The Past Week

Much has changed since my last blog post, and things have finally settled down. I have an apartment, set up internet, and found a roommate. I’m living in an area called “Dahiyat al-Rashid,” which is fairly far from downtown Amman, but is fortunately only a 15 minute walk to the University of Jordan. The apartment is probably the nicest I’ll ever live in, and has the cheapest rent I’ll probably ever pay for a place.

Part of my apartment

The view from my balcony

My last week was honestly quite stressful, and it turns out that apartment hunting in Amman is no easier than apartment hunting in Washington, DC. This stress was compounded by having to take a taxi everywhere, and since I was staying at a hotel in the heart of downtown Amman, flagging down a cab was no easy feat. I’d occasionally wait 20 minutes for a free cab, and a few times cab drivers refused to take me downtown due to the traffic. A cab ride from the University area to downtown would also cost about 2-3 JD ($2.8-4.2), which is far cheaper than the US but adds up quickly.

Downtown Amman

I’ve also started the “study” part of study abroad, and managed to place into an upper-level Arabic class that’s taught 99% in Arabic. This is kind of overwhelming at the moment though, since I haven’t taken an Arabic class that involves speaking and listening since Spring 2010, and my last Arabic course in the Fall of 2010 was only Arabic to English translation. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon enough though. It is also interesting to note that the students taking Arabic this summer are a mix of Europeans, Asians, and Americans, as my class alone features students from Spain, France, Turkey, Estonia, and South Korea. While the professor occasionally says a word or two in English for clarification, I’m not entirely sure how many students in the class speak English.

Part of the University of Jordan

Volunteering is going well, and the office has internet and friendly co-workers so I can’t complain. I’ve been tasked with making the organization’s website, something I have no idea how to do. I’m slowly learning though.

On a more interesting note, I did learn more about what the organization does by participating in a field visit last Saturday. We traveled to an area in North Jordan called Ajloun, which is far greener than Amman and features a nature conservatory and a large castle. Unfortunately, I visited neither this time, and instead visited a school and various homes. I had originally thought we would be going on a hike, but I completely misinterpreted the term “field visit."

Ajloun from the top of a school

It was at least a very interesting cultural experience. All of the homes offered my co-workers and I fruit and tea, and one even prepared a delicious traditional lunch for us. The lunch, eaten entirely with pita bread, consisted of some familiar dishes such as eggs, tomatoes, peppers, pickles, and olives, but also hummus, gallaya ( a sauce of tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil), and zataar (thyme and sesame seeds- kind of gritty texture). While I was tempted to take a picture of the lunch spread, I restrained myself due to potential awkwardness. All of these meals were served in the “receiving rooms” of the homes, which seem to be fairly standard in most homes here. These rooms are often the first room of the home or outside the front door, and I think are there so that women and men may interact without being inside the house itself. Since Muslim women who choose to wear the headscarf are not supposed to seen by non-related men without it, this allows them to be without it inside the house.

A receiving room in a house

Anyway, hopefully next weekend I’ll visit someplace significant so that this is more like about my travels instead of about my everyday life. The only plan for this week is to get some buffalo wings to celebrate the 4^th!