Remnants of a Former Life

We started a movie the other day in عامية, called Captain Abu Raed. It's Jordanian, so I can understand them! It was filmed actually in Jordan, too, so I recognized the airport and Amman and coasters...it made me miss it...

I signed up for a conversation partner so I could keep practicing my Arabic, and there was an ice cream social last night for everyone to meet each other. I meet a bunch of guys from Saudi Arabia and one from Qatar and a few from UAE and it was awesome because I could FINALLY speak Arabic/Arabeezy and people understood me! So hopefully this will work out because it would be great to keep using it.

I'm trying to put together a slideshow because I signed up to do a presentation on my time abroad, and I'm looking for all these specific songs that I can't find because I have no idea of their title, who sings them, or even the words...oh well. At least I found the nationalist song that they always show on Jordan TV. It's actually awesome - watch it. The funny part is it comes on TV and people actually intentionally watch it, volume cranked and everything.

To Smoke or Not to Smoke?

I was thinking about really being Jordanian back in the States and taking up smoking. No, not seriously (I don’t think). But I was walking back into my building this evening (for those who don’t know I live in the International House), passing a group of three smoking together, and overheard this one American guy asking this French guy about classes, and it struck me that these people were getting to know each other over a cigarette. What a convenient ice-breaker! Gee, got a light? By the way, what’s your life story? Things like that are what made me want to live in an international community anyway. If I have to start smoking to make international friends, so be it.

I feel your pain, brother.

Thanks mom for pointing me in the direction of this fantastic article from the Week in Review. I liked it so much I sent the author this email in response:

I have just returned from a semester studying abroad in Amman and I can appreciate the sentiments you express in this article. The vast difference in perspective even between the "liberal" American set and the Arab viewpoint was unexpected at first but it is something more Americans need to realize. I agree that it is important to show both sides of the conflict in equally legitimate light and not to give in to pressure from those who would have their news sources even more biased.

The point that ideas like Zionism can carry such a multitude of connotations is something not enough people understand. Our words matter, and not because we have power but because we are judged for them.

I just wanted to thank you for acknowledging that there are such diverse opinions on the conflict and for recognizing the difficulty of objectivity when everyone is ready to jump down your throat for the smallest turn of phrase or choice of words.

I really think his point is an excellent one; words and ideas don't carry the same meaning or weight everywhere and this simple knowledge is often lost and usually leads to misunderstanding which is where so many problems lie.

The End of an Era

Alas...I am now back in Philadelphia so this blog seems no longer relevant, at least for now. Sad! I liked blogging. So don't expect much, although if I come up with relevant ideas I'll for sure post.

Journey to the Center of Iraq

Or I should say, journey that never got us through the border. On Thursday Abe and I rented a car and trekked across the desert wilderness of Eastern Jordan with hopes of being allowing into Iraq, just to see it and say we’d been there. Four hours after we left Amman we got the Karameh border crossing, only the chat with the border guards for a few minutes until we were informed that we couldn’t go in without either Iraqi citizenship or a valid visa. Oh well, we tried. And now we can legitimately say we have seen all of Jordan; east to west, north to south.

Despite our failure to achieve our goal, it was a heck of an adventure. We ran out of gas in Ruwayshed, which is this tiny town 100 km from the border in one direction and 100 km from the next town in the other. And when I say closest town, I don’t mean you might see something resembling civilization in between the two. I mean there is nothing except igneous rock, sand, and mirages, for farther than the eye can see. Not only were we almost on Empty, but there was no gas in town. At all. They had run out and it wasn’t supposed to come till the next day. Not really wanting to stay in the middle of nowhere (literally, in every sense of the world) we negotiated to siphon gas from some guys tank, paid them 5 JD, and went on our merry way. Not entirely merry though, as we got stopped at something like 3 checkpoints on the way back. But return to Amman we did, eventually, with one more adventure tucked under our belts.

Pictures are on Picasa

What do we do when we're jetlagged?

We sleep till 2:30, that's what we do.

I can check at least one thing off the endless and ever-growing To Do While In Jordan List: eat at Reem!

Abe and I went to Faris in Sweifieh for chicken shwarma and then to Reem on the Second Circle for lamb shwarma. Both were delicious and hot and moist and mmmm just so good. Perfect jetlag breakfast-lunch-dinner food - I can see why Reem is the King's favorite. It's the kind of place that only makes shwarma and there is no writing anywhere. It's just a little red hut shack kind of thing tucked into the surrounding buildings with your typical Arab "line" aka clusterf*** gathered out front but boy, is it worth it. At .5 JD per sandwich you can eat your fill essentially for nothing. Faris, while a bit more expensive, is arguably the best chicken shwarma in the city.

Yeah, not so healthy, but hey, when in Rome...

Catch Phrase

I have created a meme, or perhaps a new buzzword, look for it in next December's NYT magazine:

propaganda prophylactic

The meaning is fairly self-explanatory but it is basically what is needed before either side can start making progress towards talking with the other. And I'm not talking about politicians here. I'm talking about 22 year old American Jews with 22 year old Palestinian Jordanians. The respective medias have such different perspectives and emphases, and no one can understand the other side completely, so you end up with clashes that don't even make logical sense because they are not arguing the same point. I therefore point out the need for a propaganda prophylactic - a way to understand both sides of the conflict without media or popular interference. Just the facts, no bias. Impossible, no?

For proof just check out and compare:
nytimes.com
jordantimes.com