Parties. Zufafs and Aied Melads.

A week and a half ago I went with about 15 people from my group to the cities Irbid and Husin to attend some activities there. There is a small branch of our church in Husin and the members there host us when we come. About 10 of the same people go every week and then the rest of us just take turns going. So 2 weeks ago it was my turn. I get there (to the church first) and my confidence takes a steep and sudden drop into nothingness. Its all in Arabic and I have this small problem where I don't really understand arabic...at all. Its like if me and you were in the same room with arabic speakers we would both understand the same amount...nothing. Which would be okay, but every single other person (talking about non-Arabs) understood and were chatting back and forth and i'm like "I have been in all the same classes, done the same amount of work as all these people why the hell don't I understand?!" So I did what any logical and mature person would do. I started to cry. Now this is kinda embarressing, but seeing how the World Wide Web (aka internet) is a safe and private place to bare your true feelings I thought I would not hold back these said feelings. Plus I feel significantly separated from the situation now. Lucky for you all haha. Plus learning a second language is so hard that its inaccurate to just write about the good times...the encounters with prostitutes, sunbathing at the Dead Sea, exploring ruins of desert castles. I do actually work here. 17 credits of Arabic. And to be honest some days I would rather peel my skin off with a potato peeler rather than go to class and TRY to speak arabic. Well I think you get the picture...So... my eyes are filling up with salty water that could or could not be mistaken for tears, but I don't want to start actually crying because that would be humiliating so i'm holding back and finally we get to leave. But we are not actually going home yet, we are staying the night at strangers houses...which is exactly what I want to do....stay at some random persons house that does not speak english and i'm expecting to speak arabic...screams Ackwardness. But you will be relieved to know that it wasn't that bad...I guess at that point things couldn't have gotten worse...sorry I know that you would have enjoyed reading this so much more if I had horror stories to tell you, but personally I am happy that the following will avoid a sad tale of a girl who has no more skin.

So we are at this house and they are so very nice and they fed us Hamburgers and french fries! It was amazing! After awhile I got used to talking to them, and one of the girls spoke a little english and so it was helpful to have her around. Oh i remember something embarressing that happened....haha this is really quite horrid....I was talking to the Father and his son-in-law and granddaughter (who is like 1 or 2) were also in the room with me and Lauren. So we are chit chatting and he is telling me about his granddaughter and her name etc and I remembered that the day before I had been taught the word for how to say that a baby is cute so I dig my little notebook out of my purse and i'm frantically trying to find this word and I find it and I say it and he looks at me blankly and then Lauren leans over and says "he is now talking about his son-in-law". Great. Story of my life.

So laters that night we go to this wedding party (in arabic its called a Zufaf) that we were not invited to, but in Arab culture you can just pretty much show up to any party, any house, uninvited and they are so thrilled that you are there. We saw the outside party when we were driving to the peoples house and the music is so loud you can hear it for probably a good 4 or 5 blocks and we were so intrigued that our family walked us over so that we could attend. Arab weddings last for 3 days and so this wasn't the day that the bride and groom got married, but the day before. And in Muslim parties the men and women are separated and so we went over to where the women were sitting and we watched the men. The guys were in this huge area with lights hung over and they were doing this arabic dance where they all hold hands in a circle or semi-circle and do this dance...that I have been taught but haven't quite gotten the hold of it. It was quite entertaining. So I'm talking to these Arab women and I won't go over the whole conversation, but I wanted to be sure that I do mention this: They wanted to know what I would tell people about the Middle East/Jordan when I return home. Good or bad? They wanted to be sure that I told everybody that the people here are good, that they do not hate Americans, nor do they understand why westerners hate them, that there is beauty in their culture and in Islam and so much good in these countries. And I can second them, I have found so much more good here than I have found bad. I have not encountered any hatred directed at me because i'm an American, people have been so friendly, much more so than would be expected in the U.S. I think that we could learn a lot from their culture and them from ours...except that I think that we should keep english...that english should be the only language...in the world.