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February 5, 2005
Ahh, the weekend.
The weekend here is Friday and Saturday so I have had two days off now. I was supposed to go on a tour of the Amman sites today but it got rained out. Instead I went to lunch with friends at the Chilli House and now I am at Annie's house. She lives with her aunt and has free internet!
So I spend Thursday night and all of Saturday with my new host family! They are very nice but they speak very little english. It is very hard to communicate anything with them. Today I tried to tell them my tour was cancelled but they didn't know what cancelled meant. They just kept asking why? why? aren't you going to Amideast? The worst was explaining that I was meeting friends instead because they couldn't figure out why I was leaving. Of course, I couldn't tell them it was because I was about ready to go crazy watching another hour of "Star Academy" (arab american idol) or another bad American movie. They try to be nice and let me watch the english channels but they only show the worst movies every made. And I mean the worst.
So I haven't figured out how many people actually live in my house yet because there have been around 16 different people over at various times. Last night every couch was full of people staying over. I think that the aunt and her daughters are staying over but I really have no idea because no one can explain it to me. They are all a lot of fun, but I wish they would stop teasing me about being shy. I'm not actually shy, I just can't understand a word they say! Hopefully this all will pay off in the end.
Tomorrow I start coloquial arabic so hopefully I will learn some new stuff to help me talk to my family but I don't know what exactly will happen.
Oh man, so I just figured out I could buy 600 shwarama with my stipend. Good thing i like shwarama.
Sent from: terbium
Posted by rcollins at February 5, 2005 9:35 AM
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Comments
Wait... I thought you didn't like shawarma! So have your tastes changed or are you just being sarcastic? Mmmmm.... cheap shawarma. Here, it's almost $5.00 at Shawarma King or $3.25 from the food cart at MIT - and you're saying that you can get it for 500 fils? That's like 75 cents here! Crazy!
Posted by: Karl at February 5, 2005 11:06 AM
Sounds like a real challenge, however by the end of the semester you will be a pro in arabic and will look back on this experience and laugh about it.
For the uninitiated and culinary challenged, what is shawarma? I realize its some kind of food, but would you please describe in for us.
Posted by: Otto & Leona at February 5, 2005 12:57 PM
So I am glad to see someone else does not know what shawarma is. I hope you expand on it. In MN we do not get things like that.
Posted by: Barbara(MOM) at February 5, 2005 7:33 PM
Yup, 500 fils. That is only 1/2 a dinar! And that is expensive shawarma.
Shawarma is chicken or beef or lamb on a giant stick and roasted as it spins around. The cook shaves off the outer layer into a sandwich with green peppers or tomatoes or even pickle. They are a staple food here and taste pretty good. Or at least good enough to sustain me.
I wouldn't buy that many shawarma because my family feeds me way to often to ever get hungry. Also, my stipend is monthly so that is like 3000 shawarma! I would definitely explode.
Posted by: Rebecca at February 6, 2005 4:07 AM