Ramadan is over and Eid Al-Fitr is here, which means we can eat during the day time. We could and did eat during the day time during Ramadan, but only indoors with the curtains drawn. Eid Al-Fitr is akin to Christmas time and the run up to New Years Eve from what I can tell. Most everyone is on vacation from work and school. One manifestation of this is tons of kids and teens running rampant in the malls. Others include seeing everyone dressed in their nicest clothes and driving to dinner with family and friends. Restaurants are open, but some shop keepers close their shops for the week so things won’t be completely back to normal until Sunday, which is the beginning of the work/school week here.
It’s kind of weird to have a week off after only one week of class, but I’m using the time to study and review and also to relax and see more of the city with Melanie. We scouted out one of the bus stations yesterday and found out about the bus schedules. Tomorrow we’re planning to return and catch a minibus to Jerash, which I heard is the largest, preserved Roman city outside of Italy. I went there the last time I was here and it’s pretty cool. It’s also only half a dinar bus fare and a little over an hour away so it should make for a good day trip.
Living here forces you to interact with people in their language, which is one of the obvious reasons we’re here. The tough thing is that I’ve spent most of my time studying formal Arabic and most people speak what I will call street Arabic, which is very different. I tried speaking with a guy in formal Arabic our first week here and he told me he didn’t speak English. Hmm, ok. Well, the good news is that I have taken a class or two that covered the basics of street Arabic so I’ve been reviewing those books and picking up words and phrases from where else? – the street.
The last few days I’ve become brave and have been striking up conversations with our taxi drivers during some of the longer rides we’ve taken. They’ve been able to understand me and I’ve been able to understand most of what they’re saying to me. They’ve even complemented me on how good my Arabic is. Now granted, these are small talk conversations about where I’m from, how long I’ve been studying Arabic, etc. However, I was able to drop a “thanks be to God for our safety”, in Arabic after the driver had to break hard to avoid hitting the car in front of him after a random tire rolled into the street a few cars ahead of us. He laughed and slapped my knee, responding with, “may God keep you safe”. I wanted to ask if he could please help God out with that during the remainder of our ride, but I couldn’t think of the words quickly enough.
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