One week left for my language classes here in Amman, and the SLA grant has been extremely beneficial for launching me into learning new sorts of language styles and texts that I will need for my dissertation research. I have a newfound appreciation for the richness (and difficulty!!!!) of Classical Arabic poetry. I need to use a dictionary for just about every word, and was feeling very down on myself about this, until a group of teachers at my school told me that they also need a dictionary for every word, since these words just aren’t used anymore. This reflects the rich history within the ARabic language itself. I went to Madaba yesterday to have lunch with one of my teachers. Madaba is a small town about 25 minutes from Amman. Madaba is where John the Baptist lived and ministered, and very close to Mount Nebo – where Moses saw the promised land – and the River Jordan, where John baptized Jesus. Jordan is an incredible country and one of the take aways from my stay here will be expressing this respect and awe of Jordan to Americans, and encouraging more Americans to appreciate all that Jordan does for the USA in the region.