Today all of the girls went with Dema (our homestay coordinator) downtown to purchase clothing appropriate for the Badia, where we will all be going to next Thursday to stay with a different homestay family for five days. This clothing includes a very long dress with long sleeves and hijab. Let me tell you, shopping in downtown Amman when you're American is always eventful, shopping downtown with 18 other girls in Amman? Even more so.
We're all clamoring around in this itty bitty shop trying to find the perfect color and dress (but let's face it, no matter what we get, it will still be the oddest thing we've all ever worn and aside from some girls whom I'm fairly certain will rock it, will look very odd on all of us). Anyhow, we bargain (and by that I mean I watch with envy and amazement as Dema haggles with the men of the shop) and buy and waltz around with our backpacks, obviously loud and foreign and have a hell of a time.
Myself and two other girls (Sarah and El Hob/Annie) have to get our dresses hemmed because we're short and cool so while the other girls go and check out another shop we are left to our own devices with four men while we await our quickly hemmed items. Jokes are told and clothing is held up and regarded with chuckles and then one of the guys puts one of those belly dancing jingly things around me and says "Dance!!" I suppose I've gotten so used to complying to this command in my house that I didn't really hesitate and did a little swanky shaking (for the record, I did protest at least twice before agreeing to awkwardly dance in front of four men who have been snapping photos of us all night [this isn't as weird or creepy as it sounds]). Anyhow, by the end of our wait there, we've had men from the streets applaud briefly, too many giggles to count, and then man has told me I should keep the jingly thing (what is the name for this anyway?) as a gift if I wear it always. Free fun skirt? Free cab ride? who am I to protest to all of these wonderful things. So we walk out of the store after a grand old time, dresses and hijabs in hand and red jingly skirt on body. Job well done? I think so.
Also- yesterday I decided I'm going to make a point to bake for my family. I feel like it's just a good, easy way to bond with them. And though the kitchen feels very foreign and I have no idea where anything is, it's nice to cook. I miss that a lot, food freedom, haha. Anyway, baking cookies yesterday turned out to be a great choice. Dancing ensued, Forbidden Love was on the TV (a very popular, very confusingly counter cultural series), and chocolate is always delicious. Next on the list is cornbread and then guacamole. I've basically decided I'm going to bring Texas to Jordan. I don't think I'm ever more proud to be a Texan than I am when I'm not even in Texas. I do miss my lone star state.
Cannot wait to go to the Badia and be internet-less and in the country again (even though it's less country, more desert, but still). Let's see, any other little tid-bits to tell...
ahh, we finally finished learning the alphabet in Arabic class, and today tried to read a childrens book. And by that I mean, we all read one sentence in the very first page. Here is mine "The monkey escaped from the zoo and the guard ran behind to catch him." Though, in the midst of the dictionary and transliterations on my paper that I was taking notes on it reads like this, "escape monkey in zoo garden, guard behind to catch!"
I have a feeling I will never speak Arabic and I will never know if the guard catches the monkey. I also have a feeling that when I get home I will feel so great to finally feel like I'm 21 again. In any given day I think the maximum age I feel in any given circumstance is like 15, if that. Though, i clean up the kitchen at the SIT building better than I know any 15-year-old ever would so take that Amman.
God these posts are terribly bereft of any useful information for people who want to come to Amman or who are curious about Arabs or the Middle East and that was definitely my original intention in its creation. This is of course why I've linked to the right some of my friend's blogs (who are far more adept at explaining this and cataloging the interesting speakers we have come to visit and various political, economic, cultural things). I don't know- I'd like to say more about the people here and the culture, but I'm so uncomfortable doing that when I'm not sure if I even know what's going on. I mean, I've got a lot of baggage to weed through before I can actually understand something here. Think about all of the biases I've got to get out of my way (liberal arts college student, non-Arabic speaker, feminist, gay rights activist, blah blah blah, the list could go on forever!) Alas, hopefully with the Independent Study Project I'll get down and dirty and be able to pin down some stuff. Right now the plan is to conduct my study about dating practices in Jordanian youth and how women think about dating/arranged marriages/love/sex/everything that goes with it. I'm pretty pumped. Hopefully it will come out with some interesting information. I'll keep you informed of the topic narrowing/shifts/evolution. In the mean time, I apologize for my complete lack of a well-painted picture of Amman provided in this blog and hope that you'll check out the links to the right to get some more complete information. And next blog post I promise I'll try to get in a little more academic information.
(photos below courtesy of the illustrious megan daily)
Until next time, love from Jordan.
We're all clamoring around in this itty bitty shop trying to find the perfect color and dress (but let's face it, no matter what we get, it will still be the oddest thing we've all ever worn and aside from some girls whom I'm fairly certain will rock it, will look very odd on all of us). Anyhow, we bargain (and by that I mean I watch with envy and amazement as Dema haggles with the men of the shop) and buy and waltz around with our backpacks, obviously loud and foreign and have a hell of a time.
Myself and two other girls (Sarah and El Hob/Annie) have to get our dresses hemmed because we're short and cool so while the other girls go and check out another shop we are left to our own devices with four men while we await our quickly hemmed items. Jokes are told and clothing is held up and regarded with chuckles and then one of the guys puts one of those belly dancing jingly things around me and says "Dance!!" I suppose I've gotten so used to complying to this command in my house that I didn't really hesitate and did a little swanky shaking (for the record, I did protest at least twice before agreeing to awkwardly dance in front of four men who have been snapping photos of us all night [this isn't as weird or creepy as it sounds]). Anyhow, by the end of our wait there, we've had men from the streets applaud briefly, too many giggles to count, and then man has told me I should keep the jingly thing (what is the name for this anyway?) as a gift if I wear it always. Free fun skirt? Free cab ride? who am I to protest to all of these wonderful things. So we walk out of the store after a grand old time, dresses and hijabs in hand and red jingly skirt on body. Job well done? I think so.
Also- yesterday I decided I'm going to make a point to bake for my family. I feel like it's just a good, easy way to bond with them. And though the kitchen feels very foreign and I have no idea where anything is, it's nice to cook. I miss that a lot, food freedom, haha. Anyway, baking cookies yesterday turned out to be a great choice. Dancing ensued, Forbidden Love was on the TV (a very popular, very confusingly counter cultural series), and chocolate is always delicious. Next on the list is cornbread and then guacamole. I've basically decided I'm going to bring Texas to Jordan. I don't think I'm ever more proud to be a Texan than I am when I'm not even in Texas. I do miss my lone star state.
Cannot wait to go to the Badia and be internet-less and in the country again (even though it's less country, more desert, but still). Let's see, any other little tid-bits to tell...
ahh, we finally finished learning the alphabet in Arabic class, and today tried to read a childrens book. And by that I mean, we all read one sentence in the very first page. Here is mine "The monkey escaped from the zoo and the guard ran behind to catch him." Though, in the midst of the dictionary and transliterations on my paper that I was taking notes on it reads like this, "escape monkey in zoo garden, guard behind to catch!"
I have a feeling I will never speak Arabic and I will never know if the guard catches the monkey. I also have a feeling that when I get home I will feel so great to finally feel like I'm 21 again. In any given day I think the maximum age I feel in any given circumstance is like 15, if that. Though, i clean up the kitchen at the SIT building better than I know any 15-year-old ever would so take that Amman.
God these posts are terribly bereft of any useful information for people who want to come to Amman or who are curious about Arabs or the Middle East and that was definitely my original intention in its creation. This is of course why I've linked to the right some of my friend's blogs (who are far more adept at explaining this and cataloging the interesting speakers we have come to visit and various political, economic, cultural things). I don't know- I'd like to say more about the people here and the culture, but I'm so uncomfortable doing that when I'm not sure if I even know what's going on. I mean, I've got a lot of baggage to weed through before I can actually understand something here. Think about all of the biases I've got to get out of my way (liberal arts college student, non-Arabic speaker, feminist, gay rights activist, blah blah blah, the list could go on forever!) Alas, hopefully with the Independent Study Project I'll get down and dirty and be able to pin down some stuff. Right now the plan is to conduct my study about dating practices in Jordanian youth and how women think about dating/arranged marriages/love/sex/everything that goes with it. I'm pretty pumped. Hopefully it will come out with some interesting information. I'll keep you informed of the topic narrowing/shifts/evolution. In the mean time, I apologize for my complete lack of a well-painted picture of Amman provided in this blog and hope that you'll check out the links to the right to get some more complete information. And next blog post I promise I'll try to get in a little more academic information.
(photos below courtesy of the illustrious megan daily)
looking on while Dema works her haggling magic. She's my bargaining role model.
Until next time, love from Jordan.
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