So here goes my attempt at trying to post once a week making this post 2 of my study abroad experience. I hope you all enjoy!
This first week in Jordan has gone by in a flash. I feel like I just barely got to Jordan and have started to experience all the wonders of a new place, culture, language, etc. At the same time, I already feel like I have been here a long time. Kind of weird, huh? Either way, I am in love with the experience so it doesn't matter either way to me. What's even crazier to me is that we only have around 12 weeks of school left and then a few days of finals and then it's off to Jerusalem. Apparently, we see everything that the Jerusalem Center kids get to see, just in a much shorter amount of time so with little sleep or time to eat. That made me even more excited to be here and experience life here. The same problem still applies though because I can't get the pictures from my camera to my computer. All the ones I can post come from my cellphone, so I need to get better at taking those pictures. Anyway, here is the experiences of my first week living in Amman, Jordan.
The food. Don't even get me started. This must be akin to what they eat in heaven, end of story. Mansaf is one of my new favorite meals. I'm not sure how to explain the diverse palate of flavors that comes with this meal. I posted a picture yesterday when I was eating at the Mata'am Al-Quds (Jerusalem Restaurant) and I hope you all got to see it. It's a gigantic slab of lamb meat on top of a giant plate of delicious rice. All of this is underneath a piece of delectable bread. They bring a goat yogurt sauce in a giant bowl to the side and then you dump this over everything. Traditionally, you can only eat mansaf with your hands. However, we were at a semi-nice restaurant and so there was the convenience of modern silverware. I tried both ways though and found it to be more enjoyable to eat with my hands and mix more flavors. Don't mess with tradition and cultural practice, it's there for a reason. In this case, how to eat such an awesome meal in the best way. I'm going to eat mansaf all I can while I am here in Jordan because I know of no place in the states that serves it whatsoever. They also had a bowl of delicious olives to eat and good bread and hummus. I also tried kunafa this week and found it to be just as good. It is a common dessert in Jordan. It's like a mozzarella stick mixed with some sugary-honey sauce and then topped with delicious crumbs. Again, you really have to try it for yourself to have any idea about what it tastes like or how awesome it is. And unfortunately, it is another dish I think I can only find in Jordan. Another common dessert here is baclava, which can be found in the States. So picture the best one you have ever tasted at a Mediterranean restaurant and then times it by 10 and you get the level of baclava available here. Such a treat. Also, there is this magical Palestinian sweet bread call "baboosa". It is covered in delicious nuts, again soaked in some sort of sugary syrup. Sooooooooo good. If you thought I was going to come home extremely skinny from not eating, you are going to be sadly mistaken, just saying. I'm just hoping I don't gain too much weight, haha. I also love all the falafel, hummus, pita bread, and shwarma. Everything is so good. And everything is so cheap - you can get a meal from a nicer restaurant for only 5 dinar (about $7.50) - that was the mansaf meal price. A falafel sandwich from the restaurant across the street from Qasid Institute (where my classes are) will set you back only 40 'ursh (about 60 cents). Definitely affordable eating and living here. Visiting the fruit stand for figs, pomegranates, pears, nectarines, etc. will only cost from 2-3 dinar ($3-$4.50) for kilos of fruity goodness. Strangely (to me at least) one of my biggest expenses of this trip is going to be water.
So water, I thought I was used to living in the desert and great at conserving water. That is just not the case. I have never been limited to 2 cubic meters of water per week for seven people before and it makes life an interesting challenge. Showering at home is a 1 1/2 minute affair with absolutely no water pressure, you have to scrub the soap off of you. Washing clothes is a delicate balance of figuring out who can go which week and making your clothes last until it is your turn (good thing deoderant and cologne exist here in Jordan is the answer to that problem). Even having enough water to clean all our marble tile floors (I'm not joking when I say we live in the apartment of the rich and the famous) takes some thought. I figured out just using the Clorox cleaning wipes Mom got me was the best solution and they seemed to do the job just fine. Bottled water at restaurants is costs at least twice as much as the meal, if not three times. Bottled water from the store doesn't come too cheap either. I have found one supermarket near our place that will give us a 10 liter jug of water for 1 dinar and that is what I am going to stick with from now on.
Enough about water and food, let's get to the places I visited this week. I went and saw the Roman Ampitheater again and went to Wast al-Balad (downtown Amman) last night. We even caught an old Arab man rapping down at the Ampitheater, pretty sweet and way better than I can do. Today I went and visit the Suuq al-Jarra and Rainbow Street. the Suuq al-Jarra was kind of like a craft fair with lots of different booths and tents set up, all hawking paintings, clothes, woodwork, stonework, souvenirs, etc - with a Jordanian flair. At the food court, we got to taste test banana cookie ice cream, grape leaves stuffed with ricey and tomatoey goodness, and the best watermelon juice available on this planet. It might have been better than my last trip to Costco (and to be honest that was spectacular - I got free ahi tuna sushi that was out of this world). After visiting the markets, we wandered up and down Rainbow Street. It felt more like we were walking through some Parisian neighborhood than a Middle Eastern city. White people were everywhere along with nutella and crepe signs and cafes. It definitely is a place that caters to tourists. It was fun, but nothing overly exciting or different. The best part was we wandered off Rainbow Street into a different neighborhood and found the perfect lookout point to see the city from. We could see for miles and it was sunset and it was around 68 degrees with a faint breeze and was next to some fig trees. Picture the perfect day with the perfect weather with the perfect sunset (all colors) with the perfect view and you have what we sat and gazed at for 30 minutes at least. We also had fun taking a bunch of pictures, talk about amazing!
I also got my calling for my time here in Jordan! Sorry for my non-Mormon friends here, but here is my Mormom paragraph so bear with me (and perhaps even enjoy it!). I am going to be on the Arab branch activity committee. We plan activities bi-monthly for all the members and nonmembers of the Arab branch and just get to have a blast with them (and eat their delicious food). No other students from BYU or invited or people who speak English. It will just be about 6 of us and then 30+ Arabs playing games or throwing water balloons or whatever. It is going to be a blast. So story time. I prayed earlier this week if I should request any specific callings. Our teacher, Dil, sent out emails with options to go up to the north branch, give sacrament meeting talks, teach classes, hometeach, etc. We could reply and say what we felt comfortable doing. I prayed about it and got the response that I needed to be on the activities committee. Then I forgot to send in any email whatsoever. Dil reads out callings yesterday and come-to-find-out that I am on the activities committee! The Lord is truly aware of me, even here in Jordan. He still answers prayers and still is definitely leading and guiding my life. Attending the Arab branch was a blast today as well - I understood the vast majority (90%+) of it. I take that as a blessing from God as well. Ok enough of my Mormon moment, just know I know God lives and loves me and all of the people here in the Middle East.
Classes this week have been a stretch for me. I somehow ended up in a class with all natural talent language learners who are also brilliant. I can study a lot to learn vocab...but Arabic doesn't just come naturally to me. It is a huge struggle. So I am kind of out of my league, but I have been learning a lot. I have also been having a lot of fun. Each day was have a new topic to discuss and debate. This week we covered comparing Amman with our home cities, our hobbies and interests, who we are as a person, etc. Yesterday (our Friday) we had to give a group presentation complete with questions and discussion on American stereotypes of Arabs (hence why I Facebook messaged a lot of you and thanks for your responses). We did it all in Arabic and we went for about 25 minutes, so we did much better than I thought we were going to do. There are seven of us in the class with the teacher. We spend 8 hours a week studying and speaking foosha while doing debates and discussion on various topics. Foosha is modern standard Arabic or formal Arabic that is common across the Arab world. Then we spend two hours a week learning 'aamia (the Jordanian dialect of Arabic). We studied Egyptian before and there is quite a lot of differences. Picture the difference between Portuguese and Spanish and you get the difference between dialects in Arabic. So they can understand one another, but it takes some struggle and you can't quite speak their language right. We then have the BYU class with Dil where we go over more Jordanian Arabic situations and how to deal with them (like taking taxis or changing our standard greetings from Egyptian or formal). Then we have two (usually it takes three) hours of translation homework. We read two articles and answer questions about them, listen to an article and answer questions about it. Then we also have to translate word perfect another article. It is fun, but sometimes feels a little tedious. Then we have to talk with Arabs for at least two hours. I need to make some good Arab friends so I can just chat with them everyday. So far my best luck has been with taxi drivers and visiting the university as well as shop owners (when their shop is not busy). This schedule I think will keep me busy every week of classes, but the goal is to learn the language and I think this will help. We also have lots of extra appointments that will start up this week so that will take more time as well. Weekends are our little haven of freedom and I am going to enjoy every minute of them.
I think that is pretty much my week this week from what I can remember or think. I hope you are all having amazing lives back in the United States and school started great for those of you at BYU! Until next time!
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