Settling into life in Amman?

Doin this quickly in a food court that offers wifi with a food purchase. on Joe's laptop. still living in our hotel. will be put with our families in a few days ensha'ala. Classes at Jordan University started last week. main homework: newspaper article translations and speaking with natives. we learned that here it is part of classroom etiquette to ASK before leaving to go to the bathroom. the teacher also announces weekly participation grades to the whole class. sucks for the people who only got "Jayid" (good). I got "Jayid Jidan" (very good). 2 people got "mumtaz" (excellent"). dunno why i just wrote that out. I've eaten Mensaf, the traditional Jordanian food, 3 times in one week, twice with lamb and once with chicken. you can't eat mensaf (platter of rice with meat and yogurty soup poured over it) without overeating. i'll bet you that by the time i leave, i'll have eaten the weight of 100 toddlers on a schoolbus. someone just tried to help me describe that amount of mensaf in terms of baby weight. i decided to go with toddlers though. they're a little bigger and i dont feel as evil. and i KNOW you just visualized the bus. full of toddlers. moving on...
a while ago i went to a music concert in Amman's roman amphitheater, check it out in the video. 2 nights ago i went with 8 other students to eat mensaf at our friend, anwar's house. anwar is the owner of the internet cafe that we frequent on this street. he, his nephew, and their family friend Zena, have become all become our good friends. it was a good-sized gathering, english and arabic mixing the whole evening. we got picked up at 4 and got home around 10pm. that is typical. dang we were tired. Zena, a 19 yr old Iraqi girl, brought me and 3 other BYU guys with her to her college in Sult. We were the only americans in sight and we were included very much so in her classes. The first class included a student presentation on the western influences that are changing Jordan's youth. Should there be restrictions? what do you think? we put our 2 cents in, but in the end it didn't matter what we thought, its all up to them. i already related this to some people, but i figured if Utah were its own country (which is feasible size and society-wise in comparison to some other countries), we would probably keep our strict liquor laws and no same sex marriage because we are all mostly one people of the same belief. well bam, thats how it is here so its no big deal that the laws are strict or that society is strict. if the youth are getting out of control, that doesn't mean its a GOOD thing. drugs, alcohol, fast food, and rap? why is that better? technology and other good things from the west dont transfer like those things do.
SO, we also went to a speaking class (english)so we were pretty much put on a panel and asked questions the whole class period, mostly about obama and hillary. very politically aware these Jordanians are. Somethin else thats sweet? 3 of my Jordanian friends that i havent seen for years from Saudi came and visited me at the hotel the other night. total surprise. it rocked my socks. Murad, Abdullah, and Nour...same guys, just a little older and a little more confident with cigarettes in their mouths.
Yesterday I spent about 10 hours in a Muslim home outside of Madaba. My friend Breanne and i took a taxi and bus, then got picked up by the father. father of who? father Yasmin, Sausan, and Arwa: 3 sisters that breanne befriended on campus and i eventually did too. This family consisted of 5 daughters and 2 sons. we ate a big breakfast of foods made by the ama (mom): goat cheese, zatar (she MADE it!), falafel, olives from their fields of trees, and other things i cant remember. it was neat to see the girls without their hijabs on. we sat around and talked with the family a lot.we went out and looked at all their fruit trees, flowers, and grapes. massive bird cage too. the sisters,including 12 yr old ruba, showed breanna and i how to put hijabs on the right way, with and without pins. i'll definitely put those pictures up later. good stuff. we did some dancing in the girls' room too. i figured out really fast that my hip movements are way more latin and american than they are Arab. and i thought i was COOL. dinner was huge. fresh arab bread is delish. ive got 8 minutes before the computer shuts down now. the family prayed right in front of us! i have a feeling they WANTED us to see. the dad seemed to ask us questions about religion that he didnt want answers to like "why do you not drink coffee? just because your church leader says? where's the evidence that it is bad?" yeaaaah. no worries though, he's a great guy. islam is interesting and i need to learn about it anyway so good thing he's given us substantial 'lectures' as his daughters put it. alright. masalama!