Blondes and Trust

Good Afternoon!

Today's lesson is hair color and trust.



 <-- That is blonde.

I am not that blonde. But apparently I am blonde enough. My blonde-ness has its perks and its downsides.
For example, one downside to being blonde is you often get ripped off, hissed at (men hiss here instead of hooting or whistling, its real weird, I feel like I am stepping on angry snakes).

The perk, however is that sometimes people trust me more or are more helpful because they assume I am foreign. As the maintenance worker in the gym commented abruptly one day:
You are Christian? - her
Me?
Yes -her
Sort of, why?
You have blonde hair. -her
I have a Jordanian friend with blonde hair.
Yes, but not with your skin color. You are Christian and maybe American -her.
Okay...thanks.

Anyway, that's how it went. So I am apparently American. But the other day as I was buying an orange and a coffee, I only had 5JD. The man told me, it was "mish-mushkila" (or no problem), and that I could just pay him tomorrow.



Yes. Tomorrow.

Welcome to Jordan.



Anyway, I know this doesn't necessarily have to do with being blonde BUT there are other instances that people can tell that I am foreign based on my skin and hair, which is nice because they will give me easy directions to a restaurant, or welcome me, or occasionally tell me good places to eat. So, its got its ups and downs. This weekend hopefully I will update the blog with lots of photos, as I'm going to try to go to Madaba and Ma'in Hot Springs with some folk!

Hummus Spotting: I had the most delicious hummus and Baklowa (Baklava) in this restaurant that used to be a cave and then a mansion? It was incredible. Subtlety spicy, yet smooth and with an acid twist. Words don't do it justice.

Religion, Banana Milk, and Giant Stuffed Animals

Do you remember those giant stuffed animals you get at carnivals? Do you ever wonder what happens to them all after a couple days of being saturated with the smells of cotton candy, gasoline, and sweat?

I never did, but I found out where they go. They go to Amman, Jordan, on the top floor of local supermarket, with second-hand Dora-the-Explorer trinkets and Tickle-me-Elmo as its only companions. It's a lonely world.

*

The theme of the day is observation.

As my quirky Archeology Professor pointed out today, Jordan is the birthplace of three monotheistic religions. Though at first I (Grant) solely wanted to delve deeper into the psychological reasons why this war-torn area just happens to be the birthplace of these religions...my professor quickly made another comment discussing big-deal archeological and historical sites such as:
The Wailing Wall
Jericho
Madaba
He proceeded to tell us that the Wailing Wall is not a religious monument, in fact...it has Roman routes. Now, myself not having any particularly strong religious routes, continued to scratch a couple notes down.

However. There are a few "disney-landers" (Jewish folk apparently the word Jew is just not something you throw around so we call them DisneyLanders, I don't really know or care why) who were deeply repulsed by this fact. Even though the professor gave them sources to read which were neither Israeli nor Palestinian they still protested. So, my first encounter with religion was not with Jordanians, but with Americans. Unexpected, no?

After this class I scooted over to the gym to think about this, and prepare for the Dead-2-Red Sea Run on March 5th. After my 6K run and stretch, I decided to conclude my proximal evening studies with yoghurt, an orange, and Banana Milk. And dear friends, Banana Milk tastes exactly as you think it would--banana-ey, and creamy. I really don't know how I feel about it now that it's lounging at the bottom of my stomach.

Tomorrow is our last day of school for the week, and Friday my peer tutor and I are going to go on a bike-ride to the Dead Sea with CIEE. Saturday is reserved for painting a mural, and Sunday is as of yet undetermined.

Lessons of the Week:
1. Do not discuss religion with Americans.
2. Make a past bad event better by going back to the place of poor emotion and having a good time.
3. Let things slide.

I am actually a 30-year-old Jordanian Woman

4:00 am.

Aaaaaaaa, allah akbar...aaaaah (various words), aaaaah, allah allah ....


I still had two more hours to sleep. At least. This time I fell back asleep. The adhan is something I am getting used to. It's also very useful for telling the time.

Today was long and short. Most days are like this. They are short and long. They are hard and simultaneously very easy. One thing a friend mentioned to me yesterday was that while you are here, you are always on, from the second you wake up to the second your eyes shut. You take for granted the ease of knowing a language for 20+ years.

In any case, here is my day in short form:
Wake up
Attempt to explain to my host dad why I will not be eating breakfast before I run 6km.
Grab Taxi
Talk with taxi-man. There will be no marriage service today.
Run at gym.
Meet girl from Britain (I have already met one girl from Sweden, and another Jordanian woman)
Shower (aaaaaaaaaaahhhh).
Eat apple and banana Baba packed for me.
Find new classroom.
Drink NesCafe (its all the rage here)
Grab falafel and shai with SAGE. Yes, its delicious.
Go to my first day at the internship.
Chat/Giggle with the women workers:

PAUSE. It was at this moment I realized what age I am in Jordan. I'm not 20 (or 21), but I am actually about 30 years old. I found out who has about the same maturity/humor as I do here in Jordan. It is the single Jordanian women who work as secretaries (but are extremely knowledgeable and intelligent) and talk about (no joke) G-Strings, Valentines Day, and Cigarettes. Anyway. I was supposed to edit an Arabic-English Translation of a document. I got to page three in three hours.

Now I am home, drinking tea, and fending off curious sisters who come look over my shoulder every two or three minutes.

In other news, this weekend was somewhat eventful. I went to a bar on Thursday night (our Friday) and ended up haggling with a taxi driver who eventually submitted and then at the end of the trip told me he liked me, gave me candy and sent me on my way. Friday I hung out at home which was somewhat boring because most of the time we just watch Turkish soaps and Arabs' Got Talent all day long. However the day was greatly improved by the arrival of kanafe, a delicious (in small increments) treat traditional to Jordan. Saturday was spent meeting my Peer Tutor and doing silly activities in a mysterious location to "bond." Today was school and work (I even got a ride home from my new friend Hind, from my internship!) and tomorrow I go to the Embassy for a blood test. It is also Valentines Day, and I think some of us will go to a restaurant to eat romantic dinner and smoke shisha. Tuesday is my day off since it is the Prophet's Birthday...so maybe I will go to Madaba or a nature preserve with CIEE folk.

As for downtime, I have been exploring. Most of the time I read, since I don't have much homework yet. But I'm sure this will change soon enough. I have my schedule finally figured out! This is a grand accomplishment.

Here are a few photos from around my home:

Addendum: The thing about blogs once you are abroad, is that you really don't want to write in them. But not for the reasons you might think. I know, you think I have no time and I am super busy with exploring and wandering about. HOWEVER, this is only half of the story here. The beginnings of a blog look promising, but it is only after you get to your foreign destination, and after you figure out your schedule, that writers tend to not want to write (well, I'm speaking generally, but really its just in my case I suppose). In my case, its because I now that I am here, I don't really want to record probably extraordinarily ignorant observations about a country I barely know. Then again, I know others are reading this to get just that. So, on I go when I can...

How I learned Colors in Arabic

                Two days passed along and I have made progress. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I will get anywhere because my understanding of Arabic is very little (especially ‘amiyah—Jordanian dialect), but I have learned something I never covered in class! COLORS.

                For a translation, this is how the dialogue went between my two host sisters, Sarah and Lara:

                “Do you know UNO?” –Sarah (11 years old)

                “What?” -me

                “UNO!” – Lara (7 years old)

                “What?”

                “UNO!!” –both girlies

                “Uno?”

                “NA’M! Want to play?”

                “Ah (yes)”

Yes, I know UNO, girls. Oh my god. This conversation should never have taken so much time. We have been playing UNO since yesterday at 4pm, and just finished playing at 11pm TODAY. Of course there were breaks. Little do they know, I am an UNO pro. Today I told them in broken ‘amiyah that I learned UNO when I was five. Except Lara replied quickly that she learned when she was four. Whatever, I think she is lying.

In any case, UNO is how I learned colors! Well, four colors: green, yellow, blue, and red. Who needs the rest, really? 

Other great things that have happened (and made my homesickness dwindle) include showing Lara and Sarah “Robot Unicorn Attack.” Nick Heinlein/Pat I hope you are proud! There is no word for unicorn in Arabic, and ‘rainbow’ is ‘rainbow’—nufsil-shay (same thing). Unfortunately, their internet is pretty slow, so it took 6 tries to load. They liked it, but not it was not instant-action-enough for them.

For reference, today it rained. It has been raining lately, so I am extremely happy I brought a raincoat, but not so much that my shoes are really, really, not waterproof. They love water. The reason I say this is because today we went to Souq Al-Jumaa’ (Friday Market)—which is exactly like a Goodwill but outside and with lots more haggling. My family bought me 1 JD Pink Slippers , and Lara and Sarah got new shoes (>7JD each). Now I know how to haggle.

1.       Keep denying their first price

2.       SHOW  them what you want to pay (take out exact change)

3.       If you don’t have exact change, tell them what you will pay

4.       If they say no--leave. There are so many other options.

5.       Telling them you are a poor student also helps.

Otherwise, our day has been pretty normal. Though I am glad I will be in school for over 20 hours every week…Most of the time we (family) watch TV—which is fine. But I am definitely not a TV girl. I expect to finish my long book within the next two weeks. Today we watched “Arab’s Got Talent”—hilarious. I also found out I look like some actress in one of Mel Gibsons’ movies. Any guesses?

Tomorrow is Saturday, the equivalent to our Sunday…so Sunday I go to school. I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow, maybe more shopping. They love that stuff. They also mentioned Burger King, but I really don’t know what accompanied it.

So far, so good. Very relaxed family, we will see how relaxed they are when I push my curfew from 10pm to 12am for Thursday night fun. J

Tesba’h Al-Kher

(Good-night!)

p.s. I am not writing in Arabic to show off, it is actually becoming habitual already. I want to keep a hold on ALL the Arabic ‘amiyah I have learned so far…like, MEJNOON—“crazy.” So, it’s not for you, it’s for me.  Ok. Thanks for reading--

The Adhan is also a Lullaby

At four am this morning my eyes clicked open rather abruptly. I attempted falling back to sleep for about an hour and almost lost all hope until the adhan (or the call to prayer) came on over the loudspeaker. Not many people may think so, but it is actually fairly lulling. The tones are so flat they sound like a distant lonely call from afar which at 4:45 am when no one else is awake--is certainly something I can relate to.

Yesterday was day one of Orientation. We visited places around Greater Amman, like the Roman Ampitheatre, the Citadel, and ate some of the most delicious food at Jafra--including hummus!

The summation of the days trips made me conclude that Jordan is incredibly old. Like, really, really, really, old. We saw pieces of Hercules' fist and maybe a knee, which to me was mind-blowing. The Romans were just a hiccup in Amman's history.

(Sidenote: apparently I am not the only one awake in the hotel....a few people came by and say Sabaah-al-kher to me, followed by a 'good-morning')

I have yet to upload photos, I will get to it once I am done with orientation so I can finish those type of photos in one fell-swoop.

As for now, I am either going to try to take a shower to wake up, or go back to sleep for an hour or so before breakfast.