Madaba, birthday celebrations and everyday life

Whew, it's been a really long time since I've written last! I apologize for that. I don't really know what else I've been busy with other than everyday life. I guess life here is beginning to seem ordinary. Maybe that's a good thing!

Anyways, last Friday was a very lazy day. I hung around the house and did basically nothing. It was so nice! Saturday, however, was a little more eventful. It was a bit sad though, because it was the day we took the kittens to the humane society. The Humane Center for Animal Welfare is pretty far from where I live. It's in Wadi As-Seer, literally out in the hills in the outskirts of Amman. Imad drove Esfaham and I there after we sneakily lured four out of our five kittens into two doggie carriers with food. I was worried they wouldn't take our kittens, since they were technically strays, although Imad and Esfaham played it up, saying we took in a cat and she ended up having children and we couldn't feed them all (not too far from the truth). Really we just started feeding the mother cat, Ginger, and she brought all her kittens to our house later. But anyways, the "cattery" was one small room with maybe twelve cubbies. Each had a basket with piles of cats in them. There was one big basket out the floor and a wooden plaything for kittens to jump around and hide in. And of course there were litter boxes and food bowls. The sliding doors opened to an even smaller penned outdoor area. My kittens climbed to the top of the pen because they were so scared. There was maybe fifty cats crammed in that small space and they all seemed sick and it smelled horrible. I guess it was a pretty big "I-am-not-in-the-States" moment. I had imagined rows of cages like at the humane society I used to volunteer at in Savannah. I felt really horrible leaving the kittens there.

I think Esfaham knew I was pretty upset though. She and Imad had to stop at a wholesale store in Wadi As-Seer on the way home, although they bought me some of my favorite coffee and warmed up some leftovers when we got home. She was very sweet to me.

My peer tutor, however, says that cats get adopted from there all the time, so I have my fingers crossed. We still have Ginger and the last kitten, Camomile, at home, so I have at least a few cats to feed and take care of. It was admittedly hard to find food for six cats. Imad wants to keep Ginger and Camomile but Esfaham doesn't, so I don't know what's going to happen in the future, especially after we all leave for the semester. We'll just have to see.

Anyways, I went out to Books@Cafe on Saturday, a big ex-pat hangout on Rainbow Stree, night to celebrate Halloween with some friends in the Arabic Language program. It was nice to hang out with some people I hadn't seen in a while. We had a few drinks and toasted my friend Drew for an early birthday. It was a relaxing time, although I did leave my sweatshirt under the table. More about that later.

As I got out of the taxi at my house, Imad was standing at the door and beckoned me over. And then it hit me -- it was Tia's birthday party and my roommates and I had been invited. After a very mild lecture Imad pulled me inside while Esfaham bustled around, talking to guests while simultaneously throwing together a plate of food for me. I got to meet all three of her sisters and some nieces and nephews, and of course the next generation after that. I held it together despite being moderately tipsy. I'm going to make sure that that never happens again though, you can be sure!

The next day my friend Briana and I took a day trip to Madaba, a small town just forty minutes south of Amman. We took a cheap little bus to the station and got out in the midst of a very local part of a souq (chickens without heads, etc.). Neither of us had our Lonely Planet guide, so we just wandered around, taking in the fact that we were in a small town, not the bustling city of Amman. We pretty much toured Madaba in regards to its food -- little grocery stores that had snacks similar to those in Amman, but not the same brands, a delicious little shwarma place that was on a quiet street and a sweets shop where we got some awesome pistachio baklava. Needless to say we were a little full afterwards. It was a bit funny that every other grocery store was actually a liquor store. Madaba, I read afterwards, is actually one-third Christian, which is the highest percentage in any Jordanian city. Anyways, we did come across the Apostles' Church, which houses a mosaic dedicated to the twelve apostles dating from the sixth century. The tour guy there was a bit sketchy though, as he said we needed to buy tickets at the archeological park at first, but then said he'd give us a took for whatever we liked to give him. And he did like to take advantage of the fact that we weren't Muslim and that he could touch our shoulders, back, etc. Yuck. So we left and wandered and found our way to St. George's Church again, although we didn't go inside. After wandering around some of the more touristy shops, we made our way back to the station and back home.

I went over to Briana's house and was able to meet her crazy host family for the first time. Her host dad is living in Spain and she's never met him, although he's Arab and still married to her host mom. Her host mom is Spanish and left a few weeks ago to visit her husband in Spain. So that leaves Briana at home with her 22 and 20-year-old host brothers, their Sri Lankan maid and Mari, her senile host grandmother who's from Spain also and doesn't speak a word of Arabic. Briana's host sister Sharif comes by to cook for them even though she's married and lives elsewhere. But anyways, it was one chaotic household. Omar and Othman, Briana's brothers, often have friends over, as they did when I was there, and it was just funny to see the language barrier in action between them, the maid and Mari. I forced myself to sit with Mari and say a few sentences in Spanish, but boy it was so hard to understand her! But she was so sweet. When Briana asked her if I was speaking Spanish well (a total lie), she was like "Of course!" Anyways, after watching "The Hangover" with Briana and family, I walked home, since we live about ten minutes away from each other.

Sunday was a bit of an adventure too because I went to the US Embassy to apply for a second passport. Israel doesn't have a (big) problem if you have stamps in your passport from Lebanon or Syria, but Lebanon and Syria definitely have a problem with Israel, so to facilitate any future traveling, I got a second passport. The process, I feel, was accelerated a lot by the fact that I was an American citizen. I had a very hazy flashback of waiting in a government facility like that when my grandfather was applying for citizenship in the States. Anyways, I got out of there within an hour, although I was pretty broke after paying the passport fees. I started wandering around for an ATM, thinking it wouldn't be too hard to find one in Abdoun, which is the very Western part of Amman. Well, I found a mall and six ATMs, but none of them worked for some reason. A shop employee directed me to "Abdoun Circle" saying there might be one there, but it turned out to be a residential circle and I had no idea what she was talking about. I asked a guard sitting at the street if there were any ATMs nearby, but he was too preoccupied with the fact that I was wearing a scarf around my head (it was cold) but I wasn't Muslim. I got out of that pretty quickly and tried a few more ATMs near the mall before giving up. I had enough money for a cab home, thank goodness, but I wanted to check Books to see if my sweatshirt was still there. But that had to wait until the next day.

Monday was probably the most miserable day I've had here so far. It was rainy and windy and in the 50's, but it felt a lot colder. I don't have any winter gear here, just a few sweatshirts, so it was important that I go back to Books to find the sweatshirt I had left. Well, of course it wasn't there. Instead, I got asked on a date by one of the waiters I had befriended from previous visits, even though I was certain he wasn't interested in girls. Ah well. I gave him a wrong number and hopefully I won't go back to Books for a while. I'm so tired of guys.

From Books I went to choir practice and afterwards went out to La Cocina Latina (I think that's the name) nearby with Drew, some friends from the Arabic Language program in my choir and my choir director (he's 23 and might as well be our age). Anyways, it was to celebrate Drew's actual birthday, November 2nd. It was definitely a nice, warm place and the food was awesome. I'm definitely going to go back in the future! It was so painful to go out again into the cold and rain though, but I got home eventually. I made a note to buy warm clothes from Abduli Souq as soon as possible!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, although Thursday we celebrated my friend Maura's birthday even though it was really the next day. All of our friends chipped in for food and snacks and we made a huge pot of macaroni and cheese for Maura and got all her favorite candy. We held it at our friend Nathan's apartment, which he shares with five other guys from our program. Another one of our friends, Fred, lives with the family who owns the apartment on the top floor. It was a nice time to just hang out with a bunch of friends.

Friday Briana and I went to Abduli Souq and the weather was surprisingly beautiful, therefore the souq was ridiculously crowded. We met up with Maura and Drew (not birthday Drew though, a different one) and bought cheap warm clothes to our hearts' content. The weather is being fickle, however, because right now it's pleasantly warm in the 70's. I don't trust it though. I feel like it'll get cold and gross real soon.

Anyways, I'm at the computer lab at school now, so I can't post all my random pictures. I'll be sure to when I get home though!


Always,
Van

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Part of trip: Jordan: Take One

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