met at Jafra, Rania (no,not the Queen!!), who is some distant cousin-thingy of Noor's. She'd lived in the states for a while, so her English was spot on. Anyway, the engagement party was for her best friend's engagement. It was so elaborate!! It was basically like a giant prom: dj, lights everywhere, hotel ballroom tables set up with centerpieces and crazy placesettings...I suppose a better analogy would be a high-class Bar Mitzvah, but let's avoid the Hebrew this semester!! This was a Muslim family, although all the dancing was mixed-gender; no alcohol though. All of the women looked absolutely amazing--lots were wearing bedazzled hijabs. So Ali, Julie, and I arrive, and stand awkwardly just inside the door, having just met our friend one time (and we expected she'd be dolled up way beyond our recognition), and we didn't know the bride or groom. After looking for a few moments, Mama approaches, looking absolutely magestic for a large older woman, and just starts welcoming us in, herding us to a table...We're trying to shout "Na'arif Rania! We know Rania", but not like it mattered, which definitely got us girls planning on heading to a random hotel sometime, asking for the engagement/wedding party, saying we know "rasha" and get welcomed in to dance! Not sure that will come to pass though.
Anywho, we ended up dancing and having a good time. Found Rania, but didn't want to take her away from her friend too much so we just hung back and observed. I was sitting next to three girls in hijabs who weren't dancing, so i asked (shouted) why they weren't dancing; their reply was that they couldn't because their fathers and brothers were there. That was kind of interesting, reminded me of my dad not being able to attend his former school's (where he taught) dance recitals because seeing the girls dance would be totally unorthodox.

Good time overall, definitely a cultural experience, and I'm super glad I went. Next day I went to get pancakes with Alyssa, Chris, and Danielle...there was also a marathon/10k around the city, which I totally would have participated in with other friends but apparently I didn't register in time, so carbed out instead :)
After breakfast we headed downtown with the intention of visiting the Citadel, or the ruins of a Roman temple on one of the highest hills in the city, looking over downtown. It took us a while though; we got distracted by the shops and the fruit smoothie stalls...and thennnn we headed up to the Citadel. It was interesting, and there were some nice views of the city. To be perfectly honest though, I'm kind of over Roman ruins!!

Stayed in that night since I had to get up early on Saturday for our program day trip to Northern Jordan. CIEE offers three day trips, apart from the weekend excursion to Petra, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba, of which we get to choose two. This was the first one; I'd also signed up for the trip to Ajloun to see the desert castles, and opted out of Biblical Jordan (which would have gone to Madaba, which I've already visited, Mount Nebo, where the church on top is supposedly closed, and the baptism site). We started out around 9am and drove two hours to Um Quais which is a hill chock full of, guess what!, Roman Ruins! It was fun, a lot of us just kind of chilled in the Amphitheater and enjoyed the views. I also got a bit of henna on my hand, done by two girls our age who came along with us. After this, we hit the road for Gerash, where we stopped at this massive site of ruins, which was actually super interesting because it was practically a whole city. There was a giant forum surrouned by an arcade of collumns, which fed into a long avenue flanked on either side by [what Rita said was] one thousand columns. There was also the steps of Artemis (leading to a temple), and a few more interesting facades.

After this we did a hurried browse through the tourist shops (will probably come back for an afternoon of less hurried browsing, as by this point we're only like 45 minutes outside Amman), and then we were taken to a restaurant for a rather extensive meal, and then headed home.
This last week has been pretty smooth; on Wednesday we went to Chris' apartment (no girls allowed in boys' apartments, shhhh!!) to make dinner. Ended up making cheeseburgers with sauteed peppers/zucchini/beans with sweet potato fries. Dessert was an apple crisp; good times were had by all! This weekend was spent studying for the midterms I have this coming week, except for a lovely little dinner out at a Chinese joint--which I'd been craving so hardcore!! Was definitely a nice choice. Everyone was doing things for halloween this year, but i'd kind of grown content with the knowledge that I was just missing it this year, and I'll celebrate it next year with a vengeance! Wish me luck on my midterms on Monday and Tuesday!