Four Weeks

Perfection:  looking out my open window at dusk, listening to a cacophony of chirping birds outside overlaid with distant sounds of the call to prayer, and basking in a welcome light breeze after a hot Amman day.

Four weeks from now, it will be my last evening in Jordan.  Four more weeks of crazy cab drivers, zait and zaatar breakfasts, pirated movie nights, Arabic Nutella breaks, weekend adventures, silly host nephew incidents, awkward marriage proposals, Amigos mix CDs, and all the tea I could ever wish for. Yalla, bring it.  Petra update to come.

Salt, Mud, and Crusaders

My house has been quite chaotic for the last several days.  My host brother, Najib, who works as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, came home for the weekend.  In honor of his visit, we had the whole extended family over for brunch.  There was a plethora of food involved:  zaatar bread, hummus, falafel, something resembling an omelet, a cheese-walnut-olive oil mixture whose name I do not recall, all the Jordanian standard dishes.  I wish I had taken a photo of the spread before it was demolished, but suffice to say that is was absolutely delicious and I ate far too much.

It surprised me how the atmosphere of the big family gathering transcended cultural idiosyncrasies.  I felt like I could have been at any Morrison or Frey family event (with the small exception that I didn't actually know anyone or understand what they were talking about).  At one point, I could tell that there was a heated political discussion occurring about Mubarak and Qaddafi and I wish so much that I could have understood better what people's views were.  Short of my professors, I know so little about what ordinary Jordanians think about what is going on in the region.  The one thing everyone does seem to agree on is that Qaddafi is majnoon (crazy).  Additionally, I met an Arab with a Wisconsin accent!  One of the cousins that was there actually lives in the Chicago area and was just in Amman visiting family for a few days.  As it turns out, he got his masters from the University of Wisconsin, is a die-hard Packers fan, and I have probably driven by his house dozens of times. I'm learning quickly that it really truly is a small world.


On Saturday, I went on a CIEE-sponsored day trip to Karak and the Dead Sea.  Karak is a huge Crusader castle a couple hours south of Amman.  According to my trusty guidebook, it's one of the most well-preserved and easily explorable fortresses of its kind. The castle itself was enormous and it was tons of fun to wander around--I probably could have spent a whole extra hour poking about and trying to locate the "suitably dank" dungeons--but it was the view from the top that was truly spectacular.  As in Jerash, there was no one of authority around except for a couple police officers at the front gate. Consequently, we were able to clamber all over everything in what was most certainly an unsafe manner including climbing to the top of one of the walls.  Amazing.  Now I just need to find somewhere to buy an illegal copy of Kingdom of Heaven so I can see what happened there (or at least Hollywood's interpretation thereof).

Karak Castle

Lovely Lura at Karak

After exploring Karak in the morning, we drove through more of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery that I saw last weekend between Madaba and Ma'in to the Dead Sea.  I've seen a partially obstructed view of the sea from afar on several occasions since I arrived in Jordan, but this was the first time that I really got to see it, touch it, and (unfortunately) taste it.  I did all the typical touristy things--slathered mysef in mud, almost got cut up on the salt formations, floated around, tried not to get salt in my eyes--and had a marvelous time doing so. 

Dead Sea mud!  Erika, Jessica, me, and Gabby

Mike and I demonstrating our floating abilities.

I had really been expecting that the whole floating thing wouldn't really live up to the hype... but oh was I wrong.  It was amazing to feel completely weightless, to "stand" upright in the water without sinking, to be in kilometers-deep water without exerting any effort whatsoever.  I can't wait to go back!

A Cop-Out Post

There is one person in Jordan that I spend infinitely more time with than anyone else.  Lura, another CIEE student, and I not only live in the same house in the same extended host family, but we also have three of the same classes, split taxis regularly, and generally spend our entire Jordanian lives together.  Lucky for me, she is a marvelous human being who puts up with my grumpy morning self and takes my anal retentive tendencies in stride.  In the mere month that we've been in Jordan, we've shared experiences ranging from a getting-to-the-university-on-a-sketchy-microbus-that-randomly-starting-going-backwards-on-the-day-of-our-first-Arabic-test adventure to trying to make it look like our plates are full when my host mom implores us to take more food at dinner.  She just posted an entry in her own study abroad blog that is a much more insightful summary of our last few days than anything I could come up with myself, so shall leave you with a link and her wise words about the our colloquial Arabic class and the LGBT movement in the Middle East.

Surrealism

I have never experienced anything more surreal than doing class readings on Arab identity and American perceptions of Islam and the Middle East while sitting in Amman watching Al Jazeera's Arabic coverage of the celebrations in Egypt with my Jordanian host family, trying to follow the English language news online, and monitoring both my American and Egyptian friends' reactions on Facebook.  My friends' statuses have included everything from "Does it bother anyone else that the political power in Egypt is now in the hands of the military?" to "The power of the people is beautiful" to"we are the champions!! we are the champions!!! we did everything peacefully! long live EGYPT!!"

What a strange day.

Home Sweet Homestay

 It's been a week since I moved in with my host family and while things haven't exactly been crazy (because I have infinitely more free time than I have ever had at AU), it has definitely been an interesting and somewhat humbling experience thus far.  Tomorrow also marks the end of my first week as a student at the University of Jordan (UJ).  I'm not quite sure how to assemble all of the observations/impressions/reflections that are floating around in my head into something cohesive, so here is a list:

1) My host family is truly wonderful.  My host mom, Bashira, has especially made me feel at home (and never, ever let's me go hungry for more than three minutes at a time).  It is, however, really strange to plop down in someone else's home and try to fit into their existing family dynamics and routine while trying not to commit any cultural faux paux.  I've been in new situations before, whether going to camp or college or what-have-you, but each of those times I've been adapting to a new place along with a group of people who are all going through that same process, so living here is completely different from anything I've done before.

View from my bedroom window on my first night

2) The other thing that makes living here really strange is the language barrier.  While my family members can all speak some degree of English, ranging from a little to practically fluent, they always speak in Arabic unless they are addressing me directly.  This is definitely a plus for learning the language (the reason I'm here after all) but, as one of my American classmates put it, makes it feel like I'm living in a foreign language film without subtitles.  Lots of nodding and smiling has been involved.

3) It is cold here, really cold.  But not in the way Wisconsin winters are cold.  Daytime temperatures are hovering in the mid to high 40s, but it has rained every day since I got here, which make the chill feel more penetrating.  Also, the buildings just aren't heated and insulated as well as they are at home, so I never really warm up.  Being this cold is a very new sensation for me.

More from my bedroom window

4) Jordan is the fourth most water poor country in the world and almost always on the verge of a water crisis, so my eco-friendly tendencies have been in heaven here!  Water is never wasted and all of the newer toilets have really awesome dual-flush settings.  Electricity is also really expensive, so all of the power outlets in my room have little switches to turn them on and off so power doesn't drain out when they aren't being used.  SO COOL.

5) My three-year-old host nephew, Ali, speaks amazing English--probably even better than many three-year-olds in the States--and makes my attempts to communicate in Arabic look like a joke.  Seriously, it's a little depressing.

6) I'm constantly surprised by the way certain aspects of Western consumer culture have permeated society here.  Some friends and I went to City Mall last weekend to pick up some necessities and it was like stepping into any suburban shopping mall in the United States, complete with a Gap, movie theater, and food court.

Three-story KFC ad in City Mall

7) The UJ campus is GORGEOUS.  I didn't know so much green could exist in the Middle East.  The agriculture program even grows food right on campus for the cafeteria.  Going to a school with 35,000 students is definitely a big change from comparatively itty-bitty American University.

Early morning on the UJ campus

So far my classes have been going well.  In addition to taking Arabic (both Modern Standard and dialect), I'm taking two classes called "America and the Arabs" and "Islam in the Modern Context."  I'm really excited because I think the content of these courses will dovetail nicely with my experiences in real-world Amman.  Tomorrow, I get the results of my Arabic placement exam and in sha allah (God willing) I did well enough to stay in the advanced level!

Gettin' Orientated

I have officially been in Jordan for over 48 hours.  The past couple of days have been mostly filled with orientation seminars, crash dialect courses, and campus tours (aka not very exciting) and Amman has been getting some much needed rain since we got here.  However, we did get to take a break to see a couple of epic landmarks in the old city of Amman--the Citadel and the Roman Amphitheater--and eat our first non-hotel Middle Eastern lunch (mmm, hummus and baba ghanoush).  For whatever reason, I already feel more comfortable here than I did in Egypt.

Me at the Roman Amphitheater!

One of my goals while I'm here is to take at least one photograph every day.  I have tons of pictures of pyramids and mosques from my trip to Alexandria last summer, but I really wish that I had done a better job recording bits of daily life as well.  So here are my first few photos:

Sunday, January 30th--beautiful, snowy Brooklyn before I left

Monday, January 31st--rainy view from my hotel window

Tuesday, February 1st--The Citadel

Wednesday, February 2--bested for 20JD of phone credit by
the only person I know in this country

Tomorrow afternoon I'm meeting and moving in with my homestay family and then classes begin on Sunday.  Moving in with a strange family that presumably speaks only a little English is a bit nerve-wracking, but, lucky for me, my current roommate in the hotel is living right downstairs with my host mother's sister and I somehow managed to get placed in a house where I will have my own bedroom and bathroom, a maid, and some semblance of internet access.  In any case, it will be an adventure!  For now, yahla bye (my new favorite Arab-gleezy expression)!