Shway Shway Arabi

But it's really showing improvement. Today was surprisingly wonderful considering the rude awakening I experienced this morning. I set my alarm for 7:40 and was planning to leave the house at 8:15. Instead, I woke up at 8:14. Awesome. After running around like a fool, Maryellen and I managed to leave the house at 8:25. Not bad. I taught a lesson at 9, and then practiced until around noon. At this point, Nadeen stopped by my studio and I started asking her Arabic questions. Holy Arabic questions. My short vocabulary list for the week was more than tripled by the time we finished our lesson an hour and a half later. Fadi joined in, and he started asking me questions and expected complete-sentence answers. As a reward for putting my brain through a blender, he took us to Reem on 2nd circle - the best Shawarma in all of Amman (or so I'm told). I have to admit, it was REALLY good.

After we finished our lunch, Nadeen and I walked to il Ballad again, this time to go to the fruit market. I was going to go myself, but I'm so glad that she decided to come with me. I don't know that I've ever been downtown at this time of day, but it was totally insane. People were everywhere, and not in the good way. On the way, we stopped at a nuts-and-seeds shop and where I bought a kilo of mixed nuts for 2 and 1/2 dinar. And they're fantastic. By the time we reached the souk, Nadeen had told me all of the words that the men were saying to us along the way including, "Oh, my eyes!" I thought this was hilarious. We ended up with really amazing deals at the souk, including 1 and 1/2 kilos apples, 1 kilo sweet potatoes, 1 kilo potatoes, 1 kilo tangerines, 8 ears of corn, 1 kilo tomatoes, 1 kilo onions, 1 kilo cucumbers... all for about 6 JD. And the quality is just phenomenal. Organic and delicious. Maryellen, Joe, Artie, and I had a vegetable feast for dinner tonight. Afterward, Artie and I went to the corner-store market where we found an Arabic bomileh? - I'm not exactly sure what this is other than some sort of citrus fruit, but it looked like this:

I'm saddened to report that I didn't actually enjoy it at all.

Tomorrow morning, Sinfonietta is playing a small concert, and then we have a quintet rehearsal. I teach in the afternoon, and then another rehearsal tomorrow night. And I should have some time in there to practice. Summer festival materials are finally starting to come together.... and the Mozart is at a respectable performance tempo. Moomtaz!