Huda

                Two days ago I made my first Muslim friend outside of those helping the CIEE program. Her name is Huda; we met on the ground floor of the CIEE building while waiting for an elevator. After talking for a while about where we were from, what we studied and why I was in Jordan she offered to help me find my next lecture. CIEE warned us that the first week of classes would be confusing in JU and it was no understatement. Huda and I looked for my lecture for 20 minutes to no avail,finally giving up and grabbing a coffee. I learned that Huda is a senior at the university, so her classes do not start until next week. She is in the Medicine department and works in rehabilitation. Her classes this year involve going to hospital with her class (of 16) and working for 5 hours straight. She is head of her class and works very hard. She told me that if she graduates first in her class she will work as a TA at JU for a year and then be sent to study in America or England for free. Insh’allah she stays on top.

                Yesterday we met for coffee again and walked the length of the campus, which took us approximately 30 minutes. We shared music from our phones and ipods and tried to teach each other new words. In the Arabic alphabet there is no “p” so to teach Huda I told her it was like spitting. When trying to explain the word “awkward” I drew a picture of a turtle upside down on its shell and she understood immediately; turns out this is a universal image. However, saying self-deprecating statements is not common practice here in Jordan. I said many times that I was such a bad Arabic student and this seemed to really bother Huda. Last night she sent me a really sweet text message saying “I want you to remember Wylie “no pain, no gain”” She had explained to me earlier that day that in order to learn Arabic I had to be ready to be in much pain and do a lot of work…

                This morning was my placement exam for Arabic. I got to the classroom a little late because I had a late breakfast. Everyone was already sitting down working diligently on their exams. I opened mine to find that I was completely lost. In all three semesters of my Arabic at Skidmore I have learned to read Arabic, to write Arabic, and many grammatical lessons, but the emphasis on vocabulary has been relaxed to say the least. This placement exam had all instructions in Arabic and I found that I didn’t even really know what was being asked of me. Sitting there I felt like a failure. This has probably been the worst experience I have had in Jordan so far. I handed my exam in totally blank and left. I have a meeting in an hour with Dr. Najeh for my oral part of the exam. At this time I suspect I will have to do a lot of explaining for myself. I’m not sure if it was Skidmore’s Arabic program which has let me down or if it is that I am a poor student but I feel very lost right now. Hopefully Dr. Najeh will be kind and rekindle the drive to learn Arabic that I have had in the last 5 days and seem to have lost form my failure this morning.

                I just had my oral interview. It went about as well as the written exam. It ended up being me sitting in front of an Arab man asking him to repeat himself slower or to translate his question. I wasn’t feeling great so I went to the cafeteria with my friends David, Cathleen, Joeseph, Mike, and Tamara to get lunch at the cafeteria. Afterwards I went to the “library” (really an office in between a coffee shop and electronics store) to pick up my readings. My professor Zubi Zubi, who I have American and the Arabs with and Jordanians history in the Arab Israeli conflict, compiled two textbooks that cost a total of 18 JD! How about that for textbook costs! For now I am hoping to get through the week and to the weekend because I have some amazing plans!

Love,

Wylie of Arabia