Thursday, October 30, 2008
Pumpkins, Washing Machines, and Opportunities
Almost 2 weeks since Wadi Rum, and things have been crazy. Really crazy.
Last week, we jumped into some new lessons the day we got back from our long weekend, which was a headache and a half in itself. I went to some extra practices for choir to try to learn some of the Arabic pieces we're singing. Speaking Arabic is tough - there are a lot of letters and sounds we don't use in English, and it's something all of us learning the language struggle with. But to then sing in Arabic... It makes speaking look like a cakewalk. Anyways, I also spent a lot of time working on learning the Alto part for Coventry Carol - it's a beautiful, haunting piece that was arranged for 3 women, Sop. I, Sop. II, and Alto. We were told that tryouts would be that Wednesday, for anyone who wanted to sing the piece, as written for 3 women, in the concert. So I figured, why not? I practiced, and then tried out with two powerful sopranos. It sounded pretty awesome. I also tried out for a descant part in a funky Caribbean-style piece, and got the part with 3 other women. It's way cool.
On Thursday, we celebrated Christina's birthday in true American style - we had a pumpkin carving party. We ordered Papa John's, made punch in a big bowl, had loads of cupcakes, chips and dip, soda... And then there were the sticky buns. I didn't really know what to do for Christina's birthday, so I told her I would make the sticky buns she thoroughly enjoyed. I was feeling a bit adventurous, so I added butterscotch chips and some rum to the sticky sauce. And they tasted awesome. We did some serious pumpkin carving, too. Christina did Obama's face, with the help of Jesse, Emily did Palin's face, really it was Tina Fey.. :], and I stepped outside of the political arena and carved Dwight's face (for all you who are not avid watchers of The Office, he is a hilarious cast member of The Office. And you should start watching it...).
On Saturday night, I made my first trip out to Ashrafiya, another part of town. Some friends of mine were all getting together for a girl's night in, but I was really late in getting there so I missed the creation of the delicious lasagna. But we ate it, and had the most amazing apple spice cake with cream cheese icing EVER. Then it was movie time - and we went Bollywood with Bride and Prejudice, still one of my favorites. We made pancakes and omelets for breakfast the next morning, and YouTubed the Axis of Evil comedy tour - which is soooo funny because we totally get it. Now that we live in the Middle East and all...
On Monday, I helped a classmate tutor some Iraqi kids in English, which was interesting. They were young girls, but they spoke so fast, the little Arabic I had didn't help. At all. But it was still and experience. Tuesday was good and bad. Good - we FINALLY got a new washing machine. More about that later though. Bad - a pipe in our bathroom broke. It was raining. When the guys came to fix our pipe, they broke it even more, and pretty much flooded the bathroom. They fixed it after a couple hours. I was working in the bookshop, and the internet died. Not on my computer, but the wireless in the shop, and it was down for half an hour. I don't know when or if it started working again that day, I had stuff to do, so I headed back to a friend's house to use her internet. And when I went to open the internet, it wouldn't work. But Skype would. That was it. So I went home. It wasn't a fun day.
Wednesday, however, was a much better day. I used our new washing machine. Which is ghetto-fabulous. Seriously. We have to fill it up with water from the shower head. And we have to put the pipe where the water drains out of in the toilet, so it doesn't flood everything. And after the clothes are washed, you have to put them into this little bucket thing on the other side to spin the water out of the clothes. And there are holes in the drain pipe. So it still gets water all over the bathroom floor. But IT WORKS. It didn't flood anything, my clothes got clean, and as ghetto-fabulous as it might be, it's so much better than not having one. We also had a massive thunder storm. Bucketing water. I would've run out in the rain, which is so much fun, but itwas also really cold outside. Yes, cold. It's really only in the 60's, but when you've been in the 100's for so long, it feels ridiculously cold. We put our carpets down, and we're walking around the house in thick sweats, warm slippers, and scarves. I also spent most of the day at an Arab friend's house, and her grandmother invited me over this weekend to learn how to cook some traditional food. Best of all, I totally responded to a question, in Arabic, without thinking. And it came out right. Milestone!!!!
But best of all, choir. First of all, I was feeling really sick, and I didn't really wanna be there. But I went, and I'm so glad I did. We did a lot of work on the Caribbean piece, where the four of us get to do the funky descant. But only two of us were there, and we got compliments, and the accompanist said we were awesome. And it sounded really cool. Then the director called a bunch of names for people to come see her after practice, my name included. So we went to talk to her, and she said we would be a small group singing some really jazzed-up renditions of Let It Snow and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, with some crazy harmonies. This, I was really excited for. She hand-picked us, I felt special. And I found out that I got the Alto part for the Coventry Carol. So pretty much, it's gonna be an awesome concert. I'm sooo excited.
On the down side, I've had to cancel my trip to Syria this weekend, for a number of reasons. I'm really sad about that, but there's always next semester. And it means I get to learn how to cook some cool food.
Coming up: our electric sawba, attempts at renewing my visa, and who knows what else. Everything changes in the Middle East.
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