A Bit About Amman

Hey Everybody,

In this post, I'm going to talk a little bit about the areas of Amman that I spend my time in. First, though a general overview of the city. Amman's urban plan is unlike anything I've ever seen. It has 7 main circles (called 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc) in addition to a few other circles (Abdoun, Medina, etc). It is divided into East and Western Amman, with the Eastern part being more culturally Arab and the Western part being more culturally western (and wealthy).

I want to draw a comparison between a very wealthy and very not-wealthy area by describing the neighborhood in which I go to school and the one in which I live. I go to school in Abdoun, and I live in Duar Medina.

Abdoun

Abdoun is one of the richest neighborhoods in Amman. The streets and sidewalks are nicely paved, there is no garbage on the streets, the majority of people we run into speak english. My school is located here.  My school is right across the street from the British embassy, next to the Venezuelan one and kitty corner from the Egyptian one; the Saudi, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, and Canadian ones are also on the street with our school. They all have armed guards out front and signs that say don’t take pictures, but most of them are in a large house. The American embassy is a five minute drive away, takes up a full city block, and just looks like an epic fortress. From the inside, it's just plain old epic (it's the only one I've been in thus far). 

As far as the houses in the area, they are insane. While there is definitely some oil and royal money in the area, the majority of the money in Abdoun is diplomatic money. Abdoun has houses that could blend into Beverly Hills and are worth as much money as SF’s Pacific Heights. Every car in the area is a Benz, Lexus, Auti, Ferrari, etc. Occasionally, you’ll see the poor man’s car—a Prius.

Culturally, Abdoun is also very separate from the rest of Amman. In the rest of the city, there is at least one mosque every 3-5 blocks. In Abdoun, there is only one. This means that all of the non-religious, wealthy diplomats can go about having their huge boozy parties without religious Muslims getting in their way. All of the swanky clubs in Jordan are in Abdoun. 

Duar Medina

My family is a lower-middle class family that lives in an area filled with other lower-middle class families. Duar Medina feels as not wealthy as Abdoun feels wealthy. The streets are filled with beaten up cars filled with more people than clown-mobiles; litter lines the streets; food and snacks cost about half as much as they do in Abdoun. 

My family spends a lot of time in a Park known as sports city, and I wish I could do an adequate job of explaining this place to you. On nice nights, people bring food and sit on the curbs of an unlit road while cars zip through it at a million miles per hour. People bike and roller blade (never with helmets), and others sit and smoke hookah. People go walking, running, etc. in every type of clothing, ranging from short running shorts to hijabs. If I didn't go there with my family all the time, I would think it's the sketchiest place on earth. Having said that, I've gone running there alone, and as my family predicted, nothing happened. 

When I walk around the Medina area, especially in the immediate area around my house, I am the only white person around, and I get stared at a lot. However, people that I pass while walking to go to school have begun to recognize me, so now they smile and say Sabah al Chair (good morning) instead of giving me an angry death stare. 

Conclusion

Like every other major city in the world, Amman has areas that have more money and areas with less, and I am lucky that I get to immerse myself in both of those worlds. Some of my friends live in very wealthy areas with maids, their own rooms, and the ability to take an unlimited number of hot showers per week. I live in a home where I share a room, get two showers per week (don't get me started), where the idea of a maid is laughable. 

And yet, the more I talk to people staying with different types of families, the more and more I see the trend that the less people have, the more they are willing to give. Some of my friends have their own rooms, bathrooms, maids, etc, but their families never eat dinner together. I will take sharing a small room with a loving family over that any day. 

That's all for now, and as always, if you have any questions, let me know,

B

Let Me Wash My Dishes

Hi Everyone,

Today was a weird day. For the first time being since getting here, I was scolded by my mother.

Here's the story: I got home at 7:30ish after doing some work with friends. I put down my things, and within 30 seconds there was a plate of more food than I would ever dream of eating on the table waiting for me. I ate alone as my family and already eaten, and when I finished, I did what normal people do: I walked into the kitchen and washed my plate. She was watching TV at the time where this horrible transgression occurred, but she got up from watching her show in order to come into the kitchen and tell me that I do not have to do that. Not only that I do not--that I SHOULD NOT. I should add that tonight was the first time I even tried to wash my own plate. My mom gets uncomfortable when I clear too many dishes.

Like every other human, I don't like cleaning. Consequently, I shouldn't complain that I don't have to do so here. However, it feels weird to not be allowed to. I (sort of) understand why some of my male friends aren't allowed to clean their dishes (traditional society, a kitchen is a woman's place, make me a sammich), but as a resident of the house, I want to help.

But I'd rather keep Mama happy, so I guess I will continue to not do my dishes...

A Day in the Life

Hi Everyone,

I've been in Amman for about 3 weeks now, and I'm definitely settling in. My arabic is shockingly good given the tiny amount of experience I have, so much so that I'm moving from level 1 to level 2 today. Wish me luck--I'm going to need it.

My family is amazing. They force feed me amazing food, help me with my homework, keep me laughing all the time (especially my little brothers), and appreciate the fact that I can help them with their english homework. I have value.

During the week (Sunday through Thursday), I have school. This means I do the following:

I get up in the morning, get dressed, and go into the dining area. My family leaves out a breakfast consisting of pita, zatar, olive oil, and some combination of cheese, yogurt, meat, and the homemade jam I brought them from Oakland. I then leave the house to meet a friend from my program at the circle to get a cab to school. Walking to the circle is an experience every day, as crossing the street is always a near death experience. There are no stop signs or stop lights, and the traffic police that try to keep the cars from going crazy are generally very passive. You have to cross the street in a way that both is assertive and not suicidal. I haven't died yet; inshallah, I won't

During the daily cab ride, I see the transition from the less affluent part of Amman in which I live (East Amman) into the wealthy West Amman neighborhood of Abdoun where I go to school. I study across the street from the British Embassy. It's the area where all the diplomats live, and consequently, all of the cars on the street are Ferraris, BMWs, Audis, etc. The culture shock is hysterical, especially because some of my peers at SIT live with families that are associated with this more wealthy culture. One friend can see the palace from his bedroom, another lives with a high up guy in the secret police, etc. To say the least, I don't get that.

Once at school, I have 3 hours of Arabic classes, broken down into spoken and formal language. The formal language is the same throughout the whole arab world, and newspapers, TV news stations, etc all use it. However, on the street no one uses it because it sounds like Shakespearean english. Instead, people use the local dialect, which differs by country. It's really confusing to learn two languages at once, especially when no one actually speaks one of them and you get laughed at whenever you use it.

The other classes I take consist of research methods and various guest speakers that come in to speak about issues in the Arab world. They are super interesting, but I've been typing forever and am not in the mood to talk about them now.

After school, I hang out and do work with peers, get coffee, sometimes get a beer (which is SUPER haram with my family), see things, or just go home and hang out with my family. Every day is different, but I still feel like I have a pretty good routine.

That's all for now!
B

I Hate Taxi Drivers

Hi Everyone,

It's been about a week since I last checked in, and although a lot has happened, I don't really want to go into specific things. Instead, I want to talk about Taxi culture in Amman. Jordan has a very big car culture, but we non-driving Americans don't drive. Given the lack of safety on these roads, nor would we want to.

Consequently, we take taxis everywhere we go.

Taxis here are cheap, but the meter goes by time not distance. Thus, drivers have no incentive to go quickly. As soon as they realize I'm an American with no Arabic, they decide to take me on driving tours of Amman. It's frustrating as hell. I've learned to accept it though, because honestly, I have no other choice.

You should also know about gender norms in taxis. Jordanian culture is big about protecting women, so whenever taxis pick up students, men sit in the front seat and women sit in the back. If a driver decides to get touchy feely (which does in fact happen), he does it with a big strong man, not a weak, tender, vulnerable little woman (AKA me). When traveling in a group of three woman, culturally, it is more appropriate to crowd into the backseat than to have one girl sit in the front.

Furthermore, when just one man and one woman are traveling together, it assumed that they are married, and thus, it is very haram for any man to talk to that woman. Every morning, I share a cab to school with my male friend Christian, and no cab drivers talk to me. Whenever I initiate a conversation, the driver gets really confused, and often really creepy.

Thankfully, I have the backseat to protect me.

That's all for now,
Becca

Jordan 101

Hey Everyone,

I've been in Jordan for nearly two weeks, and I've learned a huge amount about both the culture and the language. I can read and write Arabic, understand and speak basic sentences, and generally get around with (english speaking) cab drivers. In this post, though, I want to give a general overview of Jordan as a country to help give you an idea of some of the things going on here at any given time.

Jordan is one of the only countries in the world that was formed without a war. This reality means that the people are not inherently hostile toward any of their neighbors, including the non-Muslim country to the west with whom the king signed a peace treaty in 1994. Jordanians pride themselves on how safe Jordan is, how advanced Jordan is, and how free Jordanians are, especially compared to their neighbors.

Jordanians are open and kind, with a strong history of helping her Arab and Muslim brothers in times of need. This means that Jordan is home to many refugees and migrant workers. Jordan has 6 million citizens, half of whom are decendents from Palestinian refugees, in addition to roughly:

• 150 - 700,000 Iraqi refugees 
• 1.3 million Syrian refugees (including over 250,000 in one camp on the Northern border)
• 30,000 Lebanese refugees
• 25,000 Libyan refugees
• 1 million Egyptian migrant workers

And, Jordan is the third most water scarce country in the entire world. 

Regarding religion, Jordan is 94% Sunni Muslim and 6% Christian. 

I'm not going to go into Jordanian viewpoints on Syria at the moment, but I will say that the big fear is that the sectarian violence will spill over and cause unrest in Jordan. In addition to the fact that Syrians are willing to work for lower wages than Jordanians, causing many Jordanians to be out of work. The biggest concern, though, is having enough water for all of these people that do not have citizenship (and even for those that do).

I will talk more about these various themes throughout the semester, but that's all for now. 

Tonight, I'm going to an Arab wedding, and I have no idea what I'm going to experience. I'll make sure to keep everyone posted. 

Best,

B

Crazy Times in Amman

Hi Everyone,

I've been in Jordan for less than a week, and I already feel like I have enough stories to tell for a short novel. This post will be long, but I promise the stories are good. They involve a car crash, scandalous Muslim women, and an arrest. Yes, I'm safe.

First off, members of the tribe, happy new year.

Second, I have met my host family, and they are wonderful. I am living with my parents (Mama and Baba), my 20 year old sister, Fatoum, (with whom I share a room), and two younger brothers, Ahmed and Rashid. They speak a bit of English, and I speak zero Arabic, so I have spent a lot of time silently, with no idea what is going on. It's OK though. I start learning Arabic tomorrow. In the mean time, though, I'm smiling and nodding, well aware that everyone is laughing at me perpetually. It's all good.

Yesterday was crazy. My host family and I had a picnic dinner at a park near the house (called Sports City), and afterwards I took a walk with my sister. At one point, she pulled me behind some bushes in a secluded area, and her friend Mahmud joined us. She shook his hand, which surprised me, because Muslim women don't normally make any sort of physical contact with men that aren't directly related to them (father, brother, son, husband). He asked if we wanted to go with him to drink coffee, and she said she could not, because her mother would kill her for being out with a boy. Ultimately, he and I convinced her that it would be OK--it was just coffee.

We went to the top floor of a nearby shopping center and ordered drinks. It turns out that Mahmud is a dentist from Bagdad who is traveling through Jordan before going to Egypt to finish school. His english was perfect because he had grown up learning the sciences completely in English. I was relieved, and happy to be able to communicate. He told me that even after the war, Iraqi people have no problems with Americans, but rather, only with our government. He also said that normal Iraqis hate al Quaeda and the other Terrorists as much as we do, because they give the good Arab people a bad name.

As I watched my host sister and him interact, I noticed that they made much more eye contact than we do in the west. I think partially, this is because she wears a hijab (head scarf). Pretty much everything but her face is covered, so he looked directly into her eyes. It was very cute. They were flirty and giddy, and he kept whispering things into her ear, making her smile. By the time we left, my sister and he were holding hands walking down the street, and she had sworn me to secrecy. Oops...

We left the mall to walk back to the park to meet her family, and within a minute, we watched two cars barrel into each other on the street. Mahmoud, and every other Arab man in the vicinity ran to the two cars and tried to break up the fistfight that had started between the drivers. I was fascinated, but my sister wanted to go. Mahmoud came back, and we walked away. I wasn't sure how to react to the fact that they were holding hands, because I know that in Muslim culture, that intimacy suggests that they are very much together. I didn't want to get in their way, so I just walked behind them, letting them chatter.

When we got back to the park, she and Mahmoud hugged goodbye. It doesn't sound like a big deal to us from the west, but this much contact suggests a lot. As he walked away, she was quite distressed. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have much time to cope with these emotions, because we had to meet up with her family.

After about a half hour of sitting with her family, pretending as if she and I had gotten coffee alone, we saw sirens blaring in the parking lot. We brought down our chairs and watched as a man climbed up a stadium light (he wound up about 200 feet off the ground). Firemen tried to go up, and as they came up to rescue him, he climbed up higher and higher. Eventually, after a half hour or so, he came down and was arrested in front of the 200 person crowd that had gathered at the scene. My family then piled into the car, drove home, and went to bed.

This was all last night, on my first full day with my family. I don't really know how it could get much more exciting from here, but to say the least, I will learn a lot this semester. Classes start tomorrow, and I am now at the program building with some of my american friends pretending to do schoolwork, relieved to be speaking English.

I will post more about cultural things later, but this story was too good not to share when it was still fresh.

Til Next Time,
B

I'm Here!!!

Hey Everyone!

I've arrived in Amman, and so far it's awesome. The people on my program seem great, I'm one of three people that knows zero Arabic, and I'm excited to learn it more. While I was on the plane, I journaled a bit, and I'm going to share my delirious rambling with you now.

Be in touch!

Becca

On the Plane to Jordan

It just turned from September 1 to 2, and I’m in the air flying to Amman, Jordan. Aside from the lack of air conditioning aboard, the flight is uneventful.

·      Seeing the different ways in which people are dressed, especially the women. The variations of headscarves and modest outfits are fascinating. There are women that are showing only their eyes with tight jeans, high heels, and a super trendy scarf covering hair; there are women wearing full burkas, laughing and giggling with their friends; there are women that are clearly Arab dressed with no form of headscarf or anything. No one seems to care what anybody does.

·      In addition to being able to listen to CDs in English or Arabic, on Royal Jordanian, you can listen to recitations of the Holy Quran. I haven’t listened to it, but I have watched an episode of Friends, a full Emile Sandé concert, and highlights from the 2008 Wimbledon Match between Federer and Nadal. So much for utilizing my time.

·      Announcements are made in Arabic, and I have no idea what is going on. There are a few words that stick out: Amman, Ordan (Jordan in Arabic), and—oh wait, that’s all I recognize for now. That will change, though, as I’m learning some basic words. Here are some ones that I have learned and remembered. I could be wrong on any or all of them:

o   Shukran – thank you

o   Ensha’allah – god willing/hopefully

o   Marhaban – hello

o   Habibi – it means a million things, but it’s a term of endearment that can be likened to a combination of sweetie, my love, my bro/dude, my friend, etc. I like the way it rolls off the tongue and plan on using it often—with a smile of course.

o   Masmech – what is your name?

o   Ismee Becca – my name is Becca

o   Ana – I/me

o   Anta – you (male)

o   Anti – you (female)

o   Nachnu – us/we

o   Morning – sabah

o   Night - mabah

·      Written Arabic is overwhelming, but as of now, I’ve learned four letters. Unfortunately, though, each letter looks different depending on its position in the word (at the beginning, middle, or end). I’m looking through a newspaper that my friend Cami picked up and picking out those four letters. My life is really exciting right now…

We are supposed to land in about 7 hours, and as of now, I am feeling a mix of nerves, excitement, anxiety, and exhaustion. I’m going to try to go to sleep, but next time I write, I will be in Amman!!!

Fast forward a few hours

• I wasn’t going to write again until arrival, but I got bored. According to the big screen in front of us, we have 2 hours left and are currently at 39,000 feet, flying at nearly 600 mph over Italy. I left my house in Oakland almost exactly 24 hours ago, and at this point, I just want to get there. Here are a few more random things going through my head.
• ·      The Jordanian flight map shows Sharm al Sheik and the Kaaba as two landmarks. This fact reminds me that Jordan is, in fact, a Muslim country, and for the next four months, I will be experiencing life on the Muslim Calendar. I’m really excited to live a different religion in a different place. Islam is a beautiful yet misunderstood religion, and I’m stoked to learn more about it.
• ·      The food had no hummus or other cliché Middle Eastern staples, but it was legitimately delicious. Good job Royal Jordanian! Both the chicken and potatoes were moist and flavorful, they served cheesecake, and they topped it off with warm tea. I’m excited for the food as much as anything else.  
• ·      I kid you not, but as soon as I finished writing that sentence, a flight attendant came by and passed out a breakfast that reminded me that I am, in fact, still on a plane. I now give a slightly less emphatic plug for Royal Jordanian food. Mom, thanks for packing me snacks.
• ·      I wish I had brought a toothbrush and some deodorant on the plane. I feel gross and want a shower.
• ·      I’ve learned a few more Arabic letters, and gotten even more overwhelmed by the sheer number of sounds in the Arabic language. There are two t sounds, two d sounds, two A sounds (a regular one and a super throaty one), three h sounds (a soft h, an h that sounds like fogging up your glasses, and a ch sound). The first page of the learning to read textbook has an exercise that tries to get us to hear the subtle differences between these letters, and I’m not getting it quite yet. Having said that, as I listen to people around me speaking in Arabic, I can’t help but notice that it’s a really beautiful language.
• ·      As I stood in line waiting for the bathroom, I noticed that there were literally bins on the wall for infants. For those of you who know how creepy I am about babies, you know how happy this made me. Also, I have yet to hear a baby cry.
• ·      Going back to the point about head scarves, the woman across the isle from us just asked for a mirror so that she could redo her head scarf. While before she had a bit of hair showing, she adjusted it so that now all of her hair (including the little pieces in the front) are covered by a black cloth. Watching her tie the scarf looks like watching men tie a tie—something very precise yet completely normal. I am curious what the modesty rules are about showing hair, because at one point, she did take the whole thing off so she could redo it.
• ·      As we approach Amman (we are now over the Mediterranean with less than an hour left), the map shows Amman, Gaza, Tel Aviv, and Sharm al Shiekh, but no Jerusalem/Al quds. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I am.
• ·      The announcement just happened and I recognized` two words! Salaam Aleikum, which mean hello/welcome.
•  
• And I’m here!