Living with a Jordanian family is proving to be a challenge. I have always considered myself fairly easy going and easy to live with. Yet, I have found myself struggling to make my living situation "fit" here.

Part of it is being somewhat unsure about my whole role in the family life here. I think I find this a little harder than I would if I had been living with a family with younger children. My host parents are a lot older. One is in her mid-sixties and the other is in his late seventies. Their youngest daughter who is the only one still at home is twenty eight or twenty nine. She is the one I get along with the most. Unfortunately she works full time and is also a full time student so I rarely see her. More often than not I'm home alone with my host mom. I feel like I am always doing or saying something wrong around her. EVERYTIME we talk she makes some comment about how all the other American students knew at least some Arabic. Did she not realize that I was going to have no prior Arabic? Rather than helping me she seems put out with me. I don't think this is just some cultural difference because many of my American friends here say that their host families are the opposite----that they are always trying to encourage their use of Arabic and compliment them on the things they have learned. It was most potent today when my host moms sister came over. I sat down to eat lunch with them and one of the first things my host mom says is how I don't know any Arabic and that their other students were well advanced in Arabic. She also was telling her that most of the other students here this semester know at least some Arabic. Its almost as if to say "For some reason they send me the one girl in this program who doesn't seem to know ANY Arabic...why?!" They then started grilling me with questions. Normally, I like questions. Even straight forward questions. It amazes me how forward people can be here. They ask exactly what they want to know, no matter how random or personal it may be. I got asked some of the usual questions that are asked here such as "do you smoke?" or "do you drink?". Whether this is because I'm an American or because its just what they do, I don't know. They then asked "Did you vote for Obama?"---I immediately paused simply because one of the things we are asked not to discuss is politics---at least, not initially. My moment of pause obviously caught their attention because even after I told them I voted for Obama they immediately started comparing me to prior students---AGAIN. "The two girls before you immediately told us Obama when we asked them. They told us Bush and his father like war...blah blah blah". When I tried explaining myself my host mom cut me off and asked me a completely different question. I have found myself struggling to not get frusterated with all of this. Then again, frusteration is part of the experience. It is a real challenge living in another country with a very different culture. I think it would take a LOT more than just four months to feel completely comfortable here.

Aside from that I have a random little thing I want to mention about Jordan: Something I notice and have been curious about is a song that is CONSTANTLY being played. People drive around in cars playing the song all day long. Is it the national song? Next time I hear it I'll be sure to ask someone nearby what it is. I kind of like the song....it always makes me think an icecream truck is nearby. One of the many random and interesting things I love about living in Jordan.