sandcastle

this one goes out to the pittsburghers. i was reminded today of Sandcastle while i was doing laundry. how are the joys of a waterpark and the mundane drudgery of a weekly (ok maybe bimonthly) chore related? the heat man.

so, as i do not have a dryer, i hang my clothes out on the lines on the roof to dry. i was not wearing shoes today when doing this, mostly because i don't like them, which was probably my first mistake. once i put my foot on the roof i realized it was blisteringly hot. here i was faced with a choice: admit defeat, forgo the joys of being barefoot and free, and walk all the way back downstairs and all the way back up, or suffer through it. guess which i chose. and so i put into use a technique perfected at Sandcastle.

this technique is two-fold. the first step is darting from one patch of shade to the next, while sort of doing a weird hopping, rolling step in which only the very outside touches the ground. the next step, which was much more successful due to the fact that the only shade was 4 feet away from the clothesline, involves creating little, oh so temporary puddles to stand in. so after i hung each piece of clothing i would hold the next item out and wring it so that there was a little spot to stand in while i hung it. this was moderately successful and after laying here for awhile inside, waving my feet around, i think they are back to normal.

p.s. 'bimonthly' means both twice a month and once every two months. how stupid is that?

a taste of the good life

so i went into mafraq today to catch the start of the world cup. to get to see the games here in the middle east you have to pay 120 JD, which gets you all of the games. because of this, the few who are able to afford this ridiculous sum are probably going to become very popular.

i was invited to go into the city to the house of one of the american families. there are a bunch of americans working in the hospitals as missionaries, which makes my life harder, but oh well. but that's another matter. anyway, they subscribed and had a bunch of people over to watch the games today. it was so much fun. i just spent the day with a bunch of americans, got to hang out with the guys who live in mafraq (who i never get to see due to gender separation), ate a lot of chips and pizza and junk food, rode around on razor scooters, just generally forgot i was in jordan for a day. actually, that is not putting it quite correctly. i never felt i wasn't in jordan, nor do i spend much time wishing that i was somewhere else. i simply enjoyed living in jordan with others who are going through some of the same things, and found a bit of respite.

i know this wasn't a very interesting story, but it was kind of a big deal in its very simplicity.

I realize it has been awhile since i have posted anything. do i have anything new to say? no.

still plodding along in the heat. kids aren't coming to the center anymore, they are on summer break till the end of august. soon i will be starting to teach 9 english classes a week, so expect me to soon be complaining a lot about feeling overworked and tired. cause that's how i roll. next week i go down to aqaba to do a summer camp where i will be teaching environmental english. i think this means i will be teaching environmental awareness stuff in english, but really, i have no idea. the camp isn't run by peace corps volunteers, we just sort of help them, more like camp counselors i think. clearly i am feeling very eloquent today. sorry.

oh the most important thing that has happened recently is that i discovered the band The Horse Feathers. love it. well i guess more importantly i discovered the npr podcast 'all songs considered' which is introducing me to all kinds of new music.

for reference this is what i hear all day. there are basically two types of jordanian music: the habibi women who i really dislike and won't subject you to, and the jeash (soldier) music which i do like. i wish i could find a song that i actually hear all the time (swear there are about 8 habibi songs and 12 jeash songs on constant rotation in the country, but this one is pretty representative.

and here are the horse feathers.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Thistled+Spring/2JrXCQ

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Belly+of+June/2KFzFI

oh man

it's 101 degrees right now. in the shade. i only checked because i walked into my house and thought 'oh man it's so nice and cool in my house' then noticed the temp in the nice cool room was 85 degrees.

and i keep being told that this isn't really summer yet.

lest you forget, i still have to wear the same clothes i wore in the winter.