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February 23, 2005

An interesting occurance.

Lately, I've been having some interenting encounters with the Jordanians around me. It started with the placement test on Monday when I handed in my test and the proctors asked me (in Arabic) if I was Arab. Of course, I answer them politely that I am not, in fact I am as far from Arab as you can get: I'm American. Later that afternoon, I mentioned this to my friend Annie and she continues to tell me that the proctors were staring at me the entire time. At first she thought they were looking at her (because she actually is Arab) but she determined by their glances that they were actually looking at me.

I have also had a lot of experiences this week where Arabs with just start talking to me in full-blown super-fast Arabic. Yesterday a girl stopped me and asked where she should go to open a section, whatever that means. However, she said it in Arabic the first time until I politely told her that I speak English.

Now, this may be a product of my lovely Aqaba tan, but really, do I fit in that well? I have no idea why I would be confused for Arab but it is nice to think that sometime I may be able to avoid the obvious foreigner look.

Anyways, hopefully I will get a handle on this language thing soon so that I don't have to struggle to understand everyone. I started level 3 today and am looking at level 4 so I will at least be learning vocab soon.

Posted by rcollins at February 23, 2005 6:09 AM

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