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February 2, 2005
Homestay Update
I got information about my homestay yesterday. (and my stipend! who knew we would be getting several hundred dollars a month? yesss)
Anyways, my family has had lots of students before so I am like the 9th girl they have hosted. They are Muslim but they don't seem to be extremely conservative. There is a girl my age who studies at another university and a boy who is 15. The father is an engineer and the mother is retired and stays at home. I live like 5min from UJ so it will be a short ride or a long walk to school everyday.
I share a room, but my host sister is very cool and supposedly blow dries her hair and wears makeup and heels so she should be cool. I am very excited.
Also, they speak very limited english so I should come back speaking tons of Arabic. That is really why I am here so I am excited. Finding all of this out made me a lot less nervous and I feel like I can enjoy myself now that it is all taken care of. I was worried that my family wouldn't know what to do with me and would be just as akward as I am. That would be really hard to deal with seeing as I can't even adjust to the culture!
I move in tomorrow and hope that it all goes well. I can't wait to speak Arabic with them!
Sent from: terbium
Posted by rcollins at February 2, 2005 11:00 AM
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Comments
Where am I ... I thought I was on Becca's blog ...?!!
Posted by: Beth at February 2, 2005 9:04 PM
oops - we're experiencing technical difficulties in blogland ... bear with us!
Posted by: Beth at February 2, 2005 9:07 PM
Ahem. "my host sister is very cool and supposedly blow dries her hair and wears makeup and heels so she should be cool" does not compute. It's difficult for me to think you would respond with such gusto while describing a new state-side room mate sporting similar attributes. Please bring the rest of the world up to speed...
Posted by: Paul Gutwin at February 3, 2005 8:11 PM
Ok, so I was excited because all of those things indicate that she is more like me than I expected. Lots of girls here would look down on someone who uses a hairdryer because it is seen as inapropriate. It would be really uncomfortable sharing a room with someone who thinks that I am crazy because I might wear makeup. In the states, it would be assumed that they would not care if I wore high-heels but these things cannot be taken for granted in Amman.
Posted by: Rebecca at February 5, 2005 8:31 AM