best family ever

Marhaba! I met my host family last night and it was impossible to wipe the smile off of my face. Jackie and I were the first two to get picked up at the hotel. Maher, his wife Amal, two children Laith and Tala and his niece Zena drove us to Shireen’s house. Lots of other sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews were there too. We had an orientation earlier in the day that was basically a two-hour presentation about how awkward and uncomfortable we were going to be. Fortunately for Jackie and I the awkwardness we were promised only lasted about the first ten minutes and then we were in.

Everyone was super surprised to hear I didn’t know any Arabic. Actually during one of our orientation exercises we were developing the identity of the CIEE tribe because here all someone has to do is say his/her name and then everything there is to be known about this person is known because someone would know the family he/she is from. They don’t ask questions like what is your major or what kind of music do you like because it is not relevant to your identity. Our director would make a statement and if that statement was true for us we would stand up. One of the statements she said was “We don’t know any Arabic” and only five (including me, out of 135) stood up. I guess that was the first time I realized oh, people don’t normally just pick up and go to countries where they can’t speak the language, whatever. We got a round of applause from all the CIEE students but the typical reaction from the family is “oh wow, you have a lot to learn.”

Anyway, Maher said we could put our stuff away and the coffee shop with argilla (hookah) would open in an hour. Jackie and I have a huge closet with large sliding doors covered in mirrors. It is awesome because I brought a small army of mirrors terrified there wouldn’t be any. We have to keep our rooms unnaturally clean (at least compared to my floor covered in a foot of clothing standards), which I think will be harder than learning Arabic.

After we got organized and settled we went outside and had the best time. They have a patio where people from the street can peer down. More and more family members were coming over; including some that brought their own CIEE students too. We spent the night smoking argilla, eating chocolate, drinking Turkish coffee, and laughing with the family. Maher’s oldest brother, Basel came over having already memorized Jackie’s and my profiles. We joked around a lot, warning the other CIEE students as they arrived that we had a spy amongst us. There were noisy children everywhere, multiple hookahs, lots of laughing; it was a huge loving family and we were instantly a part of it. Zena and I played cat’s cradle for what must have been an hour. Additionally, the Jordanians assured me that smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee everyday is good for my health (on a side note, Jordan has a higher life expectancy than the US).

At 11 30 we had dinner. I was a little nervous when I saw the spread and there was no hummus. There were maybe 15 bowls on the table; olives, yogurt, cheese, tomatoes, oregano, olive oil, scrambled eggs, eggplant, cucumbers, jam, and mint. Each person gets a pita and goes at it. Believe it or not I really liked it! My favorite was probably dipping the pita in olive oil and then the oregano, or grabbing some mint and yogurt with the pita. I was so tired I couldn’t wait to go to bed but then Maher turned to us and said want to watch a movie? I figured the later I stayed up the later I would sleep in and was having such a good time I couldn’t say no.

Watching TV is a big part of family time. Even if no one is actually watching, it is on. Maher, Amal, Jackie and I watched Snakes on a Plane (who in the world doesn’t love Samuel L. Jackson?) while Tala, Laith, Zena, and Zaid (a 1.5 year old cousin) fell asleep on the pillows in front of us. The weekends here are Friday and Saturday so Maher said we're all sleeping in until noon or one. Friday is family day because there is no work so when we woke up we had breakfast and lounged around the house until five in our pjs, playing games with Laith, Tala, Zena, and Zaid, smoking argilla, and just relaxing; it was my kind of day.

Breakfast was the same style except there was hummus, yay!! And this bean dish, which I have no idea what they call it but it sounds an awful lot like “food.” There were also cucumbers, eggplant, olives, peppers, and tomatoes. It was really good and it should go without saying but my favorite was pita and hummus. We taught Tala and Laith ninja assassin and they “taught” us (aka made up) a card game that conveniently was impossible to end. Maher is about to take us around the neighborhood and show us how to get to University of Jordan (UJ) to prepare us for our first classes on Sunday.

Well the argilla is about to get passed to me so I have to free my hands. I hope you all are well and your lungs are doing a lot better than mine are going to be after these three and a half months! Masalama!