Saturday School Trip

Yesterday I went on the weekly trip that is planned by the university for all the language center students. This week the trip was to a northern city along Sea of Galilee, or rather, the ruins of a city along the Sea of Galilee. This is the same city that is mentioned in Luke 8. Although the wind was cold and it was cloudy it was still a gorgeous place to visit. The grass was green and the flowers were coming up and the views were incredible. I loved the sense of touching/seeing/experiencing a piece of history like this.

Here are just a few pictures that I took:

A shepherd with his sheep along the side of the road

Most sites like this in the U.S. would be cordoned off and restricted, but here we had almost free rein to explore to our hearts content....which of course we did. :) This is in the amphitheater. 

These flowers were growing all over the place

The road stretching through the site...it was surprisingly intact for how old it is. I'm not positive, but I'm guessing it might have led down to the Sea of Galilee from the town at the top of the hill.

We came upon this random basement-type thing as we were exploring and it gave a nice respite from the wind. I guess it might have been a crypt or something at one point, although I'm not positive on that.

The poppies were coming out here, and I have heard they will appear here in the city as well, although they haven't come up yet. 

A birds-eye view of the Sea. Directly below us were the ruins, then the Sea of Galilee, with the Golan Heights somewhere close and the Syrian border also super close. I think we could see across the border but we didn't know what we were looking at. :)

The town across the Sea is what we believe to be Tiberias, also mentioned in the Bible. And that would definitely be on the Israeli side of the border so you can see how close we were. :) Someday I'm going to get a bit closer to the Sea than we got yesterday. 

These two women were cooking their lunch when we wandered past so we stopped to say hi and for me to ask about taking a picture. :) We chatted briefly in Arabic (I didn't understand everything they said though) and then the woman with the white scarf whipped out a bottle of Pepsi and poured us both a glass. I think they would have fed us to if we had accepted. :)

There weren't many tourists there and it's such a big place that when we got off the beaten trail there was really only the two of us. We could hear the birds singing and the wind blowing through the olive trees.

It was such a nice change from the city. Living in such a big city I don't realize it, but I really am a country girl at heart. I much prefer places like this and places like Kalona to big cities. :)

My friend has some more pictures that I'll get from her soon and then I'll put them up here too.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and congrats to the IMS guys on making it to State!!! Go Reggie!

Spring...?

The last two days have been a complete change from the weather of Monday. Right now it is probably colder inside than outside, and I can tell the weather is changing because right now there are a bunch of kids in the alley below playing and making all kinds of noise. :) I'm getting ready to leave my winter coat behind and some people were even out in short sleeves today, although it was still a bit cold for that in my opinion. I hope the weather holds through the weekend, because on Saturday I'm taking a trip with the university to the north along the Sea of Galilee, to a town that is mentioned in Luke 8. So, hopefully I will put pictures up early next week of that trip.
In other news, this month has done great things for my Arabic understanding, if not my confidence to speak. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but overcoming the fear of making mistakes is sometimes the hardest hurdle to jump in the effort to learn another language. I'm trying my best, although I still don't string together too many words in a sentence when I'm put on the spot. Inshallah I will succeed in this though!

Weekend Trip

Over the weekend, my roommate and another friend of ours went to a nearby town to enjoy some time away from the hustle and bustle of the capital city. 

We visited a famous church there, ate lots of good food, sat for hours in a restaurant playing Risk and watching people outside, relaxed at the hotel watching "Arabs' Got Talent" and then on Saturday we visited a friend of theirs, and this friend's family. 

Here are just a few pictures from our time

Leave it to the Arabs to have five guards when one would do. :)

The famous church in this townn

The reason the church is famous is because of this mosaic on the floor. It's an accurate map of this region during the Roman era, and was used, for example, to determine where Jesus' baptism site was. 

A young woman working in one of the many shops that sold mosaics. It was interesting watching her expertly cut and fit the pieces into the mosaic pattern. 

Taowgihee Pictures

Here are some pictures I took later in the morning on Friday. Some neighbor girls got their taowgihee results I guess and so they were celebrating right below us...which gave a perfect opportunity to snap some pictures and get a video or two. :)

The girls who got their results all decked out in their kufeeyahs (the scarves around their necks) in the national colors. Each country has a certain pattern/color scheme so that everyone knows what nationality you identify with.

The mothers looking on proudly

The neighborhood "mother hen"...I believe this is a common place for her to sit...it gives her a view of all the comings and goings of the people in the neighborhood. She seems like a sweet woman although I haven't had the chance to get to know her. :)

Interesting Morning

About half an hour ago I woke up to horns honking and some cheering coming from what sounded like my neighborhood. Needless to say, I came awake pretty fast, wondering if a demonstration was happening right here. Of course I did the only thing I could...I jumped out of bed and ran to the balcony to see what I could see. I saw a few people in the street but not what was really going on, and so, determined to find out exactly, I ran back to my room to throw on some clothes so that I could go down and check it out. There was no way a demonstration was going to go on right on my street without me catching at least a glimpse. (I can just see my mom shuddering at the thought of me going looking for a demonstration) :) Well, while I was quickly getting ready my one roommate came out and told me that really all that's going on is that the taow-ji-he results are out at the girls school just across the street and so students are celebrating. I guess that means no demonstration, but it does seem like there's an excitement in the air outside and that is always fun. :) It might help that it's warmer today too.
The توجيهي ("taow-ji-he"; isn't that cool that I figured out the Arabic script? It's read from right to left) is the test that all high school seniors take if they want to go to college. They sometimes don't even go to school their senior year but just study for this test, because it determines what kinds of subjects they can study in college or university. For instance, if someone wants to be a doctor, but they don't score high enough, they are not really allowed to go into that field. In some ways it's like the SATs or the ACTs but it carries a lot more weight here.
So, that was my excitement for the morning, and all before 10:00. :) Now I'm enjoying a cup of real coffee before I go pack for my weekend trip.
!مع سلام   Ma Salaam! (good-bye)

First Full Week of Class

Today I finished up the first full week of classes, and I feel like it's been a good week, although my brain feels a bit like mush at the moment. I made Level 3 (did I already tell ya'll that?) and I think it's a good fit, although it will push me. I ended up with the director of the program as my main teacher, and my professor from my last class as the other one, which is awesome! They are both good teachers and I'm especially glad to get my professor from last semester. :) The biggest challenge is that they are using all Arabic, even to explain other words...I think some class periods can go by without any English spoken at all. It's good for me, but definitely leaves me a bit drained after 3 1/2 hours. :)

All that to say, I'm grateful for my weekend plans. My one roommate and another friend and I are getting out of the city and heading to a smaller town nearby for an overnight stay. It's apparently a nice little place and we're planning to take some board games and just to chill for a couple of days. And then it will be back to life here....and homework. :)

In other news, on Tuesday they celebrated the Prophet's birthday here, which meant a day off of school for everyone. (I know, I know...3 days in and already a day off) :) I got to spend the day with a friend who just moved here from the States, and then we met up with another girl we know who is here on a cross-cultural trip through her university. This girl had a few friends with her and since they didn't have any money to go shopping in the balad, we brought them back to the apartment to hang out and talk for awhile. We also went up to the roof to see the view. I think they had a good time. :)

Anyway, I actually took a few pictures that day so I thought I'd share. :)

with my friend who just moved to the city; she's taking classes at the university too

with my friend who is on her cross-cultural trip

And just for fun....

I saw this in a shop window in the balad and I couldn't resist the photo op. Don't they look delicious? ;)

Classes

I keep forgetting that this blog is actually a good way to communicate with all ya'll back home, so sorry that I haven't revealed the results of the dreaded placement test yet. :)
I took it and was convinced that I would only be in level 2, but it turns out I did make it into level 3, so that was a good feeling. My class is huge right now, and I think they'll split us into two groups starting Sunday. But I honestly think that this is the right class for me, although I'm going to have to work my tail off to keep up. :)
Anyway, my Mom told me that I should pictures on here again, so here are some I took while it was raining the one day.

Some of our rags that definitely hung out there for a week because they just kept getting rained on. :)

The mist that hung over the city for a week. 

The little patches of green, like this one, make me hopeful that maybe it will start to become spring sooner rather than later.

A neighbor heading out to her car