Hats

The part of the world that we live in is a mix of different cultures.  There are so many people who live in our city that are originally from surrounding countries.  I believe I heard somewhere that only about 30% of the population is originally from this country.  So, while the country that we currently live in is not all that conservative comparatively, those from surrounding countries bring in their more conservative traditions and attire.  We also live in a fairly touristy city.  Many people filter through daily from Europe, and they bring with them their liberal, scandalous for this culture, attire.  So where does that leave me?  What is considered conservative and modest in the States is okay for some of the cultures here, but not for others.

The major issue is the shabab, or young guys.  They are not used to seeing girls, so when they do they don't know how to handle themselves.  When I go out with Andrew, there is usually no problem except for a lot of staring, but when I go out with my girl friends, it can get a little more uncomfortable (don't worry, it's nothing too bad just lots of people staring and sometimes people saying things to us).  I would say that 95% of the local women all cover their heads with a hajab or head scarf.  All of those women are also Muslim.  Another American girl who lives here and I have been trying to figure out a way to dress modestly in this culture, but also not come across as being a Muslim.  Our new solution: hats!  We don't wear them all the time.  Mainly when we go into more conservative areas of town or go out in the evening together without our husbands.  We like to think we are invisible with our hats, unfortunately we are not, but I do think it helps a bit.

Well, all that ranting to say:  I am excited about the fact that I just ordered this

off of this Etsy shop yesterday!  I ordered the hat in gray and the flower in fuchsia.  I am very excited about it and can't wait till it comes in.  

Weekend Excursion

The great thing about the Middle East is that there are a lot of sites to see all in a fairly close area.  This weekend we were able to take a little trip and see some of those sites.  I have a friend whom I have not seen in three years, who has been in the area with her husband for the past two weeks.  I figured since she was so close, we ought to try to visit her.  We spent a couple of hours Thursday visiting with my old friend, then took the rest of the weekend to travel around and see the sites.  Here is a little of what we have to show for ourselves:

Our luxurious VIP bus ride

Mountain top overlooking Israel

Trying to find a restaurant by the Dead Sea

Overlooking the Dead Sea

Very steep mountain-side road we went up and down way too many times

Andrew floating in the Dead Sea

Old meets New at the Starbucks in the mall

Waiting in the bus station for our bus back home

This Week

This week has been busy but yet nothing too blog worthy.  Our language tutor called Saturday evening to tell us that she was having some health issues and has to be on bed-rest for at least one week, maybe more. So, thus far we have not had language lessons this week.  I have surprisingly been spending a lot of time studying though.  I am very proud of myself for this.  I have been getting up every morning and study the entire time that we should have been in class.  Our language tutor did set us up with her cousin who will be coming tomorrow to help us with our language lesson and maybe more permanently if our tutor cannot come back.  I hope that she will be okay and healthy.  Please remember her in your thoughts.

I consider no blog a good blog unless it has pictures, so here are a few of us hanging out at Gloria Jean's, a great coffee shop even if it is not Starbucks.

The other night a friend and I went key chain shopping.  I got two fabulous key chains, one for my house keys and one for my gym keys and lock.  I also got this lovely little tassel for my phone.  Every time I look at it I think my mom would be jealous :)

Saint Patrick's Day!

Well, in the States, I never really cared much about Saint Patrick's Day.  I guess it's because here no one even knows about Saint Patrick's Day and a need to have some American around me, but I forced Andrew to wear green today in Saint Patrick's honor.  We went out to dinner with some American friends tonight, and I thought it would be funny to go buy some green food coloring and give it to the people at the restaurant to put in their rice so when they served us it would be green.  But alas, we did not (it would have been funny though), instead we just got occasional laughs from our friends for wearing green.

The Watermelon Farm

At this phase in our language learning, we are using children's story books to help us learn Arabic.  Our language tutor reads us the story and then we either understand or gain new words from the story.

This is the last page of one of our most recent stories

Any ideas on what's going on?

The short version:  This little rabbit steals watermelons from a fox's garden.  The Mom tells the rabbit not to steal from the fox.  The fox tries to catch the rabbit but the rabbit escapes only loosing his tail.  He returns home with no tail and his mother's response is, "You deserved it."

Yes, that's right.  This is a children's story book.  Graphic picture of a little rabbit with oozing coming from where his tail should have been with his mother's response, "You deserved it."  I guess this story is followed up by the real life punishment of getting your hand chopped off if you are caught stealing.  I honestly don't know if they still chop off your hand if you are caught stealing.  I have not seen anyone walking around with a missing hand, but I do believe it is part of Islamic Law.

Blast From the Past

This is a picture from the summer of 2003.  I spent the summer after my freshman year of college in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  That was the sickest two months of my life; looking back I would like to think it was the Celiacs'.  It was the most painful months of my life physically: living in village huts, sleeping on the ground, walking miles every day in painful heat, being sick the entire time I was there and topping it all off with Malaria to finish up my trip 30 lbs lighter than when I left (thanks to my freshman year of college which gave me something to loose).  Although it was the most challenging time of my life physically, I look back on those two months with joy and fond memories.  It was the worst and best two months of my life.  

It was the first time I had ever spent more than two weeks out of the country, and it confirmed for me my desire to live overseas permanently one day.  I am pretty sure I was the tallest, whitest girl in the entire country.  I got at least one marriage proposal every day I was there, but thankfully I held out for Andrew :)  Even to this day, a certain breeze or a random building will take me back to those two months in West Africa.  When Andrew and I decided to head out overseas and were thinking of where we would go, West Africa came up frequently in my thoughts.  It was a tough place to live, but it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Life Overseas

Script of Life

We have just recently started a new phase of language study.  One of the things that we are doing now as part of our language study is something called "Script of Life."  This is basically taking a simple task that we are familiar with, breaking it down literally step by step and learning how to say each of those steps in Arabic.  We go over all the new words and then we act out actually doing the steps in order to reinforce the action with the Arabic word.  Our Arabic teacher loves this and she thinks it is a great time to teach us how to make simple Arabic foods (or mostly salads since they are quick and easy).  We have been enjoying learning how to make these delicious foods as well.  So, instead of just pantomiming the actions of doing something, we actually make the food.  One of this week's salads was hummus.

I made a fresh loaf of gluten free bread to go along with our hummus which conveniently finished up about the time we finished making the hummus.  Thus our language study continues to pay off and be rewarding. 

Mom Cave

I really enjoy sewing, crafts and just in general making things.  I get a Quilting Daily newsletter via email everyday.  Today's was about "Mom Caves."  Although I am not a mother, I would love to have one of these!

I have not been nearly as creative as I would like to be since we have been here.  It is difficult to get into the mood of making things and making a home more homier since I know we will not be in this house long term. We do not need to accumulate stuff, and I feel like we have already accumulated enough to make it the bare minimum of homey.  One day maybe I will have my own area to be creative in :)

Parades

People here love to have parades!  I do not mean the kind we usually think of in the States with floats and balloons and such.  No, the people here simply all pile into their cars, drive around town honking their horns, with their lights on, the passengers hanging out the windows and the windshield wipers going (yes, in a country that does not get much rain you got to use them for something).  The people here use just about any excuse to have a parade, be it a wedding, winning a football (soccer) game, passing your test in school or just about anything else you can think of.

Lately we have been seeing a lot of parades with people carrying flags.  When we win a soccer game, people parade around with the flag, but these flags have been bigger than the ones they usually use for soccer, and they are not always our national flag.  We asked some friends and they told us it was for the king's birthday.  We didn't feel like this was a good answer because it is not the king's birthday now, and we figured that many people couldn't have gotten the date wrong.  We finally got another answer that seems to fit better.

With all the unrest going on in countries in this part of the world, people want to have parades to let the king know that they like him and they support him.  With all that we hear on the news, I am thankful to be living in a peaceful country.  A majority of the people are very happy and proud of the king.  Obviously everyone is not completely happy, but the issues that they have are not that big and are dealt with peacefully.