Quick Update

Hey everyone, we just wanted to put up a quick update on a couple of the events that have happened in the last few weeks, that unfortunately, we do not have any pictures of.
First, just after we got back from Israel, Patrick and I went to a graduation party for Ibrahim, one of our friends we hang out with most every day, who was graduating in Nursing. It was pretty crazy, as there were hundreds of people at the university for the graduations, and after the actual ceremony, the families and friends of the various graduates started gathering around their particular graduate, and would carry them on their shoulders out of the University, chanting and singing and shouting. We followed Ibrahim's crowd up to the main gates of the university, where some speakers had been set up blaring Arab music and they all started dancing, as they continued their singing and chanting and shouting. The classic Arab dance is called the Dibka, and it is basically where all of the young Arab guys get into a big circle and start dancing in a circle doing various moves with their feet and bodies. Every once in a while someone will be in the middle, usually holding the graduate on their shoulders, and do a little dance there as well. They tried to have Patrick and me join in with their dancing, and we would go in their little circle, and try to copy their foot movements, but I'm sure we looked pretty ridiculous among all those Arabs. Also, they would throw the new graduates into the air, sometimes getting as much as 9-10 feet of air. There were a few close calls that we saw where people almost weren't caught. The other interesting thing that happened was when one guy pulled out a gun and fired a few rounds off into the sky. We didn't realize at first, but it turned out to just be blanks they had fired. We left after an hour or so, but the party continued on for several hours afterwards. All in all it was a very interesting experience.
The next event that happened was our 4th of July party. Obviously this holiday is not celebrated in Jordan, but we got together with the other married couples from our group at one of their apartments, and all ate hamburgers and hung out for a while. It was pretty low key, but it was nice to just relax together for a little while.
Other than these events, our lives have pretty much been following a standard routine. I get up sometime between 7-10 depending on how much homework I have to do, which I do in the mornings before class. Class starts at 1, and goes for 2 hours on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, and 3 hours on Monday and Wednesday. After class I hang out on campus with Patrick and all of our friends from Tafailah for 2 hours or so. After that I come home and work on any homework I have left and then finish the day watching T.V. and relaxing until bedtime, usually sometime between 11 and 1.
Ashley, on the other hand, wakes up in the morning whenever she wants to, since her work schedule is completely flexible. She then spends the day doing a mixture of crafts, work, cleaning, shopping, watching T.V., working out, going to an Arabic class, and playing computer games. Since she can work whenever she wants, she has a fair amount of flexibility in what she does each day.
Also, we have an apartment tradition now where we all get together on Sunday night and watch American Gladiators, our favorite T.V. show that is on over here. Though it is kind of funny that one of the insights into American culture that Arabs get when they watch T.V. here is American Gladiators. Though the Arabs assure us that they know it is not representative of America, because they have seen our movies also.
Now we are looking forward to our next group trip, where we are going to visit Petra this weekend, so we will hopefully have an update about that trip soon, as well as one about the trip we just took yesterday to the Fact International newspaper, or الحقيقة الدولية (Al-haqiiqa Al-dawliia) in Arabic, which was quite interesting.