So much has changed since I last posted. I moved in last Thursday to my new home. My mom’s name is Amal. Amal is extremely kind and friendly, she likes to laugh and make jokes. My father is Salim. Both Salim and Amal speak French and English fluently so transition has been easy. Salim also speaks Italian. Salim and Amal left Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war and have been in Jordan for about 30 years. Salim loves classical music, especially piano concertos. He has a great ear for music and we talked extensively about music as a medium for art as opposed to visual art and poetry. Salim and Amal have two sons Fadi and Fawzi. They both work in IT for banks and are very friendly. They are in their late 20’s. The family is nothing like what we were prepared for by CIEE. First off they are Christian and very liberal. Amal does like her house kept a certain way but other than that there are very few rules that differ from back home (although she’s probably the same as Dad as far as she likes things clean).
Transitioning to the time schedule here has been hard. Thursday for Arabs is Friday for Americans so come Friday morning they sleep in until 12 to 2. I was up before everyone else in the house Friday and so I spent much of the time reading Lonely Planet’s guide to Jordan. I have so many day trips planned out! Also, life in an Arabs home revolves around the TV. The family sits in the living room with the TV on (watching or not watching) until late in the night. One night Joe and Fadi stayed up watching 3 movies in a row (I went to bed…)! The second night in our new home Fawzi asked Joe and I if we would like to go to an Electro-Trance club. This was the last proposal I was expecting here in Jordan! He told us he could get us on the list if we knew any American girls we could bring. Unfortunately we know few, and of the ones we know their cell phones aren’t working yet. So, we promised him we would go next Friday.
Today (Saturday), Joe and I woke at 9 and had breakfast. Salim makes us breakfast, it consists of one hardboiled egg, a light watery-like yogurt which is delicious, bread, thyme, olive oil, cheese, and if we’re lucky hummus. I think we’re being spoiled, we’ll see how long this lasts. After this Amal took us in Taxi to a music shop that her friends husband owns. Here I bought a classical guitar for 150 Dinars. I’ve been told this was a little too much, but I’m just happy to have a guitar. Then we went to the mall where Amal works. After a few run ins with the security, who took my guitar away to store, we ended up leaving to go downtown and go for a walking tour.
Our first stop was the Roman Theater. To our surprise much of the downtown architecture has a strong Roman influence. The Roman Empire spread all the way to Jordan as we learned our second day here. We climbed the stairs to the top of the amphitheater and I sat down with my guitar. Two Jordanian guys (about my age) came over and sat on either side of me. They asked me to play my guitar for them. I played a song and then I played some chords and they say an Arabic song over the chords. One guy, Muhamma Abu Khderr told me he was a biomedical engineer student and the other guy told me his name was Ahmad Hayjneh. I gave them my name and they said they would add me on Facebook; Insh’allah of course.
After this we walked to a café we had gone to with CIEE on the second day called Jrafra. We arrived early to meet other friends so we got a seat on the balcony. Out here we met two girls who are graduate students living in Amman and working in Palestine. They said if we wanted they would show us around Amman insh’allah that happens because they were really cute. Our friends arrived and we spent some time smoking argile (hookah) and drinking Arabic coffee. Afterwards we walked around downtown and I bought a scarf (can’t remember the Arabic term) that is black and white (the colors of Palestine). On our way home we stopped at “Sport City” a gym that was recommended by CIEE. It was huge! It hosts an Olympic size outdoor pool, sauna, weight room, aerobic room, soccer field, tennis courts, you name it, they have it.
To finish our day we arrived home and had a dinner of lentils, rice, salad, and hummus. I played a few songs an dSalim drummed along. Over-all I am thrilled with how friendly and beautiful both Amman and Jordanians are. My family is amazing and very Westernized. Tomorrow is my first Arabic class at 8 am so I should sleep now. I will post this blog tomorrow on campus if I find wifi inshallah.
Oh, and in case I forgot to mention this above, I can’t remember what I wrote last night…day 4 of no shower…I smell like roses. Jordan is the 4th most water poor country in the world. It’s been raining and will continue insh’allah but still at times the pipes can have problems. My house is currently on day 10 of not receiving water due to (as my host family explains it) residue in the pipes. So, I’m stinking it up around Jordan, however, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to use my hair grease to cook dinner tonight so that’s a plus.
Love,
Wylie of Arabi
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