Church, Cocktails, and a Flood

This second week of classes was significantly better than last week and I’m starting to get in the everyday routine. I leave the house around 8:30 and I return around 6 if I’m eating dinner at home or sometime before 10 if I’m not, such as last night when 11 of us went to Buffalo Wings & Rings (Jordan’s version of Buffalo Wild Wings) to celebrate someone’s 21^st birthday. Other than that, I come home, do homework, and we have our evening tea around 9-10pm.

Also now part of my weekly routine is going to church (in Arabic of course). Every Saturday at 7pm I take a taxi to St. Mary’s of Nazareth. The church is pretty small (about the size of Our Lady of the Lakes in Laconia, NH) and it’s packed. Literally standing room only. I was able to get a seat the first week but last week I arrived too late and had to stand. Mass is both easy and difficult to follow. It’s easy, because I know what is supposed to be happening. It’s hard because I can’t quite hear/understand what they’re saying. However, my older host sister told me if I got there early, I can maybe talk with the priest and he can give me a copy of the mass and prayers written out. So that’s what I’m hoping to do this week so I can start learning the Our Father in Arabic! At our church, there are 7 alter boys, the priest, and a deacon. When it’s time for the Eucharist, everyone receives it by mouth and the alter boys hold a gold plate underneath your mouth as you’re receiving communion so it doesn’t drop on the floor. Also, there is no procession down the middle aisle at the end of the mass. As soon as the closing hymn starts, everyone leaves. In fact, I’d estimate half the church leaves after communion. But overall, everyone is really friendly and I like it.

Now some fun stories from this past week:

1) I met with my peer tutor and her friend yesterday and they asked me if I wanted to get a cocktail. They both wear hijabs and I know alcohol is against Islamic law, but I said yes to see what it would entail. Turns out, in Jordan, a cocktail means a fruit smoothie! It was only a dinar ($1.40) and quite delicious.

My peer tutor, Myassar (right), and her friend, Oreib (middle)

2) This past Tuesday I came home and noticed the dining room table had a tablecloth, nice china, a vegetable platter and a pitcher of water. Although no one said anything, I assumed people were coming over. I went to my room to start doing homework and to FaceTime and my little sister comes in and says (in English) that my host dad says I should stay in the room and not come out. So, for three and a half hours, I sat in my room feeling like Harry Potter and wondering why I was banished to my room. Finally, at 11:30, one of my older sisters comes in and says there’s food on the kitchen table that I can eat. I asked her why I was banned and she said they had people over from church and the ones they didn’t know as well had left (my dad had personally taken me to church so I was still a little confused why I had to hide). Anyway, I came out and I said hi to people that I’ve already met. After they left, I went into the kitchen to get food. My older sister asked my parents why they said I had to stay in my room and they were so confused. Apparently my little sister misunderstood them! I was quite relieved.

3) I have never had an appreciation for the US drain system until yesterday when it rained. In Amman, when it rains, it floods. Amman is built on 8 hills/mountains so water just goes everywhere. I didn’t know it was going to rain yesterday and made the mistake of wearing flats. HUGE MISTAKE. To get to the coffee shop, I was holding up my pants and ankle-deep in gushing water. My shoes are still drying. Today I was smart and wore boots.

4) Among 21 hours of Arabic instruction per week, homework, and talking with my peer tutor, I can definitely see my language skills improving. Yesterday I talked with my peer tutor and her friend for two hours and then today I had to meet with the director of the language program for tea/coffee (he meets with everyone individually just to chat). Although I was really nervous because he’s in charge of the whole program, I could actually understand him and we talked for an hour. That’s something I was not anywhere near two weeks ago.

5) The other day, the Barcelona football (soccer) game was on and I thought the announcer was speaking in Spanish. Then I realized he was speaking in Arabic. Not sure if that meant I felt I could understand it as well as Spanish or that I'm starting to think Arabic sounds like Spanish. 

Other random things:

- After two weeks in the gym, I’m already back in shape and bored of doing cardio. I’m trying to incorporate more CrossFit into my workout to change it up. 

- The Jacuzzi at the gym is really nice, especially when it’s cold and rainy outside. 

- Pancake is still pancake in Arabic. My host mom makes good chocolate chip pancakes.

- UJ (University of Jordan) doesn't have toilet paper in the bathrooms. You need to bring your own.

- Napkins don't exist in Amman. People either don't use them, use tissues, or use paper towels. The only place I've seen napkins is at restaurants, and even then they don't always have them.

Classes, Elections and Hot Springs Oh My!

I've now been here in Amman for two weeks and I have yet to write on anything about what I'm actually doing as time goes on. This post, although a bit long, will catch you up on my life.

 I'm taking four classes this semester (all in Arabic): Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), colloquial (known as amiyya), a research and writing class, and then I have one elective, History of Jordan. My MSA class was a complete nightmare the first day. Luckily, I found out that no one really understood what was going on in the class either so it was okay. The second time I had that class it was a thousand times better. We did presentations on the elections (which I'll discuss in a bit) and then a couple exercises. My colloquial class is a blast, mainly because the professor is awesome. We have a review quiz every Sunday, but I don't think the class will be too hard. My research class is taught by the same awesome professor, which is really good because research classes can be awful if you don't have a good professor (people at AU, you can attest to this). By the end of the semester, we have to write a 20 page paper. I think mine is going to be on women in sports in Jordan, in particular, the contrast between Christian and Muslim girls and sports. Finally, my history class seems pretty standard. We'll cover a lot of different topics and I also have to write a 20 page paper for that class and give a presentation at the end. I'm hoping to write about the Jordanian intelligence/security services, but if that idea is shot down then I'm going to write about the limitations of the Jordanian press.

Elections.
The Jordanian elections were this past Wednesday and the Prophet's birthday was this past Thursday so we didn't have any classes and had a four day weekend instead (Note: the King changed the Prophet's birthday to the previous Sunday the Thursday prior but we kept our original schedule). What's happening in Jordan is that many Islamic groups believe the King has too much power and that he should transfer some of his power to parliament. To show their disdain and opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, along with 4 other political parties, boycotted the elections. So, there have been protests and we basically had to avoid downtown this entire week due to protests. There was also a burning car, but it remains to be seen whether that was in conjunction with the elections (Note: the Muslim Brotherhood has been a peaceful part of Jordanian politics for a long time. Despite the boycott, they remain peaceful).

Now, because of this lovely four day weekend, almost everyone in our program was making plans to travel. Some people went to Jerusalem, some went to Aqaba and I went to Madaba and the Hammammat Ma'in (Ma'in Hot Springs) with three other girls (Madaba is only about a 30 minute bus ride away so this was just a day trip). Madaba has some pretty cool history so we stopped there for a couple hours to explore old churches, archaeological ruins, etc.

St. George's Greek Orthodox Church, Madaba

It was extremely ornate: I learned that students from the Mosaic school came to build and design this church. The tile on the floor and the mosaics on the wall were astounding, especially once you realize it was all done by hand!

After Madaba, we taxied to the Ma'in Hot Springs, about a twenty minute drive away. Once you leave the city, you pass farms, some nice homes, and then the windy road that leads you towards the Dead Sea and the Hot Springs. This was one of the views. In the distance is the Dead Sea and Israel.

Finally, we reached the Hot Springs and due to some convincing and my friend's iNext insurance card that said she was a student at UJ, we got in for the price of a local ($7 cheaper than tourist price). We got access to the 3 waterfalls (family, public, and women's), the Roman Bath and picnic area. Below are two of the waterfalls. Note the difference between the women's waterfall (left) and the public waterfall (right). 

Nonetheless, we met some great women at the women's waterfall. They even offered us lunch, which was excellent because only one of us had brought a sandwich. Afterwards we made our way over to the public waterfall that was amazing. It even has a cave in the rocks. Unfortunately, the cave is a guys club and it's not a good idea to go in if you're a woman, but it looked cool. And the water was so warm it was amazing. I stood underneath the falls just being completely drenched and it was quite relaxing. Definitely worth it. By the time we got back to Madaba to catch the bus back to Amman, we were all exhausted. Happy, but exhausted.

(Photo cred goes to our great taxi driver)

FOOD

I’ve been holding off posting about food because I wanted to accumulate photos so you could see what I’m trying to describe. Overall, the food here is really good! A typical meal consists of meat, rice, veggies and pita bread. Jordanians appear to love olives, but they taste different than olives in the US. My host family loves green olives in particular, which is a shame because I’m not a huge fan. Pita bread and hummus are mumtastic as we would say in Arab-english. I've also had some really good Shawarma  here and it's quite inexpensive ($2.26). 

Every evening, I come home from classes and I am served dinner (which they call lunch). This can be anytime between the hours of 4 and 7. Then, we have tea and cookies around 10-11pm, while we watch TV. The first night I was with my host family, I was served second dinner around 11pm, but that seems to be a rare occurrence. Some of the food I've had is below. Enjoy!

Breakfast at the Landmark Hotel in Amman. Apricots, peaches, pastry, fried cheese, sausage, cucumbers, and cheese.

Lunch in Amman. The appetizers. Jordanians love to feed you lots and lots of food. Also, a lot of things have sumac on them. Thankfully, I'm not allergic!

This is called Labeh (spelling?). It's made from milk and cooked on the stove. My family adds cinnamon and coconut to it and you eat it with a spoon out of a mug.

McDonald's in Amman. I tried the McArabia sandwich. It's chicken, lettuce, onions in pita bread. Pretty good!

KFC in Amman. I think this may have been the first time I've ever been to a KFC. I enjoyed my chicken wrap.

I've had this for the past three nights for dinner. It's rice, lamb, nuts, peas, and tomatoes cooked inside a thin tortilla-like bread. Really good.

Social Norms and Observations

In Jordan, there are many unwritten social laws which you must follow. Amman is much more liberal than the rest of the country so keep that in mind when reading these. Amman is pretty good compared with other cities in Jordan.

1.     Women must sit in the back seat of the taxi.

2.     Men must sit in the front next to the driver. To not do so would be a sign of disrespect.

3.     Pedestrians do not have the right of way. Ever. I’ve only been here a little over a week and cannot even tell you how many times I’ve almost been run over.

4.     Having said that, if you wish to cross the street, it is possible to motion for the cars to slow down. This only works if you are male. Cars will ignore you if you’re female. (Today I tried to cross a busy street with 2 other girls. A guy on the opposite side of the street saw we were having problems and got the cars to stop for us)

5.     Women must be covered from ankles to shoulders basically. Short sleeves are okay but rare (from what I’ve seen). Shorts are not okay.

6.     You cannot go outside with your hair wet. If you do, it means you just had sex (which is forbidden and shameful for you and your family). This is exceedingly difficult if you shower at a gym, like I do.

7.     Women should not look at males they don’t know in the face (such as if you’re walking along a street). Sunglasses are a really good idea.

8.     You should not seek out friends of the opposite gender. In fact, you can really only be friends if you were introduced by a mutual friend.

9.     Politics, religion, and sex are forbidden topics. Jordanians love to talk about politics of other countries, but not their own. Religion is usually an okay topic if you’re close with the person.
10. A woman cannot sit next to a man on a bus. The guy that collects money will try to arrange people so that doesn't happen but if he doesn't then you're stuck standing (hence, why I have not tried the public bus system yet).

Ok, now some fun facts and observations I’ve made so far:

1.     It is possible to turn on the TV and watch camels race (like horse racing). It’s a thing.

2.     The government’s hours are from 8:30-3PM so a lot of places close at 3, which can be a bother.

3.     For a country where a significant portion of the women keep their hair covered, I have never seen so many shampoo/conditioner commercials on TV.

4.     Jordanians love TV. It is common for the TV to be on more than 6 hours a day. Easy.

5.     Everyone watches the same two Turkish soap operas that are on every night from 8-10 (my classmates and I can already discuss them because our families watch them religiously).

6.     The bottoms of the trees on my university campus are painted white because of insects.

7.     Amman is quite dirty. There’s a layer of dust/dirt on everything.

8.     FOOD. Food is great. I’m going to do a separate post on food.

9.     Amman is founded on 8 mountains/hills.

10.  It is possible to see palm trees and pine trees in the same stretch of land.

11.  Every shop/restaurant prefers small bills. I was in McDonald’s and tried to pay for a 3.40JD meal with a 10JD bill and the cashier asked me if I had anything smaller. Some places will even ask you for 1JD bills if you try to pay with a 5JD bill (The Jordanian Diner (JD) comes in 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50).

12.  There is no such thing as “unlimited” for phone or internet. You either get a SIM card for your phone worth a certain amount of money or you pay for a certain amount of GB per month for internet.

13.  Water is scarce and is delivered once a week to the home. Do not drink the water.
14. If you hear an ice cream truck sound, it is not ice cream. It's a gas truck. Here, gas isn't delivered to your house every month. You buy tanks of gas for 10JD (about $14).
15. Houses aren't heated. The walls are really thick to keep the heat out in the summer, but this also makes them very cold in the winter. We have a space heater, but it really only works if you're sitting 2 feet away. I wear thermo under armour to bed to stay warm and that's pretty good.
16. Toilet paper does not go in the toilet. You must throw it away. The pipes can't handle it.

That’s all I got for now. More will be added as the semester progresses.

Just Barely

I am officially in the program! After taking the super difficult long placement exam yesterday, I was officially accepted into the program. They told me I was on the border but just made it. So I know this semester will definitely be a challenge, but I think I’ll have plenty of time for studying because when I’m home at night all we do is watch TV. Being accepted into the program also means I have now signed the language pledge to only speak in Arabic. This is the hardest at home because my host brother and sister prefer to speak in English. I also met my peer tutor today – she’s really nice. A bit hard to understand because I’m not used to the speed of everyday conversation but she doesn’t mind repeating things or explaining them in a different way when I don’t understand.

It’s the weekend now because Friday is the holy day instead of Sunday. I live near a mosque and woke up this morning for the call to prayer because it’s quite loud. I don’t know what tomorrow will sound like – I assume it’s longer? I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait and see. In our orientation, they told us that families usually hang out together on the weekend. I asked my host brother what they do and he said sometimes the parents go to visit the grandparents but other than that all the siblings just hang out with friends and everyone does their own thing. I’m thinking of going to the gym maybe and then hanging out with other people from my program. My family told me I can shower about twice a week, so the gym membership is partially to work out but mainly so I can take a shower more often.

I’m still in the search for internet – I went today to different companies to see which would be the least expensive, most coverage, etc. I feel bad using my family’s internet because unlimited doesn’t exist here. Everyone’s on a data plan and I don’t know how much theirs is. I don’t want to use it all up, especially since I want to FaceTime people. Getting my own internet is also good because I’ll have it everywhere. It’s a USB stick that you put in your computer. And according to another girl in the program, you can open up the network so I can put my iPod on it as well.

I took the taxi yesterday and today to the university. Yesterday morning, I had the best experience: I could see the meter, the driver’s taxi license was easily visible and we took the route that Google Maps told me I should go. Yesterday afternoon the driver stopped for gas on the way (I checked his gauge – he was low) but I’m also sure that you pay by the seconds/minute so I got a little ripped off. This morning I carpooled with another girl who lives near me and the driver asked us for our numbers – we politely refused. And coming home, the driver asked me a question, I think it was which way I wanted him to go or which street he should take and I had no idea how to tell him so I just said the street where I wanted to go (he seemed exasperated when I told him since I wasn’t really answering his question) but I got there without overpaying so I considered it a success.