life here goes on as usual. I'm just starting to get genuinely comfortable with my life here:  study, eat, walk, class, eat, class, walk, study is how my days go most days, but I also fill out my days by spending time with other students from my program, hanging out with some new Jordanian friends, reading Anna Karenina, exploring, meeting with my tutor, and playing my mandolin.  It's a very sweet life.  This city is a fascinating array of faces and traditions, as well as modernity.  For example, I live in a very normal urban neighborhood, but about twice a week, I see this in the empty lot across from my family's apartment building:

My Arabic is improving steadily.  I think I fall more and more in love with it every day.  It's an amazingly complex and detailed language. I am starting to understand Jordanian dialect pretty well, and my Modern Standard Arabic continues to improve at a pleasant pace.