It's the weekend!
Sorry I haven't been posting. I decided that writing long blog posts in English might not be good for my Arabic and writing blog posts in Arabic would take a very very long time. However, at the request of my mother I have decided to do half and half English and Arabic posts. For my Arabic posts, I would recommend copy and pasting into Google Translate...it's not perfect, so I'll probably sound like more of an idiot than usual.
This feels sort of vain but I got a haircut on Tuesday and was pretty happy that it was only 5 JD (about $7) but probably would have cost $40 in the US. Still, this is the first haircut I have actually had to paid for in about 6 years...the last three times I just got it loped off for free for Locks of Love. This is what it looks like.
I also had seven hours of homework from one class on Tuesday, which was difficult and torturous, and then got to class to find out that it wasn't necessary for us to translate all those paragraphs. Also that most people just didn't finish it (a bunch of people went out to the bar because it was someone's birthday and shots are only 1 JD on Tuesday nights). I haven't been doing very well in that class, but we have a test every week so I am hoping I'll have more opportunities to bring my grade up.
I am pretty happy with my classes right now. I was relieved to drop Media Arabic and picked up a new class they started on Women in Jordan by a professor whose speciality is women in Jordanian law. We will be studying the history of the feminist movement in Jordan and the Arab world, and I am very excited because we will be talking a lot about gender roles in Islam as well. I have a presentation for that class on Tuesday on how the ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) affected Jordanian law.
I was feeling homesick today so I decided to clean my apartment. Once again I am very grateful to have had parents who made me clean as a kid. I actually like it now...
I also basically got proposed to by the guy at the supermarket today. I was kind of hoping that I would only get one marriage proposal in my life, but oh well. Also a guy at lunch tried to ask me out. These are very strange experiences for me...but I guess nice ego boosters :P
Supermarket guy: Where are you from?
Me: America.
Supermarket guy: You speak Arabic very well. (not true and I didn't really talk very much Arabic with him) I want to travel to America. Are you married? (points to my ring)
Me: No.
Supermarket guy: I want to an American wife.
Me: (pretending not to understand) Where is your wife from in America?
Supermarket guy: No, I am not married. I want to marry an American girl. You are very pretty.
Me: ....Thanks.
I will post pictures and the story of our Aqaba/Wadi Rum trip soon.
Although you must be careful about all those marriage proposals, your story reminded me vaguely of a tale from my youth. Back in the 1950s there was a time when I was dating two guys and being confused (so were they, probsbly). Meanwhile, my best friend in Framingham had broken up with a handsome Italian-American for being fresh. (It WAS the 1950s) Very soon, he asked me out, and I was honorable and refused because he had been dating my best friend. He declared he admired my principles - BUT he really had to marry an Irish girl to raise his social status! I don't know whether he found one who liked his romantic declaration or not.
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