Today was a day we had been awaiting for a while, we would finally get to return downtown and see the famous Rainbow Street. Rainbow Street is where people go to be seen and is typically populated by a lot of Amman's young people, which gives it a unique atmosphere. As an added bonus, it has beautiful views of downtown Amman and the Citadel and flagpole and has great restaurants. Before we went to Rainbow St. though, we stopped at an art gallery that featured both calligraphy and more modern art and I have included some pictures of them here: After visiting the gallery and admiring the beautiful artwork, we headed over to Rainbow Street and stopped at Books @ Cafe, a bookstore/cafe, one of the few places that serves food and drink during the day in Ramadan in Amman. We all had juice and snacks and then had the opportunity to wander down Rainbow St in small groups. Unfortunately, it was deserted because it was daylight hours during Ramadan so nothing was open and no one was walking around, but it was still nice to see. We then met up for dinner and ice cream and by the time we had finished dinner, Rainbow Street was alive! There were tons of people walking around, street vendors selling snacks, restaurants opening up for business, etc. You could definitely tell that this was the place to be if you wanted a big, lively scene. We headed home soon after and I hope to be able to return after Ramadan, inshallah, when more things will be open during the day.
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I thought that I would aggregate some of the random quirks and fun facts of daily life here in Jordan:
While I have already learned so much about Jordanian culture through eating the food, learning Arabic and spending time with Jordanians, today I wanted to comment on a different kind of cross-cultural understanding I have gained: a deeper knowledge of the diverse cultures within America itself. The great thing about a nation-wide full scholarship program is that it brings together motivated youth from across the nation with different backgrounds, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses etc. who are all united by a common love for other cultures and a motivation to learn a foreign language. Within our group of 21 students, we represent 12 different states and people come from Vermont to Texas, from North Carolina to California and everywhere in between. Whether it's comparing regional food chains like In'N'Out vs. Whataburger or arguing over if it is called a 'water cooler' or 'bubbler' or even discussing popular political views where we come from, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about people from other parts of my country.
One of the first things you will learn about me if you meet me is that I am a serious foodie. I love to cook, I love to bake but most of all, I love to eat good food. Luckily for me, Jordan is the place to come if you are looking for good food. They have traditional Middle Eastern fare and also many uniquely Jordanian dishes. Not only is the food incredibly flavorful and delicious but meals here are truly a community-building event. In this post, I will show you some of my favorite meals so far and give you an overview of the food situation here. After the action-packed day in downtown Amman yesterday, we thankfully got to sleep in because it is Friday, the first day of the weekend in the Arab world. After I woke up, I worked on my Ikteshaf Project, which is an oral presentation in Arabic on a topic relating to the Arab world that we build on and present each week. My topic is Arab Cities and I plan on talking about Amman, Cairo, Damascus, Mecca and Beirut. Soon after we had lunch, we headed out to As-Salt (السالط), whose name came from the Roman time when it was called Saltus. Besides being a beautiful city, it was known for it's especially peaceful coexistence (and even constructively working together) between the Muslims and Christians of the city. The neighboring mosques and churches shared resources and Muslims and Christians lived as neighbors, unlike other cities in which there are distinct Muslim and Christian areas. We also got to see our assistant RD dressed in the traditional Bedouin clothing, which included 10 meters of heavy fabric. The local old men taught us how to play mancala and we walked through the densely populated markets selling everything from clothes to brooms to freshly made pancakes.
It was a beautiful city and a beautiful day! After a really fun and enriching day of classes (post to come with more in depth descriptions of what we do in class), we headed off in our bright orange van to the Jordanian National Museum in the center of Amman, which is about a 20 minute drive from our apartments. The museum is beautiful and new and really well done and I would highly suggest that you go if you come to Amman. Inside, you can find artifacts and information about every period of Amman's history, which is an incredibly long one given that it is one of the world's longest continuously inhabited cities and has been ruled by the Ammonites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans, just to name a few. The marks that each civilization are distinct and seeing historic monuments in Amman is especially interesting because you can see each layer of history that each civilization laid down. Group Pictures Outside and Inside the Museum We walked through and learned a ton about Bedouin culture, including their fascinating legal system and the tension that has been caused by the government trying to balance letting them keep their cultural traditions while also upholding the law. The museum docents were incredibly knowledgable and answered all our questions about everything from the statues that are the oldest statues that resemble the human figure to the Greek-style statues to the Dead Sea scrolls. Unfortunately, the part of the museum dedicated to the Islamic and Modern History of Jordan was not open yet but that just gives me a reason to come back :). When asked when the rest of the museum would be open, the museum manager answered in true Jordanian fashion with a smile and "Soon...Inshallah (If God wills it)". Time in Jordan runs at a much more relaxed pace and while it required some getting used to, it is quite liberating. After the museum, we headed to the Roman Amphitheater, which dates back to the second century, when the city was called Philadelphia under Roman rule. It has the capacity to seat 6,000 and if you speak from the center of the stage, you can be heard from every corner of the theater. After the Amphitheater, we heated to the Citadel, which includes the Temple of Hercules, a Byzantine church and an Ummayad Palace, and is strategically located on top of a hill with panoramic views of Amman. It really goes on for as far as the eye can see. I could see more than 20 mosques from my vantage point and had a great view of the 4th tallest flagpole in the world. It was amazing that we were the only ones there at this time and there were no guards or employees or areas cordoned off. It was so beautiful and gave me a renewed appreciation for this place I am fortunate to call my home for the next 6 weeks. After the Citadel, we headed deep into the downtown area (the Balad) and headed to Hashem, a world-famous falafel restaurant that does one thing and does it really well. As we waited, we explored a pirated DVD store that had too many rooms to count and every surface was covered in pirated DVDs. The food was served but we waited for the call to prayer to start and signal sundown, when Muslims could break their fast. It was well worth the wait! It was the best falafel and hummus I have had so far on this trip by far! Below are hummus, baba ganoush and a hummus variation- So good! We headed home content and full and admired the lively city :).
So, as I mentioned before, it is the month of Ramadan right now. It is the 9th month of the lunar calendar and this year, it started Jun 7 and should end July 7 (but since it depends on the moon, no one can say for sure). During Ramadan, practicing Muslims abstain from drinking, eating and smoking from dawn to dusk everyday. Ramadan is traditionally a time of self reflection, teaches self restraint and helps develop sympathy for those less fortunate. As a Muslim, I have been observing Ramadan my whole life in terms of the lessons learned and the values that are emphasized, and have been fasting regularly as well for several years. But being in a Muslim country during Ramadan is an entirely different experience from observing Ramadan in America, where life around you seems to be the same as it always is.
Here are a couple of key differences- The only rule is that there are no traffic rules. Lane markings are hard to find, turn signals are optional, and there are no traffic lights. But I have never once felt unsafe driving around Jordan. It very much feels like organized chaos. Intersections look like this: You kind of just jump in and jump out where you need to go.
As for pedestrians, you just kind of go with confidence and cars stop. I feel as though instead of advertising how fast cars can go from 0 to 60, they should advertise how fast cars can go from 60 to 0. Cars just kind of come screeching to a halt if pedestrians are there. Otherwise, on big streets they have bridges and tunnels so that you can cross without your heart rate rising. After getting stuck in the middle of a freeway and having to sprint across, I feel like I've kind of gotten the hang of the whole crossing the street thing. Hopefully :) Sophia 6/17-
Today, we did a group activity with a psychotherapist, Andrea, who specializes in work with Americans living abroad. We were all blindfolded and weren't allowed to speak and were told to order ourselves in reverse order based on the first letter of our first names. The exercise simulated a situation we will inevitably find ourselves in where we can't speak/understand anyones words and even body language can signify vastly different things and it will seem like a seemingly impossible task to communicate. It was really interesting to see how everything unfolded. Everyone took different approaches to communicating the first letter of their first name: some people tried writing it on peoples backs with their finger, some tried using sign language, some tried to feel peoples shoes and recognize them that way etc. And then, it was interesting to see what people did with the information they acquired. Some tried to take control and put people in the order they thought they needed to be and some figured that just standing still and letting themselves be moved around would be the best way they could contribute. After the exercise, we debriefed and talked about the frustration of not being able to communicate and helpful and unhelpful coping mechanisms. While the frustration hasn't set in yet because it is so early on in the trip and everything is still so surreal and amazing seeming, I think these will be useful things to keep in mind going forward. In the afternoon we headed to Ajloun Castle and Jerash, which is in 6/18- Today we broke up into groups of 3 and set out on scavenger hunts to get to know our neighborhood a little better. We were given a list of basic Arabic words like car, medication and food and were tasked with finding everything on the list and taking selfies with them. We live on the top of a hill so we headed down to the bottom where two big streets intersect and they are both full of shops and restaurants. However, since it is Ramadan, the street was eerily empty. However, when we stepped into the huge multilevel Carrefour, in which there were tons of people all shopping for ingredients for iftar (the meal at sunset to break the fast). The Carrefour was huge and offered basically everything you could find in a Walmart or Safeway, including the largest selection of shampoos I had ever seen. They had a huge selection of both imported and locally grown fruit as well. We also stopped into a little store close to our house that is the size of a gas station store but packed with everything from cake mixes and canned soup to fresh produce and racks of lamb and even has house supplies like laundry detergent and dish soap. I was surprised by how expensive everything was though. Not only were the American products almost 2x as expensive as they are in the States, even the local products were much more expensive than I expected. We returned to our apartments and got more oriented and finished unpacking and started on a load of laundry. 6/19- Today we had our orientation and placement test at Qasid Institute, the Arabic school where we will be studying for the next 6 weeks. We watched a presentation by the Director of Study Abroad at Qasid which covered life in Amman and at Qasid and then we had our placement test (which was actually an interview). There were 3 teachers who asked us to talk about ourselves and then asked us to read some texts and explain what the text meant. I think that my speaking section went pretty well because I have been practicing introducing myself a ton but I am not so sure about the reading section since the text did not have any diacritic marks, which is like trying to read a book without half of the vowels. You might be able to do it for a little while in a language and topic you are familiar with but it is incredibly challenging when you are just starting to learn a language. Try reading this- H m Sph nd m stdng rbc n Jrdn. :) Tomorrow we will find out our placement and we will be split into 3 different classes of 7 students each based on our placement today because everyone did varying amounts of the pre-program studying. For dinner we headed to Allia, a restaurant on Madinat St (which is called 'Hunger Street' by locals because of the abundance of restaurants) It was abuzz with tons of people in a hurry to get their food to go and take it home for iftar. We all ordered different stews with different grains but didn't realize until we got them that we had all accidentally ordered a family size dish and grain portion. I got enough freekeh for at least 3 people and we quickly realized that most families of 5 or 6 got 2 or 3 main courses for the whole family to share. Luckily, the food was amazing! I had kofta kebab in a tomato sauce with veggies on top of freekeh and I was actually really glad to have leftovers for the next day since getting dinner took us almost an hour and a half. It's really interesting because doing seemingly mundane things like grocery shopping or getting dinner can be so new and fun and exciting but at the same time it can be time consuming and frustrating. Sorry that this is so overdue! More to come! Sophia Today, we were woken up at 3:30 by the call to prayer (azaan). It was beautiful and my roommate and I listened and watched the sun rise out of our bedroom window. They actually ended up projecting the entire prayer (namaz) through the mega speakers and since we are located in an area where you can hear the call to prayer from 5 different mosques, the whole thing went on for over 30 mins. Click below to hear a recording of the azaan. Luckily, I was able to fall asleep again and we woke up later and had an AMAZING breakfast. I will make a post solely on the food here in Jordan soon which will have more details on all the meals. After breakfast, we headed down and met with Andrea, a psychotherapist who has worked all over the world helping expats with culture shock. We first did an activity where we were blindfolded and couldn't speak and had to order ourselves backwards by the first letter of our first name. The activity simulated the inability to read, understand body language or communicate that we would face in the beginning of our time in Jordan and we followed the activity with a discussion about helpful and unhelpful culture shock coping mechanisms. It was very insightful and helped us prepare for the inevitable hard times we would face some time in the next 6 weeks. We had a break in which I just spent some time with my friends talking, laughing and reviewing vocabulary for the upcoming placement test. After the break, we headed to Ajloun Castle (قلعة عجلون) and city of Jerash (جرش) which are 1.5 hours north of Amman (عمان). On the way, we passed a Palestinian refugee camp and since the Jordanian northwest is much more lush and at a higher elevation than Amman, we saw many olive trees. Ajloun is a 12th century castle built on a hill overlooking the town of Ajloun and you are even able to view Palestine (sometimes even Syria) from the top. It is a beautiful fortress and offered beautiful panoramic views. After exploring Ajloun, we headed to the city of Jerash, where we could see many Roman ruins of amphitheaters and horse racing tracks. Afterwards, we headed to dinner and though it was only 7:30 or so (iftar is at 7:45), they started setting out all the food so that it would be ready for us to eat at 7:45. It was a full mezze set up and looked absolutely delicious. As soon as the call to prayer started, we all started with dates and then tried everything on the table. here are two pictures of our set up- After we finished the mezze, they set out a bunch of kebabs and grilled vegetables which were all so incredibly tender and just an amazing experience eating outside and watching the sunset and having this amazing food. (You can find out more about all the food in the above picture in my upcoming food post) After dinner, we had tea and these amazing qatayefs (قطايف), which are basically sweet fried handpies/dumplings stuffed with sweet and cinnamony walnuts. This popular Ramadan treat is officially my new favorite thing ever!!!! After dessert we had the amazing opportunity to watch a traditional dabke dance. It is kind of a folk dance in a circle with a lot of complicated synchronized tap dancing like footwork accompanied by an amazing instrumentalist playing a reed instrument and a singer. It was so much fun watching and is definitely a joyous dance and is often performed at weddings. Here's a short clip I recorded of the performance but it really went on for over 20 mins and included lots of different tricks. By the time we returned, everyone was exhausted but super happy and we got to bed close to 1:30.
I look forward to many more incredibly busy but incredibly fun days like these in the future! مع السلاما صفية |
We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. !أهلا و ساهلاHi! I'm Sophia, a high schooler from the San Francisco Bay Area. I received a scholarship through the State Dept. to study Arabic in Jordan in the summer of 2016. Categories
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