Haircut

So.. I need some prayer.  I need peace.  I'm willing to share but not on my blog.

Oh and don't worry.. all your comments are posting!  I have to moderate them before they post but they do post :)

Let's see, today I went to the mall with one of my really good friends, Yasmeen, and we had lots of fun :)  I feel that my US shirts are too tight and short so I went looking for different ones, and I found one.  I also bought jeans. I love jeans.  Bargaining in Arabic really helps us practice our numbers.

 I also bought a wedding ring so that men will leave me alone.  Sometimes they drive up to me and stop and say things out their window, or they'll whistle or honk their horns every 2 seconds.  Walking at night (even around 8 or 9 PM) is really uncomfortable for me.. everyone stares daggers and whistles, probably because they think I'm a prostitute.  Which I was just told that no matter what you're wearing, whether it be a bikini or a niqab (in the picture), you're still seen as a prostitute if you're walking alone at night.  But getting back to my first point, if you tell a man you're married, he'll respect it and buzz off.  Atleast he should.  Saying you have a boyfriend doesn't count.

One of my friends was walking down the street and there was a man hardcore staring at her.  The landlord saw him and noticed she was uncomfortable and said something like "Hey buddy, she's married to the blonde guy who lives here," (which wasn't true) but he apologized and looked down right away.

I went to Petra yesterday with the school, and it was nice.  It was different than I thought it would be, but it was still really spectacular and picturesque.  Here are some pictures :)

That guy is Ahmad, one of the staff in the University of Jordan.. he's one of the best guys ever.  So nice and fun.

Oh my goodness, I got my hair cut and dyed.  The guy knew everything.  He said "I know your color, wait,"  and he pulled out a color and started putting it on.  I told him I wanted layers but not too short.  He starts chopping and chopping.. there's hair flying everywhere.. in my face, on my hands, in the air, aaaallll over the floor.  Bam, perfect hair.  Perfect color.  It's the color I've always pictured.

  Oh and Büşra put a Turkish headscarf on me and I took a picture but it's not loading :(  I will try for the next blog.

I almost got run over the other day.  I MIGHT not have been looking both ways and heard a REALLY loud screech about 1 foot in front of me.  The car slowed down to a stop, rolled down its window and the guy started screaming, fist in the air.  I don't know what he said because I don't speak Arabic so I said "Uh.. ana assifa?  Ma behki 3arbi..." which means "Uh.. I'm sorry?  I don't speak Arabic.."  and I ran away :/

That's all for today, I will update soon.  :)

New Apartment

Ahhh I am sorry my fellow blog-followers!  I very honestly haven't had time to use the internet, I'm just glad I sleep and bathe myself.  Which by the way, I had a swell week of cold showers :) mmmmm.   BUT now my apartment has internet!!

Boys playing soccer

Me, Büşra, Sena in Wasat al Balad

My textbook

 KANAFA mmmmm!

 The Language Center

Nice view

 The promised land

 

The promised land

 Mt. Nebo

 Same, the promised land

 Awesome Jordanian dancing

 Wadi Rum

Same 

 Driving in Wadi Rum

 

Debka dance!

 Me and Büşra on a camel

Lemon and mint, my favorite drink ever

 Dead Sea hotel

 Dead Sea

 My apartment

 Same

I think it's time to color-code this one again.  

Random

Wadi Rum

Aqaba

Dead Sea

Other Random

Jeez, where did I even leave off?  Let's see.  Oh I think I forgot to mention earlier that I met another synaesthete..  which is someone who sees things in colors.  (For example we see numbers and letters in colors.. you can google more if you're interested.)  But to find another person with it is so cool!  

Tamara and her dad left last week :(  I'm now in my new apartment, which is SO MUCH closer to campus, which is wonderful.  It's also by the gate closest to the building where I study.  And it's by lots of places to eat.  I'm sad that Tamara isn't here, but I'm so glad she was here for the length of time she was.  She helped soooooo much.  

OH!  I saw yet another place from a previous dream!  This time it was really strange because I was looking at it from the same angle as the dream.  I was legit freaked out, but it was still cool.  I saw that place on the way home from seeing one of Tamara's aunts.. wow, her place is wonderful, and so are the people.  SO much.  The house is surrounded by fruit trees.. let me list what there was:  Berries, pomegranates, figs, grapes, ginger, lemons, oranges, tomatoes, peaches.. was I in heaven?  Um, YES.  YES I was in heaven.  

Do you remember I talked about the prayer call here?  5 times a day, a man goes to the mosque and sings a prayer on the loud speaker for the city to hear.  I was at a small concert and when the prayer call came on, the lady wouldn't start her next song until the prayer call was over.  That was just so interesting to me, and so respectful.  I admire that.  

Last weekend I went to Wadi Rum (a desert) and got to hang out with Bedouins.  It was sooo nice... there was Arabic dancing, food, tents, jeep-ing through the desert and driving down sand hills.. aaahh :)  There was also TONS of heat.  And beautiful skies with sunsets and sunrises.  We all climbed this rock/mountain thing.. so fun.  Plus the stars at night were SOOOOO visible and SOO beautiful!  That night my thoughts were actually really catching up with me and I was really upset, so I went off in the sand and prayed for a bit about why I was here in the first place.  Long story short, I came back to everyone and my one friend out of nowhere said "Hey Charisse I was just looking at this verse, I think you'll like it."  It was Psalm 139, a little too long to post, you can look it up here:  

 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139&version=NIV

And the cool thing is that I hadn't told him anything.  I hadn't told ANYONE anything actually, so nobody had any idea that that was relevant.  I didn't even know he had that app with him.

  OH and THEN my other Christian friend came over and another long story short, I wanted to ask if I could play my guitar sometime so we could all sing worship music so I said "This is random, but I bought a guitar and was wondering if.."  and she interrupted me right then and said "You're joking!  I just prayed the other day that someone would have a guitar that I could use and sing with!"   Not a coincidence, wallah.  We did sing at school and it was great.  

The next day I rode a camel before we left for Aqaba... it was fun!  It was my Turkish friend Büşra and me riding two separate camels.  After we got off, the camel man wanted a picture with me, and right when Büşra went to take the picture he grabbed my arm and put his other hand on my stomach right beneath my boobs and held tight.  NO.  Do NOT touch me there, camel man.  I deleted the picture.  But then we were off to Aqaba where we used a hotel's pool and beach area to swim.  The water was so nice, even in the ocean it was a nice temperature.  My friend's skin for some reason (probably his sunblock plus the pool chemicals) turned green everywhere, haha.  Poor guy.  Sometimes his arms still turn green.  

This weekend we all went to the Dead Sea, which is beautiful because it's surrounded my mountain-like hills.  Everyone slabbed free mud all over themselves and then swam in the saltiest, most-painful-for-cuts body of water.  Everything and everyone floats.. we all laid on our sides, or on our stomachs, knelt on nothing.. :)  It was so interesting.  I was actually having bad heart palpitations (not sure what it was actually) while we were there, and I couldn't walk for more than 10 seconds at a time without feeling the need to die, literally.   My friend Randa stayed with me for a while, she's one of the most selfless people ever.   It passed and then on the way home, I got my other chest pains where a part near my heart pinches really badly when I breathe.  My teacher drove me to my apartment, then Tamara's cousin Motaz took me to the hospital.  Büşra and Sena (another Turkish friend) came with me.  I couldn't help but laugh when I was there because I was so flattered and happy that they wanted to stay with me.  Those 3 people have been such great friends, I can't even explain how much love I have for each of them.  Leaving them will probably rip out my heart.  

The hospital didn't find anything wrong.  My pains lasted for 5 hours.  Oh well, atleast it passed, and I'm just so flattered that my friends wanted to come.  I'm smiling writing it.  

My friend found a small non-denominational Christian church and I went there with her on Friday.  It was just like at home, and it was really nice.  I kind of hoped for more Arabs and Arab-like music, since we were in the Middle East and Christianity is for every race, plus God doesn't have to be worshipped in one style of music.  It was still great though, I plan to go next week.  

I should dye my hair and get it cut tomorrow.. my roots to me are noticeable and my hair is just flat and long.  I'm kinda nervous but we'll see what happens.  

I'm starting to feel like I look promiscuous here, because 95% of people around me have everything covered, and here I am with bare arms and a bare neck and fitting clothes.  Even if I wear a sweater and jeans to school, it just doesn't feel modest enough. 

I'll try to update sooner.. sorry guys!   

Happy 4th of July!

Hi everyone!   Happy 4th of July (and Happy Birthday Amanda!!!!) 

Things here are going great, and I've made the conclusion that I can't come home, so... yeah :)

I have to say this first because I'm so excited about it:  God is real.  SO REAL.  He is everywhere, and He wants to be close with you.  He actually does listen when you talk to Him.  Actually.. He gets pretty excited when you talk to Him.  I have talked to Him about so many very specific things, and those EXACT specific things have been answered in different ways and wonderful timing.  His presence is extremely strong and if you let Him He'll absolutely reveal Himself to you.  Ahhhhh and it's sooooooooo worth it. 

Oh, and this is also interesting:  If you know me well enough, you'll know that I have vivid dreams every night, and I remember them like 70% of the time.  Two completely different worlds... my dreams and real life.  But did you ever have a dream about a place and then much later actually visit that place? 

This isn't the first time, but in Costa Rica we drove past this one hotel and I wondered why it looked so familiar.  It was because I had a dream about that EXACT hotel, and in my dream I walked through it and everything.  It was exactly the same. 

When I first got here, I mentioned that I went to Aqaba and went scuba diving.  It was like dreams I used to have.  I went to Madaba yesterday, and there was a street that I saw that I knew I had seen before.. yes, in a dream.  It was SO VIVID and I was so creeped out.  It's seriously like I've lived in this country before because I've dreamed about it so much.. the streets, the buildings.. everything.  It's soooooo weird.

Then we went to Mount Nebo where Moses saw the promised land. The view was RIDICULOUS, pictures don't do it justice.  And as we were looking at the view, I heard Spanish.  So I looked over and there was a lady speaking to her Ecuador group about God.  The group left before I did, so I passed them on the way out talking again about God and I was so happy that I might have cried a little under my sunglasses.  They talked about how God wants to have that friendship with you.. not just a "pray to me because you have to" kind of thing.  It was so great.. just so great.

Oh I got 2 new pairs of sandals and they're sooooooooooooo comfortable and cute :) I also got a pair of handmade earrings... soo gorgeous :-o

I've been watching lots of soccer.  I took an Argentine flag into a bar full of Arab men dressed in Germany wear.  ...I was told by Tamara's cousin to put it away so I had to hide it in my purse :(  I would have put it away anyway cuz I didn't feel like getting beaten up by the whole restaurant. 

The people at the University here are amazing friends.  There's people from everywhere.. Moldova, Ukraine, Morocco, USA, France, Spain, Turkey, England, Russia, Holland.. everywhere.  This trip is so much more than I could have asked for.  It's like heaven pretty much. 

I PROMISE that I will soon put pictures on here... my laptop is dead and that's where my pictures are.  Please keep reading!!