Week two was very good. VERY busy & exhausting, but good. Some highlights include-
-I convinced all of the girls to join the gym! It's kind of weird. I miss Merv & Prince from NYSC, but it's good for a number of reasons. The showers are GREAT-- so much better than our apartment showers. Even though I am going to the gym and barely doing anything, at least there is the OPTION. It's still pretty hot in the gym, so I sweat a LOT. They also love sending us into the steam room so I have been trying to stay veryyy hydrated, which is also hard bc of the water issue, but I am working on a system and I think I finally have it figured out. The music is like okay (usually not the songs that I would pick, but typical "gym music") but it's SO LOUD that we can't even listen to our own iPods... it's funny, but kind of annoying. We have made friends with the lady who owns it, but she's a little weird. She like INSISTS that I steam to the point that I can't say no (pushover) and also wants me to work at her friend's "American English" learning center for a year, but don't worry-- I will get a salary. I politely declined. She also calls me Carmen or something, but I am getting her to remember CLAIRE...
-We started cooking in our apartment. We have recreated the BBQ meal about three times now, and it's still good...
-I haven't gotten sick of falafel or shwarma...
-We have a lot of meetings with Waed & Muhammad, and they really rock. I am most likely not going to be in a formal Arabic class next year, but I realllllllyyyyy hope that I will still see them often. That being said... I have already started to look at the calendar to see when we should have our first Jordan reunion dinner at the DiVa DeN. It has to be a Saturday because Nicole is leaving us for the real world and has "work"- still not sure exactly what that means.......
-I am learning a lot, and I dont really know how to reiterate it, but this is really an AMAZING program. Waed and Muhammad are going above and beyond for us. Waed is also a diva and gets whatever she wants, so we are in very good hands. This is manifest in the following things that have changed in the two weeks of being here:
-Our apartments are beautiful, and the ones that we were supposed to be in are not.
-We have free internet in our beautiful apartments even though the school (YU, not CC) was not very enthusiastic about providing us with wifi
-We fired one of four of our teachers (the listening one) because she was not good enough. I am kind of sad about it though bc her hour of class was like a vacation, but obv it is better than we have a great and challenging teacher now. Not only did we fire the listening teacher, Waed wanted Hala (our media teacher) to teach us listening and although she shouldn't be teaching us bc of contract issues, somehow Muhammad fought the administration, and now she's teaching us!!
-I can't think of anything else, but I think that's pretty sufficient for now
-W & M are also very much in love and are inspiring. Maybe I will look for/find a boyfriend next year... ha ha
-It's getting hotter, which isn't actually a highlight (it's a low light) but I think you should know about it. I think we have reached the point of no return in terms of temp, and it will forever be in the 90s (@least) for the rest of the time. I am very diligent about the SPF/the hat that I am still not sure if I am in love with or not, but it is defffffff necessary- so shady under there. I am constantly sweating (and I don't sweat-- nickiii) It's terrible, and I am sometimes VERY uncomfortable in class because of the temperature, but I am hoping to get used to it any day now and not care anymore ...
- I think that's pretty much it, but stay tuned for the wedding post!! (so much fun). Also- this week is only 4 days! Woooooot bc we are going on a luxurious vacation this weekend... we are visiting Petra (the most beautiful place according to Nicki's uncle who has been to A LOT of places), Wadi Rum (to visit with Bedouin-- similar to our Moroccan southern excursion especially because we will not be sleeping with them, but staying in a four star hotel) and also Aqaba (a popular vacation spot where we will be staying in a BEAUTIFUL FIVE-STAR RESORT-- I didn't read my US weekly from last week, so I will have two to read while lying out on our beautiful private beach)
Happy Sunday!!!
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