This past week. Wow. But first, the response I got from last week’s post, “A Single Drop” was extremely empowering, such to a level that is quite hard to describe. Hearing from my friends that they were going through the exact same thing (except perhaps the weird dog moment) in their study abroad programs and that my family of all extensions supporting me during that hard time despite being thousands of miles away was simply amazing. Its moments like that that keep me blogging my stories, and I want to take this moment to say thank you to you.
I’ll work my back through time: starting with today’s visit to my first Jordanian funeral. My host mom’s husband’s uncle’s wife passed away earlier this week, and this past weekend was the start of her funeral service. I say start because in Jordan the funeral experience lasts for three days, in which food is served and what my mom likes to call, “sitting bored in chair chatting with people from 3-9 each day and it goes on and on and on”. I never met this woman, but my host mom said it would be alright for me to attend a few hours of the funeral and eat the catered lunch. Like a good study abroad student, I quickly noted differences in the mourning process here with that in America. First, 3 days. I couldn’t do it. Second, men and women are mostly separated in the reception hall, with literally a small divider between the genders, unlike in America nuclear families tend to clump. It’s not haram (unlawful) to go to the other side, but its “just the way things are” my brother Nimer told me. Family from all over, including London, Israel, Saudi, Greece, and Italy all flew in to attend her funeral. I will admit, I felt awkward sitting among those mourning when I had barely any connection to this lady. But for the sake of cultural immersion, I pushed through and learned a side of Jordanian culture that isn’t talked about.
This past weekend I went to Dana Nature Reserve and did some hiking! My friend Stephanie spontaneously asked me if I wanted to join this group of six people I had never met before and go on this weekend trip. Despite not knowing any details about this trip, I agreed because, why not? Hiking hasn’t made my list of priorities thus far, but I really wanted to get out, explore, and breathe some fresh air rather than tobacco and exhaust filled air I get daily. Dana was beautiful, but during my whole stay I didn’t see any wildlife except for a small lizard that quickly darted under a rock. I did get to drink from a fresh spring gushing from the mountainside, smell wild mint, eat some berries our guide gave us, and snack on a fresh pomegranate (ruuman) straight from a tree. Ah, I love nature and during this whole trip I kept thinking to myself how I want to go on more hiking trips with Aunty Janice when I get back!
Arabic is hard. Each day I feel like I make more and more flashcards and the stacks on my desk are approaching a level in which they will likely topple over and bury me alive. But despite this, I still feel so useless in the language. But I know I’m learning more and more each day: I can actually carry on broken conversations with my cab drivers when I want to – something I definitely couldn’t do when I started this program. But little by little I’ll get there.
I had my first social night with my choir, Dozan Wa Awtar. I don’t remember if I mentioned it on my blog or not, but I auditioned for one of Amman’s only choirs and I was accepted for the semester. We unfortunately are not singing any songs in Arabic this season because we are preparing for our Christmas concert in December. The diversity in our choir is interesting. There is a mix of Jordanians, Americans or Europeans working in Amman, students (like me), and Asian ladies. It’s cool how such a group can come together to bring chorale music to a society that does not appreciate it. When we think American government does not support the arts, just compare that to Jordan in which music is not even taught in schools! To the new members who have never done music, one of the members teaches an intro to reading music course. But my social was really fun. I was nervous because it was located back in some neighborhoods and was pretty sure I would get lost trying to navigate a taxi there, but I made it on my first try! We played Pictionary and even Dance Dance Revolution: Abba Edition on the Wii. Let’s just say, I hope the pictures of me dancing never surface to the internet. If you’d like to know more about Dozan, check out their website here!
What else… on Tuesday I attended a Guy Culture Day put on by CIEE. It involved a group of 10 guys going to cool bread bakery (which I am now in love with) and go to a cafe to learn how to play backgammon and drink juice and smoke argeelah. Basically, bro time. It was fun, but afterwords I went to an art gallery downtown with some friends to see an exhibit put on my contemporary artists about Gaza. It was really interesting and the art was phenomenal. My favorite was the display of fake hollywood movie dvd boxes named after secret coop missions in Gaza. We then headed to this amazing cafe called Books@Cafe where we studied and enjoyed the Amman skyline at night.
What else… I can’t think of anything too important. But next time Ill try to have more focus with my post and highlight a specific aspect of Amman and Jordan. If you have any suggestions of things you want to know, let me know! (Except for political things, because I don’t want to get in trouble with the gov’t, especially since internet is highly monitored here). But anything else is fine!
Till next time chicos, salaam wa tisbah al-khayr ya’ll!
