Graduation

Our last days in Jordan were very busy.  I am sorry I haven’t posted recently.  Currently I am sitting at La Gaurdia and it is 7:30 saturday morning.  We were supposed to be in DC last night, but thanks to the wonders of Delta, I managed to get a 3 hour nap in a hotel, and now have a flight in an hour.

It went by very fast,t hose last days in Jordan.  We had a final exam, which I got a B on.  We went out for a fancy dinner, and shopped for last minute souvenirs.  I got to hang out with my Jordanian friends Basma and Motaz one last time.  Their uncle is the Jordanian equivalent of Condi Rice.  They helped arrange a sit down between a few of us and his Excellency.

The University of Jordan hosted us as well as the host families and friends of the program for a mini graduation.  The teacher who I am not very fond of, gave a poem.  this was translated into english by another teacher.  I assume it was a very beautiful poem, in arabic.  In english it got a lot of laughs because it was so different than all the other speeches.  There was definitely an over the top fluff aspect to it, but it got more and more entertaining as the poem progressed.  Earlier in the week, he asked me for chill/soft american songs.  I burned him two cds, which he apparently listens to nonstop.  halfway through the poem he breaks into english with the following: 

“ Listen to your heart, when he’s calling for you.  Listen to your heart, there’s nothing else you can do.  I don’t know where your going and I don’t know why, but listen to your heart, before you tell him good bye.”

The place erupted in laughter.  I don’t know if he fully understands the song, but any excuse to throw american pop songs into arab poetry is damn good.  

I will post final reflections when things finally calm down. Yesterday we left Amman at 8, ended up making a stop in Ireland-which we were told about upon getting to the gate.  that stop made us miss our DC connection at JFK, which meant heading to a hotel for a nap.  Turns out hotels computers were down.  So we waited for 2 hours and finally got to bed at 1:30.  When Patrick and I got into our room, it appeared as if someone just left, or was still living there.  So ended up sleeping on the floor.  All in all a fantastic trip, haven’t lost my bags yet, and managed to bring some sweet stuff back.  Hope y’all are well.