!الحمد لله

Alhamdulilah! I am finally, finally done with midterms! I am only taking two classes this semester, but somehow that meant a total of 6 separate tests (one in water politics, and 5 - FIVE - in Arabic) spread over a period of a week and a half. Plus I was at Wild Jordan for 8 consecutive hours last Tuesday because we had a big jewelery launch. Not too surprisingly, it has been a stressful, unhappy week and a half for me, but now it is over. I will be celebrating by taking a field trip with my water politics class tomorrow, to King Talal Dam and a waste water treatment plant. Joy.

In happier news, we ALMOST have residency in Jordan. We should be getting our cards and passports back soon, insha'allah. So that's good.

Spent the past weekend in Irbid visiting all of my host mom's family. Her mother is in Dubai with her father for the next few months, and her brothers are living alone at the house. So after spending the day visiting her three sisters, we went to the house and Niveen and one of her sisters did some serious cleaning. But on Saturday we went shopping, so I now have one genuine Jordanian shirt (which randomly and amazing perfectly matches a scarf that one of Niveen's sisters gave me on Friday) and a pair of Jordanian jeans.

I'm learning to cook some Jordanian food from my host mom. Current favorites: stuffed chicken, rolled grape leaves, several wonderful rice dishes, cucumber yogurt, salsa, and of course ice cream. I'm still hoping to get to watch her making mansaf, though.

New french fry food: turkey and cheese sandwich on pita.

Also, despite being left all weekend without food, all four fish are incredibly still living. Apparently Jordanian pet fish are a hardier breed than the ones you get in the US.