I just returned home from the Friday, noon, English-speaking Mass in Jabal Al-Wehbde. The man who sat next to me - his name is Raymond - gave me typed-up prayer sheets and a Mother Mary pendant, and at the end of the Mass told me he was from Jerusalem. I had really beautiful, quality, silent time with him today. It's been a long time since I've experienced something like that. Especially with someone who only a few minutes earlier was a complete stranger.

I'm looking forward to this afternoon - lunch, turkish coffee, music theory, and practicing. I'm still trying to decide what my plans should be for the remainder of the evening, and if it should involve going somewhere or staying put. I'm happy either way.

Too much (clap clap!) time on my hands...

I've been eating so well this week it almost seems unfair.

I've been helping one of my students with her music theory homework, and her mom has been inviting me to their home for lunch as a thank you. Holy cow. On Sunday, we ate kusa adowallah (I have no idea how to actually spell this), but squash stuffed with rice. So good. Yesterday they fed me this dish that literally means "upside-down" in Arabic - chicken with rice... and the tabbouleh! So delicious. Today, Rana took me to her grandparents' home where we ate a totally different kind of rice and chicken dish - with chicken broth and vegetables over top. It was so delicious that I ate 3 helpings. For dessert we had some kind of sweet pastry - phillo dough stuffed with cheese filling. Mmmm. I think I've gained over half the weight I lost with the Ameba (oh George, I don't miss you) this week.

I'm in class giving my final analysis exam and wondering where the last four months have gone. Seriously, I can't figure it out. February 6th will mark the beginning of my 6th month here in Amman.

Next semester I'm teaching "Introduction to Form and Analysis". I'm thinking I'll probably give the same class with some baby-steps into the class. This way if I teach the course again in the fall, I can give them 20th-century form and analysis. :D

I'm singing with a choir now - It's funny to me because Allyss also sings with the group. On the list of my life expectations, singing in a choir in Jordan with my first voice teacher did not initially appear. I think it will prove to be a really fun semester with this group. We're traveling to Germany in May! Walla! I'm excited.

It's been really cold here the past few days - temperatures as low as 0 at night. It's been amazing. It makes me feel like a little kid. I think I eventually I need to live some place where cold weather and snow are a part of daily winter life. I've been missing Ithaca, not in a realistic way, but in a nostalgic way... oh I wish I could dig my car out of a snow bank right about now!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm planning to go with Haifa to cut my hair. I hope this means a little separation and break from the bad energy I've been carrying with me lately.

The end of next month will bring big changes to my place of employment - I'm REALLY hoping that they're positive ones.

It's been Ithacating all day

And I feel so alive.

Rain. Ridiculous winds. Grey skies. It's supposed to be cold enough tonight that it may snow. I really hope so. It's kind of funny to me how I never realized (until now) that I feel so alive in cold weather. The kind that makes you shiver when you walk outside. It's what I've been missing so far this winter.

Since when is it January 25?

We played a combined concert about a week ago in honor of the king's birthday with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. The program included the Overture to Rossini's La Gazza Ladra, Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1, and R-K's Scheherazade. I had so much fun preparing for this concert. It's the first time in a long time that I actually felt relaxed and excited about performing. And it was SO nice to play with harp.

Next concert includes Tchaik 4!

Yesterday some of my students played in a recital with Allyss's voice studio in the main hall of the conservatory. It was so warm in there, to the point that I would have been most upset if I were performing. I was so proud of each of my students, though - one as young as twelve - to get up and play in front of a room full of people - and play MUSICALLY! It's really encouraging for me to know that they're all working so hard.

The other night Maryellen and I had Ramez over for dinner and we watched Lilo and Stitch. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. I've realized recently is that I'm not laughing as much as I used to... a point that definitely deserves to be worked on.

I've been going to Mass again recently and it is so refreshing. What's really interesting to me is the disparity between the services. On Fridays I go to a Mass in English, and it seems that the entire Filipino population of Amman is there, while on Sundays and during the week, I go to a 7:30 AM Mass that is filled with older Arabic-speaking men and women who seem perplexed with my attendance.

It's so cold in my house right now. To the point that I'm just amused. And that I may wear my winter hat to bed. :)

Happy New Year!

It's 5:15 in the morning, Mosque prayers have nearly finished, and I feel incredibly blessed.

Chinese food

tastes better in Jordan.

My stomach seems to be getting back to some semblance of normality and I enjoyed a really fabulous Chinese dinner out with Fadi and Munia. We went out around 10, and when we returned home at 11:30 or so, we made a sweet dish for tomorrow's New Year's festivities. It involved pineapple, pistachios, and and fresh cream. I'm in!

I practiced tonight. Hallelujah!

Life is so different for me than it was just one year ago. I think about how I was spending my days during this week last year... it's bizarre. Today, I've been amazed with the continuous stream of "Wow. I'm really appreciating my time in Jordan" that I've been feeling.

Happy New Year!

December 29th

9 PM.

Today was lazy (not much of a change, I know), but really enjoyable. I woke up around 9:30, got ready, and went with Fadi, Munia, and Munia's mom to take Munia's sister Seja to a school exam. After dropping her off, we drove to Fadi's hometown of Fahaz to visit his mother. I was so tired for some reason, and the conversation was entirely in Arabic. Normally this is fine, but it's been happening with such frequency lately (Arabic conversation) that I just start to zone out and think about something totally unrelated to the current situation rather than listening for words that I'm familiar with. Today I was thinking how the house in which Fadi grew up reminded me of my Aunt Charlene's house in Owego, NY. A strange connection considering I found myself today in the middle of small-town Jordan. During our visit, a vegetable truck drove by (yalla bandora! yalla khyar! yalla batata!) and we bought tomatoes and cucumbers. Welcome to my life. :)

After returning home (yes I really feel like I've moved in here), Fadi and I played with Munia's sister Jude while Munia prepared lunch: scrambled eggs, olives, lunch meat, several kinds of cheese, this garlic/pickled eggplant dish, apricot jam, and tuna with lemon - all eaten with this delicious pita bread.

I'm playing a gig for the Swiss ambassador on January 2nd with Fadi, Taraq, Laith, and Osstaz Mohammed, and we rehearsed for about an hour tonight. It was the first time I played since I became ill on the 17th. Yuck. I feel like I've been smoking a pack a day for the past month - really I couldn't breathe. I'm hoping this improves sometime in the next few days :)

It's in the 50's outside and it feels like winter. Really winter. What a change from Ithaca.

I've been terrible about updating this thing

So Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.

I could back-track, but I think it might be best for me to go from this point forward and just give you the bullet points of the past month or so:

- American-style Thanksgiving with 2 turkeys, green bean casserole (with home-made french-fried onions!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn bread, blueberry muffins, deviled eggs, dressing... the list goes on. Plus some really delicious wine and fantastic dessert. Maryellen made us all write down things that we were thankful for about another person in the room. We topped off the evening with American-style coffee. It was really lovely to share this with my Jordanian friends.

My plate:

- Trip to Cairo two days later. Totally insane and so much fun. Where Maryellen and I earned our "joined-at-the-hip" status. Highlights included eating stuffed pigeon, going on a Nile River cruise, seeing the Pyramids of Giza on horseback, going to the National Museum (and seeing mummies and all of the King Tut exhibition), shopping in downtown Cairo, visiting the Al-Hussein Mosque, eating, eating, and more eating, a day trip to Alexandria and seeing the fantastic library (a building that I swear is straight out of The Fountainhead - I think the most aesthetically pleasing and functional piece of architecture I've ever witnessed), a delicious fish lunch and putting my feet in the Mediterranean, traveling back to Cairo and watching terrible Egyptian films, going to a Cairo Symphony rehearsal, and finally flying back to Amman. My landing in Amman was the strangest sensation - sitting between Ostaz Mohammad and Zainab and feeling totally comfortable and like I was really coming home. This feeling was so different from the anxiety, the fear, and the uncertainty I felt the first time I landed in Amman only three months earlier. Amman is my home.

On horseback with pyramid:

- The Nutcracker and my ameba friend. Several rehearsals and many, many stomach-aches later.... The Amman production of the Nutcracker reminded me of the movie Best in Show. A mock-u-mentary of the Nutcracker. The dancers were pretty terrible. And the music was not much better. And ohh my stomach. Sometime while in Egypt I contracted an ameba friend. But no one here could figure out that it was an ameba friend... fifteen pounds, three and a half weeks later, two trips to the hospital (with really fantastic care) and finally a third visit (that included the most pain I've ever experienced) (and a partridge in a pear tree?), I was finally diagnosed with a bacterial infection. With Maryellen in Israel and Art and Allyss in Lebanon, Fadi and Munia agreed to take care of me during this time. I am so thankful because I really don't think I could have taken care of myself. Now, two days after Christmas, I'm eating and finally feeling like a human being again.

- Christmas in Amman. Mostly spent sleeping and healing. But one really wild experience was on Christmas morning here at Fadi and Munia's home in Jabal-Al-Wehbde, church bells were wildly ringing as Mass let out while simultaneously, Friday morning prayers began over the mosque's loud-speaker. What a confusing audio anomaly! This night Mohannad decided that he was just going to let me eat and see what happened. It was so painful but SO delicious! My first real meal in over a week!

-post-Christmas in Amman - a very lazy time indeed. I'm so grateful for this break from teaching so that I can actually sleep and feel better. Much-needed and well-deserved resting time.

And now I will attempt to update this blog on a more regular basis.