Rough Times Ahead

Day 5

I am going through the bad part of culture shock right now. I am realizing I am in a third world country where I don’t speak the language or understand the culture. No one here speaks fos-ha which is pretty much all I know. All we have learned so far in amiyya is ‘I want’ and ‘I want you to…’ and relative pronouns. It makes it kind of hard to talk to people.

Also, while I thought my dorm room at home was shit (pardon my French) it looks like a palace compared to where I live. We have to light the stove with a lighter. The laundry machine terrifies me- I haven’t yet learned how to work it, but it involves holding certain tubes and pieces up to the sink and to a hole in our kitchen while it runs…in layman’s terms, it is WAY GHETTO.

School is not too hard, but our homework today at least was. I had to read 3 pages on military history of Syria. (Most of the teachers in the program are Syrian because the program originated in Syria but had to be moved for obvious reasons). Basically, one page about the Ottoman Empire ruling for 400 years, then a 2 year revolution, then some stuff in the cold war, then problems with Israel and the Golan Heights. 2 pages on the Golan Heights and how Israel was aggressive and attacked and there were peace treaties and all that good stuff. I had to look up every other word because I don’t know political words in Arabic other than politics and United Nations. But Even the UN Security Council has an abbreviated term for United Nations (الاون) and I kept forgetting it and not recognizing the term. It took a while to say the least.

Hopefully in a few days, I will fall into a better pattern and feel better about the whole situation. I think once I am able to better understand and communicate with people, I will be happier here. For now I have to content myself with the fact that I can spend less than $5 per day if I am just buying food and every day things. That’s not bad, now is it? Still, it would be nice to be in a more western country I think. I will have to take ‘breaks’ from Jordan I think. Go to Israel.

Also, I am looking into being an Au Pair in Germany or somewhere in Europe during my months in between my Jordan program and my Israel program. I figured it would be a good way to make some money before I start school again. And I miss Germany. However, it is hard to find Au pair jobs for December now, so I will figure all that out later.

Okay, I have to go to sleep now. My entire body hurts because I took a class at the gym yesterday. My friend Jessie and I went and ended up meeting the teacher and she said she taught Yoga. We went, but it wasn’t yoga. It was more like strength training, but the strangest muscles. We didn’t do a lot with our abs and barely any arms. It was a lot of legs and hip flexors (I think) and some of the moves we did I remember being yelled at in Kindergarten because they were bad for your skeletal structure…. I don’t think I will do that class again, but it was interesting to do once. 

I wrote this last part last night after I had taken out my internet stick from my computer. Today was better than yesterday I think. Not that yesterday was so bad, it was just exhausting. But regardless, today was better. Here is a photo of the machine that makes falafel, if any of you are interested in how that works. A falafel sandwich costs about .30 JD. The man is pressing a button that spins the silver cylinder and there are two holes where the falafel is pushed through and dropped into a vat of oil to fry.