Good Day

Alright, yesterday was a long day but it was a good one. I moved to my new host family yesterday and they're very cool. Susan didn't seem too happy with me but I don't really mind because this new family is more what I was looking for. They are a Muslim family and they have a pretty nice home, it's about 15 minutes away from the SIT building but that's not bad at all. The dad is a cop who works at the king's palace so we only live a few blocks away from there and we can see the massive Jordanian flag from our house. Also, the dad smokes like a chimney, no joke. I counted between 17 and 20 cigarettes and an entire hookah on his own from the time I met him, to when I went to bed; he just always has one in his hand. That's a little ridiculous. The family is all around fun too, they hardly speak any English but we all laughed and joked around multiple times last night; with Susan, it was just so awkward and all we watched was cartoons, not the greatest experience. The lack of English is perfect for me though, I'm going to learn a lot more now, I'm whipping out my English-Arabic dictionary at least twice every few minutes. Amaar, my new host dad, took me to an wedding after-party last night as well. It was insane. So much smoke and food and dancing (more just the women dancing and the men staring on creepily, but dancing nonetheless). It was great to hear the live Arabic music blasting and watch the bride and groom dance in a traditional style, very cool.

I had my first day of real school yesterday as well. It went well and I got into level 3 of 4 for Arabic which is what I was shooting for so I'm happy about that. A lot of yesterday was telling us about what we are going to be doing this year and I am just all around excited to get started - papers that actually interest me, lectures (that actually interest me), and a whole lot of Arabic.