Adventures in Doha, Qatar!

So I’m back in the USA! I had a lot of fun my last few days in Jordan and even more fun traveling back. Here are some of the last pictures I took of Madaba:

A view of Madaba, the city goes as far as we could see. So huge!

Staircase leading to some awesome ancient tunnels underneath the Catholic church.

Outside the Catholic church.

My flight back had an 18 hour layover in Doha, Qatar. For those of you who can’t remember where Qatar is, it’s on the southwest side of Saudi Arabia, on the coast. I had some vague plans to ask how expensive an entry visa would be, and then maybe figure out a taxi and a hotel since 18 hours overnight in an airport is a really long time, but I kind of anticipated it would be too much expense and hassle to be worth it. Luckily for me, things worked out great! I arrived at the airport and got ushered into this line for connecting flights. I handed the lady my boarding pass and she gave me a voucher for a stay and meals at a hotel, as well as a pass for a taxi. Sweet! Qatar isn’t one of the richest countries in the world for nothing.

So I rode to the hotel and got a look at Doha. It is a beautiful city! So different from Jordan, with tons of huge business buildings and hotels, and grass and sidewalks everywhere. It is a stunning, modern and clean city. The hotel we arrived at was beautiful, definitely the nicest hotel I have stayed in and they gave me an entire suite. I ate lunch at the fancy hotel restaurant and then decided I was going to try to go out and see what I could in the few hours left before sunset. I asked the concierge if there was anything within walking distance and he said just down the street was the Museum of Islamic Art. It was amazing! And right next to it was a nice park with tons of families outside, playing soccer or eating.

The lobby of the hotel.

A view of the city. My hotel is in the back right.

A look at the artificial island, Pearl. With some boats and jet-skis on the water. Who knew that Muslims enjoy water sports?

The Museum of Islamic Art.

Inside the museum. There were tons of every kind of art and artifacts, except paintings. 

Bad quality, but a view of Pearl at night. Even at night it was still close to 100 degrees oustide. I don’t know how those women covered in black from head to toe managed to walk around in that heat.

After my walk through the park, it was starting to get dark, so I laid out on the grass right next to the water and watched the sun set behind the stunning skyline of the artificial island across the bay. 

Also unlike Jordan, I felt completely comfortable walking around outside by myself, even at night. There were tons of families and kids and women walking around and no one stared at me or made any comments when I passed.

After the sunset, I made my way back to the hotel and went to dinner. It was a busy day and there weren’t enough tables for me to get my own, so I was seated with some random men. At first there was just one guy, he looked about my age, and not at all interested in talking to me. But I was so curious what he was doing in Qatar and where he was from, that I kept asking questions. I found out that he was from Romania, he was in Qatar working with a big group guys and they were all staying at the hotel for a few weeks. By this time, two other Romanian men had joined us and the first guy had relaxed a lot and was talking freely with me. His English was pretty good, but the two new guys didn’t speak English very well. I asked if either of them happened to speak Spanish, and one of them did. So between English and Spanish, we understood each other pretty well. I also really liked listening to them speak Romanian. I realized when they were speaking to each other that I understood some of the words they were saying and I asked if Romanian descended from Latin. Yup! Cool! I didn’t know that.

When we finished eating, they told me that on the top floor of the hotel there would be a dance later and they invited me to meet up with them. So I went dancing with some Romanian men in Doha, Qatar! It was really just a small club, but there was live music and the Romanian guys let loose, singing and dancing along with it. Possibly my favorite part of the evening was teaching them the electric slide. They loved it.

I didn’t stay very long, I had to leave super early the next morning and the smell of alcohol after a while makes me sick, but it was a blast. The entire day was amazing actually. I’m so glad. I was leaving Jordan with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, very disappointed with the way things had worked out. It was nice to experience such a fun and entertaining day in the Middle East and realize that someday I would like to come back and tour more of the countries in the area and learn more about their culture.

My flight from Qatar was 16 hours straight to Houston, Texas. Sixteen hours in one seat! I had watched a movie and read part of a book when I looked at the map and saw we hadn’t even reached Europe yet. Finally we arrived and I got to spend a few days with my sister and her husband in Texas.

Even though I started this blog to talk about my foreign adventures, I think I will keep writing occasionally. It’s been so fun to share my experiences and learn how awesome all my friends and family are. I have gotten so much support and advice from everyone and I appreciated it so much! I learned a lot from the whole experience. Such as my ability to be confrontational, gaining more confidence in meeting new people and getting around by myself in a foreign country, and realizing that I don’t need to live somewhere to enjoy traveling. I can’t wait to continue meeting neat people and hopefully travel a bit too!

So now I’m back in Utah and I’m feeling so good. It’s great to be back. Now I just have to find a job and a place to live. Suggestions and advice are welcome as always!

New Plan!

Well, on Sunday night I told my boss that I quit. It was a crazy day, not in a good way. Nabila had called me, wanting me to put in more hours, someone stole my debit card information and spent my entire balance, and I had the beginnings of the flu, or some virus. All of it added up and I decided I was done. So Monday, I spent the day making return plans and being really sick. Not fun.  My boss asked me to write up a list of complaints about the school. One of the administrators at the school called me and could not understand why there had been any problems. Too bad for them. I was the last of the English teachers left, now there aren’t any. And they will keep having problems unless they change something.

At first I felt guilty, and like a big wuss, but not anymore. Now that I’ve calmed down and I’m not so sick, I still feel like I made the right decision and I don’t regret anything. I’m glad I came, I’ve had a lot of fun, I’ve learned a lot about myself through the unpleasant parts, and now I’m glad I’m going home.

So I’m headed back to the States in a few days, with no real plan, no job and only some vague ideas of what kind of job I’m looking for. The adventure continues!

Now that I’m not teaching, I’ve been able to see and do more cool things. Here are some pictures of the Roman amphitheater in Amman. 

The tour guide said that all the red in the stone are stains from all the sacrifices made at this altar.... Hmm.... Most of the stones in the amphitheater were this color, but cool story!

Some other teachers, Geoff, Uncle Mark and Noah. Great people.

In one of the passageways that leads to the arena. They now use it as a museum. I was more fascinated by the passageway than the art inside it. 

One of the mosaics in the museum. The tour guide was hilarious. He positioned my exactly like this in front of the mosaic so it would look like I had wings made of feathers attached to my head, haha.

A view from the top of the amphitheater. The steps were very steep and very narrow, and the amphitheater was surprisingly high, so I actually got scared at the top.

A view of the theater and city. Such a cool place. 

I've had some amazing food, been to some more cool places, I'll post more about them soon. So much to do before I fly out on Friday!

Sweet treats!

School yesterday was pretty rough again. It’s not the misery that it was the first few days, now it is more just varying degrees of unpleasantness. Every day that I get home, it takes me a while to unwind and de-stress and start taking an interest again in the city around me. I’m only going to stay until I feel like I’ve seen my fill of Jordan and then I’m gone. I don’t feel at all motivated to put in more effort, like I did as a missionary working for something much more valuable.

Outside of babysitting, I have been having the time of my life walking the streets, eating new foods and slowly meeting people and making friends. Taking a walk around town and trying to see all that I can see is the best part of my day. Even though I’ve been here for a few weeks now, I still haven’t gotten used to it to the point that I’m not staring as I walk. There is still too much to take in!

Today I found a sweet shop! I had actually passed the shop several times, but the only things I saw in the window were these orange, stringy bar things, that I assumed were fish. They are actually creamy, cheesy creations, and are pretty good. It’s kind of like cheese cake, but a little less sweet, with a crunchy, cheesy covering.

I also got a few other things in the sweet shop: some baklava, some nut-cake thing and a few cookies that taste just like Russian tea cakes. Those were my favorite. The guy working there actually spoke English really well, so it wasn’t as hard as it normally is to purchase something.

People keep telling me if I don’t haggle the prices, I will get ripped off, and maybe I have been and I just don’t know it, but most of the people that ring me up seem to be very generous. For example, sweet-shop-man didn’t have any change for my bill, so he handed me a plate of goodies and asked me to wait while he went to another shop to get change. He told me to keep the entire plate after he returned and didn’t charge me for it. Falafel-man let me try some fried vegetable balls while I was waiting for my sandwich and tossed some extra in my bag before I left. Shawarma-man gave me the sandwich for half the listed price, after I asked him for some help to figure out the cash. I wouldn’t dare approach them to talk if I wasn’t actually a customer, but when I interact with the men, they are all very kind.

Can you tell my biggest interest here is the food??

This morning, Hakim, a man that works at the Orthodox Church’s gift shop next to the chapel, took us to the police station to apply for our work visas. He has lived in Madaba his whole life and was telling us a little about it as we walked. He has given each of us teachers Arabic nicknames. Mine is Nargish, which means a special kind of rose that grows in the mountains. He actually got kind of annoyed at me when he found out I had been to the sweet shop down the street. He told me there was a much better sweet shop with better prices that I should have gone to. He said to consult with him first anytime I want to buy something.

In the evenings, I have been reading “Lone Survivor” the past few days (thanks Sean!) by Marcus Luttrell, about his experiences as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan. His story is very painful and looks into the face of terrorism. It is kind of an odd sensation to read about such hatred when I’m very close to where it happened, but with people that are instead being very kind to me, and want me to teach them my language. There is still so much about the war in Afghanistan that I don't understand, but I can't help but feeling that there are good and bad people everywhere. 

I feel very grateful that I could come here and have these experiences. Jordan is a great place, but at the same time, I feel very patriotic and proud to be an American. The United States is the best country in the world! I’m glad that’s where I get to go after my adventures here.

Here goes another week!

Shawarma!

I just realized that today is 9/11. How crazy that I’m in the Middle East right now.

I’m pretty content in this instant. I’m eating shawarma outside, which is a tortilla-sandwich kind of thing with sweet and spicy meat, there is a nice breeze going around as the sun is starting to set, and I even have some ice cream waiting for me. I’ve been craving something sweet, but I haven’t really been able to find anything besides western ice cream and candy in the local street stores. I think I will have to go to a real restaurant to find something more culturally native to Jordan.

Penelope and Denise have both refused to go back to the kindergarten school, so I was on my own today. I don’t blame them at all. I may be getting switched out of the kindergarten school as well, which I think would be nice. Even though things at that school are slightly better than before, it’s more exhausting and unpleasant than it is enjoyable and rewarding. We’ll see.

I don’t have much to write about today. I’m going to bask in the sunshine a little longer and just laze around for the rest of the evening. I don’t teach tomorrow! And I get to go to church! Both things to celebrate.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for books? I’m currently in a non-fiction phase. Send me a message if you do!

More at school

So things are actually looking up at the kindergarten school! It is not anywhere near what I'd like it to be, but I’ve been trying so hard with the kids and they are starting to calm down and actually participate in the activities I have for them. I have given up that they will ever give me another teacher and so I’ve been trying to rise up to the occasion. After school yesterday, Ms. Nabila came up to me and asked me directly if I was going to quit. I told her I had been seriously considering it, but I was willing to try if they would try with me.

When I was teaching today, she stopped by my class a few times and told me how much better I was doing. She said “See, I told you it would get better!” I realized that from the beginning they never planned on giving me another teacher. But I feel so satisfied with my progress with the kids and I really want to be successful at this, so I think it will work out. Today, I got almost all of the names of my two classes memorized, which is a huge feat, since they all have names that I have never heard of before and most of them I couldn’t say correctly at first.

The funniest moment of all was when one of the Arabic teachers, Ruba, stopped by my class for a moment. Her son, Own, is a student in the class and she wanted to get a picture. She pulled out her phone, said “Smile!” and there was instant silence in the classroom as every child dropped their books and pencils, turned to her and grinned. These five year olds are well trained with cameras, if nothing else. Maybe I can use that the next time they get too rowdy.

On the drive home today, I was thinking about more things I can do to motivate the kids and help them learn. Both boys and girls like stickers at that age, right? I’m actually starting to get excited about the things I can do with them. Along with learning their names, I’m starting to really like them and enjoy them. They are so beautiful. The other teachers keep telling me I need to be more harsh and demanding with them. I don’t think I’ll try that, I just want us all to enjoy each other.

So I was feeling much better about everything today, but as I was telling the other teachers about my progress, Denise and Penelope (the girls that also teach at the kindergarten school) actually got a little upset with me. They told me that it was good that I was adjusting, but since I was succumbing to the unrealistic demands of Ms. Nabila, I was going to make things harder for them and for any teachers that came in the future. I don’t know why Denise was upset since she told our boss, Makis, that she refused to go back there and has been staying home the last few days. And Penelope has another Arabic teacher with her the entire day, so she hasn’t had to deal with quite the same issues.

I have had more practice these last few days at arguing and standing up for myself than ever before in my life. And I am actually doing it! I told them that I could sort of see their side of the situation, but also that I thought they were wrong since neither of them was currently teaching by themselves. I told them to stop being angry at me and that I didn’t like them blaming me for anything, when they have the freedom to do whatever they want in the situation, same as me.

I just can’t win! The crazy part is that all this arguing is actually kind of liberating, rather than awful, as arguing usually is for me. I don’t think I could ever be an abrasive person, but this has definitely been some good practice of saying what I think, even when I know the other person will disagree. It can be satisfying. And somehow, I think we will all still be friends and get along. At least, I hope so.

In short, I am still alive! And I’ll be around here for a little longer! I can’t believe it’s only been about a week! Here are a few more pictures, I’m ready to go out and see more cool things. Hopefully soon.

This was lunch today. Some eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and onions in a sauce with rice. I've had rice a lot since being here. Some of the food is quite spicy, I like it. I need to try some more desserts.

A view from the car on the way to the school. It's a desert, but really hilly. And there are surprisingly tons of cars. This road doesn't have lines on it, even though it is like a highway. The cars drive wherever they want to on the street and are constantly weaving around. Even when there are lines on the road, they don't mean a thing. It's kind of exciting :)

Even though my experience teaching here has been pretty rocky, I'm so glad I came. It really is an adventure, and I've had so much fun meeting new people and seeing new places. !هذا هو رائع

Mosaics

Welp, another two days under my belt. The 4^th and 5^th graders yesterday were great, as expected. The kindergartners today were somewhat better. For the first 2 hours I was left alone again with 31 five year olds, but this time I was better prepared and the chaos levels were slightly lower. Our relationship with the principal and other teachers has gotten even worse though. Before classes started, I told Ms. Nabila that I could not be alone with the kids. It wasn’t fair to them. Finally she gave in and said, “Ok, I will go with you.” She went with me to the classroom and then 2 minutes later she left. After I had been with the class for a few hours, another teacher finally walked in so I could have a 10 minute break and she got really mad at me. She even started yelling. She said that I was supposed to teach the kids things, and not just play games with them, as she had walked in when we were all singing a song together. I showed her the worksheets they had done and tried to explain all the things I had taught them, but she was still mad. The nice thing about being in a culture that shows emotion is that you can too. I told her I was doing the best that I could and that she wasn’t being fair and that I wasn’t supposed to be alone with them in the first place. And I walked out for my break.

So I went to where a few other Arabic teachers were sitting and sat down. I asked the lady next to me where the cups were to get a drink of water and she said “I don’t know” and then got up and left to go sit by other Arabic teachers. What the heck??

Then Ms. Nabila found me and told me that they needed me to teach another class the same English lessons I had taught first thing in the morning. So I had another few hours with a new class, once again all by myself. Thank goodness in this class there were only about 15 kids. I have learned a few phrases now, like “Can I go to the bathroom?” and “I want my mom” and “now” so when I heard them, I could try to respond, but it was still crazy and exhausting.

I am so frustrated with the staff at that school. We tried in passing to talk to one of the supervisors there and all he said was “You are not volunteers here. You get paid for this.” But we are not doing what we had previously agreed to before coming here, and there is no reason to be unkind.

I can see their side of the matter. It is a brand new school, they are understaffed and are just trying to get things organized and running. But they blatantly lie to our faces and they won’t admit any of the problems that we are having. Rather, they are treating us like we’re the problem.

I talked to my actual boss (none of the staff at the school are my boss) and he seemed to agree with me. He apologized a few times and told me he didn’t know it was going to be like that. That is true for everyone involved since the kindergarten school is brand new. He assigned my 4^th and 5^th grade classes to another teacher and told me that we would have another meeting to discuss additional pay for the additional hours. That is nice, I guess, but it still doesn’t solve the problems with the administration there.

Whatever. I’m here to have an adventure and enjoy myself. If it doesn’t get any better, or they still insist that I move into the school’s basement, I’ll quit, and not even feel bad about it. But I’m going to try and enjoy my time outside of teaching and leave all the problems there.

Yesterday we went to the Visitor’s Center of Madaba and learned more about the city and what there is to see and do here. First thing on the list was the archaeological museum here, just a two minute walk from where we are living. We saw some amazing mosaics and old buildings, most of them about 2,000 years old!

This is the mosque that is just a few blocks from where we live. The calls to prayer come from here and are really loud. Sometimes, right after the calls to prayer start, the Orthodox church starts playing their bells at the same time. Very loud competitions of religious noises.

The courtyard in the archaeology museum. Inside each archway are more ancient mosaics.

A huge Greek mosaic that covers the floor of a room. They said the original piece contained hundreds of thousands of pieces.

A view further back of the same Greek mosaic.

A Roman road built around the time of Christ. We walked down it and wondered what other people did all those years ago. 

An ancient church. This room and floor mosaic are all that are left. We weren't allowed in any further.

The most green I have seen in Jordan so far. This was a garden outside of the Visitor Center.

Help!!!

I taught my first set of classes on Friday. My first class consisted of nine kids, ages 10 and 11. I was nervous before hand, since I don’t speak any Arabic, but I was so impressed with the kids. As long as I spoke slowly and clearly, they were able to do almost everything I asked. I had prepared a review for the first day to see what level they were at and they easily whizzed through all of it. I had them speak to the class, speak to each other, write sentences, fill in the blanks and they completed each task successfully and confidently.

My next class also had nine students, but they were older, ranging in age from 10-13. Again, I was very impressed with their English. I could speak at a faster rate and they could keep up without a problem. There was only one girl in this class that seemed to not know some of the principles we reviewed. I am going to watch her the next few days and see if perhaps she should be moved to a lower class. There is also a girl that speaks very well and answers all the questions so fast that it’s bordering on obnoxious as it prevents other students from participating. I will watch her as well to see if perhaps she should go to a higher class.

My classes today, however, were a nightmare. Oh, it was so awful!! I was assigned to a brand new kindergarten school. Me and two other teachers (Denise, age 60 from Utah and Penelope, mid thirties from Greece) showed up at 8 in the morning and we met with the principle and advisor for almost an hour, during which Denise and Penelope complained about how awful their experience was last week. Since I wasn’t around last week, I couldn’t contribute to the conversation, but everyone in the room was upset and a couple of times voices were raised. Eventually we reached some conclusions, like they agreed to never leave us alone with the kids, they would provide us with the lessons materials, etc. I thought it all sounded reasonable. Very premature.

The principle, Ms. Nadibal (I have no idea how it is really spelled), led me to a classroom and dropped me off. There were over 30 kids, all five years old. The teacher introduced me to the kids, gave me some books, pointed at some paper and puzzles and left me. So I was abandoned with tons of tiny kids that didn’t understand a word I said, and I couldn’t understand anything from them. They were CRAZY! Turns out, even if you are shouting at people, if they can’t understand you, it doesn’t do any good. I tried everything I could think of to get them to calm down: read some books, sang some songs, gave them things to color, playdough, dancing, but nothing worked. Some of them started crying for their moms and never stopped. I tried to find an Arabic teacher to help, but none were close by and I couldn’t just leave the kids by themselves and wander around. And it was so hot. Even with the window open and the fan on, that many people in the small room made the heat very heavy.

I felt so bad for the kids, so many of them crowded around me asking for things over and over again, but I had no idea what they were saying. It was pure chaos. I was almost crying when Penelope showed up. She said she was going through the same thing in her classroom and she had had enough. She found an Arabic teacher to come in the class and pulled me out. To my horror, I saw it was only 11:00 am! Still two more hours! We were talking about what we could do when Ms. Nadibal the principle found us. She kept telling us it was easy and we were making a fuss about nothing. She told me to go back to the classroom and watch the Arabic teacher.

So I went back and it made me feel slightly better that the Arabic teacher, who could communicate just fine with the kids, could not control them any better than I had. It was so loud and so crazy in there. It was awful.

Finally the shift ended. Longest five hours of my life. Denise emerged from her classroom and said she would rather go through labor than do that again (funny now, but not in the moment). Ms. Nadibal could not, or chose not to, understand why we were having any problems. She said they were understaffed and that was why they could not keep the Arabic teachers in the classroom during our English lessons (although she had confirmed just earlier that morning that we would never be alone with the kids!) She brushed off all of our complaints and said that things would just get better. She said that we needed to stay a few hours after school to get trained and prepare materials and then it would go better. She said that once we moved into the basement of the school that we would be able to put in longer hours and she could contact us more easily.

I am slightly traumatized from the experience. I’m not sure which part is worse, the actual time I had with the kids, or all the promises made by the staff in the morning that were so blatantly false. What can I do?? Please give me all the help and advice you can think of!!

All I know is that I couldn’t last another week like that, let alone another 9 months. 

In the streets of Madaba

I got to see and experience a little more of the culture today. I went out into the city by myself for the first time and managed to buy a few things that I needed. Luckily, the numbers are still the same in Arabic as they are in English, so even though I couldn’t say a word to the lady at the cash register, we worked it out.

I have started to enjoy the calls to prayer that come from the Mosque close by. They are long, melodic songs played in a minor key and it is loud enough to hear anywhere you may be in the city. Mark, one of the Australian teachers that has been here for about 6 months, said that if you go to the bell tower at the top of the Catholic church, you can hear all the calls to prayer from all the Mosques echoing together throughout the entire city. I definitely want to check that out, to listen to the music as well as see the city from above.

Speaking of which, there are so many churches everywhere. Every few blocks, there is another one. Most of them are very small, and there are a few different denominations, so I’m not sure which is which, beyond identifying it as a Catholic versus non-Catholic church.

All of the buildings, whether they be churches, stores or homes, are made of the same tan color cement. I still get lost incredibly quickly outside, because all the buildings look the same and there are so many tightly packed streets that form a complicated maze.

I went to dinner with a few of the teachers at this pizza restaurant that was quite nice. They were playing live music on this fat, distorted guitar-like instrument as we walked in and there were a few people smoking hookahs. I did not know what those were before arriving here, but they are quite common. And they have the weirdest variety of scents coming out from them. One of the teachers was smoking one last night and it smelled like tobacco, strawberries and coffee. She was very nice and offered to let me try it. I don’t mind the smell of cigarettes so much, but those things make me pretty nauseous.

At the restaurant we each ordered a dish and then we all shared everything. Hummus in the Middle East is quite different than American hummus. It is much more creamy and light here, and the flavor isn’t quite as strong. It wasn’t spicy at all, and the kind we got had big chunks of grilled beef in it and it was good. The best part of that dish was definitely the bread though. It was really thick pita bread, roasted with all these spices on it. Very soft on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside. Delicious. The pizza we got was really good, again on pita-like bread, not as thick and the sauce and cheese were more Italian style than American. I ordered an Arabic milkshake. That was the flavor listed: Arabic, coming after vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. It turned out to be a very runny and thin vanilla shake with diced pistachios. The pistachios were very salty and I’m guessing had some oregano on them and so it was kind of weird to have with ice cream, but very good.

I also learned that all the honking in the evening isn’t necessarily for traffic. Apparently, this is one of the “wedding seasons”, or more accurately, one of the times of year where it isn’t forbidden to get married, and so if a couple was recently married, they have big processions through town and all the cars following them honk their horns the whole way through.

On the way back from dinner, we passed this joint where tons of men were smoking and playing cards. I commented that there weren’t any women there. Mark said that no woman would be allowed at any such place and also that none of the guys should go there either. He said there are two big gangs here in town that hate each other and that was the meeting place of one of them. He said that a few months ago fighting between the two gangs erupted and it was so bad that the local law enforcement came in and bombed the city with tear gas to stop the fighting. They had to put the school in lock down, locking all the students and teachers in. Crazy. 

Starting to settle in.

Some people have told me I need to post the backstory of my decision to come to Jordan. I will do so more in-depth in a later post, but ultra-short version: I graduated from BYU in Linguistics and was ready for an adventure. The opportunity to teach English here in Jordan fell into my lap through a coworker that taught here a few years ago. It is a Cambridge English program, taught at the Greek Orthodox church from September - May.

Today was my first real day. I slept surprisingly well, even with the time difference. I had stayed up all night the day before I left and I think that was actually the best thing I could have done to get a head start on the jetlag. A few other teachers have been here a few days and are still having a really hard time, but I feel pretty well adjusted already.

My living situation is quite nice. There are a few buildings that comprise the Greek Orthodox campus: the Pilgrim’s hotel, run by some very nice women who provide us with breakfast and lunch every day, two buildings of bedrooms and bathrooms for the English teachers, the chapel and the school. The chapel was originally built in the 6^th century, or somewhere around that time, and still has some of the original pillars. In 1902, it was rebuilt, including the mosaic of Jerusalem that covers a big portion of the floor on the main level. I was able to go inside today and it is a very holy place. It isn’t very big, but there are beautiful paintings and tons of mosaics all over the walls. Tourists have to buy tickets before they can come inside, but as a teacher here, I can go in whenever. I was told that they just finished a few big celebrations and rituals for some of the virgins, but they should be having some regular services soon. I would love to attend if I can.

I haven’t seen very much of the school, just some of the offices where the teachers met today to receive books that we will be teaching out of for the first few weeks. I was a little nervous about teaching, but after seeing some of the confusion and chaos of the organization today, I feel just fine. Besides the books that I was given as a general guideline, it seems I have complete freedom to teach however I want. I would like to start making plans, but since I don’t know how many students I will have, their ages, or levels of English, I don’t think there is much I can do to prepare. The most repeated bit of advice I have received is to be very strict and rigorous when class first starts. The other teachers have told me that the students will walk all over me if I let them, and I will need to lay down the law from the very beginning. 

There is another Hilary here, from the USA, and I think we will get along very well. She brought Insanity (the workout videos) since we can’t go out running, and invited me to do it with her. Yay! I’m super excited about it. She just finished her second Master’s degree from Oxford. Her thesis was something about the influence of Western philosophy and religion on Middle Eastern society. She came here to learn some Arabic in preparation for her doctorate degree on the beginnings of Christianity in the Middle East. Holy cow!

There are a few teachers from Australia, one from Greece, and a few from the USA. Almost all of them, even if they have studied Arabic, don’t actually speak very much. We are all excited about learning it though. There are a few different options for me to study and take classes, depending on how much time and money I want to dedicate to it. I’ve been trying to learn the script and some basic grammar principles by myself and I most definitely need someone that can answer my questions.

In the evening, we went for a small walk around the city and I loved seeing everything. There were cars and people everywhere. All the streets were lined with small shops and businesses and I imagine the upper floors are where they live. The shops are right up against the streets, which are very narrow. Many of the streets can only fit one car going one way. There is a huge variety of shops, some clothing, many restaurants, drugstores, and lots of churches too. There was one big mosque that we passed, and I am assuming that the calls to prayer come from there. It was so fun to see everything. I’m not going out by myself any time soon, I would get lost very quickly, but I can’t wait to see more of the city.

It turns out that I won’t be teaching here in Madaba. I was assigned to teach classes in Fuhais, which is about an hour away. Classes for me don’t start until Friday, so I have another day to settle in. I feel less overwhelmed and crazy today. I think this was a good decision! I have decided to stay for sure until the end of the year, and then I will evaluate if I will stay longer or come home. Good plan, yeah?

More pictures coming soon!

Arrival

Besides an initial scare at the Salt Lake Airport when I thought perhaps I hadn’t actually bought a ticket, I arrived in Jordan safely and easily. My flight from Utah left at 11:15 in the morning on Monday, and I arrived in Madaba, Jordan at around 7:00 pm on Tuesday. Long journey!

On my first leg to Chicago, a big group of missionaries were on my flight, headed to Finland. One of them sat next to me and bless his heart, he tried so hard to talk to me and get to know me. I’m afraid I didn’t really help him out much, I was already so tired that I really didn’t feel like talking, but he was very kind. All of the missionaries were so excited and nervous and were doing their best to talk to every person that came close. I’m sure I must have been a lot like that when I was going to Argentina.

My second leg, the minute that I walked on the plane I already felt like I was in another country. All of the instructions were written and spoken in Arabic, sometimes with English underneath. All of the crew spoke Arabic unless you talked to them in English first. I sat next to a middle aged man and he did not seem interested in talking to me. He looked like he was from the Middle East though, so I mustered up the courage to ask him if he was from Jordan. He told me that he was from Iraq and he was on his way back there after visiting his son’s family in California. I asked what he did in Iraq and he warmed up to me pretty quickly, telling me all about his position as a professor at some prestigious university (I can’t remember which one) and about his family. I’m not sure what it is about older men, but I am able to become friends more quickly with them than with any other group. We talked about the differences in education between Iraq and the United States, he told me all about his family (even showing me way too many pictures of his grandson) and from then on, he shared all his snacks and jokes with me. Sometimes I struggled to understand his English, but it was a lot of fun. At the end of the flight, he told me I was welcome to visit that University at any time and he would give me great tours around campus and the city, I just had to ask for Eduard, since he was the only one there by that name. I probably won’t take him up on his offer any time soon, but I would have loved to. He said that all the Americans are always astonished at how beautiful it is there. So now Iraq is on my list of places to see!

After 12 hours flying from Chicago, we finally arrived in Amman. Wahoo! I couldn’t help but grin as I walked through the airport. I was in a new country, one completely different and foreign than anything I had experienced before! It was incredibly fast and easy to exchange money, buy a visa and get my stuff. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to find my way around, but all the signs had English on them. How handy! After I got my luggage, I went out to find my ride and there he was, front and center holding my name printed on a page. I went up to him and said hello, he nodded at me, took my bags and started walking. So I followed behind him. He didn’t ever look at me, or say a word. I guess he didn’t speak English. We got to the car, he put my stuff in the trunk and got in the driver’s seat. I got in the back because I had been told that as a woman I shouldn’t sit in the front, or something like that, so I hope I did the right thing by sitting in the back. And I really enjoyed it that way because then I was able to look out the window to my heart’s content without worrying about anything else.

I got my first look at the city! Jordan is a cool place. The airport is kind of removed it seemed like from most of the city in Amman, and at first we passed a lot of fields. I call them fields because I don’t know what the right word is for empty land that doesn’t have any grass or crops, just sand, but still fenced off. And there were bunches of sheep! With their shepherds! Almost every flock (herd?) of sheep had the shepherd out there with them. I wonder what they eat since they were almost always just in empty fields of dust.

I also could not figure out the traffic patterns. There were lines on the road, and arrows, but some of the time my driver was on the left side, some of the time he was on the right. Once he followed the direction of the arrows and another time he was going against them. Pretty amazing that no accidents happened.

When we got to Madaba, there were so many cars and people outside. There weren’t any traffic lights, just cars playing chicken it seemed like, to see who got to go first or wait. At one point, we passed this van full of young guys. One of them saw me and started pointing at me and shouting to the other guys in the car. The entire van of guys then started staring at me, some of them waving, some of them laughing, some just staring. I wanted to laugh and wave back, but I didn’t know if that would be considered appropriate. I feel like I need some more experience and hopefully someone that speaks English and can explain things to me before I make some mistakes. In the US, I always thought guys doing stuff like that was hilarious/dumb. I never really understood when people would get offended or angry at it. But I’m going to wait and see before I react. Although when we passed through a security gate at one point, the driver paid the guy at the gate and I smiled and waved before thinking about it. He just stared back at me with a slightly confused expression. Oops?

We got to the school, I gave the driver 20 JD and he said “OK, bye”. Maybe he did speak English after all…

I was shown to my room by a very helpful teenage boy, whose English was pretty good. I love it! Very comfy and nice, even comes with a TV! The city is pretty noisy, lots of traffic passing through, lots of people out on the streets, so I think it will take some time to get used to while trying to sleep. The school and church are fenced off. I met some other teachers briefly as well as some of the school and hotel staff, but I don’t remember any names. Too many people and I’m too tired.

But I’m here and I’m so excited about it! Although I did have some fleeting feelings of being overwhelmed and doubting my sanity. What the heck did I get myself into?? Why on earth would I leave a really great life behind to live here? I will struggle with those questions and feelings tomorrow though. So tired! So much to do before classes start on Thursday! And hopefully a lot of fun to be had as well!

My bedroom.

The bathroom. The shower gets everything wet. As of yet, no hot water :(

The view from my balcony. Lots of noisy cars.

The hotel is on the left, the Greek Orthodox chapel is on the right. There's a famous, beautiful mosaic on the floor of the chapel.