I just realized that I forgot the most important picture of my apartment - the bathroom! Nothing like having a bidet! At least I have an American toilet as well; the use of the bidet is one cultural norm I do not think I will be adjusting to.

Toilets are pretty sketchy here, especially at the university. Absolutely no toilet paper (so bring your own), cleanliness isn't really an option, some are just holes in the floor, and some apparently are prisons . . . the stalls here are the ones where the wall goes floor to ceiling - the only open air space is above the door. The other day, a guy in my class closed his door, but it didn't have a handle, so it wouldn't open again . . . from the outside either. So he had to hoist himself up and squeeze through the space at the top. Mind you, he's like 6'3". I really wish an Arab had walked in the bathroom at that time. It would have been priceless. "Am-ree-kee-yeen mej-noo-neen."

I've yet to take many pictures - the past few days I've yet to really venture past my immediate neighborhood and the university campus - and I don't want to appear as a tourist in those places - I am living here . . . but I do have this picture of some of the many, many stray cats that hang out at our dumpster.

And of this burned out car in front of the mosque next to our apartment building.

And here is the upside down tree. I've yet to figure out how this works . . .

I really need to get some shots of campus - it's pretty nice. Most of the streets are lined with trees, which is great, because while it can be sweltering in the sun, since there's no humidity, plus usually a good breeze, being in the shade is quite pleasant. I'm overall very happy with the weather here. I didn't realize there would be such a good breeze all the time. Our apartment doesn't have air conditioning, but it does have garage doors on all the windows, and if you keep those closed during the day, it stays cool in the apartment.


I'm very optimistic about achieving fluency here - I did well enough on my placement test and in-class evaluation that I get to skip a semester and now I'm in intermediate II. It means a lot of catching up this weekend, because I am now a bit behind, but I'll definitely learn faster in a more advanced class. There are only four of us which is good; tiring too though, because with only four, you're called on a lot more. My brain feels like it is about to burst with all the new vocabulary I've learned this week - not to mention trying to remember what is MSA (modern standard arabic) and what is Jordanian dialect. They have different words and pronounce letters differently. Like I use the word "faw-qat" a lot - it means "that's all" - but now I have to remember to say "bess" instead. I'm sad about that - "faw-qat" was my favorite word.

On Wednesday, we met our peer tutors for lunch, and I really liked mine. She was great at speaking mostly in Arabic, and if I didn't understand a concept, she would try explaining it in some other way, rather than just saying it in English. I was doing really well with understanding her, and it gave me a big confidence boost in my Arabic proficiency. But then we finished lunch, and she's like "I'm not actually your tutor, Miriam is, but she couldn't come today, so I came, but I won't be here anymore." So I don't know who Miriam is, and I am essentially without a tutor . . . I'll figure it out; I'm just sad it wasn't Dania, because I think I would have learned a lot of Arabic from her.

Anyway, we ended up at a bar last night - yes they do have those here (or if you don't know - it's haram - forbidden - for Muslims to drink, so bars are not numerous) - with the peer tutor of one of the guys in my class. It was basically an expat hang out. No hijab, shoulders were bared, people were drinking. It looked Western, minus the fantastic view of one of the many hills of Amman. This isn't what I want. I didn't come here to do Western things; not to mention that one beer was 5.5 JD which is $7.75. Not worth it in my opinion. That's the problem with hanging out with foreign men - they think it's cool to do American things - so in this case they take us to a bar where there aren't any Arabs.

One last thing - I have to mention the "sad clown ice-cream trucks", as I am now calling them. They actually sell gas, but they play music like ice-cream trucks. Except the music sounds like sad circus music; hence the sad clown . . . I'll get a picture some time. For now, here's my current work of art, photography wise. Which I was scolded for taking, btw, despite being quite far away (my camera has good zoom. can't you tell I know nothing about cameras . . .)

Ahhh, the Jordanian "tourist police" as their badges claim.