!أهلاً و ساهلاً و أشتقلكم كتيرا
Hi again!
A lot of people have asked me about what I've been doing since NSLI-Y to keep up my Arabic as well as what I'm planning to do this summer and in the future so I thought I'd make a blog post about it.

To keep up my Arabic, I have done a program through the State Department that has matched me with an Iraqi class that's learning English and we have been sending back and forth different stories and photos about our lives. In addition I have been practicing with my NSLI-Y friends and keeping in touch with my host family. Recently, I have started using an online program called Mango to continue my fusha and shaami studies and next year I have plans to formalize my studies even more by joining an Arabic class and getting a tutor. I really want to become fluent in Arabic by the time I graduate high school.

This summer, I am doing a really amazing program called Seeds of Peace, which brings together students from Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and a few students from the US and UK to do conflict resolution and dialogue around the Arab-Israeli conflict. It focuses a lot on cross-cultural understanding and not only doing 2 hours of facilitated dialogue everyday in small groups of students of a mix of nationalities, religions, ethnicities and cultures, but also having a lot of fun activities for all the students to develop relationships as friends and cultivate trust. I am super excited for both the 4 week program this summer and also all the follow-up programming including a trip to Israel and Palestine next summer.

Also, I am returning to Jordan this summer! I am going with my mom and am super excited to see my host family again and visit parts of Jordan I didn't get a chance to see last time, like Aqaba. I am also reuniting with one of my best friends from my NSLIY trip in Abu Dhabi! I love how I have a global network of friends and families all over the world and I'm excited to continue to grow it this summer.

!معسلامة 
صفية

Now that I have finally caught up on everything I want to share about the trip, I want to touch on a little bit of how it has been to return home and some of my final reflections of the trip.

This post is kind of just a random compilation of a bunch of outings and events.

While in Jordan, I was really lucky to have a family who not only welcomed me into their home and were so caring the entire time and taught me so much about Jordanian culture and Arabic but I also really felt like I was a part of their family. Not just my immediate family but all the grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends made me feel welcome at all gatherings and get-togethers. 

Family and friends are a really big deal in Jordan. Our apartment was a revolving door of extended family and friends who would drop by to chat, have tea or just say hello. And if someone wasn't at our house, we were probably at someone else's house. Several times a week, we would drop by both sides of my host grandparents house to chat and they would shower us with snacks and sweets. And odds were that while we were there, another cousin or aunt or uncle would be there too. Jordanians have a really wonderful priority on being surrounded by people who love you.

Even our next door neighbors, who my family was very close with, became a place I felt so comfortable going over and having snacks and chatting. I really cherish the sense of community I felt in Jordan.

Besides just spending time with friends and family, I attended quite a few parties/celebrations with my host family including an engagement party of a family friend and my host grandmother's birthday party.

Honestly, words can't describe how amazing and caring my host family was. I moved in with them on July 9 and from there, my language skills improved a ton, my understanding of day-to-day Jordanian culture was augmented and I got to have a fantastic time playing with my host siblings.

I want to make sure to maintain their privacy while also giving you guys a good idea of my life in Jordan but basically, I had a mom named Noor (which means light), a dad named Mohannad (which means he who deserves praise), 11 year old brother named Laith (which means lion), 9 year old sister named Nadeen (which means hope) and a 20 month old brother named Abdullah (which means servant of God).

Daily Life in Host Families looked like this-

7:00- Wake Up
7:15-Eat breakfast (Usually egg or pita with cheese and a cucumber)
7:35-Bus comes to house to pick up for school
8:15-Class starts
12:35-Class ends and (sometimes) leave for excursion or have study time at school
4:00(the time we came back really depended on the excursion and varies between 1:00-7:00)-Arrive home and play with siblings (we usually go hurtling down the street on scooters or watch Arab's Got Talent or do headstands or go over to the neighbors house)
5:30-Do homework
7:00-Spend more time with family (often this meant going out to their friends or relatives houses but other times it was just talking or watching TV with them)
9:00-Eat dinner
10:00-Go on a drive or walk to downtown and get ice cream or slushies or go shopping and walk and talk
11:30-Come home and go to bed


I was really fortunate to have a host family that was super helpful with my language learning and taught me tons of new words and helped with my homework when I had questions. Having the constant opportunity to practice listening and speaking Arabic enabled me to become much better at both skills. Also, by just observing daily life, I was able to pick up on so many of the subtler nuances of Jordanian life. My host family also took me to an engagement party and a birthday party and other family gatherings that gave me even more opportunities to meet other Jordanians and practice speaking. Everyone was so kind and patient with my limited Arabic and really made me feel included as part of the family.

As for my siblings, every minute with them was so fun and engaging and while I do have two younger siblings, having a toddler in the house was so fun (albeit a lot to handle :)). They both were learning English in school and were super helpful if I ever needed to ask for what a word was.

More of the outings with my host family to come!
​Sophia

We had all been looking forward to visiting the Dead Sea from the very beginning of our trip, so spirits were high as we set out on the 45 min drive to the Dead Sea. Upon arrival, we all floated in the Sea, covered ourselves in the famous Dead Sea mud, which is supposed to be amazing for your skin, read on the beach, swam in the pool and in general, had a relaxation day.

It was pretty surreal floating in the Dead Sea, It was almost like being in a zero gravity chamber because you could be standing up without touching the ground. Also, since the Dead Sea is the lowest land point on the Earth, it was incredibly hot, so the water offered a nice refuge. 

In Jordan, where 93% of the population is Muslim, many aspects of Islam get mixed in with Jordanian culture and become more of a cultural act or phrase rather than religious. The main example of this would be phrases that include the word 'Allah', or the word for God in Islam. Common phrases include- 
Alhamdolillah (Praise be to God/Thanks to God)
Inshallah (If God wills it/Hopefully)
Mashallah/Subhanallah (used to express amazement or happiness)
Bismillah (In the name of God-used at the start of anything (eating, driving, studying etc))

These phrases are used by people of all religions and are commonplace in conversation.