With AUC's spring break upon us, I've got a homestay for the first week and a trip to Jerusalem for the second, just in time for Othordox/Eastern Easter. I've been with the homestay family for two days and just stopped by the dorm to clean out the fridge, shower, check the email, and, I admit, briefly bask in the air conditioning.
I was very apprehensive about the homestay, but the family is part of a network used by an organization here does a semester abroad for Christian college students, and I should have known that they wouldn't send their students to families that weren't good. Mine consists of a mom, a dad, two boys and a girl older than me, and two girls and a boy younger than me. They're great; of course they stuff me full of food, as host families ought, even when I say, "It is not possible!" they tell me to quite whining and eat up. They've all studied English, but it's nothing like AUC. It's basically all Arabic, all the time. "Mish fahma" مش فهمة or "I don't understand" is my biggest line, though I know already that this is really good for my Arabic. The apartment is nice and doesn't feel crowded--three bedrooms. The first day we (meaning mostly the mom) made aish baladi عيش بلدي or what we'd probably call pita bread back home, which was a really cool process to watch, and yesterday we visited the schools that the three younger kids are in. The littlest one and I are friends, and she's showed me how to eat lib لب seeds and has written Arabic tests for me and we even played Connect 4. The TV's almost always on, but they keep the sound below voice level. The goal for today is not to get tired and nap, but it's warm and the family has let me get away with it the past two days. I have to get ready to go to Jerusalem, but it makes me feel like I'm acting all-important to whip out the travel book since the other members of the family are content to just sit and talk or watch TV. But getting to see the day-to-day of a family here is exactly what I've been hoping for.
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