Well, even with the window closed the 6 am prayer woke me up once again. I don't know if it is because I am a light sleeper or if it is actually that loud. I don't know, maybe I'll get used to it and be able to sleep through it at some point. I planned on making eggs and having some leftover rice and chicken from last night only to realize that while I do have the stove top, I don't have pots or pans to cook anything in. However, we do have a pretty awesome toaster, so it looks like it's peanut butter toast for me this morning.
We don't really have any plans for today. I think we might try to go downtown today if we can get Jeremy to go with us and help us find our way around. If not, we might give it a shot all by ourselves. I don't know yet. It's about 11 am here, so we are just chillin' out now.
This place is so amazing. Even in the very short amount of time that I have been here, I am growing very fond of it. The culture is just so radically different, yet so fundamentally similar. Yes, I know how weird and impossible that sounds, but I am having that thought so often. Why am I saying this now? Well, my apartment is very close to the local mosque and now they are playing the Friday sermon over the speakers. While I don't understand a word of it, it is amazing. The bustling neighborhood I am living in is silent and the sermon is all you can hear; the powerful voice blasting over the loudspeaker is overwhelming. The passion, the power, and the energy in the voice is so, so... I don't know. I can't describe it. Just no words come to mind to describe this. This is why I am here to attempt to figure out and learn as much as I can. So much of this place feels so similar to me and just like, the voice, I can't describe it. This is a place and a culture everyone should experience at least once in their lives. I don't know if what I just said makes sense to anyone, but it makes sense to me.
So I didn't get to go downtown today, but I would say it was still a pretty productive day. I took a nice walk around my neighborhood and met a few Arabs that seemed really nice and spoke some English, but not too much. Even better though, my Arabic is getting better. So that's great.
We went back to Jeremy's house for lunch. It was pretty good. It was breaded beef bits and cucumber and corn salad. After that we chilled out at his house and talked about what the classes are like. He gave us a brief overview of some culture missteps that would be best to avoid, like shaking hands with a woman. Also, he told us some simple phrases that we are going to need to know. It was really nice to sit and relax for awhile.
I have a new roommate! His name is Safe. He is from Baghdad. He speaks pretty good English. It's not the best, but we can communicate, so it's all good. Plus, he can help Kirby and I with our Arabic. That's a major plus.
We went to pick up some really authentic Jordanian cuisine today for dinner and it was quite authentic. The meal was mostly different types of bread with a few different fillers to put in the bread. The bread reminded me of a really thick and chewy quesadilla shell. The fillers were really good. One was a spicy beef mixture that was very similar to taco meet with some Middle Eastern flair. The next was, or at least I was told and not inclined to believe, an egg and tomato mixture. It was very tasty, but I really have no idea what was in it. It was good, but I ate so much.
Once again I am shown that it is truly a small world. It really is. Today, while at Jeremy's, I met two guys who I have links to. One was from West Chester, Ohio. That's not too far from New Richmond. Then, the second guy I met, named Brennen, graduated from Campbellsville University, the college I attend. I just think that it is truly amazing that I can go 8,000 miles away from my home and still find people with that kind of link to me. It may be a small world, but I still wouldn't want to paint it.
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