We have therapy sessions to insure that our minds stay sound with our workload and also to combat culture shock. Today in my session, my TA suggested that I try to recognize the little bits of progress and daily achievements I make and reward myself accordingly.

I have recently been getting frustrated with some cultural barriers. For instance, we spend a good chunk of time in public transportation. The men on my program have great speaking opportunities with taxi drivers. Us ladies, on the other hand, are confined. It's against the social norm to speak to a taxi driver unless we are giving directions. So instead, we sit in silence. 

Today, a woman driver cut the taxi off so I called out, "She's a donkey with a license!" The driver said something along the lines of, "No kidding!" and then continued to go on and on about the drivers in Amman. 

I sat back and smiled smugly in the back seat. 

Yes, I am taking this as a personal victory, Griffin. 

Yes, I now hope that I will get into near-accidents daily so that it can be socially acceptable to break silence.

Arab hospitality

Right now, at this very moment, I have lost all ability to move.

Flashback: Randall takes the same route home daily. One day, an Iraqi man invited him into his home.  He quickly learned that the family is from Iraq, living in Jordan, waiting for the UN to help them move to Texas. Their date of departure is unknown. They asked him if he knew girls who could teach their daughters English. He said he did.

Tonight, Randall, Jordan, Hilary, and I visited their humble home and we were met with a FEAST. I capitalized that for emphasis. Let me break this down.

Roasted Chicken. Potatoes. Roasted vegetables. Peas with meat. Pasta with a meaty red sauce. Every type of fruit imaginable. Pita Bread (of course).  Each plate was overflowing with its contents.

Every time we put our food/silverware down, they scolded us, put more food on our plates, and laughed at our physical pain. This went on for about two hours. I told Jordan that she would have to carry me to our apartment. She said she would after Hilary rolled her all the way home.

We finally convinced them that we were in fact stuffed to maximum capacity. When we left their house slowly, we said hello to some of their neighbors. The neighbors invited us to come in and speak with them. They ended up giving us MORE fruit. I tried my best to be gracious.

We decided it was in our best interest not to say hello to anyone else on the street.

Back to the current moment: I have yet to complete my newspaper assignment knowing that it will send me to sleep and I will never wake from the food coma.

Quick thoughts on the family: They are amazing people. We felt the love that this family had for one another and instantaneously all of us as well. They would have given us everything they owned if we would have let them.

Tomorrow, I am going to the Distoor newspaper agency. I met a girl at the salon who works there and she offered to give me a tour.

The Loser of Rock, Paper, Scissors

In case you're wondering, I am sitting at home with a plumber. He is trying to fix all three of our toilets.  Don't worry. Because I am missing a newspaper exam, I am making this a learning experience. I now am the master of plumbing vocabulary, sort of.

He just approached me about some problem and left quickly. Naturally, I pretended to understand everything he said. It has been difficult (as a whole) to determine when to interrupt the flow of conversation to ask for meanings and when to be content with ambiguity. Now that the bathrooms are leaking and water is flooding our hallway, I wish I would have asked him more questions. 

Neurons that fire together, wire together

I would like to preface this post with the fact that it is nearly impossible to find female speaking partners outside of Jordan University.

Every day after school, I pass a salon for women on the way home knowing that if I entered, I could easily find friends. It took me four weeks to get up the courage to go. I'm a little ridiculous. And by a little, I mean very.

I entered it today. Four women from Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco share the salon. I asked if I could sit with them and speak. Of course they said yes. Of course. Tomorrow they are going to give me a manicure (they were appalled by the state of my nails) while we watch their favorite Arab soap operas from Turkey. It was so amazing listening to their interesting lives. I showed them pictures of my family. Those were a hit. They told me I can come and sit with them whenever I like.

Euphoria. 

Pure Euphoria.

This is why I study Arabic. They are the reason. 

Also, it's super humbling when a woman is speaking to you, stops talking, and excuses herself to pray as a simple submission to God. I love it.

This past weekend I visited Salt with a small group. We went to a couple museums and then our professor loosed us to explore. The city consists of a hill, a valley, and a hill on the opposite side. The valley is the business center where a large souq and mosques can be found. A few of us decided we wanted to go to the top a hill and see the view. We climbed up stairs and ruins going through abandoned houses and hopping fences. Gorgeous.

It reminded me of the movie "Captain Abu Raed," which is actually filmed in Amman. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you do. 

I woke up this morning and realized that I will be in Jerusalem and Bethlehem during the Christmas season. Oh boy. I can barely contain my excitement. 

Three articles and a culture class on honor killings today. They were painful to read. It's completely understandable how people with sheltered lives can hide away in ignorance (I know, I have), but that doesn't make it acceptable. 

The more I spend time here studying this language, the more I know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. 

We are out of water, again. Jordan says that our apartment is the girl's camp from hell that never ends. It looks nice though.

Jenni Boyle. She once told me that I am better than the only toilet in our apartment that flushes. I've gotta admit, I feel the same about her. 

We have to read two hours of newspapers a day. Well, they say two hours, but it ends up being about three. They are all depressing. Our recent articles have been about a drowning, the Palestinians losing hope about getting recognition, and Syrians being tortured. That one is the worst. One time we walked in the apartment and Dana was sobbing. She asked us Why do we have to read this? Jordan and I turned back around through the door and bought lots of chocolate that night.

I also purchased "The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe" in Arabic. We are trying to read it as an apartment before we go to bed so we can lighten the mood shway.

Thoughts on Dana. I am fully convinced that she is the most perfect human being I have ever met. She wakes up early, does her little kickboxing video, finishes her homework, prepares her lunch (normally a fabulous salad), goes to school early, comes back, does all her homework right away, makes some culinary masterpiece that smells divine, and (get this) she embroiders.

I'm amazed.

One time I tried to be domestic and make brownies. They ended up being gooey on the sides and burnt in the middle. I am putting all the blame on our archaic stove. :)

I went running with the perfect couple, Stacy and Jacob, the other day. Stacy is on the BYU track team. It was quite the rude awakening. There were a few choice words I wanted to say when I saw them running down the street looking like Greek gods at six in the morning.

The possibilities here are endless, let me tell you. I am growing bags on top of the bags that currently reside underneath my eyes. It's quite impressive.

I love being here right now during all this political turmoil. Pick up the newspaper. It's interesting. I get to listen to friends', teachers', taxi drivers' opinions about the recognition of Palestine and the Syrian revolution. There are also weekly demonstrations for both, which we are actually ordered to avoid, but I like to think that I'm participating in some form or another.

I still hang out with that group of girls at the university every day. They are fabulous. More details to come.