Eid Sayyid!

Sunday was the Orthodox Christian Easter here in the HJK. My family is Christian, but not too religious. They didn't go to church, nevermind all of the crucifixes and pictures of Jesus all over the house. It was cool, though. We dyed Easter eggs in the morning and then went over to some distant relative's house for dinner. It was kind of weird. There were a lot of old people and they were confused as to why my host family had a "Swedish" girl with them. HAHA. I suppose it was nice to have an excuse to wear a skirt and heels. The mansaf sucked, but there was chocolate so I don't care. Some old coot that was there told me in Arabic that I have "thick blood." I got grossed out and gaped at him disgustedly. My host mom laughed and said it's an expression that means someone is serious and not very funny. Pardon me for being freaked out and not talking in a room full of 30 people speaking a language I don't understand or like very much at this point. Uffff. Thank God we didn't stay very long and went back home. Our Easter celebration then ended that evening with my entire family and a few of their friends giving me an intense lesson on cussing people out in Arabic.

Keeping with this religious weekend, a friend and I went to Madaba on Friday. This is a very old Christian town with many old churches and amazing religious mosaics from the 6th century. While there, we also went to Mt. Nebo- the place where Moses went before he died and saw the Promised Land. We also went to the location of Jesus' baptism on the River Jordan. It was a really neat tour. A bit further down from the baptism site , we were able to put our feet in the River Jordan. Probably the coolest part was that the West Bank of Israel was just across the river- literally 10 feet away (the River Jordan is really small and drying up because of Israeli dams). It was weird sitting on the pier with my feet in the water and staring directly across at people on Israeli soil. It felt kind of similar to walking on the street in Nicosia and looking up at people behind the wall on the Turkish occupied side. Despite getting ripped off by the taxi driver, it was a really interesting day. Those were probably the most historical places I've ever been and it was a cool thing to see. Oh, and Grandma- I got you a nice gift, but you might want to consider converting to Catholocism to fully appreciate it... ;] (just kidding).

Mt. Nebo...durrr. Read the stone.

Moses memorial

The River Jordan... more like the Creek Jordan... =/

Baptism site of Jesus

See that tank in the background? That's Israel. WOW!

6th Century mosaic floor in Church of the Virgin Mary

The rest of the weekend was just pure laziness. I went to my friend's birthday party on Thursday night and wore a thong as an eyepatch (it was a pirate party). It was weird, especially since the security tag was still on them because the imbecile at the store didn't take it off. Apologies if this is too much information, but I found it too entertaining to exclude. The rest of the days I just slept late and laid around and read. It was really nice.

Today I went over to my Jordanian friend's house again, for the second time. She studies English and Linguistics at the University and we met at the language center. She and her mom and aunt are probably the 3 kindest people I have met in my life... seriously. I really enjoy going to their home and visiting with them. They treat me with such a high level of respect and kindness that it makes up for all the horrible Jordanians I have encountered. I wish more people were like them; peaceful, selfless and with genuine hearts and minds. It was a fun afternoon sitting in their garden, talking and laughing and poking around in the flowers. They always feed me WAY too much (to the point where it hurts to breathe after the meal... no joke), but I have the rest of the week to work it off at the gym so big deal. I suppose I can handle one day every once in awhile of eating enough food to feed an African country.

Things are good, generally. Though as the weather gets hotter and my bank account gets lower, "Is it May 23 yet?!" persistently flashes in my mind like a neon sign. I know that I've been here for too long when I almost get into at least one serious car accident pretty much daily and don't even bat an eyelash about it anymore. We have another long weekend, during which I will hopefully be more productive, and after that it is just about 3 weeks left to go. Finals are soon and I need to get serious about studying for them. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I am actually getting credit for this... :)

PS: Soon I will be going on a souvenir spree. Any requests? Just comment here or email me.