I haven't done too many big things in the past two months. As for smaller things, I have class four days a week, loads more homework, I lead a small group of 10th grade girls, attend a community group, sing in a choir (which is now having rehearsals multiple times a week since the concert is coming up in a couple weeks), church, tutoring, visiting, and of course, football on Sunday nights. Having a schedule again is really exciting for me - I haven't been able to make regular commitments in about 2 years, ever since this whole debacle with my head started. 26 1/2 months later, I'm finally getting to live a relatively normal life again. My crazy summer procedures have definitely paid off.
So the bigger things...
On Sept. 25th, a bunch of my closer friends and I packed into several cars and drove an hour down to the Baptismal Site of Jesus at the Jordan River, where I was baptized. You can see the video of it here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TYdDuIMC7g). Later that afternoon, the youth from church played their parents/leaders in a game of dodgeball, and the youth got destroyed. I totally got a bunch of kids out. I was very excited.
On Oct. 8/9th, I went to Damascus with two friends of mine. This was a ridiculous, whirlwind trip. We left early Thursday morning, got back late Friday night. It took us 4 different cars to get to Damascus, we waited for almost 4 hours for one the other girls to get her visa cleared (mine only took half an hour, which I should've realized was wrong...). We stayed in a monastery next to St. Paul's church, where Paul was lowered from as he escaped from people trying to capture him. We went to the big outdoor market, walked through the old city, took a rickety little bus an hour outside of the city to visit Ma3lula, a small town with a really old, famous convent. If I ever decide to move to Syria, that's where I will live. It is a beautiful, small town, filled with people who have a passion for their language and their neighbors. We took a bus back from Damascus to Amman, and at the border, found out that 2 of us had the wrong type of visa, and had been in the country illegally. As soon as the officer said possible jail time, I busted out with all the Arabic I had, flirted shamelessly, even used terms of endearment you couldn't pay me to use in Jordan. We got through fine, without having to pay a fine or spend time in jail. There are also now maybe 20 Syrian men who would marry me at the drop of a hat.
Several of my friends recently celebrated their birthdays - there were lots of baked goods, and I had some of the best Chinese food ever made, cooked from scratch by Bethany's classmate. We will soon be heading over to her house to learn how to make it ourselves. As for my baking disasters, I was super excited about making this chocolate mousse pie, but the consistency was all wrong and it wouldn't set. So we froze it, and it made for an excellent frozen fudge pie thing. I also attempted to make meringues, but couldn't get the eggs to form stiff peaks (the eggs were defunct, I tried everything in the book), so instead made a lemon cream cake with cream cheese frosting. I've been doing a lot of baking on my weekends - it's always an adventure, nothing ever turns out the same way twice, and it's fun. Plus, everyone loves baked goods.
I really enjoy my school. But it is a breeding ground for illness. Everyone's kids go to the same daycare, and then the kids get their parents sick, and then the parents come to class anyways, and then poor people like me get whacked with 6 different bugs. I got stomach bug after stomach bug. I couldn't shake it. I spent almost 3 weeks on a bland food diet and still had to take stomach meds to keep food down. As soon as I began to finally recover, Bethany and I both got the flu. We were in a bad way. Bethany began to recover after a week, I got worse. Turns out I got bronchitis on top of it, spent 10 days on antibiotics, and am finally (almost 2 weeks later) recovering.
Jordan just implemented a new visa regulation - after a month in the country, you report to the police station, but now you have to get a blood test first. The place to get it done was dingy and falling apart, and I thought for sure I would get an infection. But the test itself was clean and professional, took maybe 2 seconds. They used a baby sized needle. Easy stuff. The poor girl after Bethany was deathly afraid of needles, kept pulling away, and had to get stuck again and again because she kept moving. It was kinda sad. She didn't speak Arabic or English though, so there wasn't much I could do to help.
I am now able to pitch a fit (a small one) completely in Arabic. Taxi drivers try to rip me off all the time, now, they're scared to try. Another taxi driver tried to get me to marry him, he got an earful. Next time he'll think twice before he says all sorts of rude things to a foreign girl.
In the past week and a half, I've had 4 friends leave. We had a fun going away party, got to eat good food, there was a cake, dancing, it was a good time. I was really sad to see them leave, but I loved the time I got to spend with them this semester.
I have less than a month left until I return to the States for Christmas. It's really weird, I don't feel likes it's been almost a year and a half, the time has flown by. It makes me sad to think that I only have one more semester here before I move on to the next chapter of my life. So I'm trying not to think about it.
Coming up: multiple Thanksgiving celebrations, a girl's night in, going to see New Moon, crazy rehearsals for choir (the concert is on the 9/10/11th of Dec, I got a solo part!), lots of baking for those multiple Thanksgivings, and putting down the carpets. That's right, its officially winter. Our apartment is once again colder than outside, staying around a crisp 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit. Bring on the space heaters!
PS. If you're not watching the tv show "Glee", you should be. It is amazing.
PPS. Helena just got accepted to University of Evansville, her first choice college. Mabruuk!
