The first two days in Amman

I am feeling at home here so far- the program directors have been so helpful and spent an entire day orienting us. Yesterday I took a grueling placement test which pushed me from fine into total fatigue, and then was oriented for two hours while I tried not to fall off my chair.

Although the Qasid program is not religious per se, they do have Quranic classes of various types, and their emphasis is on classical Arabic. They use Al-Kitab (the book I used in the U.S. and at AUB) as a supplement, and focus more on grammar, which I would actually like. In addition to the core program, I can opt to take additional classes like colloquial and newspaper reading. I should be starting classes tomorrow, after an oral interview.

Yesterday night I moved into an apartment with three other women from the program. Women at Qasid are required to wear hijab (veil) while at the school and in the neighborhood, for various reasons which include the fact that the school is tangentially connected with a well-known Sufi sheikh whose disciples are very conservative, and the neighborhood is also conservative. Out of respect for the neighbors they ask us to wear hijab in the area. This doesn't bother me much, but I didn't really come prepared. I went shopping this morning at the flea market and picked up a few clothes; I'll probably get an abaya or jilbab (long coat-like things) to make things easier.

Tonight my roomies and I went downstairs to eat with some other women, who had prepared a feast including hamburgers, french fries and brownies. It was all delicious, and we had a great time. Then some of us went to a café in the Sweifieh area, which is kind of like an outdoor mall, because they close the street off to cars when it is busy. I tried smoking arguileh/narguileh/hookah for the first time. It was alright, but I probably won't try it again.

The experience on Cyprus was so strange- first I spent hours and hours waiting in lines for a travel agent, to buy the ticket, etc. Then I finally got to a hotel and was able to let some of the experience hit me. The whole time since the bombing started was so difficult, and the evacuation was traumatic. The woman who ran the hotel on Cyprus was so caring and helpful, but I tried to act as normal as possible to avoid breaking down completely. Of course I had to let it out some. But I have been able to talk about Beirut here without much problem. I think it was also the lack of sleep. We didn't get much sleep on the boat, which we were on overnight. The strange part was hearing Greek spoken and using a different currency, and especially being in a vacation spot and not being there for fun but to recover from something and leave as soon as possible.

There are three guys here at Qasid who were in the program at AUB, but I haven't seen much of them since yesterday. It looks like I'll be the only "girl" from the program. But so far I am getting along so well with the other women here that I'm not worried about it.

Here it is back to the city noises and firecrackers, which were extinguished in Beirut for the last week. The firecrackers and different building noises are too much like bombs and anti-aircraft guns, and I do not like them at all. They definitely give me some anxiety. But hopefully in a little while I'll get used to it.

Will post some pictures soon...