So, apparently I wrote two entire paragraphs about the word 'murk' last night/this morning around 3am and never clicked publish... I'm not really sure why I did that or where I was going with it, but I have discarded them. Afwan. Anyway! Once again, I have slacked in my blogging and am very asif but here I am! And I'm in the midst of being extremely content so this blog should be a sunshiny, bubble of fun. I'm going to write about today and then proceed to go back in time to the last week which I have neglected. If the timeline gets too confusing for you or for myself for that matter, just take a nice break, maybe pop a few Ibuprofen and come back when you're ready. Quais. So, today was a bit of a trek. It's been a long week in terms of homework and lack of sleep and what not which made classes a bit of a struggle. They were of course excellent as usual, but the eyelids were quite heavy! However, upon reaching the end of the day, we had the wondrous golden ticket-esque discovery that the majority of our wajib for tonight was just to finish the 300 word essay we have due tomorrow! This is exciting because Vanessa already did most of that!! What?! A night with extra time?! I was pretty much beside myself. Thus, while some of the others headed to the souq, I stayed in, had a banana and went to the gym for the first time since I've been ill. Guys. It was wonderful. I was very happy. And my running and iron pumping worked to express this as well. Hashtag biceps. Anyway, since then I finished the rest of my essay and Christine, Kaitlyn and I worked as the perfect little kitchen team to make our first stir-fry. If I have not already scribed this, I am an exceptionally horrible cook. I really just don't have the patience or the acute skills that are required for kitchen art. However, this evening on the day of June 5th, we made an amazing stir-fry of carrots, broccoli, peppers, onion, garlic and rice. It was perfect. And vegan. Go us! I am an extremely proud member of apartment A7. We're great. Hence why I am sitting comfortably in my usual lounge chair, just kind of smiling at the world. Life is good. :)
So! Sunday afternoon was spent with our new language partners! After classes, Kaitlyn and I stayed on the main campus to meet up with Sura (who is Kaitlyn's Jordanian buddy) and Manar (who is mine). Sura got to us first and we basically just sat in different areas of the campus and got to know each other as best we could. Sura doesn't know very much English, but that makes everything all the more fun! It was very much reminiscent of when my high school hosted Japanese exchange students and we would all try to piece together what one another was saying. It's honestly a purely wonderful time. And there are always many laughs to be had when you have no idea what a person is saying to you. When my language partner arrived, we sat on a nice little bench and just chatted for a good few hours. She happens to be nearly fluent in English, so communicating was smooth sailing. It was honestly amazing.
Aside: I'm pretty positive 98% of this blog is just me gushing about how meaningful and perfect everything is and you most likely think I'm embellishing, but this is inaccurate. The fact is that I am being completely honest...Every single one of these days in Jordan has had its emotional highs and lows...however, I happen to be in a beautiful country with beautiful people and I personally do not believe that the lows compare. I realize I'm defending myself against myself. But I don't want to come off as just exaggerating. I can only speak for me, but I fought intensely hard to get here to the Middle East and now that I'm here...I really don't want to leave. I honestly don't understand how Waed and Muhammad manage to depart to America for such long periods of time. Not everyone who visits this portion of the world feels this way, of course. However, from the very depths of my heart (..however preoccupied with murk it may be. If confused, you may refer to sentence wahid.), I am nothing but happy here. And inshallah, I will return. As well as make it to Lebanon one day (Inshallah x's 1000). I think it is safe to say that this place is now very much a part of me and is changing me accordingly. I apologize for the random rants that so often find themselves in between descriptions of food and whatever else, but they're necessary. For me, anyway. As I was saying...it was absolutely incredible to be able to bond with my language partner. She is an extremely kind and down to Earth girl who enjoys laughing, not unlike myself. We had many of the same movie interests and she introduced me to her family through pictures. We had a wonderful time discussing boys and clothes...it was quite normal. With a nice dose of intertwining cultures. If you've never heard a candid conversation containing broken Arabic and English, you really should. Lot of beautiful, worldly connotations there, y'all.
Once we finally made it home, we worked on wajib, fried brains and all. Later on in the day, Christine and I went up to the roof and took pictures of the sunset, which was fantastic. I love the roof. As you know, so I won't bore you. Pictures shall follow. We also sat with everyone downstairs in their apartment and watched Archer, which was very...interesting. Other exciting news? We had what we expertly identified as a baby tarantula (no, it wasn't). It was large and frightening and on my shampoo, though. Michael killed it, bless his soul.
Yesterday, we managed a nice shopping trip in Irbid! I won't detail every last moment, but the girls of the group were very excited for the opportunity and many scarves were purchased. Too many, as it may be. Alas, we are in Jordan and my scarf addiction must be tended to. A delicious falafel dinner was then eaten and baklava and even a spoonful of Tim's strawberry ice cream were enjoyed! We also managed to learn the Arabic word for 'ice cream' is in fact ... 'ice cream'. And salt was stolen. So, it was another good night. Many good nights, actually.
Shukran for reading and have a beautiful night/day wherever you are in the world. :) <3
So! Sunday afternoon was spent with our new language partners! After classes, Kaitlyn and I stayed on the main campus to meet up with Sura (who is Kaitlyn's Jordanian buddy) and Manar (who is mine). Sura got to us first and we basically just sat in different areas of the campus and got to know each other as best we could. Sura doesn't know very much English, but that makes everything all the more fun! It was very much reminiscent of when my high school hosted Japanese exchange students and we would all try to piece together what one another was saying. It's honestly a purely wonderful time. And there are always many laughs to be had when you have no idea what a person is saying to you. When my language partner arrived, we sat on a nice little bench and just chatted for a good few hours. She happens to be nearly fluent in English, so communicating was smooth sailing. It was honestly amazing.
Aside: I'm pretty positive 98% of this blog is just me gushing about how meaningful and perfect everything is and you most likely think I'm embellishing, but this is inaccurate. The fact is that I am being completely honest...Every single one of these days in Jordan has had its emotional highs and lows...however, I happen to be in a beautiful country with beautiful people and I personally do not believe that the lows compare. I realize I'm defending myself against myself. But I don't want to come off as just exaggerating. I can only speak for me, but I fought intensely hard to get here to the Middle East and now that I'm here...I really don't want to leave. I honestly don't understand how Waed and Muhammad manage to depart to America for such long periods of time. Not everyone who visits this portion of the world feels this way, of course. However, from the very depths of my heart (..however preoccupied with murk it may be. If confused, you may refer to sentence wahid.), I am nothing but happy here. And inshallah, I will return. As well as make it to Lebanon one day (Inshallah x's 1000). I think it is safe to say that this place is now very much a part of me and is changing me accordingly. I apologize for the random rants that so often find themselves in between descriptions of food and whatever else, but they're necessary. For me, anyway. As I was saying...it was absolutely incredible to be able to bond with my language partner. She is an extremely kind and down to Earth girl who enjoys laughing, not unlike myself. We had many of the same movie interests and she introduced me to her family through pictures. We had a wonderful time discussing boys and clothes...it was quite normal. With a nice dose of intertwining cultures. If you've never heard a candid conversation containing broken Arabic and English, you really should. Lot of beautiful, worldly connotations there, y'all.
Once we finally made it home, we worked on wajib, fried brains and all. Later on in the day, Christine and I went up to the roof and took pictures of the sunset, which was fantastic. I love the roof. As you know, so I won't bore you. Pictures shall follow. We also sat with everyone downstairs in their apartment and watched Archer, which was very...interesting. Other exciting news? We had what we expertly identified as a baby tarantula (no, it wasn't). It was large and frightening and on my shampoo, though. Michael killed it, bless his soul.
Yesterday, we managed a nice shopping trip in Irbid! I won't detail every last moment, but the girls of the group were very excited for the opportunity and many scarves were purchased. Too many, as it may be. Alas, we are in Jordan and my scarf addiction must be tended to. A delicious falafel dinner was then eaten and baklava and even a spoonful of Tim's strawberry ice cream were enjoyed! We also managed to learn the Arabic word for 'ice cream' is in fact ... 'ice cream'. And salt was stolen. So, it was another good night. Many good nights, actually.
Shukran for reading and have a beautiful night/day wherever you are in the world. :) <3
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