Visual Catch-Up!

Since didn't post every single day and it is hard to describe everything - here is a visual summary of what Amman and Jordan is like thus far (with a few comments of course):

First off, here are two pictures of the girls' apartment. This one is of the living room (note the leopard print bachelor pad-esque furniture).

This is our dining room (Leyla is on the left and I am on the right).
And here is a picture of almost everyone from Cornell! From the top left: me, Yacoub, Nasr, Khalid & Cory (bottom row) Selowa, Reem, Jafar & Leyla. This was Saturday when we went to a mosque in southern Amman.
A nice view of Jordan! The entire area of Amman is made up of seven hills which are covered mostly by similar looking building as seen below. It is hard to capture the view with a camera since the hills roll into the distance but it's not a bad view I have to say.
Here I am with brown hair! Forgot to mention I dyed it (for those of you who haven't seen me since the holiday) in an attempt to blend in and maybe, just maybe, look a little Jordanian. Far-fetched I know but a girl can dream. This is outside our hotel and Leyla is to my left and Sarah to my right.
Goat heads! This country is not at all ashamed about showcasing meat in the windows. On Saturday we were walking from the Hussein Mosque to Central Amman and wanted to sit and maybe grab a bite to eat. So I saw a nicer looking restaurant and issued everyone to come in. We all sat down upstairs and then when the waiter came over we first asked to see a menu, which apparently was asking too much. So H'anan asked if they had anything vegetarian (considering she is a vegetarian and all). The waiter looked at her for a moment then said ...la ("no" in Arabic). Any hummus? La. Any falafel? La. Turns out we had walked into a place that only sells meat from sheep. We should have noticed this small detail earlier considering there were pictures of sheep on the walls and every other table had a heaping of bones on their plates. The waiter said, "We have a head, half a head, the legs, stomach, brains..." Uhhh... la!! Nasr was feeling adventurous and ordered some legs - on which we could identify a full hoof and tasted like non-chewy fat. What was even better was there was this beautiful woman at another table in a hijab basically devouring what looked to be a sheep's head. Mmm.
Here is a nice one of the building when the sun is hitting them just right...
Arab coffee! If you know me, you know I love coffee. But Arab coffee? La. It is so incredibly strong that I simply cannot handle it unless doused in cream and lots of sugar. What is worse is about halfway down in the cup there is this sludge like mud that is purposely not drained out when making the coffee. So when you buy a cup, which is already small, you can really only drink half of it without choking or begging for a piece of gum. I'll stick to Turkish coffee for now - maybe eventually I enter the major leagues and be able to handle the real stuff.
More delicious food! This is half of the remains of Kanafa (top half) which is this excellent sweet dish with tons of cheese. Also it is basically fried. Sounds a bit disgusting I'm sure but it is to die for!! Also, if you eat it too much you might die. On the bottom is baklava, which I have eaten before and loved, but this might be this most incredible baklava in the world. No lie.
This is a picture of the Hussein Mosque in Central Amman. It is the part of Amman we have already been to about 5 times and will likely go almost every day. On the right is a citadel that is a part of every mosque here. Five times a day the call of prayer is played from the green part on the top. Essentially the only words I understand that play every time at the beginning are "Allahhhu Akbarrrrr" (God is Great). Unfortunately I tend to repeat things I hear so without thinking I repeat it a kind of sing it too which probably is fairly offensive when you think about it. I have to try to consciously avoid that from now on haha. The citadel idea is quite cool though in my opinion because when you look at the hills of buildings you can pick out exactly where all the mosques are.
Here is an example of the millions of pictures of the king (and often of his son as well) placed everywhere. King Abdullah is on the right and his son (still quite young it looks like) is on the left. This is the most standard picture - of their portraits - but there are also variations such as the King in his military uniform, in sports clothes, with his family, shooting a gun, etc. I'll have to post a picture of him with his wife too because man, is she gorgeous. Most likely in my top 10 most beautiful women I have ever seen (or in this case seen in a picture) in the world.
Here is a juice stand! It is exactly like India when it comes to juice. Except I don't think they made banana juice in India and that seems to be pretty popular here. Sooooo good.
Last picture! This is from the second day when we went as a group to Jerusalem Restaurant in downtown Amman. It is very popular locally and the food was super cheap. The most popular dish, and also the best in my opinion, is called Mensef (second dish from where the camera is). It is rice with either chicken or lamb on top. The meat is also incredibly tender and delicious. I don't think I will have any problem being full and happy at all times when in Jordan.
Today was our first day or real class but since class doesn't start for the other students for another week it was nothing eventful. I'm glad we are back in class although homework is a buzzkill sometimes. Right now I am looking forward to dinner though - seems there are quite a bit of good cooks from our group and we have been eating homemade group dinners for the past few nights which I love doing.

Back to homework for now! Masalama!

I am no longer homeless!

After looking for only one day... we found an apartment for us in Amman! Apparently it wasn't so difficult since this is the down season - which also means we got the place for a mean price :). Thursday morning we went to visit it around 12 and really, the place was perfect. The building is all hotel apartments - which is common here apparently. The first apartment had three bedrooms, a big living room and a nice sized kitchen. The second apartment was two smaller apartments with a door that opens between them. Ziad (the owner) said he would give us both for the price of room. So that apartment had four bedrooms - two doubles and two singles, 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms and 2 kitchens. Not bad. Essentially we were sold on the idea, especially because we were desperate for a place to live!

Munther thought it would be good to check out a second place just in case. We drove about five minutes away, got out at a youth hostel area and then were immediately surrounded by about 30 boys our age. We exchanged names, they laughed with us (or at us?!?!) and then one guy played an American rap song on his cell phone and danced. After that brief scene we boarded the bus again to go back to the apartment because Munther just wanted to scare Ziad to give us a better price! So without signing a contract or negotiating terms - we moved in one hour later with all our things. Thank goodness for Arab hospitality!

While waiting to move in we flipped a coin to see who would get the "better" apartment (aka the one with the two singles and 2 living rooms). The boys won. But then somehow we decided the girls needed it more... I think we convinced them because the kitchen ceilings were lower in the bigger apartment and Khalid and Nasr would hit their heads since they are both well over 6 feet. So the girls got the big apartment! We thus far have moved all the furniture (similar to bachelor pad furniture which is hilarious) into the one room and the table and chairs together into the other room. So we have a nice living and dining room now! I also bought two posters today, one that has the ENTIRE Quran on it (Muslim holy book). That is impressive too considering how long the Quran is - although it is nearly impossible to read because the script is so small! Then I also got a poster of the hajj in Mecca (where millions of Muslims go to the main mosque in Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once in their lives).

I am sharing a room with Seja (aka H'anan, Anan or Amel) - she can't make up her mind on what she wants to be called quite yet either! Then Selowa and Reem have the singles and Leyla & Sara have the other double. So far we are all getting along well so I am very content up to this point!

On the topic of constant name changing... I came up with an idea on Friday on how to choose a name (finally). I shall ask everyone from Jordan I talk to which name is best. ُWhen we went to eat lunch at a restaurant, after ordering I asked which name was better - Lana or Ferah. The waiter laughed and said he was too biased because his fiance's name is Lana. So then I asked the man at the juice counter on the street. First he said Ferah was better. Then when i asked if Ferah or Yasmine was better he went "ohhhhh yasmineee ism helowe!" Which basically means a beautiful name loosely translated. This continued for two more people, one for Lana and one for Ferah - but (thankfully) both also liked Yasmine more! So... im done. Yasmine it is. Most importantly too, I can pronounce this one :).

And A New Adventure Begins...

Horray! I have embarked on a new adventure. This time, the Middle East. Not without difficulty, I have forsaken my dreams of studying abroad in Paris my second semester Junior year for Jordan. And I am positive my change of heart will be well worth the lack of Parisian cafes.

For this new chapter of my blog I changed the title (not officially of course) to Teen wa Tafawal. Translation? Figs and Optimism. While pineapples remain my favorite fruit, they are essentially unknown in the Middle East. And while I will miss Paradise Bakery from Arizona, CTB from Ithaca and all the incredible and incredibly spicy food from India - I must move on to falafel, hummus and figs, something I doubt I will get sick of anytime soon!

Onto the real action. I have arrived in Jordan! My flight left on the 17th (Sunday) and we arrived in Amman Monday night. When I say "we" I will often be generally referring to the 12 people I came with. For those of you who don't know, my entire intensive Arabic class came together. They are...

Caitlin (Reem)
Laura (Leyla)
Cory (Ghawwar)
Nathan (Ata)
Ian (Khalid)
Emily (Anan)
Priscilla (Selowa)
Daniel (Nasr)
Sarah (Sarah)
Jake (Yacoub)
Jeff (Jafr)
and Munther (our professor)

That's everyone! In parenthesis I put everyone's Arabic name. I prefer to call people by those names in general so I will likely do that if I refer to them in the future. So we arrived on time and a bus was ready to pick us up and take us to a hotel for the first night. By that time we were pretty hungry so we went to a falafel place next door to the hotel and got some food. Finally some legitimate Arab food! I do have to say, while I enjoy eating hummus in the US the quality is infinitely better here!

The next day all had to be ready by 8:30AM to get on a bus and head to the university we will be studying at - Hashemite University. Once we got off the bus there were about 40 men just standing there and staring at us and a huge ceremony set up. At first I freaked out a little thinking it was all for us. I am really going for trying not to attract as much attention this time around... Luckily we were just invited to a ceremony for Jordan's version of Earth Day. Or at least I think that is what they were saying. The university is also opening up an agriculture school so the president spoke for a while and then people were planting trees afterwards. At the ceremony there must have been a 20 foot picture of the king (King Abdullah) right up front. Also mid sentence during one of the speeches someone (not sure where they were) called out "Praise the king!" if I heard correctly, and everyone yelled out and repeated it three times. The king's photo is EVERYWHERE. I had a general feeling before about how important the royal family was in Jordan but the man's picture is practically in every room in every building. Even on the back of cars!!

So after the ceremony we walked to the university's language center where a group of the students had gathered, probably around 40 of them. We think they might be English students or general language studies students. Then Munther asked one of us to prove to them we could speak Arabic. Here we go. I knew I would stick out in Jordan but I did not expect to be such a porcelain figure, showcased at all opportunities. So Yacoub (one of the more brilliant, if not the most, Arabic student in our class) spoke and said his name, where he is from, etc. Then we all had to do it - ahh! It actually went quite smoothly - there is just a ton of pressure speaking another language to the people that know it best.

After we talked to the students we passed a group doing a dance for another part of the ceremony. I was really excited since I want to get involved in any sort of dancing if possible so I spoke to the group a little when their performance was over. Then the guy leading us around said: "Do you want them to dance for you?" Uh... yes, I guess? So then they put on a special performance for us! After they were done we all got up on stage and the leader of the group taught us three different moves - they said I was good too :) haha. The dance is called the "dabka" and it is a type of Lebanese dance. We learned a bit at Cornell from one of our teaches but as expected that was a much watered-down version. The students were so welcoming and nice too - makes me excited to hopefully start making friends! It was a perfect activity to do to meet people too as you all interlace hands in a line. I was surprised that in general they alternate between guys and girls so it wasn't segregated at all. Only sad part was when one of the guys asked me my name. I responded "Isme Ferah" (My name is Ferah). He then began pronouncing the "h" sound again - so basically telling me I was pronouncing my own name wrong. The h in Arabic has a lot more hhhha to it then what is natural for me to say - gotta work on that if I plan on introducing myself to anyone anytime soon!

After that things started to go downhill. The president apparently did not know about our apartment situation living in Zarqa and subsequently forbid it when Munther (our professor) it up. How he was not aware of it in the first place I am not sure. So our plans of moving into the apartment that day were suddenly out the window. We think the main reason security suddenly became more of a concern was in relation to the most recent suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed seven members of the CIA. The bomber was, as the newspapers say, a man from Jordan who was aiding US and Jordanian intelligence for the locations of Al-Qaeda members. Needless to say, he was not to be trusted. He was also from Zarqa, the town we planned to live in and the town the university is in. Now it is not as though Zarqa was the Scottsdale of Jordan before that. It is just a much poorer area with mostly Palestinian refugees and immigrants but I do not think we would have had any problems. It was ideal too... because almost no one there would speak English and our Arabic would have improved tenfold there as opposed to the rate it will improve in Amman.

Without housing in Zarqa, we can not have the Jordanian roommates we were going to have. That was definitely the worst part. One of the best parts about the program was the fact that we were going to live with Jordanian students - basically forcing ourselves to make friends with people other than ourselves. Now I feel a bit trapped. We are going to find an apartment for our group in Amman now, the main city. This is good in some ways because there will be more to do - more places to explore, more places to eat, etc. But now I feel like I am in a mini Cornell in Jordan. I should be the last person to do a Cornell program abroad. I am so typically against that. Why should I remain with Cornell students when I am there for 3.5 years and I only have one semester abroad?! I like everyone in the program, don't get me wrong, but I need to be independent, forced to learn things on my own and forced to make my own friends if I want to succeed in a new city. I don't want or need someone to keep watch over me or a buffer of 11 other Americans. It is only the first few days though so although I may feel a bit like I'm on a field trip now, it should get better quickly - especially once we get our own apartment and are settled in.

Maybe I need to come to term with something about the Middle East too - I can't just do things independently. Munther keeps saying that the Mukhabarat (Jordanian intelligence service) is all around too, there especially to make sure we are safe. Hard to say that isn't true. We seemed in particular to be watched by a number of men with no apparent other jobs when we were at the university. Makes me a bit worried that they think that is necessary. I also need to be more confident in making new friends who are from Jordan. I seem to retreat quickly after speaking to someone for a few minutes because I am just more comfortable with who I know or just by myself. I know if I don't make Jordanian friends I will seriously regret it so hopefully, or should i say inshallah, that will all work out for the best!

Also I can't seem to stop making comparisons with India! While I loved India and I do really want to go back, especially since I have been thinking about it so much recently, Jordan has a lot of qualities that make it so much nicer to live in than India. For one, a few people stare at us, but I don't get anything NEAR the protruding eyes and looks of shock I got in India. It seems much easier to blend in here, to an extent. Also - everyone seems to be honest! People still up the prices here or there but if anything it is only by half a dinar (Jordanian currency). In India the starting price was always at least twice as much if not three times the price a merchant would give an Indian person. Feels nice to be treated honestly and equally.

That's all for now. We explored Central Amman today but we are off to West Amman tomorrow to see just how swanky it really is - rumor is they have a Starbucks. For now I'll continue reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" (I am about halfway in and it is an excellent murder mystery - my favorite!).

Masalama!

PS - sorry for the length and lack of picture - many to come!