Yet Another Culinary Adventure

I have noticed a theme during my time here in Jordan: just when I think I know exactly what to expect or begin to think I've settled into a routine, something happens to disrupt any feeling of confidence I have developed. 

Two days ago when I left to go to the gym, Ojou told me to be back soon because we were having fresh fish for lunch. I'm not the biggest fan of seafood to begin with, but you loyal readers know that I have done my best to keep an open mind thus far. So I returned to be served an entire grilled fish. Eyes, fins, tail, teeth... All of it. I looked at it and it looked back at me, and finally I mustered a "How do I...?" and the ladies answered in unison, "With your hands!". The fish and I continued the staring contest when finally Ojou took control of the situation and started pulling out the bones for me. We ate it with some kind of tahini, lemon and tomato sauce and baba ghanoush, which was really good. I have to admit, it was completely delicious and I may have finally overcome my slight aversion to seafood. I also provided quality lunch time entertainment for the ladies.

Also, last Saturday was Mother's Day. Here in Jordan it's a pretty big deal, which I did not anticipate. I had planned on getting chocolate or flowers for the ladies, but I did not plan on entertaining visitors all day (perfect timing right before midterms week). It's hard to get anything past the them, so I had to be very sly about getting their gift. I told them I was going to the gym because that's the one place they never question me about. I went through quite an ordeal and ended up getting them some really nice Lebanese chocolate wrapped up with pink bows. However when I returned 45 minutes later looking exactly the same as when I left, carrying a bag from the sweets section of the grocery store, they figured me out. But I think they thought it was hilarious that: a. I lied to get them a present and b. my lie was so transparent, because I heard them cackling as they recounted the story multiple times to family and friends.

The following day was their great niece's 3rd birthday party, once again perfectly timed during midterms week. The ladies said I could bring a friend, so I coerced my unsuspecting friend Amani into attending the affair. I didn't know the names of more than half the people there nor did I know their relation to the birthday girl. The adults didn't speak much English or really have an interest in talking to me and the teens were too cool to talk to me. The younger children ran around raising hell, so I was glad to have the company of a fellow American. Things really got weird when one of the teenaged girls started belly dancing on the table. I wish I was joking. I have photos to prove this. Not only did no one else seem to think it was strange, but the adults were cheering her on. This girl and one of her cousins also appeared to have some kind of incestuous flirtation going on, which Amani and I observed with great fascination.

In other news, I had four different Arabic tests this week and I have a take-home exam due Sunday. I also had to give a presentation for my International Relations and Diplomacy in the Middle East class and I have an Intro to Islam exam on Sunday. No one warned me that studying abroad actually involved studying. It's so hard to focus here because there are constantly children in my house and/or the tv is on. There is no desk in my room and there is no other good place to study. And whenever I study Arabic in front of the ladies they hijack it and insist on "helping". 

Tomorrow we are going on a trip called Eastern Desert Castles which should be fun. I had a relaxing day at home today, but I'm ready to get back out and see more of Jordan. Also, for Easter Break I am going to Istanbul with my friends Chris and Santiago, where we will meet up with other friends in our program. Chris also has another friend who lives there who can show us around. We bought our plane tickets this week, so I'm really excited.

P.S. I will never get tired of the trend of shirts with nonsense/inappropriate English words on them. Favorites: 

-(a girl wearing a hijab) You know you want me

-(a guy) Effective 99% of the time when used properly

-(a muscle shirt that my friend Chris bought downtown) Comfortable captain power

-(a guy) Equestrian

-(a guy) Negro (I did a quadruple take when I saw this one)

-(bus driver in Beirut) Man, fashion, power

-(a girl who I know for a fact speaks perfect English, which makes this even weirder) I'm smiling because they haven't found the bodies yet

-(a guy) Gyeorgetown University, plus some random numbers and letters

One final note:I joined one of those websites where you upload photos, but it takes such a long time to add them because all internet here is pretty weak. When I succeed in adding some, I will post the link.

"Americans love being tan, like Barack Obama..."

-Direct quote from Ojou. 

I'm a bad blogger and have yet to post about our excursion to Wadi Rum last weekend, so here goes. We left early Friday morning and after a four hour bus ride, we arrived in Wadi Rum. For those of you who don't know, it's a valley (wadi means valley in Arabic) in sandstone and the biggest one in Jordan. Lawrence of Arabia based his operations there during the Arab Revolt and one of the rocks is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom after his book (see the photo of me sitting with it in the background). A lot of Bedouin tribes live there also. We then had a four hour tour in the backs of pickup trucks and made stops along the way so that we could climb the rocks. It was pretty warm during the day, but as soon as the sun went down it was freezing. After the tour we went to the Bedouin camp where we had a delicious dinner and spent the night. Don't be impressed, it was very comfortable and touristy, but fun nonetheless.

The next day we went on a three hour long camel ride... It was quite a sight since there were over 90 of us. I was really nervous at first but it ended up being a lot of fun and I enjoyed all but about the last half hour. Three hours is maybe too long to ride a camel. After that we had lunch and went home.

This week has been extremely busy. On Tuesday CIEE held a talk about GBLT life in Jordan. The man who spoke is an openly gay advocate for GBLT rights. It was a really cool opportunity to listen and ask questions about something that few people address here. Tuesday was also St. Patrick's Day, so some of us went to an Irish pub and had green beer to celebrate.

This weekend a few of us decided to go to the Dead Sea. It's only about a forty minute bus ride from Amman. We went to a resort and somehow got in for free, minus the cost to rent a towel and locker. We floated around for awhile and then three of us decided to get the mud on our bodies. It's supposed to be really good for your skin, but we did it because it looked cool. You pay some guy with a bucket of mud one dinar and he rubs you down, which, looking back on it, is pretty weird especially for Jordan. I told the ladies about it tonight and they found it wildly inappropriate that a man would touch women like that. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. 

Tonight the ladies and I watched Star Academy, the Arab version of American Idol. The whole cast was singing a song together and I thought the tune was really familiar... Turns out it was "What A Feeling" from Flashdance, translated into Arabic plus hilarious choreography. If it can be found on YouTube, I highly recommend viewing this.

On Sunday the ladies are hosting a birthday party for their great niece, Deena (see photos in a previous post). They have been preparing food for this affair all week long, forced Deena to invite me at least four times per week for the last month, and asked me when my classes finish approximately thirty times. From the sounds of it, this promises to be an epic event. I don't doubt that it will be entertaining with lots of delicious food, but these events are always awkward because I just kind of sit there quietly while no one talks to me. Although at the last one, one of the ladies' other great nieces drew pictures with me which I appreciated.

In other news, my friends and I have decided to go to Istanbul for our ten day long Easter break. I'm SO excited. We might also hit Egypt or Greece, depending on cost and travel time. So this week will be consumed with mid terms and Easter break planning. Next weekend we are going on an excursion entitled "Desert Castles". I have to be honest, I have no idea what it will entail but I'm a sucker for castles of any kind so I signed up.

Okay I tried to add photos but it didn't work... I am going to try and put all my photos on a website so that it is easier to access, because I don't think the Facebook thing worked very well.

Jubilation!

Too much good news for one post, but I must be brief. First, the internet is back! HUZZAH! Second, tomorrow I will be camping in the desert and riding camels. That promises to be hilarious and terrifying since my experience with camels thus far has been less than pleasant. Look forward to photos.

Third: I came home today to "Happy Birthday" on tape playing on repeat. I thought to myself, "I hope that doesn't continue all night" but did not really consider that it might actually be someone's birthday. So I had lunch and was basking in my renewed stolen internet access when I heard guests arriving. I continued putzing around online and I heard more guests coming, which is when I decided that it would be extremely socially unacceptable to remain in my room. Okay fine, the real reason I emerged was because I heard people singing happy birthday and came to investigate the possibility of cake. Well I was right: it was the ladies' niece's birthday and a bunch of family had gathered to celebrate. And there was cake. 

So after cake and such we had Turkish/Arabic coffee, and for those of you who don't know, it's an Arabic tradition to read fortunes in the stuff left at the bottom of coffee cups. Ojou gathered the following from my cup:

-"You have friend, but she is not friend. She hate you. She talk a lot."

-"You know someone old? They are very sick."

-"You are good for love." (I don't know if she meant to be cryptic or if what she saw was just lost in translation)

-"You will get good news from America soon."

I think there was probably more but I don't remember. I will let you know if this all plays out. I have decided that fortune telling is a skill I intend to master before I leave. 

Fourth: In culture club on Wednesday we learned how to belly dance. Let's just say I have a far more promising future in fortune telling.

 

Lebanon: A Long Way From Amman

As my previous post indicated, my internet access is extremely limited as is my time. So I will give an abridged summary of my recent journey to Lebanon and embellish with better descriptions and photos at a later time.

For those of you who don't live in an Islamic kingdom, you may not know that Monday was the Prophet Mohammad's birthday and a national holiday here in Jordan. The weekend here is Friday to Saturday, leaving us only one option: to travel to Lebanon and skip Sunday classes. My friends Patricia and Amani and I left Thursday after classes and got into Beirut around 7pm. I didn't realize how accustomed I had become to Jordan until I visited a completely different place. It's funny to me that I was so culture shocked by a more Western country.

Anyhow, during our stay we chose to experience other parts of Lebanon than just Beirut. Our first full day we went to the American University in Beirut and all three of us fell head over heels in love with the sea-side campus (grad school option?). Not that I don't love Amman, but it made me realize how much I have dearly missed lush greenery. After that we just walked around and had a snack at one a cafe literally right on the water.

The next two days we decided to take day trips to Byblos and the Jeita Grotto, which was apparently almost a wonder of the world, and the Baalbek ruins, located northeast of Beirut in the homeland of Hezbollah. Baalbek actually has two of the largest temples in the Roman Empire (bigger than the ones in Rome), and upon arrival we were offered Hezbollah t-shirts by street vendors. We travelled by bus, and I was shocked to find that the Lebanese bus system is actually less organized than the Jordanian one. They don't even really have stops, you just stand by the side of the road and buses stop for you. We found our way around by asking the extremely kind and friendly locals for directions. It was convenient and easy for the most part, and I really enjoyed seeing the country.

I had assumed that since Beirut is more liberal and Western than Jordan we would blend in more easily, but I was sadly mistaken. If anything, we actually stuck out MORE, and men were more bold in approaching us. On the other hand, people also seemed friendlier and more willing to assist in helping us. And luckily my French skills haven't gone to waste here as I made use of them when Arabic failed (which was often). Most people also seemed to have a decent grasp of English.

Another thing I thought impossible: traffic in Beirut was slightly worse than in Amman. There are somehow less traffic laws and more cars.

I really loved the diversity of architecture in Beirut, which was where the European influence was most evident to me. Our hostel was located within easy walking distance of beautiful downtown and major streets containing the legendary nightlife of Beirut, which we were lucky enough to experience to its fullest. Unfortunately our hostel had recently moved buildings and had not had time to sound proof, and the club directly underneath blasted music until about 9am. Needless to say, it was anything but a restful weekend.

At the moment I must go meet my peer tutor, but I will add photos and perhaps more lengthy descriptions at a later time!

Tragedy Strikes

I returned from Lebanon to find that the stolen internet access in the corner of my room appears to be gone forever. The proportion of this tragedy is such that I felt it deserved its own blogpost. Needless to say, future emails, Skype sessions, photo uploads and posts will be far fewer and further between. Sincerest apologies.

Phamily Photos!

Okay, here are some photos of the ladies and the little girls they look after during the day. I haven't mentioned them much here, but they are at the apartment pretty much all the time. 

Top to bottom: Marina (left) and Margot singing to baby Farah, their niece's daughter and the cutest baby I have ever seen; Deena, the daughter of the ladies' other niece, looking out at the snow this morning; Deena again striking a pose; Deena again striking an emo Myspace pose with Ojou looking on in the background; I just tagged on the last one so you can see Marina a little better and because Farah is so precious.

This video is of Deena busting a move. She was going nuts tonight and never passes up the opportunity to be the center of attention.

Snow Day in the Desert

Oh yes, it happened. Last night all schools in the area were cancelled except UJ. This morning as I sat down for breakfast around 7:15 I saw approximately two snowflakes hit the ground, and I received a phone call informing me that classes were cancelled. None of the snow stuck and seems to have turned into rain. Now I'm spending the afternoon at a restaurant/bookstore/coffee shop/internet cafe with Patricia, Amani and Jeremiah... Clearly preferable to classes.

So as you might have guessed, once again we failed to make the journey to Jerash due to foul weather. It was freezing/pouring rain/hailing all weekend. It feels like we've been cooped up in Amman for the last two weekends and we are itching to get out, so next weekend we're planning on going to Beirut for the 3 day weekend.

Classes are going alright, but the Arabic "test" that I had on Thursday ended up just being an activity. It turns out that our teacher tricked us into studying... Very sly.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was the first meeting of culture club. We had a discussion about traditional marriage and Christian and Muslim Jordanian students were there to share their family traditions. It was shocking to me how common arranged marriages are. There was one girl there who was already married, and she was engaged to her husband before they even saw each other. A couple of other girls said that that is exactly how they plan on getting married, too. Marriage here seems more like a business transaction between families. One girl who talked to us works for CIEE and we all know her, and she almost got married last year. She met the guy and they got along pretty well and so he proposed. They were going to get married but his family wouldn't accept it because she's Syrian and his family would only let him marry a Jordanian or Palestinian. Dowries are also expected for Muslims in an average sum of around 10,000JD. I think arranged marriages are also kind of common for Christians, but not as much. Christians also don't expect dowries. It is also really shameful for Christians and Muslims to marry, because it's seen as leaving the family. One girl there is an American in CIEE and she's been here since last semester and actually met a guy and fell in love, but they can never marry because he's from a very well-known Muslim family. Whenever they go out they have to be really careful to make it look like they're not dating because if anyone who knows his family sees them, it's a big scandal. Note to self: don't fall in love with a Jordanian man. What a bummer, I hope I can resist...

Another thing I've been meaning to mention is the really obvious racism here. A lot of it is directed toward Egyptians who have a lot of service type jobs. I know I've heard comments from my own homestay family about them. People are also pretty racist toward anyone with darker skin. For example, my family gave me a dessert one night with a picture of an African-looking boy on the wrapper. I asked Ojou what it was, and she said it's called "head of a negro". It was basically a marshmallow on a graham cracker covered in chocolate... Delicious and offensive.

Most importantly, in my last post I neglected to mention my mother's birthday. Sincerest apologies!

I have a few photos of the ladies that I will add soon, for those of you who are curious.