عيد شكر سعيد!!!

This week marks a few significant things for me and my time abroad. 

First- Yesterday marked one month until I depart from this country.  I didn’t think much about it other than simple reflection with my roommate and the boys that live up the street from us.  We talked about what we wish we had done or could do and what next semester holds and what we plan on doing as far as Arabic is concerned. 

I cant say that yesterday was all that sad nor was it happy.  It was just another day in Amman.  I told myself that I wasn’t going to label it beyond what the calendar said and I would simply make the most out of the time I have left.

Second- Today was Thanksgiving.  It was my first thanksgiving away from home.  The day started off as usual in Gloria Jeans cramming in all my homework that I didn’t get done earlier while I sipped my free iced tea and ate my blueberry muffin.  I then ventured to my colloquial Arabic class where we had doughnuts and an oral exam.  We then returned to Gloria Jeans to finish more homework and study for our vocab test in the next class.  That class was once again in our fishbowl of a classroom, as we were still off campus due to fear of protests on campus.  From our classroom, during our test we could hear another class learning a song.  Our professor invited the class to come over and sing to us during our exam….

Once class was finally over we headed to the Thanksgiving dinner which was arranged by CIEE for us.  We weren’t sure where the dinner was but once on campus we saw a large group of UJ students watching something.  At a closer look they were actually watching our group play American football.  Some Jordanian students along with some random Asian students had joined in the game.  Many of our teachers from CIEE were also playing which was so fun to see.

Once dinner was ready we all filtered into the UJ cafeteria dining room for our Thanksgiving feast!  The tables were decorated in traditional Thanksgiving colors complete with a pumpkin in the middle of the tables!!!  We had apple juice and water to drink and the food was set up in buffet style.  They had a mixture of traditional American foods such as turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans.  But there were also a few Jordanian curve balls thrown in there like rice, hummus and pita bread.  It was a great experience and since I couldn’t be home to celebrate I am glad that I was here with these people.

After the dinner Beth, the other girl from my school, and I along with James headed downtown to film our video for Jewell's hanging of the green.  We took a bus and I guess there was a huge accident or traffic situation cause it took us forever to get downtown.  We wanted to do the video in front of a mosque but to avoid being confused as a journalist we decided to film the video elsewhere.  Our first choice was at Hercules Temple on the Citadel but the bus took too long so we filmed it at the Roman amphitheater.

While we were filming a group of little girls were fascinated by us and kept asking questions about us.  We invited them to be in our video but they laughed through the whole thing and you could hardly hear us so we didn’t use that take.  Beth, James and I finished the video and did a little exploring (spending money…what? We don’t get black Friday!!!) Worried about potential and predicted protests we didn’t stay out very late. 

When I got home my host sisters invited me to go out with them and run a few errands.  We got toilet paper for a video that one of them was making along with a Barbie for the video.  After we were done with our errands we went to a pizza place called Pizza Lovers which they assured me was the best pizza in the world! It was pretty good but for me the BEST part of it was…well other than being with my Jordanian fam…was the fact that the NFL was on tv in the pizza place.  It was so exciting. 

Once I got home I called home and checked in on them.  I loved getting to talk to the family.  I felt like I was back at home for just a split second. 

So what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? I think the question is what am I not thankful for? I have been blessed with an amazing family and support group back home in the states.  I have wonderful friends, peers, teachers and colleagues here in Amman.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to come here to Amman and live and learn and experience and try new things and make mistakes and learn from the mistakes and grow as a person.  My list could go on about what I am thankful for and what I am thankful for back home, my mom can attest as I sent her a ranting text the other day outlining all the things I miss from home, but I think I will just keep it at this.  Thank you to all of you who are reading this too because I know that if you didn’t care about me or have an impact in my life then you wouldn’t take the time to read the rants of a college girl in the middle east.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Enjoy it!

Check out my video of my day HERE