yalla bye

well i've enjoyed my time here in jordan more than i had ever imagined and will be very sad to see it go. as i ruminate over the past two months i offer you my (usual) wrap-up bullet point lists.

things i'll miss about jordan..

• the smell of jasmine just outside my door
• the view of the city at dusk - never any clouds just a nice soft pink light that makes the buildings glow
• the call to prayer. plaintive and beautiful, it's also somehow comforting.
• the absolutely delicious food. it's hard to beat home-cooked food every day. not to mention the daily pita/hummus/za'atar and falafel or manakish you can get cheap on every street corner
• deciphering arabic. life's much more exciting when understanding simple signs is a victory
• lemon and mint. what an unexpectedly delicious combination. both in liquid and hookah form.
• buying cheap movies. in wasat al-beled (the downtown) you can't turn around without finding a shop filled with racks of dvds. and not just new terrible action movies, but classics and obscure foreign titles. they're already cheap but of course it doesn't hurt to get to know the vendors
• mango juice. alright, so maybe the juices here are full of sugar. and maybe (okay definitely) the mango juice can't compete with india's. still, it's hard to find at home and it's so delicious
• meeting people from all over. true, i can do this at home but it takes more effort and somehow it's just not the same as being thrown into a group of foreigners all in a strange new place. it's exciting!

things i will not miss..

• cabs everywhere. cabs are a necessary evil in amman. because the public transportation consists of vans that you flag down, if you want to go anywhere farther than half a mile you're going to have to take a cab. not only does this get expensive, but it clogs up the already congested roads of amman. particularly at 3 when everyone's trying to get home for that afternoon nap.
• wearing long pants every day. with temperatures nearing the triple digits in the shade, wearing jeans every day is no picnic. true, as a foreigner i could get away with wearing a skirt or maybe even (gasp) shorts. but the exponential increase (because there's always some) in catcalling and honks just isn't worth it.
• paying for water. it gets expensive and, being spoiled living in america, just seems so unnecessary. and then there are those people who do the same thing at home.. weirdos. but really for the middle east jordan is rather expensive and as someone who is unequivocally cheap, this gets tiresome.
• having a curfew. don't get me wrong, it was wonderful living with a family and i was lucky in that they let me stay out late and be with friends. but it was a little odd having friends who had to be home by 9 and sometimes it felt like i was 15 again. an age i've never had a terrible desire to revisit.
• arabic soap operas. if i never see another arabic soap opera it will be too soon. the family gathered around for hours to watch these melodramas, which all seemed to consist of women with bad blond dye jobs and western clothes or women who stayed home doing nothing but wearing expensive jewelry and too much makeup, smoking hookahs and yelling at their husbands. ramadan evidentally marks the new tv season (and a month where people have nothing to do all day) so of course the time spent in front of the tv only increased. borrrrrinnng

so there you have it. it's been a wonderful summer and i'm sad to see it go.
jordan, i will miss you and the friends i've made here.
on to the next adventure...

water, water everywhere

well here i am in jordan. everyone's been so welcoming and i already feel at home here, even in just a few days. still, it's strange to be so immersed in a language i'm totally unfamiliar with. i'm sure this is a phenomenon most people have experienced in some capacity, but for me it's new. in france i knew enough to get by and even if i didn't understand everything that was said, i usually got the gist of things.

but here.. well i know the alphabet and diacritic marks, which means i can sound out words. so basically i know arabic about as well as i know, say, portuguese. which is not at all. looking at it that way it's easy to get discouraged but i know things will improve and i'm anxious to start classes and really learn.

in the meantime i've been learning bits and pieces here and there. i knew pronouns and some simple nouns and verbs. so piecing things together along with vocabulary the family's teaching me ("what's breakfast? ftoor. what's tea? shy."). actually they've been good about quizzing me and making me do little tasks. yesterday i bought eggs; the vendor may have told me the price in english but, still, i came out with a kartoon bedh!

the best way i can think to describe it (i suppose it's a cliche for a reason) is with water. i wouldn't saying i'm drowning exactly, but i'm just surrounded by this language, like being dropped in the middle of an ocean. occasionally i can grab onto something - a cognate, an english word, some gesture - but for the most part i'm just floating in a sea of words. really all i'd like to be able to do is tread water. so there you have it, my goal for the summer: don't drown.

marhaban, jordan

well i’ve been in jordan for under 24 hours and so far i’ve already eaten all different kinds of middle eastern food, driven all over the city of amman, and been totally immersed in arabic.

after landing, quickly buying my visa (luckily no questions asked) and gathering my luggage i was greeted by an enthusiastic kamel and his youngest daughter bana, who has a delightful smile and sparkling eyes. upon greeting me and welcoming me ‘home’, kamel instructed bana to, “hug the glenna” which she did willingly. later when kamel stopped for some quick groceries the first thing she asked me was “are you on facebook?”. she’s 11. we then moved on to other subjects: reading, basketball, horseback riding, and most importantly who i was supporting in the world cup (“not brazil??”).

we arrived at kamel’s lovey home where i was surprised to find not only a pool but (i’m told) a sauna. upstairs i met his lovely wife, mervat, and eldest daughter, aya, as well as his brother who lives in the apartment next door. it was about 5:00 but we all sat down for “lunch” which turned out to be a huge meal –chicken, onions, potatoes, carrots, eggplant with yogurt, tzatziki, rice with pine nuts. (i had bana quiz me on the meal beforehand; i can now tell you how to say ‘knife’ and ‘carrot’..) of course food was heaped on to my plate without hesitation. as soon as i finished some, more would appear. needless to say, by the end of the meal i was sufficiently stuffed.

after watching a bit of the US-slovenia game and allowing our food to digest, i headed out with the girls for some shopping. we went to the outdoor shopping mall, which is quite posh. here i learned that aya (almost 16) is a master shopper, or more accurately a master of taking her time shopping. a bored bana asked her mother if they would be in the adidas store for two hours to which she replied, “of course. it’s aya.” we stopped in several other stores (i admit i was excited to see some french ones – promod, etam, zara. and i’m told sales start next month.. this could be bad..) before ultimately leaving with the intended purchase – a birthday gift for a friend – plus a few extras.

at this point mervat dropped off the girls and talked me into going to ‘the club’ to meet an old friend of hers. we arrived at the club (where she’s not a member, though she told the parking attendant different) and walked past a christian baptism and a meeting of a japanese organization. out on the terrace we met up with the other ladies, who were just beginning their hookahs and chatting. we ordered lemonade with fresh mint leaves (delicious!) and each of the women ordered several dishes. all told, there were 10 plates of food on the table, not including various breads. hummus, pita, tabouleh, mushrooms, zucchini.. just to name a few. the visiting friend talked about her life in copenhagen and showed us pictures of her adorable (and tri-lingual) 4- and 5-year old daughters. after a while we left, mervat using my tiredness as an excuse (though truthfully i was getting sleepy).

at this point i unpacked my things, a nice luxury after five weeks of spending no more than three nights in the same place. i think i’ve displaced bana from her room, given its rather pink-heavy decorations (a stuffed dog was left on the bed to greet me), which i feel somewhat guilty about. but the family is very welcoming and i already feel quite comfortable here.

hopefully i can make the most of the next few weeks and really learn a lot of arabic and even get in some work at the museum. insha’allah.