A visit to Amish Family

A Visit to an Amish Community
Emad Arnous,
After hearing about the Amish lifestyle in the class in the university of Delaware, I had the opportunity to visit an Amish community in Pennsylvania.
Wow! I was very impressed when I first visited an Amish family. They live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I was visiting the families with my colleagues from Jordan and Morocco.
"We visited one of the biggest Amish communities in the Lancaster area. There were huge farms with houses and lots of land. I learned they didn't have any electricity in their houses."
I was very glad to know and see the Amish life style in their farms, and also I had seen the cows, the deer, the chicken. I wanted to see how they live together and find out if it is an easy life or not.
While we were buying bread, cheese, honey, yoghurt, and other handmade gifts, I noticed that the woman selling the bread was wearing interesting clothes. I had never seen anybody wearing that kind of clothes in real life. She was wearing a blue-colored, old-fashioned dress which didn't have any buttons, and there were many straight pins on the back of her dress to hold it together, with a very lovely hat. I hoped I would see more how the Amish live.
By going to another farm, we visited one of the biggest Amish communities in the Lancaster area. There were huge farms with houses and lots of land. I learned they didn't have any electricity in their houses. They don't use modern things, so you see no electric wires around the houses.

While we were there, I saw a man in his carriage of two horses. Again I noticed their clothing because all of them were wearing the kind of very lovely clothing , I didn't try to talk with them because I thought they might not want me to talk to them. In the community,
"The life style of the Amish might be simple and seem to be inconvenient; however, I feel they are really living in a way that respects nature, unlike us."
I saw children who were playing around a horse. Although they didn't play with any of the usual commercial toys which children usually like to play with, these children looked very lively and happy.
The life style of the Amish might be simple and seem to be inconvenient; however, I feel they are really living in a way that respects nature, unlike us. We tend to separate nature and use power to control it. It is very difficult for us who are accustomed to living comfortably with modern conveniences. We use an air conditioner when it is hot. When we want to contact someone, we use the telephone. When we want to write something, we can use computers.

I think we need to notice how we are a part of nature. I believe the Amish people have recognized this. All the family members work hard, all of them cooperate for their land, It might be impossible for me to live in the Amish community, but maybe it would be good to live with fewer modern conveniences.

Storytelling/ storymaking

One of my favourite workshops was storytelling/storymaking by Debra Darrell. It was rich with various interesting activities. Even we' the participants' as adults enjoyed them a lot.

The workshop tackled the benefits of storytelling and the skills practiced. It provides students with opportunities to listen to language in context, lets them have an experience with the powerful language of personnal communication. It also sparks curiosity and engages the hearts and minds of the students, etc...

Concerning the skills practiced, students learn new vocabulary, language form and grammar. It gives them fluency practice, helps to listen and think critically and provides for all aspects of oral intelligibility...

The workshop dTealt also with how to incorperate stories in the classroom. A teacher may opt for a storytelling unit, initiate A Story A Day, have a weekly storytelling time or start a storytelling club.

The workshop included some storytelling game such as: Apple Tree ( for all levels). It focuses on fluency, spontaneity, listening, pronountiation of targeted structures, targeted grammar practice and build group unity. Concerning the tips for learning and telling a story: select, concentrate, vocalize, memorize key bits, visualize, analize...

The last part of the workshop was devoted to to personal storytelling. Any person can be a storyteller. a teacher may make use of students' personal experiences and ask them to talk about events that took place in their lives. however, the teacher should use prompts to hook a story.

Stroy Telling

It was the first time I leave my country and also my family . It was also the first time I travel by
an eroplane. In fact it was a long journy because we landed in Paris and waited for the other plane for about 8 hours. I felt dizzy during taking off and landing. It was the first time I am above the clouds...I reached Philidilphia Airport with the sun set . But the police there took me to another room for investigation . At the moment I felt they will return me back home . I was very tired and dizzy because of the travel. Any way they allowed me to enter the state and I was shocked with the high tempreature there. and the bus took us to the ELI and all the way to the ELI I saw the beautiful green nature which refreshed me after this exhaustion. Then my homestay came and picked me up to Mayrlian. We intered the wooden house for the first time in life and lived the American real life.
The food was very different and the accent of that teethless old man discouraged me and I felt that he was speaking another language. Unfortunately Idid not enjoy my stay there because she was very busy and tired after coming home from work. I felt as if I was in a hotel just to sleep and eat without talking . After 5 days I asked barebel to change our home stay, and was happend and my new home stay is very different one. In fact she is very lovely and sociable woman. I visited her friends and relatives and she also took me to bowling and different malls for purchassing . In fact I will miss Karen Danishbb and also her nice husband Mr.Goug because of their kind hospitality. It is a long journey but it is very nice.

Does all America smell ... the same?

Does all America smell, look (...) the same?

Believe me if I tell you that whenever I travel to a place abroad, the first thing I do when I get out of the plane is to take a long breath at the first sight of the new world. I did it when I went to South Africa. I did it again when we landed in Frankfurt. And I also did it when when we got to Philadephia. I even do it when I come back home to see if there is a difference between all the smells. Now I am sitting on the grass,alone,trying to gather the strength of all my senses. It's somewhere in Pennsylvania. Of course the place is totally different from all the other places I have seen or heard of up to now. Everything looks beautiful around me: houses, people, cars,gardens(...). They all live in peace together. There are even some wild animals that I see from time to time, like bunnies that you can see runinning all over these places. My host father , Bob, told me that there are some dears around here. It's like a dream. Maybe this is what they call the American dream. It smells so fresh. Maybe because of the degrees of humidity or because it was raining the last two days. But it smells so good that I would like to take a long and deep breath, a none stop breathing to renew all the air in my chest and brain. The grass looks so smouth like the touch of a mother for her child. Excuse me, some one is calling me by using my name "Moustapha". Ah! It's a child. A young girl of about six years, may be seven. She is the daughter of our neighbour Greck. " Hi Kally! How are you?". She said that she's fine. By the way, our neighbours have three children: Erica, Jamy and Kally. Their mother is called Hidy. I hope the names are written correctly. Anyway, let's concentrate once again. Now I can hear Greck's children playing in the garden. Their voices sound like music. Maybe because their father is a drummer. Kally is also a violinist. Jamy is a drummer, too. These people are so kind. You can not stop listening or looking at them while they are talking to you. Now I see a plane flying over here. You can not hear it. It's far away in the sky. But you can see it. It reminds me of the long trip I did but also of the fact that I still have five weeks in front of me before going back home.I missed my children and my wife so much.

I always hear people saying "Home sweet home, there's no place like home", but sometimes you can find that there are some places that may be better than your home, to some extent. But is it really true for all people? Who knows? Every one has his own reasons for that. You can not judge what is in the others's minds. I have to stop now because it's getting dark and I feel some drop of rain on my face. I'd better go. (To be continued).

A nice trip to Philly...

HICHAM... to all my Moroccan colleagues:

Hi guys,
How was your weekend?
I hope you found the trip to Philly amusing and interesting. For me, it was so. I never dreamed of going in Edgar A. Poe`s house. That was really fantastic.
Well, now we have to get ready. A lot of work is waiting for us this week. And don`t forget to do all the assessments... I know that some of you don`t have access to the internet but you have to figure it out...OK? We`ll try to find a time to talk about all that happened during the first week.
good luck and see you on Monday...

Making videos

Today we had a demonstration on how to make videos for academic purposes.
The teachers there are so kind and experienced. I liked that class so much and hope that
one day I can make a documentary instead of writing a paper. It sounds so unusual and exciting.