The Li'l Yellow Taxi That Couldn't

...go up the hill, that is.

As I mentioned I live right at the corner of a street where a steep hill begins (one of the millions of steep hills in Amman). It seems like a winter's worth of delayed rains and percipitation took place within a recent 36 hour period. I took pictures at its height, when stuff was actually visible on the ground. I caught a taxi - of which a quarter of the cars in this city are - trying to go up the hill.

Like his cousin, "Li'l Red Engine" over in the States, he tried.

But unlike his cheerful American relative, Li'l Yellow Taxi, was not really in the mood for setting an example of patient perseverance.

Oh wait, what did you expect? An update? Things are well... I was sick recently, a cold but doing better now, alhamdulillah. School is overwhelming, and I deal with it by eating copious amounts of "healthy" sweets without white sugar, but somehow suspect I'm still getting sugar from my morning tea stand, which I have dubbed 7-11 (convenient and always open, full of unhealthy snacks for cheap).

I have also discovered sage, which I am drinking like it's going out of style, nevermind it has been around since many Old Testament prophets. Healthy and amazing with black tea and milk.

In my Islamic Medicine course, which is one of the most interesting and enjoyable cources I have ever taken, I have learned that I am an Earth body type of the five primary types. Still coming to grips with it as I could have sworn I was Wood. Though I did through my instructor's detailed personal questionnaire, a friend found an online one you can try.

A relative told me (semi-joking) to not come home unless I could speak Arabic. Thankfully, their spouse got on the line afterwards and said, "just enjoy your time, and it doesn't matter if you learn it or not, as long as you are happy and benefiting." While relieved, I figure that I would be happy with myself if I could end up solidly in the middle. Insh'Allah!

Midterm Tomorrow Means Procrastination Today

Don't be jealous...really. The peanuts, which I didn't taste until after mixing with the chocolate and letting set, taste off. Raw - if that's possible.
On another note, my dear sweet friend convinced me to buy a box of ginger and chamomile tea, pictured above. However, I just realized that if you are like me, and really go out of your way to find paraben-free products and managed to only find that in a German chamomile cream that you slather on all day long, then this is probably a bad idea. It's like drinking hand cream. The good news is, I am gifting the box to the ladies lounge tomorrow. :-)

God:1, Haters: 0

Jordan, like many dry countries in this part of the world, is experiencing an especially dry winter. The little rain it receives in winter is critical to sustaining the water cycle the whole year. So, long story short, the gov't called for all masjids in the country to hold the special prayer for rain this past Friday, with many people doing the sunnah of fasting for three days beforehand.

It rained the next night.

Odds and Ends

So (ladies out there might get me on this) you know when you clean out your purse or backpack, you manage to organize everything and then have a bunch of little like safety pins, dirty scrunchy, and a peppermint or two left over? That's what this post it. Not a real full, "know-what-to-do-with-it" post, but a bunch of tidbits that I have been wanting to put out there:

- I have been thinking recently about how I have been through some huge events in a relatively compressed amount of time...and I think because end up moving to new things thereafter each event, I don't get proper time to process it. Like, only now, going on six months out of Afghanistan am I starting to process some of the stuff I went through there, and reflect on it. What of the last fall - being beside my mom through her cancer, an extraordinary time, but, again - compressed into a period of a few months for me. (For her, and way more importantly, it is something she has to deal with for the rest of her life.)

- With regards to the above, and other things...I need to write these things down. If not here (hmm probably not here), somewhere. I always say I am going to write a book...not because I am just so magnificent and awesome and bookworthy. But MAN, have I had some interesting experiences and met people who warranted their own chapter in someone's book- if not their own book!

- I have a teacher who is passionate about Arabic and, when talking about it sometimes, I find myself blushing (TGF-Niqab)! He said that once his professor said that

"Arabic is like a woman...if she trusts you, she gives you everything, all her secrets and lets you in completely. But you have to love her and be good to her, and she will give you everything."

Being a physical talker (an Arab, no really!), his passionate gesturing and facial expressions completely took me for a moment. He also said it's like the sea and honey as well. I guess they each hold their own sorts of secrets, but they have nothing on the woman.

- Raise your hand if you have never seen (or knew) that bell peppers could be purple. Okay, you can lower your hand because here you go:

I found these in the exotic village of Carrefour (yes, the French suBer Wal-Mart). And I was also told I can't take pictures. But I'm saying, how often do you see such neat vegetables?

- This past Friday, I went to something called "Souk al-Ju'ma" (Friday Bazaar) in the middle of 'Amman. They should just call it Second-Hand Sweater and Shoe Central. It warrants it's own post, but let's just say I left there with a stomach full of greasy kabob, along with dried chamomile (for homestyle foot baths and facials), almond oil (ditto), and some peanuts (for chocolate covered peanuts I have yet to make). No sweater or shoes for me, but I got a quick pic of a table of "gently used" teddy bears. Yeah...I'm thinking the same.

46 Reasons Why You Wish We Were Friends Today

My New Favorite Place in Amman (And It Doesn't Even Serve Food!)

I have trouble focusing when I am studying at home. There are countless distractions...the bathroom, for example ("hmm, maybe I should wash my hair and do a mud mask"); the bed ("hmm, maybe I should take a nap, or just lay and read this book not remotely related to Arabic studies'); the kitchen ("hmm, maybe I should try to make that new recipe"); my exercise DVDs ("hmm, maybe I should do my NY City Ballet workout video, it's been awhile"); the gym schedule on my wall (see previous); and finally, the worst culprit of all, my this here laptop ("hmm, maybe I should [endless possibilities]").

I asked my teacher last week if there were public libraries or Border's Bookstores type places around here where I could go study on our days off (Mon, Fri). He told me about a library he used to visit when he was also a student, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Library in the "Jebel Amman" area of Amman. It's open to the public, but not government run (how we usually think of "public" in the States). Rather, it's funded by a private foundation set up by this AHS guy, who apparently founded the Arab Bank.

Jebel Amman is a relatively upscale neighborhood, very historic in many respects, hilly and housing a number of foreign embassies...the library itself is directly across from the Iraqi embassy...I would have taken a picture of the front entrance gate - really interesting design - but from my experiences in Afghanistan I always cower in fear of photographing official type places. Trust me on that one. Maybe one day...

My friend warned me that my all-black, niqabed out look wouldn't probably go over so well in Jebel Amman. I agreed with her...the only time I had been out there before to visit this neat organic (and super-westernized "nature preserve") I wasn't niqabi at the time, and there were four of us - half of whom were in niqab. Safety in numbers and diversity.

However, given how badly I need to get out of the house to study, I didn't care. Besides, I have become more cognizant as of late as to how closed up my life is here...basically home, school, additional classes, shopping, gym...everything I do is in my neighborhood or the directly surrounding environs. I don't mind overall - I didn't come to Jordan to live the way I did in Afghanistan or how I travel usually in foreign places (i.e. trying to soak up as much and see as much as I can). And I would appreciate learning more about traditional Jordanian society, culture, art etc. But, as for the parts I could easily see back in the DC area (primarily shopping mall after cafe after shopping mall) - I don't really want to fill my time with that here. So, I don't mind my bubble, but I do know I should venture out more. And, as mentioned, I found my new happy place.

The library, a 1.65 JD tax ride from outside my front door (distances are measured in cab ride fares, a startingly effective method after you have been here even a short while), was pretty straightforward. You go in, store any excess bags (can't have folks pilfering books now), and find a seat and get to it. I think they have internet access but, thankfully, it didn't seem to work. Sure, I was the only head-to-toe black wearing niqabi, but people were polite, esp. when they realized I was a foreigner, stumbling over simple questions ("where is the bathroom?" "can I bring tea?") I spent basically the whole day there, and will probably do so once a week from now on (kind of expensive and far to do more often than that).

The only drawback is that, catering to "modernized" Jordanians, it doesn't have any private places, and studying in niqab is really, challenging. But, it will just take some creativity on my part (finding corner niches, just beyong the scope of the cameras, etc) to handle this. And worse comes to worse, just get used to it. Because the benefit of being there yesterday, away from a computer, and every other distraction, resulted in getting far more memorized and done than any other day off since I started at Qasid! Have to go now or will be late for class....

A Window Out Into My World

Lest you be fooled by the tinting on the window, this lonely tree out front is not actually that green...but it's still nice to have to look out on during the many moments I am not focusing on verb patterns.

Out the window to the left, you can see Masjid an-Noor, the primary masjid for the Kharabsheh neighborhood; down the hill on that same street is a Sufi zawiya, and the spiritual center and reason for coming here, for many of the foreigners in this neighborhood. It's nice to be so close to both of those things, even though I really don't go to the masjid...just hearing the adhaan is nice.

With few exceptions the adhaan wasn't very audible in Afghanistan, except for the morning prayers, and even then you would have to be pretty close to the source to hear it. A big difference here and there is that the government has a tighter hold on religious activities...so all masajid play a gov't radio station at prayer times with the call to prayer, so it's uniform in timing and delivery. Most other places, it's called from the individual masjid, resulting in this mesh that's not highly distinguishable but like a round, ringing out one over the other, lasting much longer overall...think Cairo or Peshawar. Again, still not sure which is preferable. The clarity of a single adhaan has it's benefits, but there is something almost joyous about the other way as well.

Either way, it's nice to hear something.

A taste of Kabul or, when knock-offs go wrong

There have been a number of occasions in the last couple weeks where, as a result of an interesting event or thing I heard, I made a mental note to update the blog. Obviously that intent didn't come to fruition. Until now. Da da dahhh!! Presenting an update.... (and yes, partly motivated by a reminder that yes, a few awesome people out there do read this.)

Despite it's closer to developed vs. developing country status, Jordan - or at least 'Amman - has many things that remind me of Kabul. One is the vast and wide availability of high-aspiring knock-offs. Note: I said "high-aspiring" vs. just plain old knock-offs. My latest aquisition came as my less-than-three-week-old Carrefour men's house slippers began responding to me. Well, basically the soles came off the slipper of the shoe, making them open like a mouth every time I took a step. Mind you, I'm no high maintenance princess, and I did try to remedy it with super-glue (that's a whole 'nother blog post that will never happen, as the bad memory of glued-together fingers is still too fresh).

In fact, I tried several times to remedy the Talking Slippers. However, in the end I almost fell flat on my face when the soles fully separate from both shoes at the same moment, leaving me mortified in front of a newly entered guest. So, I finally called it quits.

I went to to Mukhtar Mall the next day, upon recommendation of a roommate, who said that the "Bata Store" there has high quality goods. Mind you, Bata is a pretty decent Western line, and there are many Western chains here in 'Amman, but most are in Westernized malls, like City Mall. Mukhtar Mall has more local brands, and that's not so bad. (I just bought a blender set from an appliance store that had super-high priced Braun products at one end, and Chinese style "blendas" at the other end. And, I bought a medically necessary chocolate milkshake for 2.25 JD there...while down the street I can buy a ridiculous amount of vegetables for that same amount. You do "the maths" as my UK friends say.)

I digress....So, off I went to Mukhtar, convenientally located 20 paces from my school. Much to the amusement, and slight horror, of the Jordanian employees of the Bata store, the non-Arabic speaking customer in black abaya, black coat, and black niqab with relatively gi-normous feet (only US 9!) ditched the dainty girly slippers and ended up leaving with a pair of - you guessed it - men's shoes. And not slippers, but outside shoe/sandals.

I pointed out to the shopkeeper that the two shoes had two different knock-off labels, like the pair woke up at the factory in Zinjiang one day and couldn't decide whose trademark to steal, so it went with one of each. The baqala ("shopkeeper" fi 'arabiyya), embarrassed, tried to peel the Bata sticker off the right shoe. I told him not to bother...and decided it has more sentimental/entertaining value this way. Wouldn't you agree?