Going home

I’m only going to say this once, so enjoy it while you can: I love Jordan.

I love the dusty buildings in Amman and the desert at sunset and laundry hanging outside windows on the day the water is delivered.

I’m 37 hours and one minute away from getting on a plane and flying back to America.  I spent a day and a half in Azraq (depressing but important place) with the SIT kids. I don’t really do goodbyes, and I really don’t do hugs, but it was a fond fare well any way.

I keep a small notebook full of thoughts that I have that don’t have a better place to go (Joan Didion says it is because people like me have a compulsion and are emotionally unstable). I made a list last week called “thoughts on going home.” It is my waxing slightly philosophical, so skip this part if you think it is boring:

1)   You can’t run away from life. Life follows you. Sometimes you can put it on hold for a very short while, but it will still be there.

2)   In light of 1) above, you can use struggle and hard times to get stronger. Some times you can feel yourself toughening up.

3)   I have done things in my life that are way below my dignity. In the words of Tracy Jordan “Pigeon? Why you eating other peoples French fries? Have some self-respect! Did you know you can fly?”

4)   “Home” is a tricky concept

5)   Maybe devices that save time and labor are not all they are cracked up to be. There is a beauty in work. I may have to become a Buddhist.

6)   Language is beautiful, and powerful.

7)   All cultures have good and bad things about them; some should be loved, some should be scorned. America is not as bad as I thought it was when I left.

8)   Water and writing are the two things I love most.

9)   Friends and laughter can be found any where (though I am particularly fond of mine)

10)                  Sometimes I wonder if coming abroad teaches you more about a foreign place, or about the place you left.

11)                  There are too many problems to fix in the world, but we have to keep trying because there is no other option.

Things I'm Looking Forward To

In no particular order:

Things I’m Looking Forward to:  (In no particular order)

Taco-Bell

Eating Vegetables

Not having to rely on taxis

Some form of normalcy

Family dinners at San Fernando street

Moving into the Orchard house

Using my smart phone (First world problems?)

Showering with hot water

Seeing the ocean

Eating bacon

Having more than 4 outfits

Giving presents to people

Thai food

Being able to communicate with everyone  I see

Listening to the radio

Driving my LRC

California Burritos

Having normalcy in my life

5 Guys

Being able to go places alone

Seeing my friends

Netflix

Beat Poet Coffee days

Hanging out with my mom

Going to church/Advent

Playing Soul Calibur with my brothers

Going to the gym

Getting my back fixed

Watching Greys/Sunny/Modern Family 

(A disturbing number of these have to do with food. Don't dwell on it) 

And so it begins

Today is Thanksgiving Eve, which  I, as a good American and Episcopalian, have always considered to be the beginning of the holiday season.

Despite my fierce independent streak, I have never actually spent a Thanksgiving away from my family before. Dr. Raed suggested that we have a Thanksgiving dinner at SIT, which is a great idea. I'm looking forward to a large celebration with my large and dysfunctional study abroad family, except I'm worried that there will not be enough food (ask any of my roommates, running out of food is one of my biggest fears.) Many of these people have never cooked a meal before ever, much less assisted in preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I offer, for the edification of any of my readers, the Alexander Guide to Thanksgiving Dinner:

1. If there will be more than 7 people, just stop counting and cook two of everything.
2. Cornbread dressing is the true partner to turkey. Stuffing is not.
3. Olives should be on the table, even though no one likes them (In this, at least, the Jordanians are  a step ahead)
4. Concerning gravy: stir it till it feels right.
5. There shall be no fewer than three types of cranberry sauce: Jellies, whole, and relish.
6. Cigar smoking and cards are the only acceptable after dinner activity. (Unless you attend a Nazarene college, of course)
7. The wine list is "Red. White. Pink" (see previous clarification about college attendees)
8. The more types of starch, the better. I recommend rice, brown-and-serve rolls, biscuits, dressing, twice baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes, which might be a vegetable.
9. If there is any talking, which is not a statement praising the quality of the food, it is an insult to the chef(s). The meal should be so delicious that diners spend the meal attempting to get as much of it into themselves as quickly as possible.
10. Pies (apple, pecan, and pumpkin) are the only appropriate dessert. Cookies and candies should wait until Christmas. It is also acceptable to eat any of the above pies for breakfast.

I do not expect my classmates to follow this list, but I will be making two pies just in case.

Happy Thanksgiving, America!
B 

Reason #12 to go abroad with SIT

Reason's 1-11 don't matter enough for their own post. The biggest reason (at this moment in time) is that my classes have been over since the 27^th of October. No Arabic, no thematic seminar, just one month to research and write a paper. Can you believe that? One month. To write one paper. Not one week to do 3 papers, 4 finals, and a debate tournament. One paper. That’s it. Piece of cake.

In a lot of ways, it is like having a job. I go to SIT everyday where I work on my paper. We’re supposed to have 5 interviews to gather information for our projects. So far I have one, and have another scheduled for Tuesday. Considering the fact that my 40 page paper is due on December 3^rd, I’m a little behind. My local advisor, who works for the Royal Scientific Society, is very nice, but was out of the country for a while. He is supposedly lining up my interviews, but I’d like to get them done and start writing. I offered to schedule them myself. Nothing doing.

So all in all, it is pretty easy. I get up in the morning. Go to my “office”, work for a few hours, and go home. Inshallah (Allah willing) I’ll start going to interviews too.

My office and rainy Amman. My pictures are boring since I stopped traveling and started writing. 

It has turned cold and rainy in Amman. Winter makes me homesick for my cozy apartment with Kim, Alex, and Kaitlin. I miss our scraggly Christmas tree and paper snowflakes. I miss the piping hot wood stove at my parents house and sitting on the porch on frosty mornings. I even miss Starbucks red cups and Christmas lights in Target, even though it is only mid November.

Next week we’re supposedly having a Thanksgiving dinner at SIT with all the students. They really should celebrate Thanksgiving here; it is a very Arab holiday. You hang around with family and eat too much. That is the definition of Arab celebrations. 

THIS JUST IN: My advisor just called me to tell me that he just lined up an interview that could be the biggest one of my paper. I take back what I said about him before.

Back to work. If I'm going to to do this interview I need to re-write my interview questions so that they sound like something a real adult would say.

Until next time,

B 

An Irony Post

Not hipster irony, real irony. The irony is I’m about to make observations about Jordanian work ethic and I really should be studying for my Arabic final. Hypocrite: maybe.

Alexandra and I were talking recently about the lack of conventional work ethic in this culture. Here are a few examples so you can see what I mean.

-Every weekend I am the first one up, and usually gone before anyone else even stirs. Today I left the house at 10am, but sometimes it is noon and there is still no sign of life from the host family.

-Hiba sleeps all night and then takes a 4 hour nap when she gets done with classes. Alexandra reports similar behaviors from her host sisters.

- Alexandra and I both have host brothers who really should have jobs and don’t. Mine goes to school for 3 hours and then comes home and does nothing her brother does nothing period.

-The HF gets confused when I say I have to study all day. Hiba never studies for more than a few minutes at a time.

These are not criticism, per say, but they are observations. I am constantly telling people that culture is much more than food and music. Culture is about fundamental beliefs and behaviors that make up the social fabric of a society. There are good and bad aspects to every culture. American culture tends to be rather ethnocentric and imperialist, these are bad things. It also has a tendency toward individualism and hard work. These are good things. 

I also wonder what extent politics plays on the behavior of the people. Jordan is an aid-based economy. I have to think that having ones economy supported by another country would have an effect on the people participating in that economy.

On an only slightly related subject: I have singlehandedly solved a major health issue in Jordan. When we arrived we were warned that a lot of people in Jordan take B-12 shots because they get really depressed. Symptoms are like that of seasonal depression, but happen year round. We were warned that we may need to get some of these shots ourselves by the end of the trip.  Here I present my solutions to the problem.

1.     Let there be light. All the houses have heavy shades that block out light completely. This is great when one is very ill and needs to get a lot of sleep, but every time my alarm goes off I feel like I have been awakened in the middle of the night because there is zero natural light in the room. Messing with the body’s natural sleep cycle is a no-no for mental health. Rooms are lit with god-awful florescent lights, the likes of which are found in many college classrooms in America. In addition to making ones pores look terrible in the bathroom mirror, the glare and hum is irritating.

2.     People do not drink water. It just doesn’t happen. Tea, coffee, and soda round the clock, all with a heaping spoonful of sugar. I understand the water crisis, but I believe that it is more of a cultural thing than an environmental issue.

3.     Meals consist of meat and carbs. The people aren’t missing B-12 vitamins so much as they are missing vitamin C. A few more pieces of fruit and a vegetable besides the occasional cucumber would make everyone more chipper.

There you have it. Barbara’s simple solutions to the depression crisis in Jordan. Basically it is what my mom told me when I was depressed in high school “eat something and go outside.”

Don’t let this all sound like Barbara’s whining hour: there are great things about Jordanian culture too. Hospitality, generosity, care and respect for elders, and community, to name only a few. No one is perfect, and I think it is valuable to be able to criticize and appreciate what is good and bad about the place where you came from. 

Now I’m going to pull out that good ol’ American work ethic and study for my Arabic test. Right after I check up on the Kardashians and watch the finale of “16 and Pregnant”.