A Day In The Life

Some of you have asked about my daily schedule. I have realized that my posts are sporadic glimpses into my life and it is difficult to get a full picture. If you have been on a mission, please notice how similar my life is to a mission and remember how I always wanted to go on a two year mission. :)

Each day I get up (earlyish) (first of all, Amman is 9 hours ahead of Utah), get ready, and study Preach My Gospel (in English and Arabic) and memorizing scriptures in Arabic (I am trying to memorize the scripture mastery scriptures in Arabic--it is incredibly helpful for both mission prep and Arabic skills). Then I go downstairs (I am still living in a hotel--hopefully next Saturday we will move into our homestays) and eat breakfast.

Breakfast consists of a buffet, and I am taking full advantage of the only meal every day that is already paid for. I usually make a mixture of goat cheese, zatar (an Arab spice), chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, olive oil, and some sort of green salsa thing, and then put it on top of some delicious sesame seed bread. I eat a lot of this, and then if I still have room I eat fruit, or more bread (but with jam this time), and once I ate cereal (the milk was water with some milk powder mixed in, and I am pretty sure the cocoa puffs had sesame seeds in them. I decided to stay away from the cereal). Really, though, I just eat as much as possible so I can get away with not eating lunch.

Then, I go to the University of Jordan--by bus or by taxi, depending on how many people I can get to go with me (it is cheaper by taxi if there are four of us, but cheaper by bus if not). The University of Jordan is only a couple of miles away from our hotel, but one time I tried to walk there with a friend and it took way too long--and we weren't using much Arabic. Riding the bus is always an adventure and I have stood for several bus rides--in the middle of the aisle, trying not to fall over, because the bus was so crowded. (More about public transportation in the Middle East to come--and believe me, these will be fun entries.)

At the University, we only have two or three classes per day, depending on the day. We have class Sunday-Thursday, Friday is the Sabbath here in Jordan, and then Saturday is a free day, for us to squander or take advantage (language-wise) as we like. We have two classes every day--a current events class (in Fusha Arabic) and a Jordanian colloquial class (in Jordanian colloquial, naturally) about Jordanian customs, etc. Both of these classes are completely in Arabic. This sounds scary, and it is. Actually, the Jordanian colloquial class is not so bad, but I have a hard time keeping up in the current events class for several reasons. We also have a newspaper class each Monday and Wednesday (and this class is taught by Jason Andrus, a PhD student from the states who came over with us and not a Jordanian University professor) and this class is in English--but we go over the several newspaper articles we are assigned to read each day in Arabic.

This information is crucial to knowing why the current events class is difficult for me. Each day in the current events class we talk about the newspaper articles whose translation is due for that day (right now we have to translate 3-4 news articles each day). As stated, this class is in high Fusha, and this is the first reason the class is difficult for me. Unfortunately, I never took the initiative to memorize all of the news vocab I was supposed to in the states, and since I am not even kind of a MESA major, I really don't know what is going on in the news--not in Lebanon, not really in Myanmar, and not in any other place (except the Israel-Palestine situation).

And, my professors probably shouldn't know this, but for the past week I didn't even do the news articles before class. Which is kind of a problem, when you haven't memorized the vocab and your teacher is talking 120 words/minute in a different language and then asks your opinion about what she just said.

Usually I just pretend like I don't have an opinion, although we all know that is not true!

The rest of the day is ours to do whatever we want to improve our Arabic. We have to talk for two hours each day of the week with Arab natives and we have to do our newspaper homework, but other than that we have to take our own initiative to learn Arabic.

I usually end up spending many more than two hours a day speaking with Arabs, and I have been completely surprised with how good my Jordanian colloquial skills have gotten in the short time I have been here--partially because I am having such an easy time finding friends.

Finding friends here who will talk to you for hours on end is easier than you think. First of all, I have had excellent luck finding wonderful friends thanks to many of you who are praying for me back home. I can feel your prayers and I thank you for them.

Secondly, life at an Arab University reminds me a lot of high school in the states--most of the people don't have anything to do besides homework--most of them don't have jobs and many of them still live at home, especially the girls. Therefore, they just have classes and...nothing.

This shared circumstance has led to a somewhat strange phenomenon, at least in my mind. I call it a “glimpse into Arab social life.” The University of Jordan is filled with streets crisscrossing every which way, with raised sidewalks and benches on each side of the street. When people are not in class and not in the library (which is often, as their library is quite small and not meant to accommodate even a third of them, and the buildings are not study-friendly either), they sit on the benches or the ledges on the sides of the road and just sit. And talk. And watch people as they walk by.

At first I was quite intimidated, especially since everyone stared at me. At the university I am allowed to walk around by myself (a BYU rule) and I take full advantage of that so as not to get overwhelmed by always having to be with people (another BYU rule), but it is sometimes somewhat of a disadvantage because I stick out so horribly and am definitely an oddity to be stared at and talked about. I don’t know what sticks out more—my red hair, my blue eyes, my incredibly white skin, my lack of a hijab (or veil), my pants instead of long coat-like dress that most of the Muslim Jordanians wear, or my backpack.

Actually, my Jordanian friends told me the other day that if any doubt remained in anyone’s mind about me, the clincher that I am American is the backpack. Most (like 99%) of the Jordanian girls at the University just carry around a purse and the book and notebook they need for class. But as I carry my life around with me in my backpack (including hand sanitizer and toilet paper since they do not provide such “hygiene” at the university, my laptop, my newspaper, my notebook, and my textbook, as well as my sunglasses, my lunch, and a few other things), a purse just wouldn’t cut it for me. Plus, I just don’t have a purse to match every outfit well—but I will share a post about Jordanian style later.

Anyway, so it was quite intimidating to walk around as throngs of Jordanians sitting on either side of the sidewalk/road on which I was walking would stare at me as I walked past. I felt like I was back as a sophomore in high school walking though the zone of “popular seniors,” who at lunchtime would sit on either side of the hall by the office and stare at people and throw things at them as they walked by. Except this time I am an adult, the same age or older than most of these people, and no one is throwing things.

And, I am a foreigner.

However, I am quickly getting over my fear. I have an advantage in looking so out of place because everyone wants to talk to this strange looking girl from America who speaks Arabic.

This is where the missionary part comes in. So my goal every day is to find people to talk to. At the beginning of the day I make a “language goal” for the day, which usually consists of choosing a topic to “survey” people about, deciding how many new words I want to learn through my conversations, and writing down questions about said topic that I can ask people in case the conversation lags. (Let me put in a plug here for Preach My Gospel. The other day I studied the section on “finding people to teach” for my morning scripture study. Suggestions that have worked well for my language learning as well? Basically all of them, but especially things like talk with everyone, pray for the ability to see unplanned opportunities to [speak], talk to people about their families, look for clues to help you know how to begin talking with people, listen sincerely to what people say to you—especially important when you don’t understand what they are saying!—be warm, friendly and cheerful, and especially the direction that “nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach”—or in language learning until you find someone to talk to. These are on page 157 of the English version of Preach My Gospel, in case you are interested in having, say, a FHE lesson or something on how to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and are looking for ideas.)

I have been astounded at the results.

Yesterday, for example, I walked up to these two girls sitting on a bench, introduced myself in the normal way (“I am a new student from America here to study Arabic, and for my class I have to ask Arabs about…”—the topic for yesterday was Jordanian marriage customs and the Nakba, or expellation of Palestinians from Israel in 1948), and asked them a couple of questions about Jordanian marriage customs.

Before five minutes had passed, five girls had come up and joined the conversation (friends of the girls I originally started talking to and curious about this strange looking girl speaking Arabic) and before the hour was over, I had ten new friends who asked me to skip class and go and eat traditional Jordanian food with them (I pleasantly declined).

And, they were impressed with my Arabic and couldn’t believe that I had only studied it for nine months and had only been in Jordan for less than two weeks.

I am always reminded of what Paul said in the book of Acts (17:22) about the men of Athens, who sat around on Mars hill, spending their time doing “nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” Unfortunately I am unable to preach to them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, as Paul did to the Athenians, but that time will come, both for me and for the Arabs. Until then, I am making friends right and left and am finally learning how to just sit and chat with people.

And, I am learning Arabic!