I heart felafel

And it's true, I do love felafel.
I met my counterpart a few days ago. Her name is Majeda, she's young and funny and energetic, and I'm really looking forward to working with her for the next two years. She isn't from my town, though. She is from Karak, and goes back to Karak several nights every week, so my community integration will be interesting. Tomorrow I am going to Safi for two days to check out the scene, sign the lease for my apartment, meet my other coworker at the youth center, and just hang out with the locals. Then it's back to Irbid for a day, and good ol' Deir Abi-Sayed for another few weeks. Only 22 more days in the village! Then it's swearing in time, and off to the lowest point on earth.
To those PC volunteers who have found my blog but are disappointed at the lack of pre-PC info on me, click on the Ofoto link and check out my pictures from home. You'll need the username and password which are next to the link.
Not much else new...my host family is getting tired of me, I think. They've stopped waiting on me hand and foot, which I'm really happy about, but it's a marked difference from when I first arrived. I'm now allowed to sit in my room for hours reading without a knock on the door every 10 minutes. They've encouraged me to invite the other girls over to the house for dinner, so I've had Kim over a couple times. Andi doesn't like to leave her host family for too long. She's a super nice guest.
Oh, I'll give out some dirt on my village that I got from Majeda. This may or may not be true, but she told me that the average temp in the summer is 110 degrees. In the winter, however, it's about 70-75 degrees everyday. So mom, don't knit that sweater! Send me some ice packs and an air conditioner. The Peace Corps gives everyone gas space heaters, and I've requested to NOT have one, since I will never ever ever be cold, and it'll just make me feel hotter when I look at it taking up space in my house. My house!! I am going to live above my other coworker, Fahtima, and her husband. Apparently it's really nice, and I have a great view of farms outside the town from my balcony/roof. Not sure if I have a balcony. It's a little complicated trying to understand Majeda since she doesn't speak English. But we manage. Anyways, I live about 3 blocks from the youth center. Majeda says there is no internet cafes in the town, but she doesn't really live there, so I'm not giving up hope. There is, however, amazing food and plenty of water. I am only a few dozen kilometers from Israel, so I will have to go through checkpoints to get in and out of town. I am one hour from Karak, one hour from Tafila, two hours from Petra (and Andi, who lives right next to Petra), three hours from Aqaba, and only an hour and a half from Amman! There's even a direct bus from Safi to Amman. Which is awesome. So in the height of the summer when my skin is melting off, I can hop on a bus and head to the higher elevations where it's lovely and cool.
My town actually gets some tourists, too. Lot's wife turned to salt about 2km from my house. For those that aren't familiar with the Bible or the Koran, Lot and his family were allowed to leave as long they didn't look back as they were leaving. Lot's wife turned around and turned to salt. There's a huge salt pan surrounding the whole area. Cool, right? I'm so cool. If anyone wants to hear the gossip that I can't post in my blog, just send me an email requesting said information. ;-)