men

Sometimes, no offense to you Esam if you are reading this. But Arab men can make me so ...frustrated.

For instance, not that this is the first time or anything just the most recent. Tonight I was on my way home from work when I notice a guy stick his head out his window to look at the "foreigner" walking home. Awesome. That's okay though. I do that too in America I'm sure.

But then he goes and pulls the U-turn to come back around. Not cool. So I walk through a field. But notice that he AGAIN does a u-turn to get onto the street that eventually I would get too. And after passing me AGAIN and then doing ANOTHER uturn I decided it was time to do something about it. I had 2 options.

Option 1: Run home and obviously he'd follow me in his black car to my home then learn where I live.

Or Option 2: HidE in the small crevice of a building and hope that he didn't see me jump behind the wall. hah.

so naturally, being a dark night, i picked #2. And I must say I was victorious. After he drove past the crevice with me peeking out he didn't turn around again but drove on. I OUTWITTED HIM! woo hoooo!

wedding day (s)

Tomorrow, my dear friend from Camp is getting married. Morgan, I can't believe I'm not there for your big day. You know how much I wish I could be. I'll be lifting you and Aron up.

So it's official. I won't lie and say it's been easy. But I've missed 3 of my best friends weddings. Jennifer, Maggie, and now Morg. Girls, I hope you know how much of a blessing you have been in my life. Such a sweet honor that I could be your "bridesmaid" even from the Middle East. I can't wait to spend time with you each and your husbands :).

Jenn, I miss you. Couldnt of survived Ole Miss without you. or Kanakuk Osage years for that matter!! Was so greatful to get to skype into your rehearsal dinner and surprise you and David!

Mags. All my hilarious stories at Auburn High include you! haha. I wish i could of been there!

Morg, You get married tomorrow!! Seems like just yesterday we were at Marannook shouting at a bunch of kids to listen to us and mostly at Matthew to kill snakes and..well...other things... great times.

Love you all.

Miss you all.

am so blessed through y'all.

I Heart Pals

Wow. It's hard to believe i only have 4 months left. I don't want to think about. It some ways I'm so thrilled to see my friends and family! How I miss you all. But so much work is left to do. So much. My heart is heavy. Must not think....

So anyways. Lots happening on this front. Israel, as evident on the news, has boarded the next bound ship for Gaza taking aid. Makes life interesting. Was in a "Ducan" (coke shop) to buy some water and the owner said, "ah yes, you and Israel, you are like bestfriends". All I could think to say to get out of the coming forceful political conversation was to tell everyone in the shop, "I love Palestine!!!" Which, thankfully is true! Then I quickly left.

I do love Palestine. I pray you do too. For I know, that He loves all people, and is currently adopting Pals as His own chosen, sweet, children.

How I love Him for it.

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!