Amman: the beginning

I can hardly believe I have been here for two weeks (of six). Time seems to be flying by for better and worse. I am really enjoying the country and becoming really comfortable, while being safe, gallivanting around the city.

I have not done a very good job of keeping up to date on my experiences, but I’ll try to catch up today. Upon my arrival, we searched out food and internet and quickly fell asleep, extremely tired, but excited about our upcoming adventures.

Saturday (June 21^st) the entire group went to breakfast. Ironically, we went to the same falafel place I had been the time before. It has been an experience getting used to eating falafel and hummus for breakfast. After our filling, yet traditional Arabic breakfast we walked through the campus of University of Jordan. On a Saturday, the campus was empty, eerily empty.

Rula, the director of the Women’s Center here in Amman got a bus and took us “around town”. She gave us a whirlwind tour of the city, which is huge-1.8 million people. We drove through the posh areas, which have all the fast food comforts of home. They even have HARDEES! It has been interesting grappling with the fact that the American fast food chains are places for the middle and upper class to eat. As most of you know, I love food and especially ethnic food. I ask everyone I met what is their favorite restaurant and their favorite menu item. I ALWAYS get a response of Burger King, Fuddruckers, or Pizza Hut. I don’t particularly enjoy this answer. I am continuing to work on my…”wow, thanks for the suggestion” face, when I am crushed that I can’t find a good Jordanian restaurant. But, I digress…

The tour was nice to get out and see places, but for a while I had no idea how to get back. This is saying a lot seeing as I have an excellent sense of direction. (This may sound overly confident, but it has proven me well and therefore I have a healthy confidence about it!). The van drove us to downtown, where there were tiny stores and a large busy and crowded market. Rula is great. She is confident and outspoken. She reminds me of my sisters’ godmother, JJ. If JJ had an Arabic twin, it would be Rula. She is always laughing and shares her thoughts! Throughout our exploration of downtown she was giving us a “cultural orientation”. Many of her opinions about what to do and what not to do were shared with our group. The trouble is…most of the Jordanian people speak some, if not very good, English. So as she spoke about not eating food that had sat in the sun, which she said was disgusting, the unsuspecting store owner was crushed as she condemned his business literally in front of him.

This was best seen in front of a perfume store, to which she said “Don’t buy this junk, it’s probably all water anyway!”. HA! This continued on as she bargained her way around the market on behalf of the students. She also wanted us to see East Amman, which is the poverty stricken side of town. It was clearly visible the difference from the other parts of Amman. I did not take pictures of this area out of respect. It just felt very wrong to gawk at impoverished people, while doing nothing about it.

We returned to our residence-Al Amera Hotel Apartments. Yes, they are hotel-apartments. Everyone in Jordan asks, “Which one is it hotel or apartments?”…in fact according to the sign it is both! In reality, it is more of an extended stay hotel suite. My roommate, Carla, and I share a bedroom with two twin beds and a living room/kitchen, as well as our own private bath. Carla and I share an interesting similarity. She went to State for undergrad and UNC for graduate school, while I did the reverse. It has been fun to compare experiences and find that we know a lot of people in common.

Our professor taught me how to make Turkish coffee. We trekked down the street, which means on the side of the road, as there are no sidewalks, for a supposed 15 minute walk. This walk was really 30 minutes. Upon arrival at the roaster to get our Turkish coffee no one was going to buy anything. I decided to buy a small amount, but it was too small to buy so the roaster gave me 100 grams for free! We returned and I learned the very complex (note the sarcasm) process of making Turkish coffee. The best part of the experience was reading the grinds—Just like Harry Potter! I am actually quite skilled in the art of telling fortunes from the residue of grinds.

Well, that was a small update, but more to come later…as I have the day free to catch up on my surprisingly hectic life here in Jordan!