The Citadel and City Mall

This weekend I went to a mall that could have been yanked from any major city in America and then a ruin that contained remnants of the civilizations who have occupied this country since the Romans. It was quite a contrast. I needed to get some shoes, so my roommate and I went to City Mall, the most expensive shopping center, although not the only one, in Amman. I didn't actually get shoes there, but it was big enough that we did spend the better part of 2 hours wandering around. In addition to the Clare's, TGI Friday's, Starbucks, Gap and various other American stores, there was a gigantic Walmart-like thing attached to the mall called Carrefour. It was bigger and slightly fancier than Walmart, actually. Apparently it's a French chain. All of this combined to make me feel like I was back in the States. It was a very odd and disorienting experience. I'm not sure why I was so surprised, really, because there was something similar in Cairo called City Stars, but I don't think I'll be going back there much while I'm here.

The ruins were much more what I was expecting, although they were rather spectacular in their own way as well. We went to two sites, I think the two biggest and best preserved in Amman, the Roman Theater and the Citadel. The Roman Theater was exactly what it sounds like. I saw very similar theaters in Greece, but it was still impressive. There was also a museum attached that for the price of 1 dinar (about $1.40) you could go in, and even take pictures. It wasn't about the Romans though, but the Bedouin. There weren't many informational plaques, it was basically a collection of artifacts such as traditional costumes worn by people (mostly women) from specific areas, including some areas in Palestine, various jewelry, tools, artwork in various mediums and there were a few examples of what a Bedouin tent might look like, or a loom, etc. It was interesting, but not very informative about the history or current importance of the Bedouin culture on display. The Bedouin tribal system is still very much in evidence in Jordan today, to the point where it dictates marriages (clans that don't get along historically don't intermarry, apparently). This museum didn't go into that at all, though.

Here are some pictures of the theater:











The Citadel was a bit different. For one thing, it's the site of multiple civilizations' settlements. There weren't many informational plaques at this site either, but at the very least it was a Roman site and an Umayyad site (the first dynastic Muslim rulers, after the original caliphs, around the 700s). There didn't seem to be any rules as to what could and couldn't be touched, walked on, climbed on or sat on, although there were guards walking around who yelled if someone climbed too high. All of these ruins, by the way, were limestone, I'm pretty sure. That seems to be the local rock. There was only one intact structure, which I think was the mosque, and it had obviously been restored. Everything else was outlined by half falling down columns and the remnants of the foundation. The only information I gleaned from one of the few plaques around explained that because there was no natural spring at the site, all rainwater had to be collected and saved in underground cisterns, some remnants of which remain.

The truly magnificent part of this site, however, was the view. I may have mentioned in one of my early posts being surprised by the hills that make up the city of Amman. Well, the Citadel sits on the top of a hill that if it is not the center of the city, certainly once was. You can see, in all directions, the city sprawled out below. The entire city is probably not visible, but if not it's probably close. This is where I took my long-promised pictures of the city, since it's probably one of the few times I'll remember my camera. I even got some pictures with me in it, just to prove to my mother I'm not making all of this up.

Here are some more pictures:

A Day in the Life

My life here is starting to settle into a routine. That's one of the reasons I haven't written for a few days. I go to class 5 days a week, for various hours of the day, but I'm at the university from 9 am until at least 5 pm, more often 7 or 8. On Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday I only have afternoon classes, but I meet my peer tutor, Arwa, for an hour at 9 because that is what is convenient for her. Between 10 and 2 (when my afternoon classes start), I usually do homework or read something non-academic. Monday and Wednesday look pretty much the same, except I have a class instead of meeting Arwa. At this point, I still don't have much homework, at least compared to Marlboro, and I don't think that's going to change much. Contemporary Arab Women Writers is a literature class, so we'll be reading several books, but they're all pretty short. For the first two weeks, we only have 80 pages to read. My other class, Contemporary Thought in the Islamic World (I seem to be picking contemporary subjects lately, which is funny because I'm a history student), requires only about 400 pages for the entire semester. However, both classes require things like presentations also, so it won't be too easy. Just not as much reading and writing as I'm used to. The Arabic classes don't require much homework either, although that might change. We do get lots of quizs though.

So far, my weekends have consisted mostly of hanging around the apartment, usually with one excursion out a day, to downtown usually. I discovered the souk yesterday, the fresh fruits and vegetables market, which was interesting. That's probably where we'll be getting our produce for now on, since it's cheaper than the grocery store. There were several spice stalls which smelled particularly amazing, although of course everything was labeled in Arabic and I didn't recognize most of it. I haven't done much cooking yet, beyond pasta and rice, because we still haven't found a long lighter to light the oven (it's gas), and my roommate doesn't cook at all, beyond boiling water and heating things up. I'm hoping that I can find someone, maybe my peer tutor, to teach me some Jordanian cooking recipes or techniques.

Arwa, my peer tutor, is extremely nice, as are most of the Jordanians I've talked to, especially the women. She is a senior at the University of Jordan, is the oldest child in her family, and comes 2 hours on the bus to get to school everyday. She is working on becoming a translator, and her English is quite good. She is also fairly religious (Muslim), from the few conversations we've had so far. Of the three times we've met, religion has come up twice, including the first time. CIEE tells us (both Jordanians and Americans) not to get into the sticky subjects, like religion, politics, and sexuality, until we get to know each other a little better. We've already broken that rule/suggestion, but she seems open-minded about my lack of religion, although I think she thinks I just haven't figured it out yet, and I'll choose something when I do. She hasn't tried to convert me at all though, not even by just explaining how wonderful Islam is (something that I actually do agree with, I just don't want to join), which is the usual reaction I've gotten in the past.

I haven't heard back from the UNRWA people yet, but Ahmed at CIEE got me and two other students an interview with the Microfund for Women organization in Amman. I had expressed an interest in it before I found the ad for Gaza Camp, although microfinance isn't really my passion. However, from the interview it sounds like they're trying to branch out into non-finance related fields as well, to generally help their female clients and their families. One program that they mentioned being involved in was a breast cancer awareness effort, spearheaded by a branch of the King Hussein Cancer Center. The other thing that was clear in the interview, however, was that they don't really need a ton of help, although they'll try to find jobs for all 3 of us for at least a couple of hours a week. It would be interesting, but if that's the case I'll probably just volunteer at the Gaza Camp, if they need me of course.

Jordanians

It occurs to me that I haven't really described Jordanians very much. The population on the streets is mostly men, typically dressed in jeans if they're under 30, otherwise in slacks. I've seen very few galabiyyas (the dress-like garment traditionally worn by Middle Eastern men), except for last Friday, and I'm not sure if that was in deference to the holy day, or because it was particularly cold and they were just another layer. In Egypt, there were quite a few men wearing galabiyyas all the time, although usually they were 30 and up. Women on the streets, as far as I've seen, wear at least the hijab, and I've seen quite a few variations of face veils as well, although only once or twice is everything, including the eyes, covered. Women's dress is a little bit harder to judge at the moment, because it's winter and everyone is bundled up in coats. I haven't seen anything that bares more than the hands and face, but again, that could be winter. Some women do wear tight clothes though, particularly very tight jeans. Everyone, women most notably but men too, is very fashionable. That was something that I was expecting from my experience in Egypt. Arabs in general (I think) make a big distinction between inside the house and outside. Appearances are very important. When I was in Egypt, my host sisters and mother had indoor clothes and outdoor clothes. The outdoor clothes were much fancier, of course. I don't know if it's the same here, but there is definitely a lot of thought put into appearance by everyone.

Jordanians also seem a lot quieter than Egyptians. During orientation, Allison cautioned us not to stand out too much, which included talking and laughing loudly in large groups. I didn't think much about it at the time, because as a rule Egyptians are much louder than any group of Americans, although we are certainly loud too, and I assumed it would be the same. Not so. When there are women on the street, they don't really talk, or if they do it's very quietly. Men talk, but also not very loudly, usually. There is plenty of horn honking though.

UNRWA

One of the reasons I decided to apply to CIEE was the contacts they have with local organizations who would welcome American volunteers. On the website they were quite vague about what organizations those might be, but during orientation we were given a list. The great thing is that we contact the organizations ourselves and set up an arrangement with them, without help from CIEE. So far I've been satisfied with the program, but it is a bit all-encompassing. Almost everything we could possibly want or need is taken care of or we're shown how to do it, which of course makes our lives easier, but I didn't want to study abroad because it would be easy. The difficulty is part of the appeal, at least for me.

So far I've only contacted one organization, a particular UNRWA camp (UNRWA is the UN organization that provides specifically for Palestinian refugees) called Gaza Camp. I think it's located right outside the city, and they're looking for a number of volunteers to fill specific positions. The only opportunities that I am qualified for involve teaching English, either to refugees or other volunteers, but that's fine with me. They don't require TEFL training, just English speakers, although it sounds like the classes are meant to prepare the students to pass TEFL type exams. I got a response to my email which consisted of the list of open positions, but it sounds like they really need people. The large numbers of Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and the possibility that I might be able to work with them in some way, was part of the reason I decided to come to Jordan, so this is very encouraging.

Downtown Amman

Class was canceled on Thursday (the weekend here is Friday and Saturday; Friday is the holy day in Islam) because apparently it snowed the night before and was supposed to snow again during the day. Lauren went to campus to use the internet and go to the gym she just joined there, and she said there was a dusting of snow on some cars, but sadly, there was nothing in Jabal Amman. It was raining very hard though, for most of the day. Winter here seems to be fairly inconstant. For most of the week, it was in the 50s and 60s and very sunny.

On Friday, Lauren and I decided to do some more exploring around our apartment. We ended up downtown, which is something of a labyrinth of small shops and restaurants. Shops selling the same things are usually grouped together, so it's pretty easy to compare prices, not that I've done much shopping yet. This trip was mostly just to get a feel for the place. We found some Roman ruins, I think of a bathhouse, in the middle of the shops, which was a little jarring. They were fenced off, so we couldn't go in, and they were pretty small, but it was still strange to walk past a meat shop and suddenly see ruins, right in the middle of downtown. I remember seeing that a lot in Greece, but somehow I didn't expect it here, although I know there are some famous Roman ruins in Jordan, as well as such places as Petra. The country itself is so young that I keep forgetting that this area has been inhabited by thousands of years. During orientation, Allison (the program director) pointed out that this land has been part of at least 7-9 larger empires in it's history. It is ancient, although the country and government of Jordan is not.

So far, I haven't interacted with Jordanians as much as I would like. It is still the first week, of course, but it's already clear that it would be quite easy to interact only with Americans or English speaking Jordanians, either in the CIEE program or not. Fortunately, I have been assigned a peer tutor, which I requested, who will be a University of Jordan student who is charged with only speaking to me in Arabic for a certain amount of time each week. I've also decided to join a gym near the college, called Aspire. It's not cheap, and because of it's proximity to the school there will be quite a few CIEE students there too, probably, but when I got a tour of the place, there were plenty of Jordanians as well. It's a women only gym, too. There are coed gyms, but they tend to be even more expensive, and apparently women only gyms are somewhat unique in that they are a place outside of each woman's home where she can unveil, if she wears the hijab (most of the women I've seen on the street and at the university at least wear the hijab, the headscarf.), and interact with other women. The program director recommended the experience as unique. Between those two things, I will hopefully overcome the temptation to interact only with people I easily understand.

Classes begin

Arabic class began yesterday. I don't know yet what my area studies classes are going to be, but they will start next week. I have fusha (modern standard Arabic-the written language) 3 times a week for almost 3 hours a day and ameya (Jordanian colloquial-almost a completely different language) only once a week, for an hour and a half. Personally, I would prefer having more ameya instruction, since fusha won't help me to understand Jordanians much. Most Arabic speakers do understand fusha, because it's taught to them in school and it's what political speeches and most written texts use. However, while they will understand what I am saying (probably), they will most likely reply to me in ameya, so I won't know what they're saying. I have also forgotten almost all of the fusha I learned in Egypt and only remember Egyptian colloquial because that is all that I used. Each country has it's own dialect of Arabic, some of which are mutually incomprehensible, but fortunately for me, Jordanian and Egyptian are pretty close. The little speaking I've done has been in Egyptian, and so far I've been understood and have mostly understood the responses. However, it's been 4 years since I studied Arabic and I remember very little. The placement exam we took during orientation was quite humbling. I didn't realize that the entire test, both oral and written, was going to be in modern standard, and as I mentioned above, I don't remember any modern standard at all. Despite that, I am in beginning 2, which fortunately means I don't have to learn the alphabet for the third time. Our professor, Amjad, speaks to us mostly in Arabic before switching to English if we don't understand, which is a technique that I appreciate. So far everything we've gone over I knew at once point, but since I've forgotten all of it, it's a useful review.

The University campus itself is much greener than I was expecting, and bigger. It's clear that they work pretty hard to make the campus beautiful. I think there are 40,000 students, mostly from Jordan or other Arab countries although I met a French girl yesterday who asked me for directions. The buildings themselves tend to be rougher on the inside, but they're all quite impressive from the outside. Everything is white limestone, which I found out is what almost every building in the city is made of or at least covered with. I haven't taken many pictures of the city yet, I promise to work on that, but here is one from near my apartment: