This week was not nearly as exciting as other weekends have been, but it was nice to relax. I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at the Embassy, which was quite interesting and fun to say the least. I spent all day on Friday procrastinating finishing my papers, and relaxed and read a book for fun, which was really nice.
One thing that is really interesting here is what is considered meat. I am not a huge meat eater, I prefer to eat vegetables, and when I have meat I prefer chicken, and not lamb. Here, they do not consider chicken to be meat, so everyone is so perplexed when I only take chicken, and not the lamb. They always proclaim “you don’t like meat?” Every time I answer that I have meat, and then I remember chicken doesn’t count and have to explain it all over again. They also really like spinach. I am not sure if it is in a lot of Arabic dishes, or if it is just my host family. Regardless, I will return to the states like Popeye--look out!!
Sarah’s family has taken me in as another family member, so I go to their house for lunches on the weekend. Friday I went to her great-uncle’s house for lunch and to meet her great-aunt who came from Egypt. We then spent the evening relaxing, and we watched the movie Rabbit Hole, which was really good. Saturday, I had to finish my papers--it felt so good to hand them in! Then I went to another lunch where I ate way too much food! We watched the news of Libya and the no-fly zone on the TV. It is interesting to see the difference in what is covered between the al-Jazeera and the western news stations. The videos are not censored nearly as much as in the states, so it is interesting to see the difference.
Monday was mother’s day in Jordan. So, after class we went to a French bakery and bought two cakes; one for teta (Sarah’s grandmother) and another for our host mother. We then stopped by her grandmother’s house and ate finger foods, cake and fruit. We then went back to my homestay, and ate dinner and then more cake. Everyone had the same idea for my host mother, so we had four different chocolate cakes. Here it is impolite to refuse food, so I sampled four different types of cake, on top of all the other food that I ate--I feel like I am going to explode. It’s a good thing that I am going to the gym tomorrow!!
The weather here is starting to get warmer, which is really nice. It is so much nicer to be outside when it is sunny and warm. Just two presentations (a weekend of riding camels!) and a week of midterms and then spring break!!
Happy Mother's Day from Jordan!!
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