Midway

This week is the halfway point of the semester. Things have been going really well thus far. My Arabic is progressing. Our Standard Arabic (or Fusha) teacher Ghadeer is pretty cool. I did really well on our midterms last week. Colloquial isn’t going quite as well, because it’s not nearly as interesting to me and I really don’t speak it very much. My area studies classes aren’t too bad either.

Living here really isn’t that different than living back home. I haven’t been cooking very much, so most nights I go out. My favorite food here is shwerma, which is basically shavings from a big hunk of slowly-barbequing chicken in a wrap with mayonnaise and sometimes other things. They’re served in little snack shops which are pretty ubiquitous throughout the city. The best place I’ve tried is this small shop by the university, which puts lemon in it and is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. There’s also one by our house (the Gazelle Restaurant) that puts cheese on it, which is really good too. As far as traditional Middle Eastern foods go, I also eat a lot of falafel, which is some type of fried vegetable meal. Of course there’s a lot of pita, hummus, and babaganoush as well. For American food, I eat at Subway and a couple decent pizza places on a regular basis. The restaurants here are laid out differently than in America. Usually the food is prepared in front of you on the ground floor and then the dining room is upstairs. Occasionally the upstairs will be reserved for families only. The food here has been pretty good, though the flavors really aren’t all that much different than they are back home.

Spring break is coming up in a couple weeks. I’m going to be going to Egypt with three other kids from the program. Right now our plan is to take a ferry from Aqaba to Nuweibah in Egypt, then a bus to Cairo where we will spend a few days. We’ll also be taking the train down to Luxor and possibly getting to Alexandria before flying back to Amman. I’m a little wary because I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about Egypt, especially Cairo. It has essentially been described as hell on Earth: dirty, smelly, loud, and unfriendly. Egyptians in the Middle East are a lot like Mexicans in America (or Poles in Britain, Turks in Germany, etc.). It’s perhaps a bit more defined here though, because Arabs absolutely look down on manual labor and are also unashamed about racism.

Until spring break, things should be a little calmer. Hopefully I will have a little more time to write.

PS: No offense to any Egyptians who may be reading. >.>