Having my taxi driver tell me, in Arabic, that Gaddafi had just been killed, was exceptionally cool. The Libyan revolution hits a lot closer to home when you live in the Middle East and actively follow the various revolutions in the region. "Wul-lah!!?" I exclaimed as my heart skipped a beat, and I eagerly leaned forward to hear the radio better. I'm not in the thick of it, but still, being in the region at such a crucial time is something I'm so incredibly grateful for. The way I view the world will never be the same after these past few months.

Also, on a totally unrelated note, it was my five year old cousin's birthday today. They put three sparklers, yes actual sparklers, on her Barbie cake. And lit them. As they sang the most out of tune version of Happy Birthday I have ever heard in my life. Note to self: do not ever sing in any language other than English, even if I become fluent.

It's getting harder for me to blog the longer I live in Amman. My life has become so ordinary. To me at least. Just like I wouldn't blog from back in Champaign or Carbondale, I'm starting to feel the same way about Amman. Which is actually a shame, because I'm still having some new and interesting experiences that I'm sure y'all would love to hear about. I also managed to severely dehydrate myself, which made for a very bad past week. Note to all: If one lives in a desert climate and starts working out four times a week, one should increase one's water intake. I did not. I think I came close to needing to be hospitalized. But at least now I know why I've been so tired lately and getting frequent muscle cramps.

So last Saturday, I attended my first Jordanian wedding. Weddings here in Jordan are relatively similar to Christian weddings in the States, except that there is no ceremony. Only a reception, but the bride wears white, the groom wears a tux, and there's a giant, white wedding cake. I've wanted to go to a wedding for a long time, but I wasn't too jazzed about this one, because teta only asked me if I wanted to go a few hours before we left, and I had nothing to wear. I did my best, but I was vastly underdressed. Jordanians like lots of bling, and while I never went to prom, I imagine the dance floor looked pretty similar to a high school prom. Except without boys. Yep, this wedding was segregated. Which was kind of a big deal, enough so that my host dad wouldn't even go. The segregation was interesting to see though - when we first got there, the men were in the same room, but they left shortly after, and then all the outer clothes came off - hijabs, jackets, etc. until the women were only wearing skimpy little dresses. I find it interesting how, out in society, this culture is so conservative, but yet so laid back behind closed doors. You should have seen how some of the women were dancing - and in front of their grandmas' too! Another CIEE student was there, so we were dancing, and let me tell you, I sure felt uncomfortable dancing to Shakira in front of teta . . . that is until she came out and danced with me. My teta rules. Oh, and I took an awesome video of the bride and groom dancing, but I got yelled at about it because the bride had taken her hijab off, so I guess I'll have to refrain from posting it here. Sad face.

Also last Saturday, I started English conversation club at the organization where I work. Volunteers from the center came in, and we just sat in a circle and talked. I was thrilled, because there were some really outspoken and politically minded young women that showed up; they seemed like a lot of fun. Most of the young women I meet here seem to have no interest in anything other than hair and nails and maybe Twilight, so it was really refreshing to talk to these girls. Plus, I've hit a goldmine of information on Jordan. I'm really lucky to work where I do, because most Jordanians don't talk about politics, but the center is very politically involved, so that's all we do talk about. I'm learning so much about the way this country is run - it's fascinating. I'm so incredibly, incredibly lucky to be working at a political organization in the Middle East at a time like this. Jordan isn't obviously in the thick of it, but still I feel like I'm in the middle of history in the making. Going to work, and having all these people around you pushing for change, believing in their cause, trying to make their country a better place to live . . . it's really fucking cool.

This past weekend was our CIEE sponsored trip to Petra and Wadi Rum which I had previously done three months before with the summer program. While I still had a good time, I quickly realized that doing it with a grand total of 32 individuals is much more fun then the 150 that were on the trip this time around. I don't feel like rehashing the details, especially a second time around so we won't go into that. Plus, I enjoy talking about the fam more - my host grandma, or as I've began to call her "teta" (Jordanian for grandma), is so much more interesting.

Some short stories:

On Friday morning I was in my room doing homework. Teta walks in, hands me a pair of new socks, says "for you", and walks out again.

She moves furniture around in the house daily. My room is different every day. Every. Day. Furniture goes in, other furniture goes out. Also, I came home yesterday to find the two twin beds in my room covered in matching comforters with massive tigers on them. I feel like a bad ass. Or a 10 year old boy who likes Ed Hardy and motorcycles.

When I got home from my trip yesterday I went to bed almost immediately. Teta didn't get home until later. Today, when I got home from school I thought she told me that she had prepared a "feast" for me yesterday, but I was sleeping. I felt terrible. Thankfully, she repeated herself later and I realized she had said "fish" not "feast" and it had been sitting in the microwave all afternoon. That made me feel better. I already felt bad about ignoring my family last night; I would have been really embarrassed if they had prepared dinner for me and I slept through it.

ETA: While I was eating my dinner this evening, Teta decided to tell me about how the maid was on her period. And how she felt so sick she thought she was a bird apparently. Great story Teta, keep them coming. Which reminds me - almost as funny as yesterday when she asked me if there were camels in America, and Maher, her son, gave me a fantastic "sorry, she's crazy" look as he told her no, there are no camels in America.

While I pretty much hated Jordanian/Middle Eastern food this summer, my opinion has completely reversed since living in a Jordanian home. While many parts of the homestay are hard for me, eating the food definitely isn't. Things taste much better home cooked. Plus there's definite variety. It's always rice and a lot of times chicken, but still awesome. Especially because this is one of those food cultures where things taste best all mixed together, which is my favorite. Even a simple meal of rice, yogurt, and salad (tomato, cucumber, parsley, olive oil) all mixed together is zakee. Today, Teta made an Egyptian dish (the name escapes me) that was possibly my favorite so far. You start with a bed of rice mixed with lentils and something that I think was caramelized onions. Add plain macaroni. Then hot sauce. Then peppers. Then salad. Top off with homemade baba ghanoush. Mix together. Actually I may be completely bull shitting you. What happened was, I came home at 7pm. Teta got a bunch of tupperware containers out of the fridge and showed me what they were. I know the rice, macaroni, and hot sauce go together, but I'm not sure about the rest. Teta seems to get confused when I ask her things in Arabic. Not sure why; I've been told my Arabic is very clear. So anyway I ended up just dumping a little bit of everything into the bowl. No one else was eating, so I may have appalled her with my love of just mixing everything together. In fact I probably ruined her famous Egyptian dish by doing something else. Whatever, it tasted good to me . . .

The past couple of weeks were pretty hard for me, but I think I've finally returned to my normal state of being. I'm still stressed about when I'm going to find time to do grad school applications, but other than that, things are going pretty well. I have a routine down that includes gym time. I was able to do some bonding over the weekend, so I feel closer to my fellow American classmates. I just bought my plane ticket to Beirut for our week long holiday in November. I'm running a 10k race through Amman in three weeks. I figured out that the internet at my home is fast enough to download streaming video, so I can now watch the new season of my favorite show (will not be named to save face). I just got an extra $100 from CIEE to cover transportation costs to and from my job - what they don't know is that I figured out how to take the bus, which is a mere 42 cents per ride. My host dad, Maher, is making baby shrimp soup this weekend. Etc, etc, etc. I'm just glad I've settled in. I was worried for awhile that I wouldn't and I'd hate this entire semester.