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...

akla! akla!

since i've been here i've been treated to middle eastern dishes on a daily basis. treated is putting it mildly. even after a second helping i'm routinely instructed 'akla! akla!' (eat! eat!). the food is always fresh (the family here doesn't even have a microwave) and flavorful. even after six weeks here i don't think i've had any dish more than twice. here are some of the highlights..

• stuffed kusa. the best translation for kusa would be cucumber, though they're smaller and tastier than any cucumber i've ever had at home. the veggies are hollowed out and filled with rice and spiced ground meat and cooked in a tomato sauce
• dawali. this is a variation on turkish dolma, but smaller and presumably more time-consuming. one of the few dishes i've helped in preparing, dawali requires a full day (at least) to make. ahab, the uncle, told me it was the 'stupidest middle eastern dish' because it takes hours to make and just seconds to eat. it's true enough - each one requires a pinch of rice and meat inside a tightly wrapped grape leaf. it's a tedious process and one that's generally carried out by all the women sitting with trays in front of the tv. but once they're cooked (usually along with the kusa) and served with yogurt no one's complaining. partially because their mouths are all too full.
• molokhia. an egyptian soup consisting principally of spinach (or something very much like spinach). i have to say this dish is not my favorite. perhaps because on wikipedia it was described as 'mucilaginous' (i had to look it up but it's basically what it sounds like - mucus-y), a characterization i would have to agree with.
• maftool. this dishes it one of my favorite. described to me as 'pure palestinian', it's a dish that's made in great quantities and served at big family affairs. the maftool itself is made of cracked wheat, dampened and rolled with flour to make little balls - something like couscous but bigger. usually it's served with chicken, onion and chick peas but i could eat a plate full all by itself. i was told the name means 'twisted' first because of how they make the pearls and then because of how your stomach feels after you eat them. i admit i was pretty full after that second helping.
• labnah. is an interesting mix between cheese and yogurt. as i understand it, labnah is yogurt that has been strained of its whey and usually left in olive oil for days at a time. the result is balls or chunks of something that has the consistency of cheese but tastes like (mediterranean-style) yogurt
• knafeh. this one has to be one of my favorites. just the mention of the name is enough to make me salivate. a traditional palestinian pastry, it's prepared by heating pastry dough and covering it with butter and oil, then spreading on (Nabulshi, from Nablus) cheese and topping that with a sugary syrup and crushed pistachios. basically all of that just means gooey, greasy deliciousness. for a real treat, you can go to arafat or habibeh (the two most famous knafeh shops) that are always packed - even late into the night
• honey cake. another sweet that's made its way here is honey cake. the name might make it sound like the sweetness would be overpowering but in reality it's just the right blend of cake, honey, almond and pistachios. delightful.
• musakhan. when we had this meal i was told not to eat anything all day. after lunch (usually served around 3) i was glad i had listened. this meal is a feast in itself. huge trays come out stacked with taboon (palestinian) bread slathered with fried onions and roasted chickens baked with onions, pine nuts, and all kinds of spices. normally (like most dishes) accompanied with yogurt and eaten with your hands, it makes for a messy, filling meal.
• mansaf. i would be remiss (or worse) if i didn't mention the national dish of jordan. because there are so many foreigners (palestinians mostly) who've settled in jordan the delicacies come from all over. but mansaf is totally jordanian and any jordanian will proudly claim it as the national dish. it consists of lamb cooked for hours in fermented yogurt and served with rice. you'll inevitably be asked if you ate it with your hands or utensils so you might as well just get messy and dig right in.

these are the big dishes that i can recall. but even the simplest dishes are so flavorful that i could eat them over and over. fried zucchini with yogurt, rice and lentils (mjaddrah), stewed tomatoes and garlic with bread, coriander seeds and garlic in olive oil, rice and pine nuts, potatoes and eggs, green beans or okra in a tomato sauce, soup with yellow lentils and lemon. and the list goes on..

then of course there are the snacks, what you might have for 'dinner' (a light meal eaten later, around 9 or 10). one of my favorites is za'atar, a mix of dried spices (oregano, basil, thyme.. who knows what else) served with olive oil and used for dipping. then there's nablus, a salty cheese offset by bread or watermelon. any variety of fresh fruits, homemade pickles.. ah, just thinking of all this makes me sad to leave.

of course i'll try to recreate these dishes when i go home, but somehow i know that they won't taste quite the same coming from my kitchen.

bedouing

in my time here in amman so far i've been lucky enough to enjoy great food and wonderful company on a regular basis. but some of the most memorable moments have been on our little excursions outside the city.

the first of these was to wadi rum, the famous desert where lawrence of arabia traveled (and where the subsequent movie was filmed). i attempted to watch part of the movie (in just 26 parts on youtube) beforehand, but after seeing enough of the landscape to be sufficiently impressed, i gave up grappling with the slow internet. our drive in was largely uneventful, though our bus ride was punctuated by our driver's attempts at forced interaction (we were asked to introduce ourselves with a joke or song).

four hours and several gas stations later, we arrived in the desert. and, wouldn't you know, it was HOT. we were asked to wait in the shade while lunch was prepared and though we were technically in the shade, in covered pavilions resting on cushions, there was no breeze to speak of and cooling off seemed like a rather indistinct possibility. that said, i didn't let the heat stop me from flat-out sprinting when i saw that someone had (ingeniously) brought an american football. after two touchdowns we realized it was just too hot to play and, mercifully, lunch was ready anyway.

the lunch was rather unremarkable. mostly everyone was thirsty. but these bedouins are clever. all the costs of the camp and our stay were included in the price.. except drinks. we were shelling out half JDs left and right for precious bottles of slightly chilled water. what a racket.

after claiming our temporary dwellings (i opted for the house-o'-sticks over the tent. i mean, have you ever slept in a stick house??) we were taken out for the requisite jeep ride through the dunes. i'm not sure why these are consistently referred to as jeep rides, since we were all piled into the back of pickup trucks. no matter, being in the open air was much better. we held on to the sides of the truck as we were flung and jostled about, picking up speed as we took each turn and cruising down the dunes themselves. we were let out at various strategic points to run, jump and roll down the dunes, have some tea, or buy a keffiyah. the only casualties (apart from the guy who got sick after running up a sand dune) were several cameras, unfortunately including mine. (side note: turned out to be a software problem that just happened to coincide with lots of wind and sand and some beautiful landscapes).

back at the camp we were left to our devices, which for most of us meant either trying to stay cool or climbing up some rocks to see the sunset. the sunset wasn’t particularly spectacular (they aren’t usually here; an absence of clouds tends to have that effect) but after the sun went behind the farthest cliff we managed to find some camels for a quick ride back down the hill.

as it grew darker and we waited for dinner, people started to gather around the circle in the center of the camp. music started up, first just debka (a traditional dance involving holding hands and sticking a foot out intermittently, which frankly i find rather dull), then gearing up to some faster paced arabic music (read: bellydancing). we had great fun dancing and dancing and hardly noticed when dinner was finally ready, around 9. after another forgettable meal we headed out past the lights of the camp to watch the stars. they were as numerous as you might imagine in the middle of the desert. lying on the sand i saw no fewer than five shooting stars. we made the most of our night there, staying up until the sky started brightening, and then catching a few winks before breakfast the next morning.

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.