An Average Day

Things are going so far so good here. I've gotten a few interviews and I'm doing 5 more today and at least 2 tomorrow. I've heard some very interesting points of views ranging from a more "moderate" view to a clearly hard-line view. With the first interview I had, the interviewee had some very interesting quotes that I wrote down such as: "the concept of being a civilian in Israel does not exist" (speaking about how it's a "military state"), "the only way you could have a good and healthy relationship with an Israeli is if you were a subdued servant or if Israel was moved to the far western Sahara desert," and finally, "and those stupid assholes chose Palestine" (speaking about the choice of Palestine as the location for the creation of an Israeli state). I thought that last quote was pretty intense, he sad it in kind of a giggly anger which kind of freaked me out. I really enjoy doing these interviews. The only problem is that sometimes the students who are living with the host parents I interview are in the same room and even though I'm being chill and unbiased, sometimes they pitch in and start antagonizing my interviewee, no good. I think I'm going to request them to leave from now on since it's such a touchy and uncomfortable subject at times.

Now, here's a day in the life of me in Jordan (not during the ISP period). Every morning, I'd wake up around 8:00 and skip breakfast. I'd take a 5-7 minute walk with my computer bag to a roundabout close to my house and then wait 10-20 minutes for a taxi (taxis are pretty rare around my place). After arriving at SIT, either we'd have Arabic in the morning or in the afternoon depending on the day, 3 hours of Arabic every day (hour and a half of Ameia and an hour and a half of FusHa). The days with Arabic in the morning, we'd have Thematic Seminar in the afternoon where a speaker would come in and talk to us about the religion, society, culture, etc. of Jordan. On days when Arabic is in the afternoon, we'd have our Field Study Seminar in the morning where we learned about how to do our ISP: interviews, surveys, ethical research, etc. Every day for lunch, we'd either go to the super market close by SIT, to the roundabout a few blocks away, or to Reem (supposedly the top shwarma stand in the Middle East). SIT is right next to the British and Venezuelan Embassies and we're located in Abdoun (that's the name of the part of Amman). After school, some friends and I would usually shoot over to a cafe for homework and argeelah, then I'd head home and spend the rest of my night with my family. That's pretty much an average day during the school week here in Jordan. Also, the work week here starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday which causes some confusion but you get used to it after a while. Um, the end. Ma salaama.