I'll give you all a little taste of what my life is, ill go in and fill in the details later.
I am currently living in a village in the north of Jordan. I already told you about my family, but here is what my day is like.
7:00am: Wake up on the floor to the sound of my host mom knocking on the door and my host father yelling "ay Shayelia!" I am on the floor because although they have very generously provided me with a bed (I am the only one of the volunteers in our village with a bed), it is Jordanian sized and I am too long for it. My knees started to hurt from having to be curled up all night so I switched to the farsha on the floor. I am being woken up with the name Shayelia because my host father have decided that Stephanie is too hard to say and not pretty or arabic enough and has renamed me. Also once I get up I have to take all my bedding and stuff and place it back on the bed like I slept on it because they would be really offended if they knew that i was sleeping on the floor.
7:20: Breakfast (el-fatur). This consists of tea (shai), yogurt(leben), pita(khubbitz), and sometimes jam for dipping in. lately it has also included bananas.
7:45: Start walking to class which is about 3 blocks or so away, in a preschool (very appropriate) run by a charitable organization. The road I walk to get there has a house about every 40-70 yds on one side, and unbroken desert until you reach the "road to Iraq" as my host mother described it on the other side, after which is rolling hills of desert.
8:00:class is supposed to start, it doesn't. we wait outside the school or inside the office where we are served tea by the women who work there.
8:20/ 8:30: Our teacher walks in and we start to think about starting class. Our arabic teacher is also our sort of cultural liason. He is a 22 year old jordanian who just graduated from college. He lives with a host family in the village too, and runs on Jordanian time so we are slowly getting used to that.
8:30-12:30: Arabic class. We take a lot of breaks and kid around a lot because the teacher is a goof, but the general point is to learn new vocab, grouped into little categories like "vegetables" or "greetings" or whatever. Although now we are learning how to conjugate verbs and less fun stuff like that.
12:30: Walk back home, usually I get yelled at a bit by groups of shebob (13-30 year old men, though mostly of the teenage variety). Luckily I don't really know what they are saying, but it doesn't sound complementary. Generally they just want to see if they can get me to look at them.
1:30: Lunch. Traditionally it is a big platter of rice made in one of a few ways with chicken on top. this is eaten using spoons and khubbitz as pinchers. Lunch is supposed to be the biggest meal of the day, but my host mom works so it is usually not such a big affair and is very similar to breakfast.
2:00: The time the second language class is supposed to start but is usually the time I start preparing my family for my walking out the door. I leave with a "massalaama" (goodbye) and a "bashufkoo badain" (see you all later). Walk to school.
2:20: Second language class starts, same drill, more lessons, some culture lessons thrown in. Usually someone brings some kind of snack of unbelievably processed and sugary cakes or biscuits to eat.
4:30ish: Walk back home, its just getting dark and all women have to be in their houses before nightfall so we usually have to scurry home.
5:30: Pile in the car with the host family to go out visiting. Usually i find out this is happening in the course of five seconds. It goes like this: I'm sitting calmly watching tv with everyone. Someone yells "Yella, stephanie" (lets go, or move, or leave, or come, or whatever requires movement.) then someone says a name or a realationship. So they might say "auntie" or "brother" but these things dont necessarily mean anything. So we get in the car and end up somewhere, i have no idea where. We go in, greet everyone, except some of the males, i never know who to talk to or look at so i just do the same thing my host mom does. We then all sit in a sort of semicircle against the walls on farshas. We sit for a bit, then someone comes around with the Arabic coffee. this is some sort of kinda fruityish coffe that everyone drinks one by one out of the same cup. then a little while passes and they come out with the shai (tea). everyone gets their own cup (about the size and look of a shot glass, a little larger) and you have to drink at least two cups. then a little time passes and if it a rich family they come out with a plate of packages of cookies or candies for everyone, or plates of fruit. if it is a not so rich family this part is skipped. then a little while passes and they come out with a cup of Turkish coffee for everyone. then the visit is winding down and it won't be too long before we leave.
Somewhere between 8 and 10:00: Pile back in the car for home.
10:30: Get home, sit for a minute, eat dinner. Dinner is the same sort of thing as breakfast, though yesterday they made hamburgers for me. They also love to have french fries with dinner, with lots of salt, eaten on pita bread.
11:00: I beg to go to bed, attempt to write in my journal for about 10 minutes, fall asleep.
