Where to begin? It’s been over a week sense I updated this blog and there is so much that’s happened that I don’t think I can write it all down. First of all, I am fine and am not in any danger from the Israeli and Lebanon conflict which is currently in it’s 7th day right now. It is kind of frightening because I stopped in Beirut on my way to Jordan at the airport that was heavily bombed by Israel. There was a demonstration in front of the university of Jordan the day that Lebanon was invaded, and that’s about all that has happened in Amman relating to that.

I’m still living in an apartment because they can’t find any families willing to take in men because of cultural issues relating to either the fact that a family has daughters and doesn’t want men to be a threat to them, or the hijab issue. The hijab is the scarf that Muslim women wear over their heads because women aren’t supposed to reveal their hair to any man who is not closely related to them. If I was to live with a Muslim family, the women would have to always cover their hair inside their house. They have found plenty of families for girls and all of them are living in a host family except for one.

I guess the first thing that I’ve been needing to right about is the final game of the world cup. I’m currently living in a apartment above a restaurant called Al Bal. Al Bal is one of the restaurants that you can eat at everyday and never get tired of it, which is the reason that we eat at least one meal there every day. During the world cup, they would show the games on big screen TVs inside the restaurant, and project them on a big screen outside. Listening to the nose from the games from are apartment had become a nightly ritual over the weeks and it finally came to the last game between France and Italy. Italy was by far the most popular team, so even though I was going for France, I wanted Italy to win so that everybody would go crazy downstairs and I could take pictures. Luckily Italy won and there was a riot in the street. The police should up a couple of times to get traffic moving but once they left the party just got wilder and wilder by the minute.

Arabic classes that week were long and tedious. I go to school for 4 hours every day taking 2 classes in Jordanian Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic. The problem with the language is that it is so dynamic that depending on the region your in, the language changes so much from country to country. For example, a person from Jordan can’t speak their own dialect to a person from Egypt and be understood. There is however modern standard arabic which can be understood by everyone because it’s basically the language of the Qu’ran updated with 21st century vocabulary. So I’m pretty much learning two separate languages which is like learning French and Spanish at the same time.

This past Friday, we took a trip to Al Karak, which is a town down south kind of near Petra who’s well known for it’s crusader castle roughly the size of any normal English castle. We were invited to visit a family who lives in a village near Karak who has some kind of relationship with our current group leader. We were warned that they were very traditional Muslims with strict rules about gender separation and very large with 10 children and a large extended family who was there as well. When we arrived at their house, the father was the first person we met who waiting outside and gave us the traditional Arab greeting where you kiss them on the right cheek 2 times, and on the left once. I did the same with all of them men, and when I came to the women, they all looked a the ground and acted like I wasn’t there. I wasn’t affended or anything, but I felt uncomfortable about it. When we were upstairs the men sat on one end of the room, and the women on the other. Ann, our group leader who had told us about all the gender separation rules completely ignored them and sat with the men and began taking to them. Once this happened, it was like everyone broke with rules and everyone was taking to each other.

The national Jordanian dish is what’s called Mensef, which is lamb, rice, and a sauce made out of yogurt which you eat using your hands. I had Mensf the week before, but the Mensf which was given to us in Karak was the real stuff complete with the sheep head (the eyes are supposed to be the best part). We took a lot of food initially, but family members kept insisting that we eat more, and more until I felt Like I was going to go into a food induced coma. Once we were done with the Mensf, they led us into the sitting room where they had even more food waiting for us.

It very interesting to listen to Arabs talk about America. They despise the government and our president but absolutely love the people, culture, and everything else. Many of the children are studying to become doctors, engineers, and dentists, so it is very important for them to go to America to study so they could get the best jobs. I started to really appreciate what I have at home because I can do what ever I want in my career and live the way I want to, while people here have to compete to get into schools and don’t have to become a doctor in order secure my future.

That was that day.

The next day we went to the Dead Sea with the international students from the University of Jordan. The university has provided us with some really nice cars, and mini buses in the past, but what we drove to the Dead Sea was pretty frightening. The air conditioning was a fan at the front of the bus which had been rigged to only blow air on the driver, plus we had to stop at all sorts of military check points where men in military uniforms and machines guns would get out and walk around the bus, so it was a very long and tedious drive. The whole Lebanon thing had just started with Israel so I guess the Jordanians had taken extra precautions on the road to Israel which is also the road to the dead sea.

The Dead Sea is the worlds lowest point at a few hundred feet below sea level, and the hottest place I’ve ever been. When we got to the beach, I didn’t feel like going out into the salty water, put mud all over my body, and get sunburned. So I took refuge under a canapé with Eman who is Muslim, so she has a hard time going swimming around men because she would pretty much have to wear a wet suit and bathing cap. We talked for a while, listened to her iPod, and fell asleep. When we left, everyone was shocked that I didn’t go in, but I was fine with it because in the end I had more fun than them and didn’t get sunburned or have an allergic reaction to the water.

On Sunday, we had a meeting with an organization called World Links. I had been dreading this for a long time because we were supposed to make a power point presentation about technology in American Schools, and Jordanian kids would do the same. Sounded pretty stupid and pointless at the time, and it was, except for the fact that I had a great time talking to the other kids. I met one kid in particular named Otti who shared all of the same interests in music and politics. We had a very lengthy discussion about communism in America.

I started volunteering yesterday at the Kings Academy which is a prep school copied after Deer Field Academy in Massachusetts where his majesty King Abdullah the 2nd went to school. It’s brand new and not even officially open except for a summer camp aimed towards underprivileged children in rural areas around the age of 12-15........or that’s what they told us. The rural part might be true, but most of them all come from pretty well off families. The kids are so nice though, and so excited to talk to us in English. When they came back from classes and saw us standing in the dinning hall, we were practically mobbed by little kids introducing themselves. Because the king is in charge of everything, the school is very nice. I didn’t feel like I was in Jordan, but at some high class boarding school in New England. The king paid for graduates from this year to come and be counselors for the kids and to Americanize them. I have mixed feelings about this because I think that the kids are learning valuable things about eating good food and learning to throw trash away in garbage cans, but at the same time I don’t think they should force girls to play soccer with boys and stuff like that which is not part of their culture.

My friend Rashadd was visiting my room and broke the bed when he sat on it. So we had to go ask for nails at a construction site to repair the bed without the owner finding out. The manger is one of those people who puts fear into you when you look at him. So we repaired it ourselves and it‘s better than ever.

Today instead of going to modern arabic class, our teachers took us to the Jordanian parliament. It was just like going to congress except for the fact that there was a thrown for the king (which I couldn’t sit in, but I sat in the prime ministers seat).

That’s pretty much all of the big stuff that’s happened since my last blog. I’ll try to keep up, but I’ve had to pretty much fight to the death for internet access for the last week because there’s a class in the computer lab at school when I’m not in class. So that’s that.

-Sallam Alykum