well, my arabic handwriting skills are pretty sad. i wrote my first essay a couple weeks ago. 2 pages, all in arabic. it wasnt anything groundbreaking, pretty routine. my name is andi, i am from california, blah blah blah... it is mostly so i can learn how to read and write. arabic is really hard to learn. without exaggeration, there are at least 2 or 3 words for almost everything. also, there is formal arabic which is used on the news and in newspapers which i am not learning. unfortunately this is the only form of arabic for which there is a dictionary. i am learning spoken arabic, and the dialect is southern jordanian. written arabic is fun too because only long vowels are written, all short vowels are implied somehow. so yeah, arabic is tough. my english skills are also waning. i am so used to writing phonetically that i spelled hello "hellow" the other week. hmm.
so monday the 17th marked my 100th day in country! i guess the time is just flying by. i have settled into a kind of routine now that makes the time go faster. you know, the kind where the weekend comes before you even know it. not that my weekends are much different than my weeks.
ramadan is going swimmingly. i ate sheep brain the other day. they put it in front of me like it was a special thing, so i couldnt refuse. i was seated at the platter with the sheep's head. this is supposed to be a big honor. i guess all the especially tasty cuts of meat are on the head - like the brain and the cheeks... well, i cant say i am a big fan. it tastes slightly of liver but not as good and the texture is pretty much what you would imagine. so, not repulsive but not great either.
the simpsons have hit the middle east! only, for some reason it is called the shemshoons. it is dubbed in arabic. i havent really watched it yet, but it was on at someone's house at dinner long enough for me to figure out that here duff = juice. boy does homer love his juice! they have really been hyping the show a lot though. other big american tv news here, britany spears reality tv show is coming soon. yippee! at least we only export the best shows. oh, and if the naked chef is on while you are fasting, dont watch it. first, you dont need cooking tips because most of them wont apply here (at least not in the kitchen i have, or shall i say corner with a camp stove), and second it just makes the fast harder. i never noticed how much people eat on tv till now. but, so far as ramadan goes, the hard part is the first week and its over. in fact, ramadan itself is almost over. and my only cheating turns out not to be cheating at all. you see, this week i got strep throat. really a bundle of laughs. just as fun as you might imagine. called the doctor and she told me what antibiotic to buy. in jordan you basically just walk into a pharmacy and tell them what you want. no prescriptions needed. so i ate a bit to keep my stomach from getting upset from the pills. but when my counterpart found out i was sick she came over and brought me soup and told me that it is haram to fast when you are sick.
bakc to ramadan. last night was the big celebration that marked the final revalation of the koran. most people went to mosque until 12 or one in the morning. but, because there are a whole number of things that make it haram for a woman to enter a mosque at a certain time, and because my counterpart was thus prevented from going, i stayed home. she and i hung out and watched tv and chatted and drank tea. it was really nice, and we can do the big mosque celebration next year. by the way, my counterpart and her husband are super excited to host my family when they come. mom and dad, they keep asking when you will be here, so you can be sure to receive the royal treatment. anyway, at the end of this week is eide al fatar, which translates roughly to eve of the breakfast. it marks the end of ramadan and is a three day holiday. i get a few days off and i may finally check out some jordanian sights.
last week i helped my counterpart pick olives from the trees in the yard. then we cracked them open by pounding them with rocks. we have to soak them a bit in water but then she is going to show me how to marinate them. fun stuff. we marinate the green ones and send the black ones off to be made into oil.
it was really cold last week, and the days have been getting increasingly cold and windy. i even had my very first taste of jordanian rain. so picking olives had a fun, bundled up, late autumn harvest feel to it. plus it was just gerat to be outside doing something vaguely active. and the rain smelled awesome. because i live out in the country it had that clean dirt smell that rain in the countryside brings.
center life is fairly nonexistant. i go everyday but no one comes. so i play with my coworkers baby, who is four months old. hes a great baby! patient and never fussy. or i read. a lot. well, i suppose that just about wraps it up. next time i talk to you i will be back in the swing of "normal" life.