I haven't even been here a week yet, but it feels like forever. So
much has happened since I arrived last Saturday. Orientation has taken up
this whole week, but finally it's almost over. The highlight was a tour
of the city, including stops at both the citadel and the amphitheater. It
was so exciting because the citadel had a small archaeological museum, so I was
loving it while everyone else was wondering how a person could get so excited
over some pottery and stone tools (there were of course other displays, like
sarcophaguses among other things). The amphitheater was beautiful, but so
steep. Since it had rained the day before everything was still slippery. So, while the climb up was exhausting I
didn't think it was scary until I reached the top and looked down, realizing I
still had to make the descent on uneven and cracked stone steps. While it was a daunting task, I soon
safely reached the bottom.
I moved in with my family Wednesday night. They are all very kind and helpful, especially when it comes
to learning Arabic, sometimes its overwhelming how many new words they throw at
me and expect me to remember. The mother doesn’t speak a lot of English so we
rarely talk, and she just looks at me a lot, I can’t tell what she’s thinking. The father is the sweetest old man, and
he’s very calming to be around, but he forces me to speak in Arabic with him,
which is good. (We also bonded over watching the Australia Open Men’s
Semi-Final, since we booth rooted for Djokovic). The oldest daughter (who still lives with the family, the
other is married) is Christine who is the same age as me, we also share a
room. She is the sweetest person
ever, and is so willing to make me feel as comfortable as possible. The first night she took me out with
her friends to a nearby bar that was very Americanized, and all of her friends
were just as nice and welcoming.
They enjoyed listening to me speak Arabic because my accent is so
horrible haha (they also got a kick out of my “family name” because they can’t
remember it for 2 seconds, but at least they were able to finally pronounce
it!). The oldest son, Rami, who is
my sister’s age, is very kind and enjoys laughing at me and my failed attempts
to try and understand conversations that occur around me in the house. The younger brother is MIA as I still
have not seen him after living here for almost three days. The youngest daughter, is 8, and
although she is very sweet, she hovers, a lot. She follows me wherever I go in the house and this morning
woke me up and watched me do my hair and make-up, etc. Apparently I’m a really interesting
person. She also enjoys playing
games all the time, half of which I don’t understand, the only one I’ve enjoyed
so far is ‘snakes and ladders.’
I think the mom thinks I’m to skinny, because she feeds me a lot,
literally. The first night, I
almost threw-up and wanted to cry from all the food I had to eat, and you have
to finish what’s on your plate.
Regardless of the fact that it was delicious, once you reach a certain
point it no longer tastes good, it was like Thanksgiving but 10x worse lol
Fridays are ‘Holy Day’ so that translates to ‘lazy day’ in this culture,
or at least my family (they are Christian so they don’t go to the mosque). Christine and I didn’t wake up till
11am, the rest of the family was up, but didn’t seem to mind. (Everyone still greeted each other ‘good
morning’ at 2:30pm) Everyone, except the mother (who was in the kitchen
cooking/baking ALL day) wore their pajamas or sweats in the house for the whole
day. I of course wasn’t aware, and
was dressed in jeans and a shirt (however, I don’t think we have heat so I am
currently wearing 5 layers, and sitting by the lone space heater in the living
room that has a radius of maybe 1ft. when it comes to spreading heat, I miss my
electric snuggie). Even though we
ate a big brunch at noon we still ate ‘lunch’ at 5 so I’m not sure if that
means I should expect a late dinner or not, I’m desperately hoping not.
No comments:
Post a Comment