Coffee, Friends, Cat

Cultural lesson of the day: "Black Coffee" is not, in fact, black coffee in the American style. Black coffee in Jordan is most definitely sweetened (everything here is sweetened). I found this out after visiting my new favorite 40 piastre coffee machine, where I can get various coffee drinks, including my new favorite mochaccino (or however you spell it). Before I found this, I had to get my caffeine fix from Turkish coffee in sit-down restaurants (no Starbucks, no Dunkin Donuts)- and if you've never had Turkish coffee....it's roughly the same consistency as mud, and it is impossible to finish the whole cup because once you get to the bottom of the cup it's entirely coffee bean sludge. It's not bad, once you get used to it. But, yeah, this sweet coffee machine has various options, including both "Sugarfree Coffee" and "Black Coffee". This was confusing. But, apparently, "black" just means that it doesn't have milk in it, as I discovered after drinking it. I wonder if Arabs who visit the U.S. are unpleasantly suprised when they try to order black coffee there.

I don't know what I'm going to do without A) Falafel stands and B) Fresh pita when I go back to America. I think my diet is like 90% fresh, amazing pita bread. And I have recently discovered the joys of a falafel stand near our apartment building, where 50 piastres gets me two very delicious falafel sandwiches (or one delicious chicken sandwich). Also, me and the falafel stand guy are probably going to be BFFs. The first time I went, he started smiling and laughing when I spoke to him in dialect, so I was like, "What? Am I funny?" (roughly, in Arabic), to which he said "No, no, your Arabic is good". And now I've gone back a couple more times so we're on a first-name basis (Apparently Katelyn is a hard name to pronounce for a lot of Arabic-speakers, so I shorten it to Kate a lot of the time). But, yes, I'll probably continue speaking hilarious Arabic to him and thus will cement our BFFness.

I also got a "language partner" today, which is definitely a good thing. The program sets us up with Arabic students who want to learn English, so we help each other out. My new friend's name is Nayra, and she's Egyptian but her family lives in Amman (and she commutes to Irbid for classes! It's a bit of a haul). I've assured her that my Arabic is not good, so today we just mutually struggled to talk correctly, and I think it will be REALLY helpful for my Arabic speaking. Nayra was helping me to correct my grammatical mistakes (and helping me find the right words to say) in my Arabic, and I helped her with her English mistakes, as well. Her friend Shireena is buddied up with my roomie Connie, so I got to talk to Shireena (who is from Turkey) as well. They are both super nice, and I think they're going to help Connie and me go shopping and not get ripped off sometime. Inshallah they can help me buy my kuffieyehs.

Last, but not least, our program gained guardianship of a very tiny kitten this week. I won't pretend to have had any responsibility for him, but my friend Anne essentially became a Mama Cat while I pretty much just was petting him and fawning over his adorableness. He was apparently abandoned outside our Language Center here, and is WAY too small to be on his own. He's probably like 4 weeks old, but is definitely a runt. And now he's going to live with a family, which is good because he'll get more attention than any of us can provide while doing our studies. Let me just repeat, though, this baby kitty (named "Shuks", like in "Shoukran", which means "Thank you") is absolutely adorable in every way. It will be sad when he leaves tomorrow :(

On the bright side, I am off to camp in Wadi Rum tomorrow. Hanging out with some Bedouins, falling over some rocks, attempting to stave off dehydration in the desert...it's going to be a blast. Inshallah there will be pictures katheer. My English skills AND my Arabic skills are failing, but my Arablish speaking is only getting better.

--K