Huda

                Two days ago I made my first Muslim friend outside of those helping the CIEE program. Her name is Huda; we met on the ground floor of the CIEE building while waiting for an elevator. After talking for a while about where we were from, what we studied and why I was in Jordan she offered to help me find my next lecture. CIEE warned us that the first week of classes would be confusing in JU and it was no understatement. Huda and I looked for my lecture for 20 minutes to no avail,finally giving up and grabbing a coffee. I learned that Huda is a senior at the university, so her classes do not start until next week. She is in the Medicine department and works in rehabilitation. Her classes this year involve going to hospital with her class (of 16) and working for 5 hours straight. She is head of her class and works very hard. She told me that if she graduates first in her class she will work as a TA at JU for a year and then be sent to study in America or England for free. Insh’allah she stays on top.

                Yesterday we met for coffee again and walked the length of the campus, which took us approximately 30 minutes. We shared music from our phones and ipods and tried to teach each other new words. In the Arabic alphabet there is no “p” so to teach Huda I told her it was like spitting. When trying to explain the word “awkward” I drew a picture of a turtle upside down on its shell and she understood immediately; turns out this is a universal image. However, saying self-deprecating statements is not common practice here in Jordan. I said many times that I was such a bad Arabic student and this seemed to really bother Huda. Last night she sent me a really sweet text message saying “I want you to remember Wylie “no pain, no gain”” She had explained to me earlier that day that in order to learn Arabic I had to be ready to be in much pain and do a lot of work…

                This morning was my placement exam for Arabic. I got to the classroom a little late because I had a late breakfast. Everyone was already sitting down working diligently on their exams. I opened mine to find that I was completely lost. In all three semesters of my Arabic at Skidmore I have learned to read Arabic, to write Arabic, and many grammatical lessons, but the emphasis on vocabulary has been relaxed to say the least. This placement exam had all instructions in Arabic and I found that I didn’t even really know what was being asked of me. Sitting there I felt like a failure. This has probably been the worst experience I have had in Jordan so far. I handed my exam in totally blank and left. I have a meeting in an hour with Dr. Najeh for my oral part of the exam. At this time I suspect I will have to do a lot of explaining for myself. I’m not sure if it was Skidmore’s Arabic program which has let me down or if it is that I am a poor student but I feel very lost right now. Hopefully Dr. Najeh will be kind and rekindle the drive to learn Arabic that I have had in the last 5 days and seem to have lost form my failure this morning.

                I just had my oral interview. It went about as well as the written exam. It ended up being me sitting in front of an Arab man asking him to repeat himself slower or to translate his question. I wasn’t feeling great so I went to the cafeteria with my friends David, Cathleen, Joeseph, Mike, and Tamara to get lunch at the cafeteria. Afterwards I went to the “library” (really an office in between a coffee shop and electronics store) to pick up my readings. My professor Zubi Zubi, who I have American and the Arabs with and Jordanians history in the Arab Israeli conflict, compiled two textbooks that cost a total of 18 JD! How about that for textbook costs! For now I am hoping to get through the week and to the weekend because I have some amazing plans!

Love,

Wylie of Arabia

Picture of my friends at the Roman Theater

My new Family!!

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 4^th 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

A Photo over looking the ever-sprawling Amman

Arabic lessons with Rus, Muhammad the bell boy, and my first bidet

Hello friends and family,

I am finally writing to you from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan! The first morning here I woke up to the call to prayer at 5 am thinking I was back at home and some really exotic ice cream truck was flying by. I've quickly found that the call to prayer is beautiful and interesting....during the day, but at 5 am?? Jeez these guys have it tough. So keeping in mind that I'm sleep deprived like an insomniac don't judge the sludge of experiences I fail to retell to you...After two days of tours, lectures, and cultural immersion I feel as if I have loads to say but I will try to spare you too many details. Lets start with my flight over.
My flight from Montreal to Heathrow was  a pleasant surprise. Seated next to me was a man from Tehran, Iran whose name I caught as "Rus" but could very easily have been something completely different. As I sat next to him I explained to him where I was going and pulled out my Arabic phrase book with novice intentions of exchanging a few words in Farsi. However, as soon as the book came out he took it from my hands and proceeded to give me a 30 minute impromptu Modern Standard Arabic lesson. I quickly learned what it means to be a generous Muslim, and what it means to have no sense of personal space as a Middle Easterner...The experience made me look even more forward to landing in Jordan!
Upon arrival to the Geneva Hotel (our orientation retreat) I was greeted by Muhammad, our bag boy. Muhammad was very bright and outgoung and spoke fantastic English. He told me how he had learned English and about his love for American cinema. He quickly asked me to be a conversational partner with him. He informed me that he would be in the hotel lobby at the same time the next night and that I could practice my Arabic with him in return for English lessons from him. This experience has made me optimistic for future chances to find conversational partners and improve my conversational Arabic.
So when arriving to the hotel per-usual I rushed to check out the bathroom. I have a theory, the theory being that you can tell how your room is based on first inspection of  the bathroom. Our bathroom being any indication...our room is awesome! The next day on the bus I was sitting with my new buddies - named the "back of the bus crew" because of where we sit - and I asked them what the bowl close the the floor the spouted water out was for; "is it to kneel and wash your face with?" I asked. In response I found laughter. Apparently there is this thing called a bidet? You use it to wash your genitals....or as my bud Jamz told me "an exhilarating rush for your butt hole"....thank God I didn't wash my face in there...The Bidet is not an exclusive Middle Eastern thing, its used in many parts of the world, but I felt the need to share my stupid uncultured flaws with all my readers.
Tomorrow I meet my home stay family! I'm so excited! They are a Christian couple with two older sons around the age of 30. I am sharing a bedroom with my current hotel roommate Joe who is a great guy. Joe doesn't even know the Arabic alphabet yet so it seems that I will be the anchor for communication in the next few weeks to month. I'm very nervous to see how everything pans out. Joe and I both brought maple syrup as a gift, and we found out today from the program head Dr. Alison Hodgkins that Jordanians don't get the whole maple syrup thing and can never figure out what to use it with :/...what will I do with all the maple syrup bottles mom?? Dr. Alison kindly offered to take them off my hands but I don't think I'll follow that path.
Well, the "bobk" crew is waitign for me downstairs. We will most likely watch the news updates in Egypt and discuss whether or not these changes are significant whatsoever, try to have a high-brow discussion of Middle Eastern politics but end up flipping to Arabs Got Talent and Arab soaps. Until next time, Ma'salama and may we speak again inshallah.

You're slowly becoming a less oblivious American friend,

Wylie

To dispell the rumors and incite the adventurer

My house has been receiving calls, emails, facebook messages expressing worry over my upcoming trip to Jordan. To put everyone's worry to rest: Jordan is a very stable country and I will not be swept up in any kind of hostile protest or regime change. There has been a lot of activity on the facebook group page of fellow CIEE participants expressing their worries, fears, and excitement about what is going on in the Middle East. The conclusion I have come to from both messages there and watching the news closely is that as long as I am in Jordan I will be safe. Protests are few and scattered in Jordan, unlike in Egypt where protesters boldly call for Mubarak to resign, Jordanians have not targeted the king and have mostly focused on a push for economic reforms. Whereas footage of the protests in Egypt show citizens being blasted by water canons, tear gas and rubber bullets by the police, in Jordan police officers wander the crowds handing out bottled water to keep protesters hydrated. The Hashemites (regime which rules Jordan) have long been an authoritative regime who rules with the sword behind its back, unlike many other hostile dictators in the region. In all truth I am nothing but thrilled to be in an area of the world where people are discovering their voice, standing up and calling for democratic-like reforms. Imagine if you had been in Tienanmen Square the day that photo of the iconic "Tank Man" was taken. I promise my family and friends that I will not act fool hearty when deciding where to be during such protests. As American citizens we are not despised and therefore should not recieve much resentment from protesters. Islamists point to the American government as a source of their woes and misfortunes, not at average citizens. Still, I would never put myself in harms way. Having read many of my fellow CIEE'ers posts I have selected two fascinating medias that show what is happening in Egypt (to be certain, Egypt is not the only country where all of this is going down, however, it has received a lot of attention ever since the regime change in Tunisia). This first link is a 12 minute long or so recording of an English reporter who was with protesters in Egypt and while recording was picked up and put in a police van and driven out to the desert (very exciting). And the second media is a photo taken by an Egyptian citizen; the photo is strangely similar to that of the Tank Man which I referred to before. I hope these two medias don't cause worry in anyone, but instead have the same affect they did on me: one of genuine fascination and excitement! Stuff is happening and I'm there to document and experience what affects it has on the average Arab!! Who knows, this stuff could lead to an amazing senior thesis (fingers crossed).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/egypt-protests

http://i.imgur.com/rcPGl.jpg

Hope all is well to my friends abroad. I didn't think I would be posting twice before leaving but oh well.


Love,

Wylie of Arabia

My first foot fungus in my mouth: get it? I can't keep my foot out of my mouth...god I wish I were funny...

Dear blogosphere,

I’m coming to you from Muddy Waters café in Burlington Vermont. I’m sitting in my favorite seat by the large glass windows at the entrance, people watching as an excuse to give myself a rest from my pre-take-off literature. I’ve been reading Benjamin Orbach’s Live From Jordan a book my momma discovered and gave me on Christmas day. Already half-way through it I feel like a veteran traveler with inside tips that Lonely Planet could never have provided. On top of Benjamin’s letters is the book I just started called Understanding the Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times by Margaret Nydel. A slightly more formal book, this piece of literature is supposedly going to be my insight to Arabic culture on the ground; what will happen and how to react. I’ll let you know how accurate it is once I’m farther in and on the ground. The CIEE program has suggested that I set realistic goals for myself in order to prepare an agenda for Jordan. So, before I throw a toe in my mouth here it is:

·         I hope to establish a comfortable use of conversational Jordanian. I’ve learned from Benjamin that this is best accomplished from conversational tutors: i.e. Arabs you meet who want help with their English and return promise help with your Arabic. CIEE program provider Alison enlightened us during pre-registration saying, don’t make your goal to speak Arabic fluently…it’s not gonna’ happen. So, I guess as long as I can order a falafel by the end I should be happy.

·         I want to participate in Islamic practices, this means visiting mosques, attempting prayer, “attempting” Ramadan, giving Zakat, and maybe skipping the pilgrimage. My mind is open to anything and I think my hosts will greatly appreciate my attempts to understand and appreciate their religion.

·         I want to travel, inside and outside of Jordan. Most importantly I think I should jump the gap over to Israel. 7 months in a Muslim country with a 60% Palestinian population is sure to bias my view of the Jewish neighbors. I don’t want any such bias. As a student of Middle Eastern studies I want to be unbiased and objective. I have seen too many “dialogues” i.e. “debates” about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that devolve into shouting matches over historical differences. I’m sick of attending such lectures and so I hope to create my own open minded opinion of the situation that is not brainwashed by Jordanian-Palestinian biases.

·         Finally, I want to start establishing an interesting and realistic research project for my government thesis my senior year. This will be my one chance to get on the scene interviews and perspective. It is one thing to hypothesize and theorize; to read the Clash of Civilizations afterwards discussing what you think with 15 other liberal American university students and entirely another to actually experience it. I am a minority for 7 months OH ME OH MY!

·         I’m listening to Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison right now and he just reminded me…write lots of music! Expect some songs in broken Arabic!

·         I have lots of other idealistic goals but I’ll spare you (if you’re still reading, I wouldn’t be) and move on.

This section is for Mom and Dad:

                I’ll be safe I promise! I am at heart an adventurer though so I hope to have good stories to share when I return. Grammy asked me to remind you something today so I thought I’d do it on something more concrete and lasting. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for every single opportunity and chance you have given me in my life. Where would I be without your support? Well let’s not play that game. I can’t tell you enough how thankful I am so I hope that Mom you can come visit me and give me a chance to show you what is so fascinating about this part of the world to me and that Dad, you can read my words on here and be glad that you don’t have me making a mess of the house for 7 months. Maybe I’ll find a beautiful Arab princess and finally marriage rich and be able to pay you back for all these college loans.

This section for Jason:

                I will be scouting out rock climbing locations and Kite boarding locations so convince mom to bring you over. I’ll also scout out the most delicious (vegetarian) falafel joints in the city.

This section for Friends:

                Eh, kind of pointless, we’ll be talking soon as it is. However, I don’t know what internet access is realistically going to be like in Jordan. So, get used to checking this page if you want a long-winded, foot munching attempt at witty banter and insights. As you all know I’m unbearably sarcastic and I’m not really sure that that will come out too beautifully in writing; but I know you can’t live without it so I’ll try.

That’s about it. By the way, I’m still not a youtube sensation; what the hell guys?? Hook a brownskid up!

www.youtube.com/wbrownskid

Love,

Wylie of Arabia