Snapshots of School Days

These are a few pictures of moments from my school days. I and a friend my mine took these random pictures today during our tea break.
Every day we start class at 8:20 by singing Arabic praise/church songs and reciting our memory veryse of the week. Then one of us takes turns praying in Arabic. It's a good thing that the Lord understands our hearts without needing our words because we certainly fumble over this language!!! It's like- "ya Ruub min fadlaak aatina patience li at-aalmem illuugha Arabiy" ( which is- Lord, please give us patience in learning Arabic). I can get most words but some of the keys words I just have to fill in with English!! :) Anyway, after that we work until 9:20 when we get a ten minute break. Back for another hour of class before breaking for a half-hour tea break (Tea-breaks are every day occurences here in the Middle East at around 10:30 in the morning. The Arabs have inherited the tea break from occupation of the British back in the day).
So anyway these are some new friends and co-workers that I have been blessed with over the course of the past few months since moving here. We keep each other sane and help each other laugh at ourselves. Of course an occasional skipping class to go get some coffee!!! (sshhh don't tell!!)
Some of these pictures are a little redundant but oh well!

Christmas is Coming!!!!!

Although I was not able to bring any of my Christmas decorations with me I am finding some things here and there to make my house look festive for the holidays! I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season! More later...

Balad

These are some pictures of the balad (downtown) where I love to shop. It's not a place where many foreigners like to go but the prices down there are so much better and it's a lot more colorful than an ordinary grocery store!! :) We do have a few big groceries like they do in America but most common are small one-room dukaans (shops) where you get groceries. The more I get to know the balad the more confident I feel going down there to bargin. Here are some colorful pictures of places I was at this past Sunday......

This man was standing at the house across the alley from where I live. I took this picture inconspicuously out my window one rainy morning. This man is dressed in the typical Jordanian red and white "kafeeya" and I thought it was a good illustration of how east meets west here. Many areas of Amman are very western and "modern" and yet in some places as close as across the street is very "middle eastern". This old "sheik" on his mobile (cell phone) show the two worlds coming together.....