the longest post ever

friends and family,

i’ve gotten emails and facebook messages of concern and worry because of the political situation in the middle east. please know that i am very very safe in jordan, and that the unrest in egypt has not carried over here!! there have been demonstrations the past few fridays (including today, though i didn’t see it when i was out, and it was just outside the egyptian embassy in support of the pro-democratic movement), and as i wrote in my last post, king abdullah responded quickly. he dismissed his government and is in the process of appointing a new one. my academic director at SIT, when he heard the news during an orientation session, got very excited. so things are stable and very very safe. i haven’t felt at all uncomfortable or concerned. the only reason i haven’t been able to email in a little while is that i just moved in with my host family, and they don’t have internet for me. we should be getting it tomorrow, “insha’allah” (god willing). if this never happens, i will have access during the week (sunday-thursday) at SIT headquarters.

so! about my family:
i live with a host mother (khitam) and father (mohammad) in an apartment just west of the universtiy of jordan, which is in northern amman. they have one daughter (donya) who is 28 years old, but she lives in texas with her husband and their 4 children. i feel so truly blessed to be with khitam and mohammad; i could not be in better hands!! they are so kind, patient, and generous. khitam calls me her second daughter and “habeebti” (my sweet/my love), kisses me on the cheek constantly, and says “nighty night! i love you” in english when i go to bed. she speaks basically no english at all, which is tough because my arabic is slim/none at this point (having not taken any classes in over a year). mohammad knows some words and phrases in english, but hardly any. both of them have been teaching me some arabic words (mostly food, haha) and then quizzing me on them throughout the day. they are so patient! sometimes they start talking to me in arabic, and when i look at them confusedly they just laugh understandingly and pat me on the shoulder. but even with this total linguistic disconnect, i don’t feel alienated or lonely. they have welcomed me into their home so graciously and have made me feel so comfortable. things will only get better as my arabic improves (which it will, and quickly, considering i will have class 3 hours a day).
and mom got to meet khitam and mohammad!! using their computer, we skyped and i got to seem mom’s face and she got to meet my new “mama wa baba” (mom and dad). mom was so happy with the obvious love and kindness that mama and baba were showing me that she started to cry.

about the program and my fellow students:
as i said before, the program leaders are awesome! dr. raed is the academic director and will lead most of our seminar classes. he holds a masters in arid land management, so he will be an invaluable resource when i do my independent study project. dema is the homestay coordinator and a “badia princess” (she is from a badia in the north and very wealthy, with her own nice car and beautiful clothes). she is as sweet as sugar, but does probably the hardest job out of everyone. it’s really difficult to find people to host students, especially for the men, jews, non-smokers, and vegetarians. only about 4% of the population of jordan is christian, but about 25% of our homestay families are. there are a few reasons for this: christians are most likely to host jewish students (of which we have a few) and also men. muslim women will stay veiled in their home if they have male strangers or guests, though they wouldn’t if it was just their husbands and children around. so it would be a pain to host a male student and have to stay veiled all the time. lots of jordanians smoke, so it’s hard when people request specifically to be with non-smokers. and the concept of vegetarianism is not easily understood here. good thing i’ve switched back to meat! the lamb is delicious!
all of us students are in a bit of a honeymoon phase. as dr. raed said, we are now the “SIT tribe” (tribal culture and family life is an extremely important part of jordanian culture). we are still all eager to get to know each other and are reaching out at every possible moment to hang out or explore amman all together. i’m sure that’ll start changing as we get to know each other on a more personal level, with some becoming better friends than others. or not! who knows. everyone seems remarkably compatible, so we could just be one big 25-person friend posse. people are a lot like macalester students actually. super smart, pretty nerdy, just slightly socially handicapped, but still know how to have a good time. as one student, sarah, put it “we are all weirdos in our own way.” so far i really like everyone. you could say it was love at first bananagrams game (lots of board-gamers in this group! just my type).

about amman:
as of now, i’m struggling to get a grasp on the layout of the city. granted, we’ve mostly been at SIT headquarters in abdoun for orientation. but the city is quite sprawling, the roads aren’t in any kind of grid, and all the buildings are made of the same material and are all about the same height, so it’s hard to find landmarks and use them as points of reference. i think the best way to learn any city is to force yourself to learn the public transportation system, but amman has none to speak of. so just getting in a taxi and being zoomed around to my destination doesn’t help me figure out this city much. luckily, even though city transportation is nil, dr. raed says that it’s cheap and easy to get to other cities. a bus down to aqaba for some sun and sea would be only about $15 and would take just a few hours. i’ll definitely take advantage of this on more than one weekend!!
that said, i think amman is quite pretty, especially with all its hills that remind me of home (a nice break from flat-as-a-pancake minnesota). the library/study space of the SIT HQ, which is on the 4th floor, has an amazing view of the whitish-yellow limestone (or maybe jerusalem stone?) buildings that turn pink at sunset––expect pictures soon! it is also quite a modern city. the roads are wide and well-cared for, and the streets are very clean–– i’ve hardly seen a speck of garbage. and it feels extremely safe, with policemen posted at stations on the street, especially in abdoun, which is a neighborhood with several government buildings and embassies.

some cultural observations:
so far, there is nothing about the culture that has really made me taken aback. so far i feel very comfortable. but it has been interesting to witness some of the daily practices, especially in regards to islam. there seem to be a lot of ways to “get around” some obligations. well, this maybe isn’t the best term. i’ll give an example: if it’s time to pray and you are unable to attend a mosque (masjid in arabic), you can pray from wherever you are. at prayer time, khitam changed the tv channel to a program that had a voice singing the prayer and the words displayed on screen so she could follow along. i witnessed something similar when i was in a cab this afternoon: the cab driver changed the radio to a station that had the prayer being sung and he recited along. just a convenient way of fulfilling your obligations while keeping them from interfering with daily life.
TV is a big part of down-time here, maybe even more so than in the U.S. but this could be exaggerated due to the situation in egypt; the TV is on 24/7 and almost strictly on aljazeera. khitam and mohamman watch and go “tsk tsk tsk” at all the violence. in arabic, khitam explained it to me: “fi amerikya, clinton wa bush wa obama. laiken fi masr, mubarak mubarak mubarak. tsk tsk tsk.” mama and baba also love cooking shows on the jordanian equivalent of the food network, fatafeat. they have some american shows with arabic subtitles; last night we watched barefoot contessa!! THE BEST.

about the food:
this will probably turn into a pseudo-food blog because khitam is such a good cook!! yesterday for lunch/dinner we had rice with peas and carrots that was flavored with saffron (i think), with roasted chicken (dijej), pita bread (khobez), and a tabbouleh-like salad. for breakfast this morning we had more khobez (definitely the staple here) with something resembling cream cheese with olive oil (zeit zeitoun), scrambled eggs with peppers (filfil) and onions, and my new favorite thing in the whole wide world: zata. it’s a mixture of herbs (i’m not sure which ones, but i think there is some oregano in there) with sesame seeds, and you take the khobez and dip in first in zeit zeitoun and then the zata and it’s DELICIOUS. mohammad and i just eat and say “zaki, zaki, zaki,” which means delicious. i could have it all day.
here breakfast is pretty light, lunch is huge and late in the day (3 or 4), and then dinner is either at about 8 or 9 or not at all. sometimes if lunch is food enough, dinner is just a snack of fruits and nuts. that’s how it was last night. khitam was so sweet: she served these nuts/seeds which resembled pumpkin seeds. like sunflower seeds, you have to crack the shell with your teeth to get to the edible part. they were so small and thin and i was having a lot of trouble, so khitam cracked the shell for me and then fed me the the seeds! oh i love her!!

well, this post is probably long enough. i finally got something which will allow me to put my photos on my computer, so stay tuned for some photos of my new home, SIT headquarters, and amman!

until next time,
molly