My First Marriage Proposal and Our Last Day at the Al-Manar Hotel

Today we move out of the hotel and in with our homestays! We each have individual meetings with our program people about who our homestays are, and then we go back to the hotel and meet them. This morning we had a meeting about what to expect, what to do/not do and all of that. One interesting thing I learned is that most of the homestays have maids. They are usually of Asian descent and not treated well. We were advised to keep our valuables and money locked somewhere because the maids are prone to steal. There were also rules about not being in a room alone with any members of the opposite sex close to our age.

Today we also found out what Arabic we tested into and what classes we're taking. I tested into Intermediate II for both Modern Standard and colloquial. For those who are interested (i.e. my parents), here is my schedule:
Modern Standard 
Colloquial 
Intro to Islam
Int'l Relations and Diplomacy in the Middle East  

I also haven't mentioned that we went to the American embassy earlier this week where they scared our socks off with talks of terrorist attacks and rogue taxi drivers. They actually said that the crime rate is really low here but it's on the rise along with inflation. I think the idea was to make sure that we still keep up some kind of guard even when we feel really safe. Needless to say, it worked on me.

Last night we went to a famous falafel restaurant downtown called Hashem. It was really tiny and not that clean looking, but we heard it had a great reputation. I would say it definitely lived up to the reputation, despite the absence of menus or silverwear. I've found that we get treated really well at restaurants, probably because people assume that we're rich because we're American. Also a lot of Jordanians are just genuinely kind and welcoming people. Anyway, the owner of Hashem treated us well and after the meal told me he wanted me to stay with him forever and offered me a whole chicken. Sweet, huh?

We continued walking around downtown and then went to the same hookah place as earlier this week. There were only about 4-5 of us and it was really nice. We sat and chatted for maybe 2.5 hours.

The weather seems to be warming up a bit, which surprises me because I heard it's supposed to snow soon. No complaints here!

Also, we get a discount if we join this gym and if this week was any indication of how much food I will be consuming in the next four months, I should definitely look into it. It costs 85 JD for 4 months which is a really good deal. The gym also has good hot showers (not necessarily a luxury we'll be enjoying in homestays) and blow dryers (mine doesn't work here).

One last thing: yesterday we went to a volunteer fair where we met people from organizations that would benefit from English-speaking volunteers. I wrote my name down at the YWCA where they prepare women for jobs requiring English, a Palestinian refugee camp where they train unemployed Palestinians for jobs requiring English, and a conversation club for students. Everyone signed up for the Palestinian one so we'll see if they contact me, but I would like either of the other two as well.

That's it for now, but look forward to my next post detailing my homestay experience... I will also attempt to put up photos soon, but it's difficult with the shakey internet access which will become less reliable and available once I move in with my homestay.