Yesterday we finished the second week of teaching and the last week of the first ssession. All of us felt much more comfortable with our classes this week. We had a lot of opportunities to meet with students outside of class. On Sunday all of the Simpson students went out to a coffeeshop with a couple of students to watch the EuroCup football (soccer) final. They had a great time hanging out, even if the shop had a "fog of smoke" hanging inside.
I ended my class yesterday by thanking my class for how much they have taught me! They genuinely appreciate that I want to learn about their culture and help Americans understand Arabic culture.
There is a lot of smoking in Jordan. I think I will receive about 10 years worth of California standard second-hand smoke exposure before I return to the US. Taxi drivers sometimes smoke, bus drivers, I have even seen cooks preparing food smoking in the kitchen.
One of the reasons we are here is to get to know Jordanians, and now all of us are flooded with invitations. Claire connected with her class so well, that most of her class is going to chip in money, rent a bus, and take all of us up north to Umm Qays (link) for an all day picnic on Friday, July 11th. We are excited about this. I've lost track of all of the invitations the team has accepted. Kim and I are going to meet with two students next week, and with an astronomy professor on Tuesday evening. Kim and Claire are going out with a worker here and a student this evening at 6. So the days and especially the evenings are getting very busy.
Aqaba & Customer Service
(I don't even notice that 'q' isn't followed by 'u' anymore!) I went down to the bus station to buy tickets on Tuesday. Micah & walked in and the man at the desk did not seem to interested in talking to us. When I asked to buy tickets to Aqaba, he said they don't go to Aqaba. This confused me since one of the workers here told me they did. He wasn't very friendly, so we left.
I was told that sometimes the customer service is bad here in Jordan, so we went across the street to an office. My observtion is that here if you keep asking people you can eventually find anything. So I asked about tickets to Aqaba, even though this office clearly wasn't a transportation company. Everyone joined in and told us the bus office we just left DID got to Aqaba, and even told us the price, $6 JD (about $9 US). So I went back over. This time a different man was also at the desk, and he said they went to Aqaba, and started to sell me the tickets. Meanwhile, the first man was arguing with him. Go figure! Anyway, I couldn't buy the tickets because I needed all of the passports. (Apparently, when you travel outside the Amman area, you may need passports because of checkpoints.) I went back yesterday and bought the tickets without a problem. The first man did come out of the back and give me a dirty look, though.
So, tomorrow morning we leave for Aqaba, the beautiful beach town on the Red Sea. We will also get to visit a community center at Aqaba that teaches English, and does other educational work in the community.
Two last notes: we are trying to Americanize Luke. Here he is last night trying to look American. I say, good try, old chap! Now, if we can break Luke of saying "Cheerio!" we'll be making progress. ;^) Also, yesterday was my birthday (35, but I think I'm dyslexic.) Here is my birthday brownie at Fuddruckers.
Grace and peace,
Michael
