A Day in the Life

My life here is starting to settle into a routine. That's one of the reasons I haven't written for a few days. I go to class 5 days a week, for various hours of the day, but I'm at the university from 9 am until at least 5 pm, more often 7 or 8. On Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday I only have afternoon classes, but I meet my peer tutor, Arwa, for an hour at 9 because that is what is convenient for her. Between 10 and 2 (when my afternoon classes start), I usually do homework or read something non-academic. Monday and Wednesday look pretty much the same, except I have a class instead of meeting Arwa. At this point, I still don't have much homework, at least compared to Marlboro, and I don't think that's going to change much. Contemporary Arab Women Writers is a literature class, so we'll be reading several books, but they're all pretty short. For the first two weeks, we only have 80 pages to read. My other class, Contemporary Thought in the Islamic World (I seem to be picking contemporary subjects lately, which is funny because I'm a history student), requires only about 400 pages for the entire semester. However, both classes require things like presentations also, so it won't be too easy. Just not as much reading and writing as I'm used to. The Arabic classes don't require much homework either, although that might change. We do get lots of quizs though.

So far, my weekends have consisted mostly of hanging around the apartment, usually with one excursion out a day, to downtown usually. I discovered the souk yesterday, the fresh fruits and vegetables market, which was interesting. That's probably where we'll be getting our produce for now on, since it's cheaper than the grocery store. There were several spice stalls which smelled particularly amazing, although of course everything was labeled in Arabic and I didn't recognize most of it. I haven't done much cooking yet, beyond pasta and rice, because we still haven't found a long lighter to light the oven (it's gas), and my roommate doesn't cook at all, beyond boiling water and heating things up. I'm hoping that I can find someone, maybe my peer tutor, to teach me some Jordanian cooking recipes or techniques.

Arwa, my peer tutor, is extremely nice, as are most of the Jordanians I've talked to, especially the women. She is a senior at the University of Jordan, is the oldest child in her family, and comes 2 hours on the bus to get to school everyday. She is working on becoming a translator, and her English is quite good. She is also fairly religious (Muslim), from the few conversations we've had so far. Of the three times we've met, religion has come up twice, including the first time. CIEE tells us (both Jordanians and Americans) not to get into the sticky subjects, like religion, politics, and sexuality, until we get to know each other a little better. We've already broken that rule/suggestion, but she seems open-minded about my lack of religion, although I think she thinks I just haven't figured it out yet, and I'll choose something when I do. She hasn't tried to convert me at all though, not even by just explaining how wonderful Islam is (something that I actually do agree with, I just don't want to join), which is the usual reaction I've gotten in the past.

I haven't heard back from the UNRWA people yet, but Ahmed at CIEE got me and two other students an interview with the Microfund for Women organization in Amman. I had expressed an interest in it before I found the ad for Gaza Camp, although microfinance isn't really my passion. However, from the interview it sounds like they're trying to branch out into non-finance related fields as well, to generally help their female clients and their families. One program that they mentioned being involved in was a breast cancer awareness effort, spearheaded by a branch of the King Hussein Cancer Center. The other thing that was clear in the interview, however, was that they don't really need a ton of help, although they'll try to find jobs for all 3 of us for at least a couple of hours a week. It would be interesting, but if that's the case I'll probably just volunteer at the Gaza Camp, if they need me of course.