Happy Thanksgiving!

I learned how to say "Happy Thanksgiving" in Arabic today :)

So, عيد شكر سعيد everyone! Have a great day.

1000 Views.

So I just realized that the counter of people reading this blog hit 1000.

Whoa.

I guess I kind of started this blog to be able to remember things for myself, but also to share with others. And now, I'm really glad that I did, because that's a LOT of people reading it. And I have a feeling that many of those people, maybe yourself included, hadn't even heard of Jordan before reading this. I'm glad you know now.

If there's anything anybody would like to hear about in specific, or anything they're interested in about Jordan, just comment and ask :)

Thanks guys!

Wadi Rum

I keep thinking about this night...

We walked to those mountains in the background, by the way. Three of us, with no cell phones, water, or flashlights. That's what I call an adventure :)

Once upon a time, I was at Petra.

There's so many things about this picture that just scream "MIDDLE EAST!"

I love this so much. First of all, there's the fact that we're standing just feet in front of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Petra. Whoa. Secondly, it's the fact  that we're two high school kids from the Midwest, just chilling in Jordan. And that we've got some pretty awesome head wear.

But beyond that, there's the fact that we're there without our parents, living with host families who essentially made my life every time I talked to them. I miss my host family so much, and everything about living somewhere different. I miss being able to practice a new language in the alleyway between your house and the neighbor's house, and learning the word for turtle from your little host cousin, not from a textbook unit on animals. I learned so much there, more than I could ever write in a blog post.

Anyways, I want to go back. And I know that it won't be the same as before, and that's the beautiful part. I don't want the same experience; I want a new one. But I do want a new experience where I live in a new place, experiencing a new culture, and learning a new language. Next summer, insha'allah.

Until then, I'll stop barfing love for study abroad all over this blog. M3 salaama!

All Done...

Well, the application is all done now. At least, my part. There's still my transcript and parent essay. But my part is all done.

Better hope that I get accepted, or else this blog is going to be rather blank this summer! :) Ahhh I'm freaking out, it's strange to think about how much these couple of hundred of words count for. Well, for now, I guess I'll just be waiting to hear about semi-finalist status. Insha'allah!

(This post sounds way calmer than I am. I'm essentially freaking out, but in a totally good way).

ESSAYS! LAST POST!

I'M GOING TO FINISH THESE ESSAYS TODAY!

Here's my plan. Finish the one last essay I have to do for this application, submit it, freak out, then look at pictures from last summer and write random posts about them. Sounds like a good plan.

One last essay... here we go. I've put so much effort into these essays, I want to go back so badly!

Old Posts

For some reason I just decided to read through some of my posts from when I was in Jordan, and I just starting laughing extremely hard when I realized how broken my English was in those posts. I guess sometimes things rub off, even when English is my first language. It's not surprising though, that trying to write a blog post in English would be a challenge after a couple weeks without English.

Some examples of sentences that made me laugh because of how forced and awkward they sound:
"So here's a description of it tonight."
"For the most part we have cleaned and fixed them, but I will describe them to you as we found them."
"Oh, one more thing about the apartment itself that I like is that fact that you can go on the roof and chill"

Maybe it's not that obvious, but at least to me there are things that I can see, where I normally would never write sentences like that. It's not that they're wrong, it just sounds funny. As if I'm learning English as my second language and just finally getting the hang of it. This makes me happy.

On the other hand, having good English back in my brain makes me scared for my Arabic. I mean, I essentially immerse myself in Arabic whenever I can at home, with music and movies and television and such, but it's not the same. Yallah ya shabaab, let's go back to the Middle East! Oh wait... essays... I'll get back to that now...

Getting Somewhere

I've spent so long on these essays. I'm not sure I'll ever be really happy with them, but maybe that's because I feel like so much is resting on so few words. But hey, that's life. I'll just hope for an interview. I feel like I'm so much better at just explaining things in person than writing essays about it.

I've got my letter to my host family pretty solid, my essay about why I deserve a second trip pretty good, and I'm finally getting an essay about why I want to study specifically in the Middle East going well. I've still got an essay about three reasons I want to study abroad left though, and one about a lesson I learned outside of school. I've already written a possibility for that last one, but I'm not really all that pleased with it.

Dear Selection Committee,
You should just read my blog and see how much I want to go again, and how passionate I am about the Middle East and Arabic. Please?
-Me.

Must... Finish... Essays...

I have everything outlined and such. I just need to sort out all these ideas into some solid prose now. The biggest challenge was figuring out what to put in each essay so I don't repeat myself; they're all rather similar questions. But I've got that all sorted out, so we're in the home stretch now. Hopefully this works out like last year!

Essays

You mean those essays are due November 3rd? That's really soon. I mean, really soon.

Maybe I should stop writing essays about Wadi Rum and Petra and Amman and Jabal Amman and Souk Jara and Muta3am Hashem and shai and the kanafe and everything else that I love about the Middle East and answer the state department's bland questions.

Why do you want to study abroad? Why do you like the Middle East? Why should we send you back even though you've already gone? What are three reasons you want to go?

These questions are essentially equivalent to asking, "What is love?" to me. I can't explain this in an essay!

Blah, blah, blah. I've got to figure out a way to make these essays show everything that I want to say, and have it still be 250 words or less. This here, this is hard stuff. School is nothing compared to jamming this kind of emotional attachment to a region of the world into 250 words or less. And yes, emotional attachment to a region of the world is a real thing. If you think that it's not, you're probably emotionally attached to staying right where you are.

Well, at least I know what I'll be doing tomorrow after work.