Aqaba--Take Two

This week we found a little falafel/breakfast place across from one of the gates of the university.  Not only is it pretty inexpensive, with a large variety, but the falafel there are heart shaped!!

Thursday night was my host-sisters engagement party.  I have never heard such loud music, Arabic music, before.  It was interesting because the men and the women are separated for the ceremony and the party that followed.  Therefore, the women that are usually covered did not have to be covered.  It was really interesting to see everyone in dresses (some very short) and uncovered.  Though, I have never seen women move so fast when there was a man coming into the room.  As soon as a guy would enter, they would all run to grab their hijabs and stand in front of the mirror putting them on.  If they didn’t have time to do that, they would just cover their hair and hide their face.  There was a lot of dancing--which was quite intimidating because the edge of the dance area was surrounded with chairs placed in a square.  The groom’s mother was dancing, when a man came into the room, so she covered her hair.  Once she realized that it was her husband, she whipped off the scarf as she was dancing and threw it across the room.



Our hotel in Aqaba



We went to Aqaba with a group of people.  We were able to stay at a nice resort, since there were five of us splitting the room.  It was really nice to get away and relax for a little while and just lay on the beach.  I have learned that I am not one to lie out and sunbathe all day.  Luckily, they had these little tent things that we could out our chairs under--I mostly just say on the beach and read my book.  Since it was a long weekend (Labor Day here), we had trouble getting back to Amman.  All of the buses were booked until 8:15 that night, so we didn’t get back to Amman until 12:40, and then a cab back to the homestay.  Normally that isn’t late, but our program likes to schedule us for early morning classes.  Regardless, it was a really nice time, and the weather was perfect!!



One of the cafés that I work at in the morning has moved away from Celine Dion and now plays instrumental Christmas music--it is quite an interesting selection.  I cannot believe that it is May already--I feel like it was just yesterday that I got to Jordan.  This is the last week of my Arabic classes (before finals) and two more weeks of my area studies--which is crazy!!