A Christmas Song

It's hard to believe how quickly the last several weeks have passed. I remember sitting down for my last blog post, wondering how I was ever going to get through those two weeks. But I did. They were busy and crazy and wonderful.

The week of the concerts was ridiculous. I had school, loads of laundry, people to visit before I left, and had to sing every night. The concerts went really well. We did a concert up north in Irbid at this little church, which was lots of fun, and we were given roses and food afterwards. It was really sad thinking that these could possibly be my last Christmas concerts in Jordan...

After finishing with the concerts, Bethany and I focused on packing her up and getting ready to leave. We had a farewell dinner with some of the Sunday night football crowd. I got together with a friend from choir for a really good meal (linguine with prosciutto, spinach,

gorgonzola cheese, and toasted pine nuts) before packing up to leave early Thursday morning.

Bethany and I had our last movie night (we watched the blind side - excellent film!) and then said our farewells the next morning. I got on the plane, and was actually doing really well until the stewardess ran over my foot with the food cart. That hurt. I then got myself on standby for an earlier flight down to Florida, where I would meet up with my family, who had driven down the day before. I had a slim chance of getting on that flight - there were only 7 open seats, and over 90 people trying to get in them. I totally pulled the "I just spent 12 1/2 hours on a flight with

screaming children, I'm done with traveling" card, smiled, and got the last seat on the plane.

In Florida, we had a hot tub and a swimming pool at the house we rented. I spent a whole lot of time in that hot tub. We played card games, read books, watched more TV than a person ever should, ate my weight in junk food, went ice skating, and I beat my dad at pool. Twice. We drove back up to NC on Christmas Eve, the last couple hours filled with Christmas stories and our own Handel's Messiah Sing-In.

Christmas was quiet. We woke up earlier than usual because my mum had to work that day. We had eggs Benedict for breakfast, followed by the traditional Aunt Gladys' sticky buns.

We had some fun stocking stuffers (Santa got me an Intruder Alert alarm thingy, and lots of chocolate...) and some fun gifts.

Mummy got a Cricut machine (it does all sorts of cool paper cutting crafty stuff) and a bunch of accessories for it. I got the Pioneer Woman

cookbook, and an Eagles jersey, a book of Bedouin poetry, fun colored paints for my screen printer, Aisling got some salad forks from South Africa and a sweatshirt with thumb holes, I got Mummy some salad forks from Jordan (with camels on the top!). My dad got push up bars and running gloves. He's a work out geek now. Helena got a piano book of lounge music (she's really enjoying singing lots of jazzy stuff right now), some handmade jewelry, and the most memorable gift of '09 - a Fulla doll. For those of you who don't know, it's basically the Arab Barbie. She's got separate indoor and outdoor fashion, and wears the hijab. Helena, whose nickname has been Barbie for longer than we can remember, was not so amused. The rest of us thought it was absolutely hilarious.

*This is the gift I spent over an hour looking for with Bethany in a previous blog post.* We later joined my mum for dinner at the hospital. Boxing Day, we made the mistake of going to the mall. Big mistake. It took us over an hour to get out of the parking lot. I did, however, get a new pair of jeans.

On the 27th, I got in the car and drove down to Atlanta, Georgia. Two friends of mine from Jordan, Jeremiah and Ruth, had just gotten engaged, so I went to visit them and Ruth's family for a couple days. I made the drive without incident, met the rest of Ruth's family, then took a nap, just in time for a bunch of people from Ruth's church to come over to hang out and meet Jeremiah. A bunch of us took a walk in the park, which was really nice. The next day, Ruth, Jeremiah, and I went out for breakfast at Panera's, followed by getting her beautiful engagement ring sized, and a trip to Plato's closet to get some new shirts for Jeremiah. We hiked Stone Mountain that afternoon. It was a really nice hike up - great view from the top. It was also absolutely freezing at the top. We hiked back down, drove around the mountain, took some fun pictures, then went back for some spicy hot chocolate. We had an amazing home-cooked Mexican dinner, complete with sangria, followed by some competitive card games and ping pong. One of the twins and I were soundly beat by Ruth's older brother, who was playing left handed.I I slept in the next morning, had a quiet breakfast and a lesson in military uniforms, then said my goodbyes and drove back home. It was an awesome couple of days. I can't wait to go back in July for the wedding :]

After I got back, we vegged some more. Aisling, Daddy and I went to play some frisbee golf. Daddy won with only +5, Aisling hurt her wrist at hole 11, I finished with +26. Oops. Then I got a lesson on marking, and I totally out-pulled my dad. Seriously excited about that. We had a quiet New Year's Eve - Helena was babysitting, Daddy fell asleep on the couch, Mummy was working, so Aisling and I watched Night at the Museum. Mummy got home with plenty of time before the ball dropped, Aisling went to bed before the ball dropped, I opened a bottle of champagne for the first time in my life, without hitting anyone in the eye. I was pretty excited about it. So Mummy, Daddy, and I watched the ball drop, and sang Auld Lang Syne. I packed it in pretty early, because Aisling and I had a New Year's day hat tournament.

We were on the fields at nine, decked out in painted blue tshirts and lots of underarmour. We had 5, possibly 6 or 7 games that day. It was cold, and lots of fun, although I strained a muscle pretty badly mid-way through game 3, couldn't run, and had to sit out the rest of the tournament. Aisling caught a bunch of goals (I'm convinced it was 3, she disagrees), and I also picked one up and got to pull before getting injured. After our 5 games had finished, Aisling and I picked up some cheesesteak sandwiches and headed home. Aisling returned to Denver the next

day. The rest of us went to see Invictus (with Matt Damon, directed by Clint Eastwood), which was an excellent film, and I got a pair of Vibram Fivefingers (they are WAY cool, Google them. Seriously.).

Yesterday was a bit of a disappointment. I was so excited about finally getting to see an Eagles game at a decent hour, and not only did they lose, they didn't even show up. They got destroyed, their heads handed to them on a plate. It was 24-0. Half of me thinks they threw the game, the other half doesn't want to believe my team would do that to me. Very disappointing. I did, however, get to enjoy a good church service, brunch with my dad and Helena, and got to spend some time talking with Aisling.

Today was good fun. I bought a new fishywishy for my dad (the last one died a little while back) - he's a beta fish, and a feisty one at that. I also bought 85 tshirts from A.C. Moore. Now don't freak out, it's for a good reason. I'm screen printing said shirts for the youth retreat in February. It's definitely my biggest project to date, but I'm really excited to do it. Daddy, Helena, and I also made this fantastic dinner from my new Pioneer Woman cookbook: rib-eye steak with a whiskey cream sauce, courgettes, and mushroom and herb couscous. It was simple enough on paper, relatively easy to make, and it was far better than I could have expected.

Coming up: the sweat shop opens in my living room, playoff game #1 against Dallas (which we better win...), definitely more Pioneer Woman, packing woohoo!, and an Oreo cream pie for dessert in 20 minutes. Good times.

PS. Got accepted to UNCG. 1 down, 3 to go.

A Rainy Day

With just 10 days remaining until I return to the States for the holidays, my life has become very, very busy. Yesterday was probably the last real quiet day I'll get until I get to Florida. And it was wonderful. I slept in. Then brewed some coffee, cleaned up the kitchen, baked blueberry muffins and made cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast. I may or may not have consumed the majority of the muffins. I spent the rest of the relaxing with a book, watched a tv episode, then headed off for choir rehearsal. Afterwards, I watched some football (and kept track of the Eagles game, which wasn't being shown, but they won!!!!) and saw the Dolphins beat the Patriots. Whodathunk?

Anyways, the concert starts on Wednesday. As in, the day after tomorrow. And I have no clue how it got to be December 7th. Where did the days go? It promises to be a long week, with more rehearsal tonight, tomorrow night, then 3 concerts in a row. We're also preparing for Bethany to leave (she leaves the day after I do), but because she's not coming back next semester, there are all these people she has to see and things she has to do before she leaves. We're doing a dinner with a bunch of the usual football crowd on Sunday, learning to make some Chinese food with some classmates on Wednesday (yes, right before the concert), visiting other classmates... Somewhere in there is school, eating, packing, and sleep, if we're lucky.

Today, however, looked like it wouldn't be too busy, so Bethany and I took the opportunity to get some shopping done. So we went off to the mall, through rain, got ripped off by the cab driver (he rigged his meter), then enjoyed a hot chai tea latte from Caribou. Ok, so I splurged a little. But it's a yucky day, and I rarely go to the mall, and I needed something hot and delicious. Turned out to be a great decision, because we spent close to an hour walking all over the mall, back and forth, looking for this store with a particular gift I had seen earlier for one of my sisters. We finally found it, thanks to Bethany, and then went to Al-Afgani, THE tourist shop. They've got all sorts of cool stuff. I somehow managed to avoid many tempting purchases, and only bought the gift I intended to buy. Pretty good for me. We rounded the evening off with fried chicken sandwiches from KFC, then got in a cab to go home.

About this cab. I have heaps upon heaps of creepy cab driver stories. I've been locked in cars, asked all sorts of inappropriate questions, had several proposals (including one guy that said "I have Jordan passport, you have US passport, our children will have US passport too! It's perfect!). So I'm used to sleazy guys. Our cab driver was pretty sleazy. He claimed to have 2 wives, in 2 different countries, one in France (apparently a drunk with a crazy mother), and an Arab wife here. He kept trying to ask our ages. I had a feeling he would ask about our marital statuses next, but we got out just in time. Far enough from our apartment that he couldn't possibly follow us home. The stories you hear in cabs these days...

Needless to say, it was a successful day. Now I get to go pick the local shop owner's brain about local idioms and sayings, and go sing for another couple hours. I quite enjoyed one of the sayings we learned in class today (literally, it means "the monkey, in the eye of his mother, is a gazelle.") :

القرد في عين أمه غزال

And I shall leave you with that.

Two Turkeys and a Wadi

A little over a year ago, I was invited to watch my neighbors kill a sheep and clean it out, in preparation for the Eid al-Adha. It's one of the most important holidays for Muslims, and it involves slaughtering sheep, goats, or camels to commemorate Allah providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son. I was slightly traumatized by that experience, but luckily did not have to repeat it this year. Instead, we celebrated Eid al'shukur (holiday of thanks) - Thanksgiving.

This year, I had two Thanksgivings, both with turkey! (Last year, no turkey. It was too expensive.) The first, on Thursday afternoon, Bethany, Julia, and I went to the Haddad's, a large family Bethany knows partly from the States. They own some pretty big companies. There was a ton of amazing food, wine, and lots of really friendly people. We got all dressed up for the occasion - heels, nice clothes, make up, hair down... basically everything I avoid because of the extra attention it gets me. Thankfully, not a lot of people were out, being the first day of the Eid. There was some drooling though, to my amusement. Afterwards, Bethany and Julia went for another large meal with one of their teachers, and I went to see some German friends of mine.

Thanksgiving #2 (Friday) - a more relaxed occasion at the Schupp's house, where we go for football on Sunday nights. Julia, Bethany, and I were all supposed to bring a dish. Julia cooked hers earlier, but Bethany and I had to cook ours the morning of, in our ridiculously small kitchen. Turns out that having both of us in there trying to cook is really, really difficult. There's nowhere near enough room. I ended up mashing my potatoes on the floor in the hallway. Bethany made stuffing from scratch, I made sweet potatoes (with marshmallows!) from scratch, both recipes from the Pioneer Woman. I could hardly wait to eat those sweet potatoes... We decided it would be fun to dress up again, so Bethany

played with my hair a bit, we threw on some nicer clothes, then loaded all of our dishes into my laundry basket wrapped in towels and sweatshirts, and headed over to the Schupp's. There, we ate. A lot. There was turkey, salad, aubergine curry, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans (also a Pioneer Woman recipe, made by Julia), and more. Oh, and homemade apple cider. Yum! We dove in like the starving students we are. The food was good, the company awesome. We had a quiz on how much we knew about the first Thanksgiving, most of us failed. Angie got the most correct, but handed the win to Julia, seeing as she was the hostess. I won't tell you what I got. We played Scattergories, I correctly identified the part of speech for "making" - it's a gerund, which was super exciting for me. I do not like grammar. Arabic grammar especially. But I guess it's paying off. (I also passed my final book test on Arabic grammar) Then there was more eating, dessert, and some super competitive Dutch blitz. The kids chose to watch Elf, and then I made my exit.

Friday night - my small group girls and myself came over to Janelle's (my co-leader) for a girl's night in. We talked, had some awesome taco soup and garlic bread, watched BBC's Persuasion (the actor who plays Captain Wentworth was pretty good-looking!), then threw a bunch of mattresses on the floor and went to bed. The next morning, we had pancakes. They were delicious. That afternoon, I went to a friend's house and helped them paint their apartment. I got lots of paint on me. It's unavoidable. I spent a couple hours on a rickety ladder edging the ceiling, had a couple scary moments where I was convinced I would fall off and die, and introduced my friends to some cool new music. And there were brownies.

We slept in on Sunday. I did homework. We cooked 3 full meals that day. This is a huge accomplishment for us. I made scrambled eggs with real bacon bits for breakfast. Uh-may-zing. Bethany and I shopped around for fresh produce for lunch, failed miserably, then made bruscetta from canned whole tomatoes, fresh basil, and italian bread, with a little melted cheese on top. It wasn't bad. Bethany made fajitas for dinner, also delicious. We went to football at the Schupp's, but left earlier than usual, because we had adventures planned for the next day.

Bethany, having never been to Petra before, finally got to go to Petra, as a day trip with Julia. They left around 6ish in the morning to catch a bus going down. From what I've heard, they really enjoyed it, except for the sore muscles and tired feet. They got back around 7 that night. I, on the other hand, had plans to go hiking in a wadi near the Dead Sea with Janelle, some classmates from Kelsey, and the youth pastor from church. We got pulled over 5 times by the police, 3 times on the way down, twice on the way back. And no, I wasn't driving. No tickets though, so no problem.

It was a 6 hour hike, and it was awesome. We climbed rocks and jumped off rocks, jumped back and forth over the creek, slid down hillsides, got wedged in between rocks, left a nice bit on skin on the rocks, and for some reason the boys really enjoyed throwing rocks at each other. There was a waterfall, and green growing things, and a somewhat hazy view of the Dead Sea and the hills on the other side. Today, I'm sore. My joints hurt. But it was totally worth it.

Coming up: another final, only 9 days of school left!, more choir rehearsals, a Christmas party, lots more homework, Christmas shopping, and getting ready to leave for winter break.

Click here for more photos from the weekend.

A Little Bit of Life

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been kind of crazy day to day. Since my last post, I've been baptized in the Jordan River, went to Damascus for 36 hours, went to several birthday parties, got a stomach bug (multiple times), the flu, and bronchitis, got a blood test, pitched a fit in Arabic, had a couple baking disasters, had 4 different friends leave Jordan, and so many other little things.

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!

Girls vs. Wild

This past weekend, Bethany, Julia, and I took off for a weekend of hiking at Wadi Dana, a nature reserve in the south of Jordan. For a while it seemed like the trip wasn't going to work - we were having issues getting a rental car, and finding a hotel, trying to decide if we wanted an extra night or not. But as Wednesday drew to a close, we had figured out basically what we wanted to do. The events that followed made it a truly interesting and wonderful weekend.

Thursday morning started off like any other Thursday for me - I was up early, made coffee and ate breakfast on our balcony. But soon after, Bethany and I had most of the things to come with us in the living room, checked almost everything off the to do list, and headed out to the car rental company to pick up our car. We got a little turned around finding the place, thanks to my shaky memory, but once we got there, everything went smoothly. Then came the real challenge: driving back through the city without getting into a fatal car accident. Ask my mother, the traffic in Amman is ridiculous. Not as bad as Egypt, but I still think I could die half the time I'm in a taxi. But we survived. We got the car all packed, picked up some food for the way down, and thus began our adventures. After a while, we pulled off to see the Karak Castle, a 12th century castle conquered by Saladin during the crusades. We had a rinky-dinky little car that had trouble getting up hills, but we made it. We explored the castle a bit, enjoying the views. We picked up a local white wine there to enjoy later that evening, then jumped back in the car. Once we got back to the main road of the city, we realized we had no clue how to get to the highway we wanted. We pulled over and asked a local, who gave us some directions. Wrong directions. For the next 3 hours, we drove in circles, frequently pulling off to ask if we were on the right road or even headed in the right direction. The thing about an honor/shame society - if they dont know, they make it up. Not the best thing. We decided to then follow signs back to Amman, which would add a lot of time, but at least we would get on the right highway. And then there were no signposts for the exit we were supposed to take. All the guidebooks said there were, but they lied. After many calls to the hostel we were staying at and stopping a lot, we finally managed to get off at the right exit, only to find that it was a deserted highway far from civilization, and we had less than a quarter tank of gas. After maybe half an hour, we encountered the first sign for the reserve, and in our ecstasy, decided that it was completely necessary to pull over, jump out, and take pictures of the sign and our joy at finding it. So much so that Bethany hit the sign by accident. No broken bones, luckily, but it was sore. We got back in the car and rounded a blind corner, only to see in the nick of time two donkeys chilling in the middle of the road. That was a heart attack. We swerved and barely missed the "two-butted honkeys" Bethany had way too many words coming out at the same time). At this point the hostel was calling us to find out where we were, thinking we had driven off a cliff or something. Which brings us to the final heart-stopping adventure of the evening. We finally found what we thought was Dana Village, except the road split, there were no signs, so we continued straight. Wrong. The road narrowed quickly into a gravel path with a barely any room between the edge of the road and the edge of the cliff. When we discovered we had to turn around, I decided that I was more likely going to drive off the cliff reversing than if I turned the car around on a small shoulder. Julia volunteered to get out and stand at the edge so I would know where to stop, and Bethany and I proceeded to haul the wheel around to complete the turn, the whole time trying desperately not to think about how close we were to dying. We finally got the car turned around and into the hostel to find a relieved owner and a traditional dinner waiting for us. We packed it in early that night - we were drained from all the adventures.

We got up early on Friday morning, looked at the cliff we almost drove off, and felt sick. It hadn't really hit us until then. But we were glad to be there, and even happier to have made it without death or injury. Julia took the wheel that morning for our drive over to the entrance of the reserve, where we would be staying at a campsite in the valley. Thanks to Bethany, we got an extra discount on the price, and then we got ready to hike down to the campsite. It was a sight to see - the mountains and trees, the silence only interrupted by the sounds of birds - absolutely beautiful. After maybe 5 minutes of walking, the truck taking our bags down pulled up behind us and offered to drive us the rest of the way down. We dumped our stuff in our tent, then set off for several hours of hiking up the mountain. It was tough hike up, although really rewarding. We sang Disney songs on the way up, stopped frequently to take in the amazing views, finally stopping at the top to relax and eat lunch. The hike down was much easier, and it was a great time to just talk and get to know each other better. Once we got back to camp, we grabbed some more water, and napped in the bedouin tents for a while. The sun began to set, so we grabbed more food and the bottle of wine from the day before, then went to find a secluded area with a great view of the valley to eat dinner and watch the sun set. It was breathtaking. After dark, we talked with a nice German couple who were there, sat outside to look at the stars, then went to bed. We all slept well that night.

Saturday morning came, and we were sad to have to leave. Before breakfast, Julia and I went off to see the famous "ibex" that lives on the reserve. We didn't see any, but instead found this small cave/tunnel that ran along the edge of a cliff. The view was magnificent. I crawled through the cave to the other side, then climbed the rocks on the edge to get back to a safe spot. We then sat, taking in the beauty of it, until our stomachs growled and reminded us that we were expected for breakfast. We ate, packed our things, then took the truck back up to the car. With sadness, we left the reserve, quietly reflecting on the beauty of nature and how much we enjoyed the time away. Bethany drove us back to the city, navigating the crazy holiday traffic like a pro to get us back to the apartment safely. We unpacked, I returned the car, and I think we were all wishing we could still be at Wadi Dana. We spent the night in eating popcorn and fajitas, and watched Beauty and the Beast, partly in Arabic. "Be Our Guest" was the song of choice on the hike up the mountain, so it brought back lots of fun memories.

Ramadan ended on Saturday night, so the mosque was going all night and throughout most of the morning. We gathered last night for football and card games and stories of our weekend, which was also a lot of fun. And though many of our adventures were scary and frustrating, it was one of the best weekends I've ever had, bringing the 3 of us closer than we could have thought.

Coming up: more grammar, I really will finish my college apps, maybe a day trip or two, plenty of sleep, and I get baptized Friday morning. Definitely looking forward to my week off.

Here's the link to some pictures from the trip, more to come later!

Wadi Dana Pictures

Welcome to Jordan....

And now to explain the change...

Not long after I wrote the previous blog entry on the travelblog site, I received a message from a guy claiming to be some government official's son, saying he loved my blog, loved reading it, and that I knew more about his country than he did. I thought nothing of it, it read like any other spam message I've received in the past. Last Thursday, however, Bethany and I were waiting around the corner from our apartment for our pizza to be ready when a young Arab male approached us and identified us both by name. I was prepared to deny it and loudly shame him for bothering us when he identified himself as the sender of the aforementioned message and said he knew us both by name and from my pictures. He left after an awkward minute, and I called my parents in shock, not quite sure what to do about it. In the end, we decided it was best to get in contact with people at the embassy who had contacts with the police and to delete my old blog, replacing it with a new and secure one. We haven't seen or heard from the guy since that weekend. I know that this blog site will be somewhat more difficult to access, and requires you to sign is as a member of the blog, but this is not an adventure I wish to repeat. There's no need to freak out - I know, sounds ridiculous, but we do have the situation under control, and we have spoken with the appropriate authorities. So thank you for your patience and understanding.

Let me begin with saying how much I love being able to do things again! First of all, football nights are back on. And I will take this moment to congratulate the Eagles for their wonderful game this past Sunday - GO EAGLES! Second, since the school year has officially begun, youth activities have begun at church, so I'm helping the youth praise team from time to time, as well as co-leading a small group of 10th grade girls.

Because of Ramadan, choir isn't in full swing yet, but we're already doing some way cool pieces - like If Ye Love Me by Tallis, and My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord, a spiritual arr. by Moses Hogan. I can't wait to do the latter as a full choir.

Ramadan. It will be officially over by the end of this weekend. And on top of that, King Abdullah II has declared the entire week following the end of Ramadan as a national holiday. I'm really starting to like this guy. So we have a 10 day vacation. Since I don't have school on Thursdays, my vacation started today. WOOT!

School is tough. But it's a challenge that I am currently relishing, especially because I can actually work at it now. Classical grammar is a pain in the neck, but I'm getting there. And while it's still taking me a while to be able to speak fluidly, I love being able to understand so much more. It's really exciting.

I am beginning to love my gym membership. Ok, so I don't like working out, or running on the treadmill, but it's something fun to do with Bethany, and we have a hot tub in the changing room. As well as 2 indoor pools - one of which has Dead Sea minerals in it. It's so much fun soaking in the hot tub after a long day or a tough work out. I still prefer ultimate frisbee. Which we're working on.

Coming up - we leave for a weekend of hiking in the south tomorrow morning, random day trips, more football, a crash course in classical grammar for my upcoming test, more college apps, and my baptism.

Who needs running water, anyways?

shower curtain success!

The past 2 weeks have certainly been interesting!

Ramadan began, although it has been a lot easier than last year - not going through culture shock at the same time really helps! I also started back at school, it's been good to have a schedule again. The classes are challenging, and I'm enjoying them, for the most part. I have to study a lot more, but I'm finally beginning to understand classical grammar. And being a 3rd semester student, I only have school 4 days a week - I have a proper weekend again!

Bethany and I are getting along very well - we have a lot in common. She's a great roommate. We also installed a rod and a shower curtain recently, which was quite an accomplishment for people who usually have their dad take care of things like that.

The YWCA choir that I sang in last fall has started up again - we're doing some really cool pieces. More about that later...

I'm also working with the youth group at the english-speaking church we go to - leading a small group for girls and helping with the youth praise band. It was kind of

we learned funky twisty arm turns

bizarre when the big group met (7th-12th graders) because the 7th graders looked so small, and being around seniors after only graduating a year ago reminds me that I'm not that old. They were mostly third culture kids - from places like Finland and China, or kids who had spent half their lives in Jordan after traveling with their families. It makes for a cool mix of cultures.

And then there was last weekend. Obviously I had gone too long without a proper adventure. Bethany and I got back from community group, and her computer decided that it was the perfect time to kick the bucket. The next morning, we were getting ready for school, and we find that we have no running water. At all. Now, this has never happened to me before. We don't use a whole lot of water during the week, and we do all of our laundry and house cleaning on Wednesday (our water day), so we don't use up our weekly supply. This was 3 days after our water day. So we went to school, and after school had the grounds keeper, Faadi, check it out. Turns out the pipe from the main

julia, jonathan, and i

water supply into our water tank had broken, and they wouldn't be able to fix it until the following Wednesday. 4 more days without running water. We were'nt very happy. But Faadi had a temporary solution - he ran a hose from the adjacent building's water tank into our water tank. We would be able to wash a few dishes, brush our teeth, and flush the toilet for the next 4 days, but taking daily showers wasn't really an option. Luckily, Bethany and I had scoped out some nearby gyms the previous week, and we already knew where we would be getting memberships. So on Sunday, we went out to buy Bethany a new laptop and get gym memberships. As far as adventures go, it wasn't too bad. I'm starting to find them more and more amusing.

It doesn't stop there. On Wednesday, Bethany and two of our other friends, Julia and Jonathan, and I went salsa dancing. I had done a little before, but the other 3 hadn't. We went out to a local food spot called Hashim's (the best food for your money. seriously.) and then headed out to the other side of the city for the

bethany, me, and julia

lesson. We did a bit of merengue, bachata, and salsa. It was so much fun. There were some really awkwardly hilarious moments. We will definitely be doing that again.

Coming up - football/game night starts this week, only 2 more weeks of Ramadan, planning an upcoming holiday, and more college applications (I'm almost finished 2 of them!).

PS. I miss my Rubik's cube. In it's absence, I've turned to sudoku.

bethany busts a move