This is the end.

Last day in Jordan. I definitely have mixed feelings, because I'm way excited to see my family and friends back home again (and my dogs!!!), and I do miss a lot of things in America. Like the ability to walk down the street without notice from every sketchy guy in the area. But today I definitely got a little sad about leaving the program- I had some fabulous professors and even more fabulous friends here. And regardless of any negatives here, I definitely love Jordan enough to come back in the near future for a longer stay (not in Irbid, though).

So today we had our little graduation ceremony (I passed! Yay!), I did my last-minute packing and shopping errands, and then one of our Advanced-level professors invited the girls from our level to a girls-only party thrown by his daughter and wife at his apartment. The girls-only deal is pretty important in Arab parties, because it means that the girls who normally wear hijabs and abayyas can remove all of that and just dress in what we would consider "normal" clothing. So it was really cool, we arrived, the girls took off their hijabs and abayyas and were all wearing cute party dresses or similar clothing underneath, and almost immediately there was dancing. Like literally, we walked in, sat down, drank coffee (also an important part of visiting an Arab home), and then the music started and people started dancing around the sitting room.

I am very afraid of dancing. I feel like I am the world's WORST dancer, and any dancing I've done this summer has only come after a tequila shot or something similar. However, sitting on the couch and clapping along was only an option for so long, because everyone there really wanted us to dance with them. So I was peer-pressured into a dabke first (a Jordanian folk dance), and then later was pulled onto the living room dance floor by my professor's nine-year old daughter, who was an amazingly good dancer. That's the thing, though, ALL Arab women are good dancers. It's in the blood or something. I've very rarely felt so white as when I was dancing in a living room with a bunch of Arab women and trying very hard to not look like the Tin Man. My friends assured me that it was just in my head and I really wasn't the world's worst dancer.

Aside from dancing there was also really delicious cake, and a little after the cake we were like "Okay, we need to go back and finish packing", but the professor's wife was like "Oh, no, just wait for a tiny bit longer!" So we waited, and danced, and then pistachio ice cream was brought out for everyone and we were glad we had stayed for that. And then after the pistachio ice cream was conversation, and then tea, and then conversation...this is definitely a typical Arab home visit- it's hard to escape! And I really didn't WANT to escape, it's just that we are leaving the country tomorrow and it's kind of necessary to prepare. It was SUCH a nice evening with the girl party, though- it's a one-of-a-kind cultural experience here, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

And now I'm really leaving. It's bittersweet, for sure. I don't even want to think about saying goodbye to my friends tomorrow. Ma'a salaama, al-Urdun. It's been an interesting summer.