ramadan begins

Hey everyone, so I have a bunch of updates, which hopefully will be correctly formatted. I have yet to find a convenient wireless spot, so I am using an internet cafe computer, which has an obsession with punction moving from right to left, which creates interesting looking English sentances from time to time. So, we'll see how that turns out.

Anyhow:

1) I moved in with a family, who live in an area very near the university, that no resident of Amman has ever heard of (Hay al-Baraka), but it still a very nice taxi/ bus commute (nowhere in this city can be reached on foot by virtue of the heat and the traffic and the hills). They are a Christian family (somewhat split between Orthodox and Catholic) and at home lives Nawal (the grandmother, aged 61), Issa (the grandfather, aged 71) and Carole (one of their daughters, 31). The other four daughters are all married and live in Amman somewhere, and their only son is off in Bahrain. So, kind of the exact opposite of my mother's family. While very nice, I have not seen much of them, as the morning after Chris and I got there (the two of us are living with them), Issa was hospitalized. He had had a stroke three months ago, and apparently his white blood cell count is very high, and, from what I understood, I think he's on dialysis. Hopefully, he'll get better in the near future. According to our resident director though, they're still very excited to have us there; it's just currently a little awkward.

2) The university: We also getting ready to finally start classes next Sunday, so we've had plenty of tours of the university and orientation stuff going on. Yesterday was Arabic placement test day, where I learned that this might not be the right program for me in terms of Arabic lessons, as my Arabic appears to be a lot stronger than most of the other participants, and my oral exam kind of degraded into a rambling conversation about what I, as a Religious Studies major, thought of the Da Vinci Code, followed by an affirmation that I speak fine. So, yeah, we'll see what I can do to get a little better Arabic practice in academically, but my current thought is trying to find another Qur'anic memorization class.

3) The city: Amman is huge and entirely made of light yellow sandstone buildings, and is very modern. That about sums it up. It's also really hot. However, there are a lot of very cool little areas for one to find here, like the Arab sweet store Habiba, where the best kunafa of my life is on sale (it's like melted mozzerella cheese with dough on top, pistachios, and rosewater, which is actually delicious despite that description. also, i have no idea how to spell that cheese). Getting it is also an experience as the store is about four feet wide, and filled with tons of people. Luckily, as always, a kind old Jordanian man pitied me and helped me understand how to get some, for which I profusely thanked him in Arabic.

4) Ramadan: Ramadan mubarak everyone! The holy month began this morning, meaning that all Muslims, from before sunrise to after sunset do not eat, drink (including water and medicine), or smoke. In fact, said activities are henceforth illegal here on the street, so I am also engaged in my Ramadan fast, even though I live with a Christian family, until the cannons fire tonight letting everyone know that the fast has ended. This continues for a month.

So yeah, that's what I'm up to. Once I work out a way to do wireless, we can start skyping/ I can put up some pictures again!