Apartment!

Alright so now I’ve fully moved everything over from my hotel room into my apartment. This will be my first night at my new place. One of the other American students I met, who will be studying at the UJLC, helped me move my last bits of shopping bags and what not over; which brings up a cultural tidbit I thought I’d share. Though considerably more Western than many of the other Arab states, there is still a considerably conservative attitude towards male/female interaction. Lauren and I had to wait for one of the landlords to get my key back from the maintenance, and when he and a neighbor realized a girl was about to enter my apartment with me, there was a little bit of a concerned attitude that she might be sleeping here. After I made it clear that she was just helping me, he was ok with it and said if anyone asked to tell them him and the landlords knew. One common thing to do here, for foreigners or not, is to tell those concerned that the person is your spouse or relative. One time coming back from church, a friend and I were about to get into a taxi. The driver noticed a police woman there in need of a taxi and so gave her precedence. The police woman was fine with us sharing the cab, since she was going the same way, but the driver was adamantly against it.

While I'm still obviously a foreigner, I’ve received a few compliments on my Arabic from Taxi drivers. I still frequently speak in broken sentences, but on occasion my pronunciations and ability to get my point across is sufficient to fill the sometimes-awkward silence waiting to arrive at your destination. One night I went to a party with Liana and some of her friends and the taxi driver actually thought I was Arab! It’s most likely because it was dark and he only caught a quick glimpse of my facial hair, and I had only mentioned the destination. My confidence and language ability has definitely improved in this first month. I highly recommend taking the opportunity to take a 1 month language training for all Rotary Ambassadorial scholars. Not only to develop your language ability, but to learn the landscape and to give yourself time to really set up things before getting bombarded with school.

I have moved into my apartment...tonight will be the first night sleeping here. I wasn't able to get a fan so I'll (continue to) be hot. I took a few pictures and will be taking more once fully settled, and posting them when I can. It was a little upsetting at first when I noticed the cockroaches here...they'll be spraying tomorrow, hopefully. Fortunately these critters are pretty small. I remember gargantuan cockroaches at my last office. Alright, time to stop thinking about them 10 minutes before I go to sleep.

I went to a Rotaract club meeting (for my non-Rotarian readers: they're a group of 18-30 year olds sponsored by a Rotary club that get together for social activities and community service work). I'll be volunteering during Ramadan with them (the holiest Month for Muslims, when they fast from sunrise to sunset) to help coordinate Fatoors with some of the local orphanages. We’ll be setting them up and joining them for Fatoor and will be spending time talking and playing with the kids. I’m excited!