Smurfs?
I have no idea why, but it seems that smurfs are not only popular in South America, but also here in the Middle East. In Jordan, they refer to Freshmen as smurfs: hardworking, oblivious, funny, adorable things.
The Freshmen welcome celebration today was nuts. It was great. After canceling conversation club, I spent two hours post-class listening to rapid-fire Arabic, both FusHaa and Jordain. Among my observation:
- they did a lot of girls-team vs guys-team things of the "rearrange the numbers fastest" and "feed this to your friend blindfolded" ilk
- aside from that, there were only ever men onstage, despite the fact that only 5-10% of the student population is male
- the men make fun of themselves but the girls seem to be afraid to have so many eyes on them
- today during my Listening&Speaking class I had them list qualities they'd look for in a college application. Among almost everyone's top three were self-confidence and open-mindedness. Hmm.
- I was absolutely not allowed to stand in the back against the wall. I had to go sit in the front with the professors
- when walking with my students, they always want me to go first as a sign of respect, but I often want to follow them. problem.
- through a funny picture-show with voice-over I learned about the differences between highschool and college operations: shutting the gates, bringing notebooks and pencils (or else)
- there was lots of half-hearted debke from the guys, with hundreds of girls taking pictures and video
- people don't really respect the whole "don't talk while your dean is speaking" thing
Talked with the landfamily at length with my roommates tonight. Maybe we'll have water pressure (more than gravity-drip) tomorrow for the first time in three weeks. Then I got to skype with John for the second time within the week. It's wonderful. I'm currently baking a carrot cake, smoking hookah on the porch, and reading emails :)
The Freshmen welcome celebration today was nuts. It was great. After canceling conversation club, I spent two hours post-class listening to rapid-fire Arabic, both FusHaa and Jordain. Among my observation:
- they did a lot of girls-team vs guys-team things of the "rearrange the numbers fastest" and "feed this to your friend blindfolded" ilk
- aside from that, there were only ever men onstage, despite the fact that only 5-10% of the student population is male
- the men make fun of themselves but the girls seem to be afraid to have so many eyes on them
- today during my Listening&Speaking class I had them list qualities they'd look for in a college application. Among almost everyone's top three were self-confidence and open-mindedness. Hmm.
- I was absolutely not allowed to stand in the back against the wall. I had to go sit in the front with the professors
- when walking with my students, they always want me to go first as a sign of respect, but I often want to follow them. problem.
- through a funny picture-show with voice-over I learned about the differences between highschool and college operations: shutting the gates, bringing notebooks and pencils (or else)
- there was lots of half-hearted debke from the guys, with hundreds of girls taking pictures and video
- people don't really respect the whole "don't talk while your dean is speaking" thing
Talked with the landfamily at length with my roommates tonight. Maybe we'll have water pressure (more than gravity-drip) tomorrow for the first time in three weeks. Then I got to skype with John for the second time within the week. It's wonderful. I'm currently baking a carrot cake, smoking hookah on the porch, and reading emails :)