The end is near......

Me and Ustaaza Zainab, the best professor at Qasid. 

Yesterday was the last day of classes at Qasid. I'm not sure how I feel about that. As exciting as it is to be done with classes for the semester, I really am going to miss my professor and other friends. Also, this means that this next week is our finals week! I have 4 tests, Sunday-Wednesday. Thankfully I don't have any tests on Thursday, so I can get any last minute shopping done or cleaning/packing. and then Friday morning we are leaving for the Holy Land (this is the neutral term for Israel/Palestine). So, the next week will be filled with lots of "lasts" and "good-byes".

We had speaking partners during the semester, and Tasneem
was one of mine.

Oh, so, yesterday I had probably my hardest, and most important test. My OPI. The OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview), is where I have a 30 minute interview with a trained proctor who will ask me questions trying to get me to demonstrate various skills, and rank my speaking ability based on my responses. This rating determines whether or not we qualify for the Arabic double major. This rating is also the one that Dil will give to prospective employers when we ask him for a letter of recommendation.

This is Heba, another one of my speaking partners

With that background info, let me tell you about mine. Mine was supposed to be yesterday at 1:30 pm, so after I was done with classes. I'd have time to get lunch, review some stuff, and relax. Well, in the morning, at 8:45 am, I was supposed to have a writing appointment with one of the professors. While I'm in the middle of my appointment, my cell phone goes off. Normally, if I"m talking to someone or in the middle of an appointment, I won't answer my phone, I'll hit the reject button. This time, I looked at the screen and saw that it was Dil calling me. I figured it was something important, so I answered it. It was a good thing I did, since Dil had been looking for me and was getting flustered that he couldn't find me. He informed me that they wanted to change the time of my OPI from 1:30 pm to 9:00 am, and asked if that was alright (but, he only asked if I was okay with the change to be courteous, it didn't matter if I said 'no', it would be at 9:00 am anyway). I told Dil that it was okay, and that I would meet him at the front desk at 9 am. I looked at the clock, and it turned out that it was 8:54 am, so I had 6 minutes to calm myself instead of 1.5 hours. I was not very happy with Dil, but it wasn't his fault really. He just happened to be the bearer of unhappy news. I survived it emotionally intact, so it's all good.

Muhammad, with Phil, Pat, and I. I had my 30 min presentations
with him.

In class, we talked about the end of the world for the first hour. We came up with two causes for the end of the world. Nuclear War and Zombies. Yes, we actually pulled the 'zombies' card. Then, the second hour, we had a party. It was a good note to end the semester on.

During the semester, we had the opportunity to go spend time with some Syrians (I guess they technically are refugees, but I have trouble thinking of them like that). They'd speak Arabic with us for an hour, then we'd speak English with them for an hour. Since we are starting finals week, Dil cancelled meetings with them. There are other projects that the Syrians we met with were involved in. The Church has worked with them a lot too. So, since we probably weren't going to see them again, we had a 'party' yesterday. It was great. I really am going to miss them.

Everyone who helped/worked with the Syrians

Abdulaziz, one of my Syrian friends

My friend, Lucy, and I are helping with a children's choir from the Greek Orthodox Church. Lucy is accompanying them on the piano, and I am her assistant (in other words, a glorified page turner). Their Christmas concert is next week (its date was changed so Lucy would be here), and we had practice last night. Lucy, our friend Michael, and I left the party with the Syrians to go to the practice. First we took a taxi back to our apartments and picked up our friend, Marc, then we went to Deanna's house (she's the director, and the practice was at her home). Well, the taxi driver didn't know the neighborhood we were talking about. Every other time we tell the driver the name of the neighborhood, they know exactly where to go, and we direct them once we get there. But, this time, Lucy and I had to try to direct the driver to the place. Well, Lucy and I are very good at remembering places, so we knew we were on the right track, but we couldn't remember where exactly we turned (since we haven't needed to remember).

Me and Mohammed (who actually is Abdulaziz's cousin)

So, long story short, we were hopelessly lost. The practice ended at 7:30, so by the time it was 7:00, and we weren't any closer to finding the neighborhood, we decided to give up. The driver took us back to our apartments, without complaint. If anything, he found us Americans, who were trying to give him directions, amusing. We later figured out that we were in the taxi, for over an hour (it definitely didn't feel like it was that long). The total fare at the end was 5.47 JD (the second most expensive taxi ride I've taken). We gave him 6 JD, since he had put up with us for so long. It was quite the adventure. We are a lot more familiar with that area now. And we can tease Lucy mercilessly about her difficulty with directions....

Since it is the end of the semester, the next few posts will probably be a little sad, and about saying good-bye, etc... just to forewarn you.