Dear Grandpa...
Dear Grandpa, Hi! I hope you see this the next time your tech savvy friend gets you online! I hope you’re doing well, and that your weather is better in Florida than it is here. Honestly it’s so unpredictable, but the nights get really cold now, and the days are around 60. However, since we don’t have a dryer in our apartment, it’s cold enough that all of our clothing takes about a week to dry, and even then you’ve got to run a hair dryer over it to make sure! Luckily, I’ll be missing most of the winter season here (which I’m pretty sure is just the month of January) since I’ll be traveling in Europe. I’ve been wearing three sweatshirts to bed and my slippers because even though there is an apparatus for heating on the premises, we can’t seem to figure out how to work it. Alas, that’s the purpose of many, many blankets I suppose.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you about some of the developments here. I’ve finished teaching for the semester, and boy was that an experience. My students were kind of all over the board with their skill levels in English, and some were really good speakers, but terrible writers, and vice versa. So designing classes was a challenge since everyone needed something different. I’m glad to have a break for now, even though I enjoyed the experience. I should start teaching again next semester, inshallah.
I’ve also (probably) learned some Arabic since I got here, but as an American friend of mine put it, you really only need to know three words to function here: “yullah” (let’s go- I think), “halas” (enough- I think), and “habibi” (definitely “dear,” but used for anything and everything). I’m not kidding! “Would you like a coffee?” “Habibi!” Want to go to dinner later?” “Habibi!” I would add “inshallah” to the list because it’s also an appropriate response to virtually anything. It literally translates as “god willing,” but it can mean anything from “No, I don’t want to do that, and I just don’t want to tell you,” to “Sure, maybe, if nothing else comes up,” to “Yeah, okay, I’ll try to be on time (inshallah).”
On a related note, I’ve adopted the really horrible habit of sometimes being really late to gatherings and meetings because EVERYONE here is always late, no matter what. I’ve just started showing up to things thirty minutes after the planned time because I’ll still probably have to wait another thirty minutes for the person to show up. It might be something I have to work on when I get back to America…
My list of complaints is fairly short as of late, and it consists of three things. One, sidewalks were invented as a pleasant way to commute from one place to another on foot, but in Amman, they’re actually death traps. I feel more comfortable and safe walking in the middle of the road. Second, there is a petrol truck that drives around constantly playing this annoying song and I really don’t care for him. Finally, I was at the police station trying to get my residency permit and the man working behind the counter shut down his register with 45 minutes left before close just because he felt like it. I’m still not over it- who quits working with almost an hour left before close? Rude.
Despite the ridiculousness, I finally got residency thanks to our awesome friend Hassan, who went with us to the police station on no less than five separate occasions. After I received my fancy new residency card, I was able to open a Jordanian bank account and stash some cash in a more accessible location. This also took four different trips to four different branches of Arab Bank, but it all worked out. As you might have gathered thus far, efficiency is not a strong suit of this country.
Despite these slight hiccups in scheduling, and how busy I’ve been with school and work, I managed to visit a friend’s family in Irbid this weekend, which is only a two dinar bus ride from Amman. It was really lovely. I met his family and his mom made some of the best food I’ve had here. Since I don’t eat meat (they were all really freaked out by that) she made a bunch of traditional dishes from Jordan and Palestine and left out parts of it. They kept making me eat things and I honestly thought my stomach was going to explode. Every time I’d say “no thank you” to more food, it would just magically appear on my plate anyway. So after two different rice dishes, hummus, bread, salad, some unidentified dishes, and a first round of desserts, they served kunafa and coffee. I absolutely love kunafa, which is a white cheese covered with a crunchy top and then soaked in pure sugar, but it’s so heavy that on the bus ride back I fell asleep sitting upright. I woke up back in Amman and my stomach still hurt! It was really cool to get to meet everybody though, even if I just had to sit and pretend I understood all the Arabic :)
This week I’m giving a final presentation, and next week we take our final exams, so I’m really excited to be done with school for the semester. I’ll have a few days with friends here before we all leave for Christmas, and I can’t wait to see my friends in Europe. I’ll make sure to give you an update from Portugal! Much love from Amman, Leah
