oh arabic. you never stop making me laugh.

so todays "hafle" or party was a success. people came, ate, socialized and left. lots of fun. my favorite part though would probably have to be my language mishap. this is HILARIOUS.

get this, so this guy who i had never met was going to first come by our house to see where it is so that he could go pick up his family then bring them back here. So when i went to arrange where to meet him, "drive to dahleeah circle, uturn, i'll meet you at the regency hotel" he agreed. So Josh and I headed out there together to get this guy. Anyhow, he was like, so i recognize you, what are you wearing? now this is a natural question for someone to ask who has never met. but because i was giving him directions i didn't at first really understand. plus he had cars in the background and was speaking 90 to nothin' in a heavy palestinian accent! so i was like...um, i don't know if i understand, but ...now heres the funny part...i said in arabic, "whatever you'd like!"

bahahahhahahahahahha.

"what will you be wearing?"

"well, sir, whatever you'd like"

oh the joys of arabic.

don't worry. i quickly realized what i'd said and after many apologies and laughter i explained to him I hadn't understood and that I was wearing black and green. hahahah.

happy independence day jordan!

So, last Friday we were invited to share a meal with a family. Friday is the holy day here. It is also family day. So it’s normally a grand event to be invited on this day because you are meeting EVERYONE and you don’t stop eating.
So after we met everyone, Aunts, Uncles, grandkids, cousins, etc we watched about an hour of a car parade. That was fun. Apparently, my friend was riding in the white van. Good to know.
Secondly, we invited them to come to our house. So turns out tomorrow, we’ll be hosting roughly 15 Palestinians who don’t know any English in our home and we’re pretty darn excited about it! This family is great. Granted it will probably be hilarious considering the following that has already taken place: below is a guide to how to plan an Arab party.

1. Make sure you order SIX pizzas and ask for NOORMAN. He’s legit. He drove all the way out to our house today just to deliver us a menu. Gotta love Noorman.

2. Be sure you can speak Arabic. When communicating to a family member…I’m still not sure who he said he was or how he was related, be sure you do not agree to anything you don’t understand. For example, he called me at 10 o’clock tonight and said “I’m almost at your house!” dude. No. it’s night. We’re busy. Plus we’re girls. Not okay. See you tomorrow.

3. make sure you pick up your phone the first time they call. If you ever try to screen then you can expect 15-20 calls in the span of 5 minutes until you give in.

4. make sure arabs like pizza. We’ll find out tomorrow.

5. Make sure that you look on the calendar before inviting a massive amount of people over. Tomorrow, it so happens, is Jordan’s Independence Day. So that’s exciting. Go Jordan! Eat your American pizza now!

6. more to come as the party unfolds tomorrow

questions

so yesterday while i was in a taxi, we hit another car. fun times. i was okay. my roommate and i laughed about it when i got home because the taxi hit a parked car that had people in it. haha. everyone was fine...

here are a few questions i've decided to ask God when I get to heaven:

1. how many men above the age of 18 do NOT have a mustache in Jordan? I'd guess about 4%. This could be FACT.

2. how many people ate last year's thanksgiving meal with just one tooth? (this one is actually a question my roommate wants to know).

3. how many feral cats are roaming my neighborhood on in average daily basis?

if you know the answers to any of these, i won't have to wait til heaven. :)

BellyDance Lessons

What a crazy and overall great week!

I was able to go to the camp twice to visit friends! I played dress up most of the time in their burqa's, attempted to belly dance...i'm terrible at it p.s....and ate LOTS of food and held adorable little new Arab babies!

On top of that, last night a bunch of friends and I went out to eat at this place where you can dress up like Bedouins. There was also a wedding going on with some pretty fancy decorations, dangerous fireworks (not surprising), and of course Lebanese PROFESSIONAL belly dancers. Over all, a great night.

Yes, the above picture is Andrew, Mimi, myself, and my roommate..who yes, does have a mustache.

This is how I try to convice my friends that i really can't belly dance..seriously.

Supha and her neice!!!! I love this girl so so so so much!

Playing dressup with Supha's mom's clothes. hah

Who doesn't love a pair of good, stuffed, sheep?

Labenese Belly Dancers and their fear of fireworks...

Sweet Micah and his gun!

fun times with arabic

so here are my most recent language mishaps...

1. i told a lady that Jesus turned the water into servants..... whoops.

2. a girl asked me who my friend judy lived with and instead of saying, "she lives with her husband". i said "she lives with YOUR husband"... another whoops.

random thoughts

5 days ago marked the year and a half anniversary of my time overseas!! crazy to think how time has in a lot of ways gone by so fast!

still working 6 days a week. the "federation" (sounds like a star wars term doesn't it?) has offered and begged me to stay with them until December. As most of you know, I can only stay until October and even then I'd planned to take some time off of work. So we'll see if they'll let me trade 5 days a week at the gym instead of 6.

Wish I had a funny story to tell. But right now life is moving on at a steady pace and temperatures are finally getting warmer. (oh no!). You can tell the Summer is quickly approaching!

Spring I love you

Well Spring has arrived in Jordan! I can walk outside and see green grass, flowers I've never known existed, and every patch of spare land, including my driveway, there can be found a shepherd and his sheep. Man I love spring! I love being able to go outside and see a shepherd napping under a bloomed tree while his sheep lazingly "mow" the grass or lay beside him. What a sweet reminder of the Word and how He is my good Shepherd. His rod and staff comfort me. He leads me beside the still waters...ah! i love it!

Wednesday we have a gymnastics competition here in Amman. I'll be the head coach representing Amman Baccalaurete School. Pray for my little kiddos and me. One of my sweet gymnasts broke her wrist in two places last week. Eh. But man, I hope she wins the judges over with her cuteness! Pictures will be posted!

On another note, please forgive my lack of English skills. No joke. Arabic is horrible for your English. It's distroying my native tongue! I tend to talk English lately like I would to an Arab. Which is basically arabinglisi as I call it. It's bizarre. And I may need English rehab when I get home, seriously, to be grammatically correct again. But speaking of Arabic it's slowly getting easier. I know what you're thinking, man, you have been in the Middle East a year and a half you should be fluent! Well I'm not even close. Google it. On average it takes a person 7 years to master Arabic. So don't judge me. haha. But I can explain why I won't marry you. haha. And I can tell you a lot of important stuff like where i live, etc. And don't worry, it really is coming along. I've memorized the Roman Road for those of you who know what I'm talking about. The story of Daniel and his 3 buddies (1 chpt), story of the woman at the well, and many others. So thank y'all for always asking for that one. Language is coming on nicely and I have lots of little kiddos to correct my southern Alabama Arabian Accent. :)