Hey.. So it's been a month since I last updated... and nothing particularly crazy has happened. I've fallen into a pretty nice routine at this point and everything is going pretty smoothly. My Arabic is advancing nicely (though still too slow for me at times) and I have the majority of midterms behind me.
A couple weeks ago there was some turmoil here on campus. It actually began with the weather being absolutely crazy and blizzarding on us in the middle of March. Some snow actually stuck, which hasn't happened here in apparently years. So one day, some kids on campus were having a snowball fight, when one of them got a little mad at being thrown at continuously. The argument escalated and the kid who was mad actually pulled out a gun and started shooting into the air. When the kid throwing snowballs got angry as well he advanced on the guy with the gun (always a bad idea) and told him he didn't believe the other guy had the nerves to shoot him (second wrong move on his part). So the guy with the gun took his gun and shot it at the ground, next to where the other guy was standing. The move was obviously meant to just scare the other guy, but the bullet actually ricocheted off the ground and went into the second guy's leg.
Later on we found out that this had actually been a dispute between guys of two different tribes. We learned that tribal lines run deep here and one small thing, such as a snowball fight, can lead to fighting and violence.
Luckily this incident occurred on a day we had a (sort of) snow day (my first one EVER and I've lived in Minnesota/New England for 9 years now!) so I wasn't on campus to witness any of it.
However only a couple of days later, another incident of tribal fights occurred, this time over a girl situation. This time, however, all of the violence involved sticks and the breaking of windows... so nothing serious. However CIEE, doing its job, went overboard on making sure we were safe. For an entire week our classes were either removed from campus or we had CIEE escorts take us to classes. We were assured that the violence had absolutely nothing to do with us and it was completely a tribal fight. Therefore, most of us felt that the extra security measures were a little ridiculous, but we understood that they were just doing their jobs.
The violence stopped after a week or so and everything went back to normal. The weather is also slowly getting better (about time!) which most of us are really glad about. It still baffles me that New England is warmer at the moment than Amman... it just really blows my mind.
Also, last weekend I went on a CIEE trip to Kerak and the Dead Sea. This was super fun, as we once again saw really really old ruins (at Kerak there was a 2400 year old Crusader castle)... but this time we got to spend the afternoon at the Dead Sea... now this was really incredible. We all swam, of course.. if you can even call it that. It was the strangest experience! For those of you who don't know, the Dead Sea has absolutely no life existing in it (hence the name) because of the extreme concentration of salt in it. The salt also makes anything that goes in it float... it was absolutely crazy! We all just bobbed along without trying to swim or touching the ground at all. We could lay flat on our backs and just let the water take us away... It was an amazing experience! I will post some pictures in the next post to showcase how awesome everything was!
Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened. With most exams/papers behind me, I only have one thing to look forward to is SPRING BREAK!! I have one week of school left, then it's off to TURKEY for me!! I am beyooond excited for this. I am going with a fairly big group (about 12 people, with some others who are not going specifically with us) to Turkey for all 9 days. I know I probably should have used the opportunity to travel to places I haven't been yet, but honestly I am so so so glad at the thought of going home for a little while. It will be soo nice to just be in my own country and speak the language of the place I'm in for a change. Plus I'm going with people I really really like and get to be their translator/tour guide! I finally finally get to showcase my beautiful country to some friends.
We'll be staying in Istanbul for 5 nights, then moving on to the ancient sites of Troy and Galipoli for a day, after which we'll head down to Izmir, where my mother & family live. Some people will only be staying for one night in Izmir, while a couple of friends stay for 3 nights with me and my mom. I am beyond excited to see my family, explore Istanbul (since I don't know it that well either) and just spend time with amazing people!
It's going to take all my will power to remain calm and make it through the next week of school... we're flying Friday morning and I have 5 more full days before I am home.... SOO excitedddd!!!!
I will leave it there for now... the next time I update I'll tell you all my awesome adventures in Istanbul/Izmir :)
