shitty olives

Alright Jordan, I've got a burning question: why is it that in a country that is addicted to olive oil, and that has a growing olive oil industry in the north, my greek salad tonight had canned black olives in it? That's strike two of the day, because my brunch wrap had the little fuckers in it as well. Feta cheese here is not much to write home about either - soft and not very salty. I am developing a taste for granulated instant coffee, however.

My living situation is resolved. I am staying in an apartment/lovenest. This girl, (I'll call her R), is 25 and keeps a big apartment for her work and also for her painting. But...when her boyfriend from Australia is in town, R uses the "office" to shack up with him and live in sin. It's pretty unusual for girls (and for that matter, guys) to move out of the house and live on their own here. So R's place is a hangout for her friends, and when she leaves town this one couple that is engaged comes here, probably to shack it up for a few days as well. R smokes like a chimney, drives like a cowboy and speaks fluent English and French. When her friends come over they mostly speak in Arabic, but every now and then they notice that I have been mute for ten minutes straight and switch into English. I am picking up a few words, and sometimes I can tell from the intonations what people are saying. Sometimes I am just a mute.

Today was a split between Hardcore Tourism and other activities. I woke up at 6 (a combo of jetlag and I am sure, some backdoor influence of the 3.53 AM call to prayer). I finally finished off a book on water in the Middle East, which I have been working on for around a week and a half. It's a collaboration between Jordanian, Israeli, Palestinian and American academics. Some of the ideas are pretty out there - one guy suggested that all three governments abandon agriculture and build up a solid tourism industry instead. Another one said there is no water dispute, that it is really just a matter of money, because there is always the option of desalinizing sea water. I have to say I don't know all that much about desalinization, but it can't be cost-free. What are you supposed to do with all the hunks of salt you pull out of the ocean?

Then the Hardcore Tourism. I took Lonely Planet out for a test drive in Amman and wandered around the city for about five hours. Being built on seven hills without much regard for urban planning, Amman was difficult at first to navigate because the streets generally only go east-west. But there are staircases tucked into the streets every few hundred meters, so as a pedestrian you can cut across a bunch of the roads. I did that and at the top of one stair case there was a little street fair going on, with local crafts and lemonade and little girls selling cookies. My map didn't show the hills of Amman, though, so I would think I was going a short distance and find myself trudging up some steep incline.

From the outside, a lot of the buildings here are drab, cement-block affairs. But there are cute little places tucked into side streets - I dropped into a gallery full of paintings of people and buildings in Amman. There's also a book shop of mainly English titles that is a big expat hangout. I went there today hoping to find some friends, but I didn't try too hard (I only spoke to the salesperson and otherwise browsed the shelves).

Dress code is pretty much do-it-yourself. Where I am is closer to the balad, or downtown area, in the middle of East and West Amman. East Amman is poorer and more religiously conservative than West Amman, so the headscarves come out and there are more men than women everywhere on the streets. As you go to the west, there are more foreigners and girls wearing shorter skirts or tighter jeans. I wore a long skirt around the city. A pretty good move, except that apparently Friday is a "water day" - i.e. people are doing the laundry, cleaning house, etc., and dumping the dirty water in the streets. It took me a while to remember to lift up the hem of my skirt while walking near little puddles. It was pretty hot, so the water/raw sewage dried fast, but I have no idea what is living in the bottom of that skirt now.

In other news...Jordanians love the World Cup. I went to a bar tonight with R that was filled with people decked out in Germany/Australia hats, shirts, facepaint, headbands, whatever. All over the streets, these guys were flying the German flag and cheering and honking as if they had won.

In other other news...toilet paper goes from your ass to a garbage can here, not to the toilet. R told me that is kind of a given that if you flush your paper you can expect to see it again. Mmmm.

By the way, there are no photos here because when I walk around alone I don't have the balls yet to snap away.

surprise! still a gringo.

I knew drivers in the Middle East are crazy, but really there is nothing like being in a huge SUV, driving around a traffic circle where cars are streaming in from all directions and there are no lanes. The traffic was jammed because of construction on a major highway, so all these smaller streets in Amman were absolutely clogged. I was driving around with a girl from the area to do some errands, and she was a pretty badass driver, right down to leaving me in the car that she left idling right in the middle of a main road, next to a row of parallel parked cars, while she sent a fax.

Not too much going on today except for more general confusion about being surrounded by Arabic and not understanding more than three words. I picked up a few more - dob (bear), tsharafna (nice to meet you), tamam (perfect), khara (shit), esh (what). This post may be more for my benefit than yours, because I am too lazy to write these words down anywhere besides the Internet.

Jordanian food is so cheap...I bought a whole bag of fruit and vegetables - oranges, cucumbers, tomatoes, lemons, onions, etc for 2 JDs. Got some pasta too...I figure I will have to budget out my food so I can go out at night, once I have friends. If I get some friends.

holy shit, i am here

I knew I was in Jordan when I woke up at 4 am to a prayer call. I think I must be sleeping within 5 feet of a mosque. Looks like I will be having early mornings until I get used to sleeping through the meuzzin.

Jordan. Jordan! It's pretty hot here. Also, it's a little strange to be surrounded by Arabic and not know more than around 10 (useless) words, like hello, goodbye, ok, no, me too, thank you and Brazil. I may have to expand the vocab. I brought my Arabic book with me, and I am hoping I can teach myself at least up to the second year level at Northwestern. On the other hand, thanks to British imperialism, most Jordanians speak some level of English. The more wealthy people go to school abroad. So I am not completely out of my league...but I wouldn't mind not being such a gringo.

By the way, they still use real stamps in your passport here. Also, since it's a monarchy, all the money has these pictures of stately kings. The thing is, there have only been 3 kings of Jordan, so I don't know what they do for the rest of the bills - who do you put on the 100-dinar bill if the three kings are already taken? I may never know because I am pretty cheap, so the chances of me having a 100 are pretty low. The exchange rate is 1USD=1.4JD.

I'm so hungry...it's 6.22 am. That prayer call is a bitch.

packing, sort of

I am not packed. It's 2.30 am, and in 12 hours I am leaving the house to get a typhoid shot en route to Newark. Is this cause for panic? On the other hand, I never got a typhoid shot before. I managed to pick up a Hepatitis A vaccine in a street fair in New York on Sunday, courtesy of roving bands of NY Department of Health workers in orange T-shirts.

Bought my ticket

That's the first step out there, right? $1503 on Continental. I get in on Wednesday, June 27th and leave the region on August 28th (at 7.45 AM, gross). Now I just have to find an apartment, my equipment, someone to publish my work, and some friends so I am not wandering around alone all the time.