Mufarraka

 Eating Mufarraka (potatoes and eggs)  For those of you who have heard the story... this is where the Arabs share their food with Michael. :)

  I absolutely love this picture!  This old man sits on the street with his scale and weighs people to make money.   I am obviously on the scale and he is trying to see what it says.  It was hilarious and pretty cute.  When he weighed Michael he told him his weight in about 3 or 4 different languages. By the way, according to this man's scale: Michael has lost about 20 pounds since he left the states, and I have gained 5... what's up with that?!

Night Out in Wast Al-balad

 

Michael's coworker Ashraf took us out to dinner. It was a really cool place with live Arabic music.  The drinks he bought us were lemon mint slushies.  I chugged mine in about 2 min.  I cannot leave Jordan until I figure out how to make this drink.  

  

I had some delicious meat kabobs. 

 Cory (from BYU) and Ashraf.

The purple building is a hotel that changes colors. Great night view of the city.

Ramadan Kareem!

Michael and I made it through our first week of Ramadan.  Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and for the entire month Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Then they eat delicious food after sundown.  So apparently Ramadan is taken very seriously in Jordan because they have an Islamic government.  We have been told that if you are caught eating or drinking in public you can be fined, citizen or foriegner, muslim, non-muslim alike.  We carry dates and water in our bags and lock ourselves in a room to quickly eat and drink.  It has been pretty halarious.  Sometimes we will be in a stairwell and sneek a drink of water, then hear someone coming and quickly shove it back in our bag.  Ramadan has been tougher on Michael than it has been on me.  I have had it pretty darn easy.  At noon I go teach the ambassadors wife and she always feeds me, even if I say I don't want anything.  I teach her for 2 hours then at 3:00 I go teach Tameem and Farah ( the 5 and 7 year old kids) After the lesson, which is usually 1.5 hours long, Mais, the mother, invites me to eat.  Her children don't fast and so we have a casual meal and talk for a while.  She is an incredible cook.  Home cooked Jordanian food is amazing.

 Some views from the rooftop of our apartment.

 Sunset during Ramadan... Time to eat!

          Garden view below our apartment. 

Camping in Ajloon

I haven't done much yet as far as seeing the sites, but the day after I got here we went camping in a farming town outside of Amman called Ajloon.  It was beautiful with rolling hills covered in olive trees and grapes.  We had a campfire and slept under the stars.  I slept maybe 2 hours, just because of jet lag, and decided to finally get up around 4ish to watch the sunrise. 

Amman, Jordan

And here it begins!  Too long after it has already begun, but I will recap on things that have happened my first few weeks in Amman.  The first week was difficult.  I began my job 2 days after I got here and it was very  hard.  I have gained a huge appreciation for teachers.  One class I taught were children, 8-9 years old.  They are adorable and I had so much fun with them.  A lot of the time I just had 1 or 2 kids, but at one point I had 8.  After Ramadan began, I was back down to 2 then just 1 the last 2 days.  I am now finished with the teaching center, but there are plenty of teaching jobs available.  After the first week here, I also started teaching 2 kids, Tameem (boy, 5) and Farah (girl, 7). They are so fun.  It is difficult keeping kids occupied and interested in learning English, especially when I feel so inadequate as a teacher, but I have learned so much.  There is no shortage of people who want to learn English in Jordan.  Michael and I, through one of the BYU interns, met a guy named Ahmed who has been so incredibly nice and helpful to us.  He runs his own NGO having something to do with hearing aids and employs deaf people to build and test the hearing aids.  Michael has been tutoring his brother, Wael.  He is very serious about learning English and studies hard.  He is going to a university in Britain in about a month.  Ahmed found me the job teaching the two kids at their house, and also wanted me to teach his aunt, the Jordanian Ambassadors wife.  Two days ago I started teaching the her.  Her name is Shams.  They are very  wealthy, have an incredible house, and like all Jordanians, are extremely hospitable.

 Yara, Suliman, Anas

 

Found this when I came in the morning.  Thought it was pretty cute.  Here is a translation: Hi, I am come. I'm in the CaFetria.  (the time he got there)  Class starts at 10. 

 

 

 Suliman and Rania