Apologies for my belated update, it's been a busy week of classes. I definitely like some of our professors more than others and class if often frustrating because there is no English, but overall I feel like I'm learning a lot. My favorite class is dialect, for sure. Our exposure to Arabic so far has been purely MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) but no one speaks this on the streets so all of our vocabulary is useless. Even some of the letters are different in dialect so it's like learning an entire new language. Very interesting.

I'm enjoying the food, still, and have found some local favorites along with the occasional Papa John's pizza, Subway turkey sandwich, or KFC chicken tenders. Don't get me wrong, it's not all the same. Islam definitely dictates a lot here so you can't get pork anywhere. I never realized how much we like pork in America. Just think: no ham, no bacon, no sausage. Bummer. The pepperoni was beef at Papa John's and Subway only has turkey ham and beef bacon. They do really love fried chicken here so that's been nice.

A few of us are headed to Amman this weekend and I'm really excited to get to the city. Irbid is quite boring, just a lot of sitting in cafe's drinking coffee, smoking the hookah, and playing cards so it will be a nice change of pace.

I've tried about four different times to upload photos but the hotel internet just doesn't want to cooperate. I'll keep trying because I definitely got a few good ones from our trip to "Umm Qays" and the "Sea of Galilee."

Hope all is well in the states and I miss everyone.

! سلام

اسكندر