Yemen!

There is so much to say that I hardly know where to start! Yemen is wonderful, it is better then I ever dared to hope. Everything is perfect.

I am living in a house with four other girls and one guy. Skye told me that I was insane to pass up the offered studio apartment, but I chose this because I figured that amoung other things it would be safer. It was the right choice on my part. For starters, the house is already stocked with everything that I might need, which was a good thing considering it took me three days to get my luggage (which I did finally get!) I have a adorable little room, and there is a living room that is complete with a TV, VCR, DVD player and a ton of DVD’s that the other students buy. (DVD’s here are about $3.) There is a shower and a bathtub with hot water and a huge kitchen that has a water cooler in it. Yet with all it’s amities, the place still gives you a feel of “roughing it”. I feel that I am living in less luxury then I was in Samoa. The whole thing sort of has a college dorm feel to it, which was always my favorite type of housing.

One of the first people that I met here was Cyanne, an ex-pat from Hawaii and southern Illinois. We have a lot in common and became fast friends. She is really neat. She is a Muslin who goes out fully veiled (with the scarf over the face, most woman here dress like that but surprisingly I am not expected to—I don’t even wear a veil) and I found that looking at these woman they are quiet and meek. Not Cyanne, and not any of the woman that I have met. Cyanne is in your face, full of energy and is overall awesome. She gave me clothes, advice, and food when I first got here. We drink coffee together and go out shopping. She is exactly what I wanted in a roommate!

Yemen is very, well, tan. After Samoa it is a shock to see the amount of dust and lack of greenery that I became used to. Samoa was dirty, but it was more of a muddy dirt. This place is full of dust—a lighter cover that you feel that you can blow away. Samoan dust stuck. There are no bugs here either. The occasional fly and that’s about it. Some bug was flying around my classroom today and I was so amazed to see it that I just stared at it. I still jump at small shadows and dust bunnies thinking that they are cockroaches.

My students are brilliant. The company that I worked for picked 90 students out of more then 16,000 applicants and so I get the best of the best of the best. It’s a bit odd to be teaching people that are way smarter then I would ever hope to be, but they are great and funny. On the first day I asked if they had any questions for me. With a lot of my formal students I often felt that when I asked questions they were practically rhetorical. Not these guys! They questioned me for 45 minutes, asking all about Samoa. They wanted to know about the language, the people, the houses that they lived in and so on. They demanded that I speak some Samoan and asked me to do a presentation. I was blown away! Today we watched “The Day After Tomorrow” and had a debate about global warming. They were yelling and arguing and everyone had a great time. As a ESL teacher we are supposed to use the communicative approach so if I am doing my job right I am babysitting more then teaching. And my students are so fun that it hardly feels like work. The only problem is that they are so bright that I feel that I am not pushing them to their full potential!

And the FOOD!!!! Oh my God!! Every time someone complains here it makes me laugh. It’s all so wonderful and they don’t each much fried stuff, so it’s actually pretty healthy. The big cheap food is the vegetables. And Cyanne loves to cook! Plus we have Chinese and Ethiopian restaurants here that I hear are very good.

I’ve only been here for two days and it still feels like a dream.