An Amman Thanksgiving
One the best shots I’ve taken! This is near downtown Amman, close to sunset. Me and G. climbed up some stairs to get the view.
Today is Black Friday – except Thanksgiving and Black Friday don’t exist in Jordan!! I had my own versions of both: Yesterday’s Thanksgiving was just fantastic and hectic and ridiculous!! I had spent hours the night before with my lovely friend G. cooking and chopping up a storm of food! All vegan! I was totally excited at all the compliments on my cooking I got! Whooo! Except my Thanksgiving was definitely not vegan. I was eating dairy galore - literally everything I didn’t make wasn’t vegan. But I definitely needed some of G.‘s mac and cheese and K.’s mashed potatoes and the delicious stuffing made by the hosts of the party! (: And of course – PIE!! Pumpkin and pecan <3 yummm. I literally could not move following the meal - in fact, my stomach was in physical pain for hours after…. LOLLL except it’s not really funny when you are feeling it!!
Also totally forgot to mention that I went on my first run in literally 2 months yesterday! The weather was freezing and drizzly but I needed to move! I am usually deterred from running by all the honking from passing cars and the shabaab who yell at me أسرع! أسرع! (faster! faster!). It felt so great, my body is a mess right now - no muscles, so I hurt so much today! 3.5 miles though!(:
My Black Friday/normal Friday (يوم الجمع) has been quite fun and partially scary! I woke feeling fat from all the food yesterday - and proceeded to eat more of course because that’s the only natural thing to do with delicious Thanksgiving leftovers! and I wanted to take a walk and enjoy this first sunny warm day in about a week! Thank goodness the weather is no longer freezing and raining!!!
I decided to go to the souq at Ras al-Ain in downtown (راس العين قي وسط البلد) and I was so scared when I realized I went straight to the site of a protest alone!! Protests often happen after Friday prayers but I always thought they were right in front of the main downtown mosque - this was a little further out. I watched in horror as a crew of military men went to back up the line of policemen that was already surrounding the crowd. I got out of that area fast - but when I finally got to the souq area it wasn’t much better in terms of crowds! I got some mean stares from women and literally every passing man trying to say something to me in English. Covering my head with a scarf did not help either because they could tell by my outfit that I’m not Muslim!
Update: 12/1/2014: The souq is not actually at Ras al-Ain. The one I was trying to go to used to be Souq Abdali, which no longer exists as it was supposed to moved to Ras al-Ain and has not yet been set up. I actually was shopping in the normal Wast al-Balad (downtown) souq. You can read about the controversy over moving the souq here: http://www.7iber.me/2014/11/whats-behind-the-abdali-market-move/ (make sure to hit the “translate” button that pops up with Google toolbar)
Souq shopping was so fun though! It was like Goodwill on crack! I bought wool socks for half a dinar each (although I later saw the exact same socks at another stand being sold for 3 dinar each!), a jean jacket for 2JD, a turtleneck for 1/2JD and a hat for 1JD. Literally spent 5JD (~$7 USD) on some decent winter basics! I feel awesome. I am now at Starbucks where I spent the equivalent of a jean jacket on one drink! LOL.
Here are some other things I have been up to:
Zarqa
Me on a tractor at L.’s family’s organic farm!
A few weeks ago, I went out to Zarqa with my friend L. Zarqa is a town south of Amman where L.’s family is from, so we went out there for his cousin’s wedding. It turned out to be a great trip for me! There isn’t much to see in Zarqa, but I was quite busy getting to know literally every member of L.’s extended family! Also, no one spoke English so I spent the entire weekend speaking Arabic only! It was tough, but I definitely won the hearts of L.’s crazy Jordanian family. The kids loved me the best though!
L.’s family’s organic farm.
The kids with their hair done for the wedding.
We ate breakfast and talked, then hung out on the family farm and crunched on fresh-picked lettuce and talked some more. Then we moved back inside where we talked and ate some more! That was basically the whole weekend, albeit in 2 different houses and the wedding stuff as well.
The wedding was so different from any I’ve been to! I have been to a million and one Chaldean weddings - but wow I would not have known what to expect from a Jordanian wedding! There was all the parading up and down the streets of the neighborhood with the groom and throwing candy and then seeing the decorated wedding car. We went to pick up the bride and everybody was singing and dancing and then drove to the wedding hall which was separated by gender so the women (who are all Muslim) could get a little haram and take off their hijabs and wear tight dresses etc. We only mixed genders for like the last 30 minutes when me and L. finally got to dance together.
That’s the groom on everybody’s shoulders! These guys have so much fun for their weddings! None of that stuffiness hahah.
The wedding parade. It has an Arabic name, but I totally forgot it.
The wedding car decorated with flowers.
Me and L.! We take the claim for best looking!
Me and L.’s kid cousins. Love them!
Overall, I am really glad I went to Zarqa. I feel like I have a real Jordanian family - they all invited me to come back. I definitely will, but I don’t think I am comfortable going without L. yet! I still need a translator for when I really suck at Arabic, and I also don’t quite know the whole fam yet! I’ll update whenever I make the next trip down (which is literally a 1/2JD bus ride from University of Jordan!).
Also this is random, but the day after I returned from Zarqa, I ate at Crumz in Abdoun. It is so wonderfully Western - they even serve pork bacon, which my friend E. happily ordered! These were my delicious chocolate chip pancakes and chai tea latte. MmMmmmm!
Downtown photos!
My friend G. and I are both pretty into photography and we have been planning from the beginning of our semester to return to downtown to take photos together. We finally did a few weeks ago and it was awesome!
A colorful hookah shop. I loved this guy who looked too cool for me standing in front of the shop.
G. showed me this area a bit outside downtown that is filled with murals. Also he is such an adventurer, and convinced me to run up some random stairs with him. We had no idea where they led, but at the top we got an amazing view of downtown. That is how I got my perfect shot at the top of this post! We proceeded to spend the rest of our time walking around the souqs and chilling until dinnertime at Hashem Restaurant with another friend. This place is famous for serving Jordanian classics dirt cheap! 5 dishes and 6 cups of tea totaled less than 7JD! whattttt. So good. I wish I had taken a shot of our meal!
Anyway, here are some more of my downtown shots!
My favorite mural - colors are enhanced.
Another beautiful image from the murals.
Jordanian flags on the way to the Roman theatre (مدرجة روماني).
With Thanksgiving having now passed and the winter break just 3 weeks away, I am feeling extremely exhausted and still so thankful for the chance to live abroad in Jordan. At times I hate this place, at times I just really hate the stress of school and work. But the more I think about it, the more I remember just how lucky I am to be American and to have the financial means to come to this poor country (even if it is through my university’s financial aid!). I can’t even tell you how grateful I am for the opportunity to travel and truly understand just how incredible my life is. This is what I am grateful for this Thanksgiving!
With peace, love and gratitude,
Shimmy
The Thanksgiving crew! We had a ton of food and fun :)