Hello,
Today was an average beginning of the school week, Sunday. School went as it usually does with me being terrified of my Fusha teacher, Dr. Mahmoud, who is a friendly guy oddly but still scares the crap out of me. He always grabs my notebook and scans it for mistakes, then finds them and writes in my notebook. I'm the only one he does this too, so I hope he does not hate me or something. All in all it was a good day.
But enough about school. I want to talk about my afternoon in taxis. I walked around Abdoun Circle (by SIT) after school for a bit. It was a lovely day and I was enjoying the weather. However, I soon got tired of hearing "Hey Babe", "Ya Shakira" and cat calls so I decided to find a taxi and go home. While in the taxi ride home, I talked to the taxi driver for a bit in Arabic. YES, SCORE! We talked about random things and he asked me what I study in school and why I am in Amman. I tried to practice some of the colloquial Arabic I have learned, but the driver eventually asked me why I was speaking "in written language". I then answered that I only know Fusha. He responded that I must be a good writer. That was very nice of him.
Upon arriving at my house, I realized that I left my iPhone at SIT. I have a basic cell phone on me and I could not get it to work to call SIT or a friend to check on the whereabouts of my phone. As a result, I hailed a cab and went back to SIT. On the way to SIT, I had a very nice Taxi driver. He said he was 19 years old and laughed because he was younger than me. I forget his name, but he was really nice and did not speak English. Perfect for me! We had some conversation about how old we were, where we lived, whether he had family in the US...etc. Just basic questions that were perfect in allowing me to practice my Colloquial Arabic skills. Eventually he asked me if I knew the American pop singer, Pit Bull. I laughed and said yes. Then he popped in a Pit Bull CD and started blasting music. He kept changing the song and insisted that I pick one. I refused to pick. He selected this song (click link).
Give Me Everything Tonight- Pit Bull
I began to feel a bit awkward. Crap! Had I been too friendly? They had warned us about this in orientation! I nicely asked in Arabic if he understood what the song was saying. He said no, not at all and laughed really hard. He asked me to translate. I said I did not understand either, just because how I could I explain this song in Arabic? Anyway it was fun rolling up besides all the Embassies near SIT blasting this music! Such a fun memory. Best 1JD I have spent in Jordan.
Turns out when I got to SIT I found my iphone in my small pocket in my book bag. Oh Well! It was a good evening. I met up with some friends at the school building and went downtown. Daniel, one of the SITers needed more pants. We walked around and looked at different souvenir shops. Only bummer was when we were about to buy something, the salesperson told me it was made in America, as if he was bragging. This stopped the group from buying things because we did not want things made in America. We wanted Jordanian type things. My friend was going to buy something after this, so I asked if this item too was from America. He hestitated and did not respond, surely he learned his lesson. I think I will wait awhile to buy my souvenirs. I want to make sure they are legit.
Good morning America!
Natalie
Today was an average beginning of the school week, Sunday. School went as it usually does with me being terrified of my Fusha teacher, Dr. Mahmoud, who is a friendly guy oddly but still scares the crap out of me. He always grabs my notebook and scans it for mistakes, then finds them and writes in my notebook. I'm the only one he does this too, so I hope he does not hate me or something. All in all it was a good day.
But enough about school. I want to talk about my afternoon in taxis. I walked around Abdoun Circle (by SIT) after school for a bit. It was a lovely day and I was enjoying the weather. However, I soon got tired of hearing "Hey Babe", "Ya Shakira" and cat calls so I decided to find a taxi and go home. While in the taxi ride home, I talked to the taxi driver for a bit in Arabic. YES, SCORE! We talked about random things and he asked me what I study in school and why I am in Amman. I tried to practice some of the colloquial Arabic I have learned, but the driver eventually asked me why I was speaking "in written language". I then answered that I only know Fusha. He responded that I must be a good writer. That was very nice of him.
Upon arriving at my house, I realized that I left my iPhone at SIT. I have a basic cell phone on me and I could not get it to work to call SIT or a friend to check on the whereabouts of my phone. As a result, I hailed a cab and went back to SIT. On the way to SIT, I had a very nice Taxi driver. He said he was 19 years old and laughed because he was younger than me. I forget his name, but he was really nice and did not speak English. Perfect for me! We had some conversation about how old we were, where we lived, whether he had family in the US...etc. Just basic questions that were perfect in allowing me to practice my Colloquial Arabic skills. Eventually he asked me if I knew the American pop singer, Pit Bull. I laughed and said yes. Then he popped in a Pit Bull CD and started blasting music. He kept changing the song and insisted that I pick one. I refused to pick. He selected this song (click link).
Give Me Everything Tonight- Pit Bull
I began to feel a bit awkward. Crap! Had I been too friendly? They had warned us about this in orientation! I nicely asked in Arabic if he understood what the song was saying. He said no, not at all and laughed really hard. He asked me to translate. I said I did not understand either, just because how I could I explain this song in Arabic? Anyway it was fun rolling up besides all the Embassies near SIT blasting this music! Such a fun memory. Best 1JD I have spent in Jordan.
Turns out when I got to SIT I found my iphone in my small pocket in my book bag. Oh Well! It was a good evening. I met up with some friends at the school building and went downtown. Daniel, one of the SITers needed more pants. We walked around and looked at different souvenir shops. Only bummer was when we were about to buy something, the salesperson told me it was made in America, as if he was bragging. This stopped the group from buying things because we did not want things made in America. We wanted Jordanian type things. My friend was going to buy something after this, so I asked if this item too was from America. He hestitated and did not respond, surely he learned his lesson. I think I will wait awhile to buy my souvenirs. I want to make sure they are legit.
Good morning America!
Natalie
Do they sell clothes that are made in the US? I find that interesting because you can't find a lot of things made in the US here? That is so so sad!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the things were actually made in the US. I think the saleperson was trying to impress us and kinda of lied. Most likely, the goods were made in South Asia or Indonesia since they make most of the things in the world. However, there are American Companies everywhere. Mc Donalds, Burger King, H&M, American Eagle, Victoria Secret etc.
ReplyDelete