The Roommates and other Characters

After talking to my Uncle Kim, I decided that it would be a good time to do a post about the girls I am living with along with a few other people that make regular appearances in my blogs. Roommates to start.

Betsy Betsy is a recent graduate of Dennison University and is from Toledo, Ohio. She is on a Fulbright in Jordan as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA). Betsy is intelligent, resourceful, and the essence of go-with-the-flow. I am sincerely jealous of Betsy's handle of Jordanian dialect. She spent a little over a half year in Jordan previously. Her experience shows in her ability to wield the dialect in her everyday interactions. Additionally, Betsy's talent with the ukulele provides many hours of background music for my studying. She is adventurous and eager to experience the authentic Jordan (i.e. not the Jordan of Abdoun or embassies or schools of expatriate students). She also has several Jordanian contacts that she draws from in order to more fully experience life here.

Shadea Shadea graduated from the University of Louisville almost a year ago. She is originally from Paducah, Kentucky. Like Betsy, Shadea is here on a Fulbright as an ETA. Shadea is a warm and inviting individual with a clear sense of vitality. She is quite the cook and has thrown together some amazing meals for us already. Shadea and I have our "girl" moments when we will go get ice cream or go shopping just to get away from Arabic books and out of our apartment. Shadea is anxious to learn Jordanian dialect. She has a foundation in Moroccan Arabic and is using the Moroccan dialect as a basis for her Jordanian colloquial. Shadea is, similar to Betsy, adventurous and up or anything which makes her a great person to have around. There is never a dull moment.

Sarah Sarah is another ETA who lives right around the corner from us. Her close proximity enables frequent hanging out. Additionally, she and I are in the same Jordanian dialect class. Sarah is quirky, funny and insightful. She is a genuinely kind person who is eager to be of help but is also unafraid to say enough is enough. 

Peter Peter lives right next door to Sarah. He is British and a recent university graduate. Peter is here as an intern for the next few months. He is unequivocally British. We tease him endlessly about his sense of British etiquette (for example, he maintains that there is a certain set of rules which dictates when a person can take the last bite or piece of something). Peter and I have a pseudo-sibling relationship. We just tease each other incessantly. Fortunately, it works out because both of us have siblings who have done their jobs preparing us for any amount of goading.

Maryam Maryam is a recent graduate from Fordham Unversity. Like me, she is in Jordan on a research grant that is being preceded by language studies. Maryam is, typically, perpetually happy. Somehow, Maryam is able to be straightforward, at times almost blunt, but the way she giggles and smiles makes this edge remarkably softer. Another thing I really like about Maryam is her apartment. I know that sounds weird but you would understand if you saw it. It has a really nice bathroom that I am jealous of. 

My Arabic Instructors At Qasid, I have three language instructors. The first, Bayan, graduated from the University of Jordan maybe two or three years ago where she studied French. She is a beautiful young woman who is quite excited to teach Arabic. I think she is equally excited to pick up English words or phrases from us when we check our translations with her. Bayan teaches for the first hour and a half every morning. She usually focuses on reading and reading comprehension. From time to time, she will make up games for us to play to learn the vocabulary. For example, we played a version of "spin the bottle" except it was "spin the dry erase marker" and whoever it landed on had to answer a question in Arabic. 

My second instructor, Arwa, hoovers around 30 in age. She clearly has a substantial background in English because she knows many of the translations for the things we discuss in class. Arwa's main focus is grammar. She is very good at explaining the concepts and making sure that we all know them. Arwa also uses games to help us practice what we are learning. For example, when we start a new section of vocabulary, we will play a form of Charades or Pictionary with the new words. 

Finally, Manal is both my dialect instructor and the instructor of my Arabic media course. This combination can be a little hard for me because in one class she speaks only dialect and I am expected to reply only in dialect. In the media course, however, she speaks in fousha and I am expected to reply in fousha. Manal is great in both roles. She is a lot of fun in the dialect course. She prepares a lot of interactive activities for us. For instance, we had a section on the family and she had us act out a scene where guests are received and introduced to a large Arab family and then a small American family. Another time, we had act out going to a realtor in search of an apartment. Usually these scenes are just ridiculous. The media class is made up of Manal and 5 female students (myself included). The 6 of us just sit around a table and discuss the news topics of the past days. Every class period, we translate at least one news article. Recently, we translated an article on postpartum depression in men. I thought this was particularly humorous considering the class was made up of women. We all kind of scoffed at the idea. 


Jaleel Our landlord, Jaleel, is in his mid-70s, is hard of hearing and is as cute as elderly men come. He lives on the first floor of our apartment building so we run into him on occasion. Usually, our interactions revolve around things that need done in the apartment. The first two weeks we were here, Jaleel saw to it that we had a water heater put in, new faucets in the bathrooms, and our bathtub drain unclogged (that was so gross). Recently, we call him when our internet isn't working. This happens on average once every two weeks. However, Jaleel's daughter (who is a technically savvy, 35 year old teacher) recently told us that we should contact her directly about our prolific internet issues. I have a feeling that this is because "internet" is a nebulous idea to Jaleel and something only "those youngsters use."